Two weeks later
Draco POV
I go back to Hogwarts today and I couldn't be any less enthusiastic about it. For the past two weeks, I've barely been able to get Briar to talk. Every night, I find myself waking up in the middle of the night to her trying to quietly cry with her arms wrapped around her knees as she sits up in bed. She never says anything; she just stares at me with those big, sad eyes before falling into my arms. No matter how many times I roll over, take her into my arms, and shush her back to sleep with her clutching onto me; I always wake up to her side of the bed already being empty.
Snape has been here every day since the forest incident to train Briar which is why I also only normally see her at night when she comes to bed. Every night is the same with her soft knocks on the door to interrupt my late-night reading that I've gotten used to doing while I wait for her. She'll knock, crawl across the bed to me, and settle herself with her back against my front while I finish reading. On the nights that she finishes training late, I'll quickly place the book on the side table, turn off the lights, and then wrap her in my arms as we cover ourselves with the covers.
The shared nightmares are what concern me the most.
Every night since finding Briar in the meadow, her mental wall has been impenetrable. At night though? I've been seeing flashes of her nightmares as if I'm her and they concern me more and more as I start to piece the scenes together. A hand hitting my cheek. Two hands wrapped around my throat. Dark eyes. A sneer. While those are the only things I've seen through the cracks of her unconscious mind, I can feel how frozen with fear she was in those moments.
I can't ask her what happened. I don't know if I want to know the answer, nor do I think I'll be able to handle the answer without wanting to murder the son of a bitch that wrapped their hands around my girl's throat.
The one thing that bothers me the most is I can't shake the thought of familiarity she felt when looking at her attacker. One relief I have? I know she wasn't sexually assaulted because when asked, she denied it vehemently by shaking her head back and forth. However, that hasn't eased my worry of what happened as she barely speaks aside from the occasional soft spoken "hey" or "good morning." So, for the past two weeks I've just tried to be as patient as possible and let her come to me like my mother suggested.
"Draco, hurry up! You need to finish packing!" I roll my eyes at my mother's reminder from downstairs and wave my wand to finish packing all of my belongings into my trunk.
"I'm done, mother!" I yell back down to her. A house elf pops in to take the luggage before disappearing just as quickly as they appeared in my room. Smoothing my all black attire, I turn to make my way out the door to my bedroom and down the stairs where my mother waits.
"Well don't you look handsome," my mother fusses as I make my way to her. I smile and kiss her cheek as she smooths the front of my dress shirt out of habit. Looking around, I notice a lack of Snape and Briar. Scrunching my eyebrows together in confusion, I look to my mother.
"Where's Briar? She said she was going to finish training early," I ask confused. My mother shrugs her shoulders and I huff before turning to walk towards the dungeons connected to the ballroom.
"Draco! Don't be long, we have to leave in thirty minutes if you want to catch the train," my mother yells after my retreating form. I raise my hand in acknowledgement before making my way down the stairs. Pushing the gate open, I see flashes of green and red flaring from Snape and Briar as they duel. Watching in fascination, I watch how quickly she deflects spells and sends a counter curse back. Snape and Briar continue fighting, not noticing my arrival, so I lean against the wall to watch. Unfortunately, I become an unknown participant to their conversation.
Snape throws a hex and I see Briar fumble slightly on her feet as her eyes glaze over. Feeling my connection with Briar's mind flare up a little, I conclude he must be trying to infiltrate her mind while fighting her. Apparently, he was successful and the walls between my mind and Briar's are more concrete than I thought when I hear his response.
"There's no room for error, Ms. Griffin. If your opponent can distract you that easily by showing you thoughts then you will lose," Snape drawls as he shoots another hex at her. She slices her wand through the air to deflect it, but he quickly swoops low to catch her legs with his next curse. I can hear her grunt in pain and it takes all of my willpower to not announce my presence and intervene.
"I know," she says quietly as she sends another hex back. Catching him off guard, she slices through his sleeve and draws some blood on his arm. Snape doesn't stop for a second and I see Briar gasp as he stares at her pointedly to project something into her mind. The split second she's caught off guard by whatever she's seeing, he throws a hex her way that makes her stumble back and slide against the floor. Thudding against a column, I can see her head hit against the unforgiving marble with a dull thud sound. Holding my breath, I fight to stay in place to see what will happen. Snape lets out an exaggerated sigh.
"You're not trying," he says exasperated. I watch Briar rub her head lightly before stumbling to stand.
"I am," she whispers quietly. I watch Snape throw another hex at her before she can even get her wand up or finish standing. She kneels on the ground with a whimper and he holds his wand at her. He's using the Cruciatus Curse on her.
