Chapter Two:
The last vestiges of day shimmered down on Draco as he slowly walked towards Hogwarts castle, which pierced the horizon in the distance. Deep in thought, his grey eyes stared at the clouds of dirt that rose every time he took a step, giving his gleaming leather boots a matted look. The day had started promising enough; the sun was shining, perfect weather for visiting the village.
The first shock came when Draco sauntered into the Great Hall for breakfast and was met with Pansy clinging to some seventh year, her tongue permanently inserted down his throat. As he was sitting down next to Blaise she had glared at him angrily, biting her new boything's bottom lip. She was teasing Draco; it had been his favourite activity when they were dating. Pansy had taken the split bad, mostly because by the end she was playing second fiddle to another girl. Another girl that Draco was only pining after, as if Pansy herself was unsatisfactorily. Since then she had tried to make his like a living hell.
Draco turned his back from her and proceeded to butter a piece of toast while Blaise made small talk. Always watching Pansy in the corner of his eye Draco had gotten through half of breakfast and was beginning to feel a little better when her voice violated his ears.
"Oh, Draco! Look who has just walked in!"
The entire Slytherin table turned to watch as Hermione Granger waltzed in, her trademark overstuffed book bag slung over her shoulder. Draco's eyes widened as Granger tucked a tuft of bushy hair behind her ear, smiling playfully at her boyfriend, Ronald Weasley. It always shocked him how gorgeous she was, and how a mudblood could tantalise him this much.
His peers looked over at his blushing face and back over to Hermione taking a seat at the Gryffindor table.
"Damn that smug bitch," Draco thought, leering at Pansy´s proud face. That little stuck up nose made her look like an ugly dog. It was beyond him why they had ever been together, not even the sex was good.
"Must be getting desperate, Malfoy," Blaise whispered haughtily. "A mudblood?"
Draco kicked a rock across the dirt path. Today just wasn't his day.
Laughter rang in his ears and he quickly turned on the spot coming face to face with Potter and his group of friends coming up fast behind him. All three couples were holding hands, chattering quietly to each other.
What a disgusting sight. Pulling his face into a sneer, Draco addressed them. "That was quite a display back there, Potter. You were all behaving like a bunch of pixies."
Pixies, what the hell? He really needed to get back to the castle and cloister himself in his room. Apparently, they thought it was dumb too; all six of them just brushed past looking at Draco with slight annoyance. In the last year, he had found it so hard to muster up enough animosity to torture people but there was always just enough left for Potty and the Weasel Gang. Now even that seemed to be gone.
"Damn it," he said aloud, balling his fists. None of this would've happened if his father hadn't been captured, if he had just stayed out of the war. All it did was tear things up. At home, Narcissa just fluttered around in a worried state, fussing over Draco at every turn. Growing up Draco had always thought that the Dark Lord was so cool, but that's because he was just a story.
Now Voldemort was here in real life and Draco realised that there wasn't anything to marvel at. His exploits were just cruel, disgusting, and depressing.
Ridiculing Harry Potter was the only fun thing left in the world. He wouldn't let them take that from him.
"Don't walk away from me, Orphan Boy!" Draco yelled, swivelling his head in their direction, determined to rediscover himself amidst the inner turmoil.
"Ignore him, Harry. You too, Ron. He isn't worth it," Hermione said loudly. It was like she had slapped him again while taking his balls in her hand and squeezing tightly. Draco was too stunned to speak, the vein in his forehead throbbing like crazy. No one was supposed to be able to affect him like this. It wasn't fair!
Usually he found her cruelty a huge turn on, but she had never been dismissive of him before. Draco felt like he didn't exist anymore, as if Hermione's words erased him completely from existence.
"Fuck you all!" Their retreating backs continued to grow smaller.
Disheartened, Draco continued his trek back to the castle, travelling as slow as he could so there would be no chance of catching up with them.
Too busy wallowing in self-pity Draco almost didn't hear the rustling the bushes up the road from him, just behind Granger and her friends who were laughing so hard that he was sure none of them had heard it. It was possible there really wasn't anything to hear in the first place and Draco's depression was making him see things.
Then a figure crept onto the path and Draco was quite sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. Pulling out his wand, Draco knelt behind some shrubs watching the man very carefully. In a blink of an eye the stranger was silently flying through the air right at the group of kids who continued to chatter unknowingly. Draco was about to shout a warning when Hermione looked back and saw the man just as he descended in their midst, pinning her right arm behind her back. He quickly backed to the side of the road, pulling Hermione's wand out of her pocket and holding it to the small of her back.
"None of you move or I'll kill her," he laughed, sniffing her hair. "It would be a pity too, such a pretty young thing."
Ginny and Harry both had their wands pointed at his face, the only part of him showing. Shaking his head the man pulled a thick mask over his features. It was completely solid, not even the smallest opening for the most well placed spell.
"That's better," he said, his voice unhindered by the mask. "Now, give me all the money you've got on you. And anything else of value."
As quietly as he could Draco ran up the path at the man's side, wand at the ready.
"Expelliarmus," he yelled, aiming at the man's wand hand. Red shot of his wand but the highwayman was quick on the uptake, stepping back a little so the spell slammed into Hermione's side. She shouted in pain and Draco wanted to kill himself.
