Disclaimer: As much as I would love too, I do not own anything that has been previously mentioned in the Harry Potter Books, which is very unfortunate for me.
Author's Note(s): Great responses for the last chapter. Thanks Everyone! I tried to get this chapter up quicker 'cause I kinda left you hanging with the last one.
I've reread the previous chapters and cringed every time I saw I had left out a word or used the wrong one. I apologize. I don't have a beta reader and I usually can't stand reading my own stories, so (again) I apoligize.
The Tale of a Dragon
Ch13: Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining
The carriage pulled up in front of the Malfoy Manor. Draco swallowed and stepped out, the moon glaring at him for what he'd done and the stars twinkling, painfully reminding him of Dumbledore, who had given him second chance, which he had taken advantage of.
Lucius stood in the doorway, Narcissa about a foot behind him.
"It's done." Draco managed to say. "I'm going to go to my room now. It took a lot out of me."
"Of course it did." Lucius agreed smoothly. "You need your rest anyway. You are to be marked tomorrow."
He stepped aside to let Draco through and he slipped past his parents and headed up the stairs without looking back.
He closed the door, went over to his bed and threw himself onto it. He buried his head in his pillow. His shoulders shook as he let his calm demeanour slip and the tears be released.
"My l-life is so screwed" he sobbed. He got up and took out his wand, blasting everything he could and sending every spell that came to his head at the various objects in the room.
But it didn't satisfy him. His positions hadn't done anything wrong, it was him. He was the one that couldn't stand up against his father. He was the one that was afraid. He was a coward. Draco started hating himself more then he ever thought he could.
He turned his wand on himself. The tip was pointed at his wrist and with tears still flowing down his face he muttered a spell
With a flash of light, large gash appeared in his pale skin. The smell of the blood made Draco freeze. This was the first time he had smelt blood (that hadn't dried or been cleaned up) since his bite.
He closed his eyes, held his breath and tried to sedate the 'inner wolf' that had stirred in his soul. He opened his eyes and held hishand down by his side, with his hand cupped. The blood collected in his palm and he licked it off. His skin prickled and the hair on his arms grew darker.
"Shit" he whispered. After wiping his face he focused on not transforming and ignoring the smell of blood that was making his head swim.
'No! I will not loose control'
"'Yes… Give in and feast. You don't like your father anyway. Why not kill him?'"
'NO! Shut up Lycan. Go! Get out of my head.'
Draco gripped his head and crouched down. He wasn't going to loose this fight. It was bad enough being a werewolf, but he didn't need his father knowing on top of that.
As sunrise came Lycan decided to finally get out of Draco's head and it left the boy weak and with the worst headache he could ever remember having.
During the night, Draco had managed to smear blood in his forehead and it had matted in his hair.
He stayed in the shower for at least and hour. He just sat and let the water flow over him, not really doing anything. When he eventually got out he looked in the mirror and cringed. He had bags under his eyes and his skin looked dry and… grey.
He put on black pants and a dark grey shirt, to make his face look like it was at least white. He put a dark green robe over the top and went out into the hallway. Down the main staircase he met his mother.
"You don't look well."
"I'm fine mother."
She raised a carefully shaped eyebrow then breezed past him and up the stairs. Draco let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"Your father's in the dinning room." She shot over her shoulder before disappearing into the main bedroom.
Lucius was sitting at the end of a long table and dabbing at the sides of his mouth with a napkin when Draco came in.
He looked his son over and didn't bother to hide his disgust with what he saw.
"Eat before we go." He stood and strode out of the room, knocking Draco's shoulder painfully as he went.
Half a piece of toast later, Draco was ready to go.
Miss H. Granger,
We regret to inform you that on the 20th of December 1997, one of your neighbours called the Muggle Police concerning an unnatural shape in the sky. The ministry was informed and a teem of Aurors proceeded to your family's place of residence.
Miss Granger, unfortunately, your parents' lifeless bodies were found on the floor of the kitchen. Our department determined the cause of death to be the Killing Curse.