"You're letting your guard down too much when I throw those memories at you. If I can do it, then how are you supposed to fight him when he throws his encounter at you in battle?! You won't stand a chance against him and he will kill you this time," he sneers. My blood runs cold when I realize Snape knows what happened in the meadow and I don't. Releasing the Cruciatus Curse, Briar abruptly stands up and throws a nasty jinx at him in retaliation that throws him against the stone wall with a resounding crack.
"WHAT'S THE POINT?!" Her loud yell causes me to stare at her in shock. Snape stands from the ground and brushes his robes before holding his hands in the air in surrender. Lowering her wand, Briar stands and glares at Snape as he walks to one of the practice dummies in the corner to set it up for their next training activity.
"It sounds like you don't care if you die, Ms. Griffin," Snape drawls as he walks towards the dummy. I can see her grasp her hair with her hands in frustration.
"I care if I die, Snape," she growls, "but there's nothing I can do about the flashbacks! I'm going to feel terrified the second I see him no matter how much we train. He killed Grace just because she was my friend as his initiation! He wants to kill me and I won't let that happen, but he's smarter than we thought if he could kill her in broad daylight," Briar fumes. I hear a sniffle leave her as I wrap my head around the fact her friend is dead. A murderer had his hands wrapped around Briar's throat in the meadow and I can feel my hands clench into fists.
"The Dark Lord knows about you. You always knew there was a risk of getting close to others considering your role in the final battle that will come about," Snape concludes for her.
"I knew that and I told her repeatedly that it wasn't a good idea to get close to me, but she said she didn't care and now she's dead! Who's next?! Who is he going to use against me?! Ginny? Harry? Hermione? DRACO?!" Her voice rises by the second and I can tell she's terrified of the thought of whoever this is using others against her.
"He could, but you need to remember your training! Stop fighting with your fear and start fighting with your anger and tactics! You've been training for almost a year. You're good enough to fight him. You just need to get out of your head," he says with annoyance.
Snape fires a hex that Briar blocks, but is caught off guard when another swipes her off her feet. Her head hits the hard concrete on the floor and I can practically feel the growl that leaves her chest. I almost growl when I realize how hard she hit her head.
"ENOUGH! I can't do this anymore today. I need to go see Draco before he leaves and I don't need my…" she doesn't finish though because Snape throws another curse at her which throws her onto her butt hard as she tries to stand. In a seated position, I see her throw her arms to her side and I hear her let out an outraged scream. I almost can't believe it when I see a pulse of magic hit Snape and twist him through the air before he lands hard on the ground in a crumpled pile of limbs. Groaning, he goes to stand, but Briar is pissed.
"I said ENOUGH! I'm done training and I'm tired of you not listening! I didn't want this life! I didn't choose to be different and I DIDN'T CHOOSE TO BE GOYLE'S TARGET OF DESIRE!" I can't stifle the gasp that leaves my throat. Briar spins around to look at me over the shoulder and her face melts into horror as she realizes I heard everything.
"Goyle's the one that attacked you in the meadow?! Why the hell didn't you tell me?!" My stance changes from my casual lean against the wall to a stiff stance of anger. I watch Snape stand and brush his robes off angrily, but I can see the pride on his face for getting under Briar's skin enough to force her natural power to come out.
"He had just told me he killed my best friend and he threatened you…I had to process so much and I…" she whispers before trailing off as she stands and starts to ring her hands in front of her in nervousness. I can see they've been training for hours as sweat gathers in droplets along every piece of skin that isn't covered by her short-sleeved shirt and shorts. I nod my head in understanding and turn my fury to Snape instead.
"And YOU! She said enough. Why didn't you stop?! You could've seriously injured her!" My throat is starting to hurt from yelling. Snape rolls his eyes at me.
"Then she would've healed herself which is part of her training too. She released her natural magic that we've been trying to target for weeks so that's all that matters. It's progress." I stare at him in disgust. Before I can rip into him about purposefully harming Briar just for a training lesson, I see her stop in front of me. Looking down to her face, I can see she's worried I'll turn my anger on her now. Taking a deep breath, I remember my mother scolding my anger and yelling at Briar the day she wouldn't talk after finding her in the woods. It didn't help then and I doubt it would help now.
"What did he do and say to you?" My voice is barely above a whisper as I plead for her to give me some answers. I see her battle mentally on what to do, but seconds later, she's raising her hand to my cheek. Leaning into her touch, I stare into her eyes and wait for her to start talking.