This would've been the perfect time to use wordless magic.
"Crucio," the man countered, moving Hermione's wand momentarily to send a shot of quick pain through Draco's body. Collapsing on the roadside Draco felt something inside him break when the spell washed over him. His body was quickly heating up, sweat pouring out of him rapidly.
Harry and the rest still stood there quietly, not even sparing him a look. They were watching the robber, waiting for him to slip up just a little. Hermione, however, turned her head a little and looked Draco in the eyes, smiling slightly. "Petrificus Totalus," the highwayman muttered so that Hermione stood perfectly still, her eyes boring into Draco's. "Don't want you to try anything funny either my pet."
"Don't touch her anymore," Draco said darkly, standing up. His body was on fire, every single inch of him was screaming in pain as his skin smouldered. It began to crack open, blood dripping into the dirt. When he opened his mouth again sparks shot into the air, flames licking out of the corners of his lips. "Did you hear me?"
Everyone froze in horror as fire began to emit from his fingertips. The robber pulled Hermione in front of himself, backing away slowly.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Draco yelled, holding out his hands. They ejaculated fireballs the size of quaffles in the man's direction, hitting his mask and shattering it on target. Shards of it planted in his face, taking out one of his eyeballs. Hermione's hair sizzled, the right side of her face scalded red, blisters bubbling on her cheeks.
Draco let loose another volley of fireballs. His hair was completely burned away, skin melting together. Immense amounts of pain overtook him but there was nothing he could do. Burning rage had become his master and there was nothing he could do until it was satisfied.
A rogue fireball caught Hermione's pants on fire as it jettisoned past her, colliding with the robber. He dropped her petrified body on the ground as fire consumed her and took off running down the road. Draco chased after him as Harry, Ginny, and Ron desperately tried to put out Hermione with jets of water from their wands. By now his entire body was completely on fire and still he didn't stop.
The man tripped on a loose rock and crashed into the dirt, screaming in fear.
Without mercy Draco let loose on him a wave of unyielding flames. In front of his eyes the man's skin began to burn away, the muscle beneath searing into a deep brown colour before charring.
Draco screamed in anger in pain as his whole life flashed before his eyes. His father hitting him across the back with his cane. His mother ignoring him. Pansy sneering at him. Everything nasty was coming to a pinnacle and escaping him with the flames.
With every passing second Draco's strength waned until he was completely blind, his knees buckling beneath him. Still the flames came as the tears in his eyes evaporated in puffs of steam.
"Stun him quickly!" someone shouted in the distance. "Before he does more damage to himself!"
A stunner hit him in the back and then there was nothing.
&
Ravden held a hand up to his nose as he staggered over to Draco's prostrate form, steam rising from his rapidly cooling body. This was the worse of his career, usually they just shot out of few flames, caused some minor injuries. Not Draco. He had killed someone and severely injured the girl.
Ravden stared over at what left of the robber. Charred bones lay on the dirt in the faint shape of something human. Bits of burnt flesh hung limply, swaying slowly in the breeze. Everything else was ash.
The urge to puke overtook him and Ravden ran to the side of the road, his stomach ejecting all the food he had consumed that day. Even when it was emptied he continued to dry heave.
Ravden tried to subdue the contractions of his stomach but the smell was overwhelming. It was only when he used the bubble head charm that he was able to take a hold of his senses. Draco had to be taken back to the Academy immediately; there was a chance he wasn't going to survive already. His face was just mash of melted skin. There was no nose, his eyelids were fused shut. Where his lips were was a bloody hole. Ravden couldn't even bring himself to inspect the rest of the poor boy.
Conjuring a stretcher Ravden slowly lifted Draco's body onto it gently, calling for his Grayson to come help him. Hubbard had already left with the girl.
Together they held the stretcher between them and simultaneously disapparated with a loud boom.
&
Ron stood in the middle of the deserted road clutching a sealed envelope in his hands. Pants wet with urine were sticking to his legs. Worry filled every cell in his body. These men had just showed up out of nowhere and whisked Hermione away before he had a chance to see if she was okay.
"What the hell just happened?" Ginny muttered, leaning on Harry weakly. Every single one of them had a stunned looked plastered on their pale faces.
"He's a heliopath," Luna said softly in awe. "I knew they existed."
Up the road the final member of Ravden's team was cleaning up the mess Draco had made of the robber. When he was done he sauntered over to the five teenagers, stricken with grief and fear.
"Remember to take that letter straight to the Headmaster and stay in his office. A Ministry official will be there shortly with news of your friend and as good an explanation as he is permitted to give."
"Why can't you just tell us what happened?" Harry demanded, clutching Ginny tightly. The image of Draco on fire and melting was seared in his mind.
"I am not authorized to do so," the man said. "Just go back to the school and wait. But I'm sure she will be fine."
"Fine, that's just what we'll do." Ron said stubbornly, stiffly walking towards the castle. "Come on guys."
The smell of burnt flesh hung in the air as they ambled towards Hogwarts, the sky behind it on fire as the sun slipped beneath the horizon.