The wand used for this crime was not found but we have detected a magical signature.
We are all terribly sorry for you loss and hope you will find comfort in the fact that they died quickly, painlessly, and that we are doing all we can to trace the spell back to the wand that cast it, and the witch or wizard that owns that wand. Signed,
The Magical Law Enforcement Committee.
The ink ran as tears fell onto the parchment, and it shook as the hand holding it became unsteady.
Hermione scrunched up the paper and pressed it over her heart with both hands. She stood up and ignored the crash her chair made as it fell over. Running as fast as she could go, she disappeared from the living room, leaving several stunned order members behind.
"What the hell?" Ron asked as he came in from the hallway. He had seen Hermione run past.
Harry shrugged, "D'know. One moment she was sitting at the desk studying, and the next, she was running out."
Concern flickered in Ron's eyes and he frowned. "I'll go check on her."
"She was hugging a piece of paper, if that helps." Remus called from his favourite armchair, which had been brought from his house last year when he decided to move to Gimmauld permanently.
Ron ran up the stairs and stopped in front of an average looking door, he could hear sobs from the other side. He knocked lightly.
"Hermione?" He asked through the wood.
"Go away!" She sounded hysterical.
Ron took a breath and readied himself to have his head bitten off as he opened the door. At first he couldn't see his girlfriend, just a bed, wardrobe, trunk and several very thick books littering the floor.
He almost overlooked the quivering lump of blankets. He approached it cautiously and laid a hand somewhere close to the top, hoping that she wasn't upside down and he wasn't touching her thigh. It might give her the wrong impression.
Luckily, she was right way up and she threw the blankets off her head and slapped his hand away.
"I said 'Go away'!"
"Mia, please. I hate seeing you like this."
"Go and you won't have to see me."
Ron sighed, she was right as usual. But he couldn't just leave her there. He wanted to stop her crying. He wouldn't be able to sleep or eat until he knew what was wrong. And that would give him way too much free time, since sleeping and especially eating, took up most of his day.
All he wanted was for her to be happy.
But Ron wouldn't be able to tell her that, because when he tried to say anything meaningful, he stuffed it up. Everyone knew he wasn't good with words.
"I'm not going while you're like this."
"Stay then! But you're going to be here for a while." Hermione had retreated back under the blankets.
He sighed again and sat on the bed, resting against the headboard. He pulled the blankets off her and pulled her shoulders over his thigh was being used as a pillow. He brushed the strands of hair off her face that had become wet with tears.
She looked at him with brown bloodshot eyes. "Why won't you let me cry in peace?" she whispered hoarsely.
She had stopped crying now, but the sadness stayed in her eyes, and it didn't make Ron feel any better seeing that.
"I told you. I hate seeing you like this."
"Why?"
Ron's ears went red. "Erm…"
"Ronald." Hermione said dangerously.
"I'm in love with you." He blurted out. He avoided her eyes. Hermione gasped.
'I can't believe he just said that.' She thought, 'It wasn't 'I Love you', it was 'I'm in love with you'.'
A watery smile crept across her face. "I'm in love with you too."
Ron grinned cheekily, then became solemn again. "Will you tell me what's wrong? Please?"
Hermione closed her eyes, wiped her cheeks, gave a small sniff and pushed herself up so she was next to her boyfriend. She lent her head against his shoulder.
"They're dead." She said weakly
"Who?"
"My parents. Murdered by a Death Eater. They're trying to find out who." Her voice broke and a few tears slipped down her face.
Ron wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled into him.
"I'm too tired to think about it now." She said. "But I'm thinking about it too much to go to sleep."
"You're going to have to distract yourself."
Hermione sniffed and smiled slyly. She sat up and started unbuttoning her top.
Ron's eyes went wide and his face went the colour of beetroot. Soon he, too, was smiling slyly.