"He came with Pansy. They planned the whole thing," she starts and I clench my fists in irritation. "I was in the meadow in my Animagus form when I kept hearing twigs snapping so I went behind the tree you and I…" she trails off and blushes. I let out a chuckle and nod.
"Yes, I know which tree. Continue, love," I say encouragingly.
"I looked around the tree to survey the meadow and was about to start back to the Manor when I turned to look forward and he was right there sneering at me," she whispers and gulps. Her hand falls from my cheek to my shoulder and I place it between my warm hands in a comforting manner. She takes a step closer to me as if to remind herself she's not back in the woods.
I lean forward and kiss her forehead before I can feel a deep breath escape her lips towards my chest. After a few moments, she continues.
"He outright said he killed Grace and that I would be next unless I…" She closes her eyes and opens them to look into mine hesitantly. "Unless I chose him over you. He said he was the better choice and that you were already promised to Pansy, but I told him I would never choose him. He slapped me. Hard," she whispers. My hands wrap around her hand a little tighter and I have to remember to continue breathing. My hand reaches out and rubs softly where her skin is a little yellowish from the bruise his hand left.
"He kept yelling about how I would be with him because if he couldn't have me then he would make you and I suffer. He threatened to tell everyone I was alive, but I got smart with him which he didn't like. I said I would welcome him revealing I was alive because then I could come to school with you and be closer to you," she says while looking at me with a small smile. "He choked me then. He kept squeezing until I almost passed out and he didn't stop until he heard a twig snap when you were coming to find me. He immediately let go and apparated away. I was so shaken by what happened that I didn't even think about changing into my Animagus. It just happened. I ran into the brush in case it was Pansy coming to find me," she finishes barely above a whisper.
I look down and see the bruise that is finally gone except for a little yellowing.
"I'll kill him," I say in a deadly calm whisper. Briar shakes her head no.
"I don't want you talking like that. You'll have to be close to him now that he's a Death Eater so just pretend you don't know. He doesn't know you're aware I'm alive. I searched his mind when he was ranting. He thinks I'm in the woods to keep an eye on you in my other form, but he doesn't know you're aware of me being alive. You have to keep it that way." I nod my head in understanding and let go of her hand to cup both sides of her face. Gazing into her eyes, I almost miss the movement in my peripheral vision.
Snape fires a curse and I look up just in time to try and shove Briar out of the way, but with the connection fully open again, she can see it coming. In the blink of an eye, Briar is facing Snape and has her arms out in a protective stance. The curse doesn't touch us. Her natural magic flares out in front of her and the curse turns to ash in the air before raining down to the ground. Slowly, she lowers her arms in shock and I can see Snape crossing his arms in satisfaction with a smug grin. I pinch my nose in anger and frustration before realizing I've been down here for a long time and need to get upstairs so I can leave for Hogwarts.
"Protection is when your natural magic comes out. Noted," Snape says confidentially. Shaking my head, I push down my anger knowing there won't be anything I say that gets through to my god father.
"Snape, I'll see you at school. Yelling at you won't change the way you train her, but if I hear you harmed her more than necessary to the point of it being torture; you will have me to answer to," I growl. He nods his head and goes to walk up the stairs since the training session is apparently over. I glance at Briar and start up the stairs with her by my side.
"There you are! I was just about to come find you. We need to leave," my mother rushes out when we enter the ballroom. I nod my head in understanding and pull Briar in. Placing a heated kiss on her lips, I coax her mouth open with my tongue to deepen the kiss. She lets out a quiet whimper and grabs my shirts in her hands. It's the first kiss since the incident with Goyle and I hate that she pulls away so quickly. Looking down at her, I caress her cheeks in my hands as my thumbs rub back and forth.
"Don't ever shut me out of your mind again, please," I whisper as I lean my forehead against hers. I can feel her nod her head and I place a lingering kiss on her forehead before looking into her eyes again. "Visit me in my dreams as often as you can, okay?" She smiles.
"I will. Finish that task as soon as you can, okay?" I nod my head sadly as I remember the repairs I need to make on the vanishing cabinet per Snape's advice as well as murder Dumbledore. This year is quickly becoming the worst yet. Pulling away from Briar, I walk to my mother and join hands. Glancing towards Briar one last time, I hold onto the image of her smiling and waving at me before I feel my stomach tugging.
Sixth Year at Hogwarts. Here we go, I think bitterly.
A/N So there's your answer! Briar was assaulted by Goyle, but not sexually. That was originally the plan, but Briar has already gone through so much pain that I couldn't put her through that too. Draco is off to sixth year in the next chapter! There will be some time jumps as I try to include as much of sixth year as I can before focusing on the end which is the most important part in my eyes. Read and review as always, loves!