The marks they leave
Harry grabbed the four mugs of butterbeer off the bar and turned to find an empty table. He was happy to see the Leaky Cauldron was full, but rather annoyed not to find a seat. His eyes scanned the room and spotted the tell-tale blonde hair of the back of Draco Malfoy's head in the back corner. Harry looked the room over again hoping to find a table he had missed before, but no such luck. Harry walked towards Malfoy, noticing he was the only one at the table for four. Draco did not notice Harry, he did not seem to notice anything, he was just staring at the table. The closer Harry got to the table the more curious he became about what held Draco's attention so solidly. It was not till he was standing next to the table that he saw Draco's bare arm extended in front of him. Harry turned his head away revolted at the faded mark on Draco's arm.
"That does not make it go away" Draco said dryly pouring a glass of fire whiskey from the bottle at his table "Nothing will ever make it go away."
"Sorry, I was looking for a table. I didn't mean to intrude." Harry said cautiously.
"Have a seat." Draco gestured to the rest of the table "No one else will."
Harry placed his butter beers on the table and sat.
"Rough day at work Potter?" Draco scoffed.
"No I got drinks for Hermione, Ron and George. We were supposed to meet after work." Harry said closely watching Draco.
"I'll leave when they get here" Draco said downing the whole shot glass of whisky "I'm almost done anyway" And he poured another glass from the almost empty bottle.
Harry looked around uncomfortably "How much was in that bottle when you got it?"
"Brand new" Draco said grabbing the glass again.
"You don't have to rush; you can finish in your own time." Harry said regretting the choice to sit down. Harry was impressed though Draco did not look like he had just drunk almost an entire bottle of fire whisky, he looked the same as always just maybe a little, what was it, sad?
Draco dropped his arm to the table again and stared at the mark. "Everyone gets this wrong you know. It didn't show that he trusted you, or that you were in his special inner circle." Draco sneared "It showed that he owned you, forever"
Harry had spent a lot of time interviewing both Draco and his father after the war; they passed a lot of information to the ministry. But Draco had never spoken like this; maybe the drink was affecting him more than Harry had first thought.
"Dear aunty Bellatrix" Draco mocked "it's an honor Draco, the dark lord is forgiving our family for your fathers failure at the ministry. You are the youngest wizard to be marked by the dark lord, even Regulus didn't receive the mark. I was special, chosen" Draco curled his lip pouring another glass "I was chosen as a punishment to my family. I was the only thing they really cared about and he was going to use me to make them hurt." Draco drank the glass of whisky, wincing as it went down "it was disgusting the way she obsessed over him, like he was her savior. He didn't care about her, or anyone. We were nothing but pawns to him and they never saw it." Draco said staring at the mark, "I knew right from the start, from the moment I found out I was to be marked, I knew what it was. I was his slave, but I could never let on that I knew." He looked up at Harry "do you know how he did it?"
Harry shook his head, he had never really given it thought how they got their marks, but thought it interesting that Draco had used being a member of the deatheaters as leverage over students and adults and now was playing the victim.
"Let me tell you a tale." Draco looked intensely into Harry's eyes "The great honor" he spat the last word disgusted "was to be bestowed upon me when I got back from Hogwarts after my father has been sent to Azkaban." Draco cocked his head towards Harry a little, a gentle reminder who had sent Lucius there but not daring to break eye contact "Voldemort decided it was time for me, I did not get to decide. I don't think this is how it always happens; I really did seem to be a special case. It was in front of all the other deatheaters; they all showed up to enjoy the show, the punishment of the Malfoys, to take us down a notch. Voldemort called them to gather in a circle around us, to get a good view of this momentous occasion." His voice dripped with distain "He asked for my left arm, I looked at my mother, she was not a deatheater as you know, but she had to be there, it would not have been a punishment if she was not there." Draco looked intently at Harry, he had to understand "There was so much pain in her eyes but she could not save me from this, she was powerless. I held out my arm and he pulled back my sleeve and pulled out his wand. He touched the tip of his wand to my skin, it burned, he burned this" Draco broke eye contact for the first time to look at the mark, but quickly looked at Harry again "into my skin, slowly. He told the group he wanted it absolutely perfect and was going to take his time, it took hours. The pain was excruciating and I could not show it, I could not show even the smallest sign that it hurt." Harry rubbed the top of his hand uncomfortably "That would give them what they wanted, everyone watching, Voldemort, they wanted me to cry out in pain, but I was not going to give it to them, to him. I was not going to make my mother hurt even more than she already did. After the branding he went to Bellatrix, pulled back her sleeve and touched her mark. Do you feel it? He asked me, watching me like a snake would a mouse. I felt it all right, the pain in my arm from the branding process had not gone away and yet I felt it, and I felt revolted, all I could do was nod my head. He was not done though he came back to me and touched the fresh mark; he put in a lot of pressure to make sure it got through. They smiled; they all smiled as the lifted their arms in response to show their mark was black. They enjoyed it so much, the misery they knew they had witnessed." Draco looked back at the mark "It will fade but it will never go away, a reminder forever."
Harry held out his hand tightened it into a fist and laid it on the table "I must not tell lies" burned brightly across his hand in shiny white letters.
Draco looked at it confused "What is that?"