Draco walked in silence as a million feelings made his guts twist. Remorse for what he had done, and what he would be forced to do, as a Death Eater, and apprehension about getting branded by an evil dictator, were just two of them.
Image had always been important to Draco. His father had always drilled it into his head
'What people see you as, Draco, determines your entire future'. That was what he had said
Draco was thinking about that as he walked beside his father from the apparation wards to 'The Riddle House'. His father thought that the best appearance for Draco to have was to have one of being powerful and not someone to walk over. But, by Draco becoming a Death Eater, he was being walked over by both his father, and Voldemort. It wasn't something that he wanted to do.
This would be a life changing decision. He had, at one point, considered becoming a spy for Dumbledore, but he wasn't good enough at occlumency to pull it off.
The adults (all dressed in Death Eater robes, complete with masks) made a large circle. Draco was shoved into the middle with Pansy, Blaize as well as Millicent Bulstrode and Theodore Nott.
The five stood in a line in front of Lord Voldemort, who towered over them with his crimson eyes gleaming viciously.
"With taking this mark, you are committing to this 'community' for life." Voldemort hissed. The group nodded. Draco tried to keep his face blank.
Millicent was the first to get it done. Voldemort's thirteen and a half inch wand pressed against her skin. Ink spread out from where it touched like a spiders web. The shadows of the courtyard seemed to grow darker and had a deep purple edge around them, but went unnoticed.
She looked like she was fighting back tears, and let out a whimper as the mark was finished.
Next was Draco. The wand pressed against his skin and it felt like it had pierced the surface. He didn't cry out, not did he flinch as what felt like razorblades seeped through his veins.
But something else was happening.
His blood grew cold his body tingled as the mark was stopped. The world spun for Draco and he closed his eyes. When it stopped, he looked down.
The mark was there, but not quite. It shimmered silver as he moved his arm, only seen from a few curtain angles. He looked at it, feeling completely confused.
"Well, well, well." Voldemort hissed. He turned to Lucius. "Were you aware you son was a Werewolf?"
Hermione glanced nervously at Ron. She hadn't said much since… That night. The night she (finally) lost her virginity. She recalled something her muggle friend, Beverly, once said. 'Virginity is like a balloon, it only takes one prick, and then it's gone'.
She felt slightly more confident now, and older, but it didn't change the fact her parents were gone. She still fought back tears when she opened her trunk and saw what they had bought for her to help with school, and when she saw Mrs Weasley bustling around the house.
She had told Harry what had happened (to her parents, not what happened with Ron) and asked him to tell everyone else, because she couldn't bring herself up to tell everyone herself.
She glanced at Ron again, and he was looking at her from across the table. She fought a blush. He got up and moved around to sit next to her.
"Please eat, Hermione."
She hesitated. "I'm still full from lunch."
He frowned "You haven't eaten since you found our about your parents."
"I-I" she tried to explain, but her eyes were tearing up.
"Don't cry. Just eat."
She nodded; his uncharacteristically understanding nature soothed her. She ate slowly as Ron watched. When she finished he put his hand comfortingly on her thigh.
"They wouldn't want you to starve."
"You're not acting like yourself." She said bluntly, trying to change the subject.
"I'm worried 'bout you, and I know what I want to do. It's like chess. You have to make the right moves to do what you have to do to win. All I need to do is to make you happy again, and keep you healthy, and I've won, because that'll make me happy. When you're happy, I'm happy. See?"
Hermione smiled. Then looked uncomfortable.
'It's now or never' she thought.
"Ron, I need to talk about… That night."
He nodded for her to go on.
"Yes… Well… I was confused, and distraught, and you were there for me. It was a mistake, and I'm sorry."
He looked disappointed. "That's ok."
He stood up to leave, but she grabbed his sleave. He looked at her.
"I meant it when I said I was in love with you." She said, eyes tearing up again.
"So did I."
Another Author's Note: I wanted to end on a happy note. I hope you like it because I had writers block at the beginning, so it's not very good.
Please review and let me know if you liked it.