"A gift from dear professor Umbridge, something to always remember her by, her and the corrupt ministry." Harry said watching Draco.
"She did this to you?" Draco asked surprised.
"No," Harry scoffed "she made me do this to me. That is my own handwriting. I know what you meant when you said you could not show any pain, you could not give that satisfaction. This is what I did for every detention I got with her; I got to cut up my own hand with some crazy quill she made."
"You had a lot of detentions." Draco said staring at the thick words on Harry's hand.
"If you are impressed by that, may I enter my submission to the contest?" Hermione asked harshly, sitting next to Draco, She placed her arm on the table and pulled her sleeve up to revel the word mudblood crudely carved into her arm "Courtesy of your aunt Bellatrix."
Ron sat next to Harry and George made a fifth chair at the table and took a seat while Hermione spoke.
For the first time Draco looked sick and turned away from Hermione's arm.
"You don't like her handiwork?" Hermione asked bitterly trying to make him see.
Draco closed his eyes and a pained look covered his turned face.
"I… I'm sorry." Draco said recalling the joy his aunt had as she cut into Hermione's skin, and the screams that came from Hermione.
"You're sorry?" Hermione asked angrily "What exactly are you sorry about? That you just stood there while she did it? That we were so concerned about broken legs and other damage to your prisioners that we didn't have time to heal this so there would be no scar? Are you sorry for all the times you called me mudblood at school? What are you sorry for?"
"I'm sorry for all of it. I'm sorry any of this happened. I was wrong, everything I had been taught as a child was wrong. I'm sorry it took all of this to have figured it out." Draco said desperately "But it doesn't matter if I'm sorry, if I was wrong or if didn't want to play along. What happened, happened and everyone is afraid of me, even in a crowded room, I still receive a wide berth."
"You were an idiot, but that branding sounded like torture." George said "I could show off my scar but it's kind of hard to miss." Just slightly turning his head to put his missing ear into full view.
Draco looked at the spot an ear used to be.
"It's not so bad though, losing Fred left a worse, unseen scar." George said staring into his butterbeer "I mean I have a hard time hearing from that side but there are worse things."
"We are all beat up, not one of us made it out unscathed. We survived a war there are going to be scars. But we did survive." Ron said.
"You don't look so bad." Draco said dismissively.
Ron pulled up the sleeves from both his forearms revealing a mess of tendril scars, "Ministry of magic, and there are others. Harry has plenty of scars, even Neville has scars. Just learn from them don't make the same mistake twice. "
"What was my mistake?" George asked annoyed "helping a friend? I would have been fine if Snape hadn't been around."
"You might have been, but Remus would not have." Harry said taking a drink.
The whole table looked at him surprised, waiting for an explanation.
"Didn't I tell you guys?" Harry looked genuinely surprised "There was a deatheater with his wand pointed right at Remus' back. Snape was trying to hit his hand but overshot just a little and hit George instead of the deatheater. It did alert you to the danger though and you got away alive."
"And all this time you knew and never told me?" George accused "How do you know anyway? Have a good old heart to heart with Snape before he died?"
"I'm sorry I don't remember who I told what anymore, it was a fiasco after the battle. It was one of the memories Snape gave me, so he must have wanted you to know the truth" Harry said apologetically.
"Memories can be altered. You said Slughorn altered his memory he gave Dumbledore." George countered pointing at Harry as though he had him trapped.
"Yes and you could tell it had been tampered with. I don't think he had the time or energy to alter the memory, he was kind of dying." Harry said "Sorry he was trying to save Remus and probably you too. But like so many other things it just didn't go as planned."
"Ron what about me?" Hermione challenged "what mistake can I not make, no longer be muggle born?"
"Wow, you really can be one track minded when you want." Ron said throwing his hands up in frustration "I thought you would understand. Make changes so that it never happens to anyone else, it was not your mistake that needs to never be made again, it was Bellatrix's. All I was saying was learn from our scars. You know what I quit, my butterbeer is empty and frankly I don't want another one, I'm going home." Ron stood up "See you later." And he left.
"Well that was fun. On that note I am leaving too," George said standing up making the chair disappear "don't stay out too late." And he left.
"Was I in the wrong?" Hermione asked heatedly.
"Look you already don't like me, so I can be honest." Draco said pouring the last of his bottle into a glass "I'm drunk and even I got what he meant. You were being thick and over reacted. I guess he just gave you too much credit for being smart."
Angrily Hermione got up "You are an ass." She turned to leave.
"Yes I am, but I'm still right." Draco said lifting his glass to her back "Go say sorry."
"Better you than me." Harry said watching Hermione leave "She is going to be mad with you about that for a long time."
"I know, but like you said better me than you. I don't have to work with her." Draco said with a smile and downed the glass.
"Are you going to be alright getting home?" Harry asked.
"Yeah" Draco said holding the bottle and staring at it "It's only a fireplace away." Draco looked at Harry "I hated my last two years at Hogwarts. I hated the things I was made to do to keep my mother as safe as I could. Some days I really hate myself."
"I think we all feel that way, the ones who really went to battle. Scars and self-loathing." Harry said understanding Draco a little better.
Draco laughed "We are all so damaged. Good night Potter." He stood up and walked over to the fireplace. Harry could not help but be impressed, every step was sure. Harry got up too, he should get home, it had been an interesting gathering.