Forsaken

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Chapter 3: Shift

They've just brought Draco back in. He looks different somehow. I guess it's because he's actually got this shocked expression on his face. But there's something in his eyes that he's lost. He walks over to us, like a zombie. The Death Eaters take a look around and then leave.

He sits.

"How was it Draco?" I ask. He'd been gone hours. I was worried.

He looks at me, still completely lost and I realise that he is lost. And that's what's missing from his eyes.

"Fuck!" I swear and Crabbe and Goyle look over. They still don't suspect anything. Stupid louts.

"What is it, Blaise?" Crabbe asks.

I wonder if it's possible to explain to them. "They've done it too long." I stare at Draco. "He's gone."

"Gone?" Goyle asks, like a child asking where her dead mummy is.

"Gone away. His mind's gone away. Where nothing can hurt him."

Crabbe and Goyle are complete idiots.

"Draco's gone," I mutter.

"Are you serious?" Higgs asks. He's the one of us who likes Draco the least, but even he sounded concerned.

"Just look at him!" I shout. "You can see it in his eyes."

"You can never see anything in his eyes," Higgs objects.

"Just look!" It's a command. Higgs looks. What he sees there shocks him.

"There's nothing in his eyes. There was never anything but there was never nothing. There was always something in his eyes," he babbles.

He's taking it worse than I am.

I watch as Draco drags a finger through the dirt, tracing a letter.

"Potter," I state. An epiphany has come to me.

"What?" Higgs stops babbling long enough to ask.

"We'll get Potter. If Potter can't fix him we'll give Potter to the Dark Lord and he'll fix him."

Higgs looked at me a little oddly. "Potter?"

"Potter," Draco repeats.

I am confused momentarily then ignore him. He'll probably just continue repeating our words. Draco is gone. And if Draco is gone, that means I'm in charge. And if I'm in charge, well, I can't let emotions get in the way. Otherwise, the whole group falls apart.

"Potter would be the only one strong enough to be able to help Draco in any way. Granted, no one knows how to cure the insanity caused by the cruciatus, but we'd certainly need someone powerful. Look at Longbottom's parents. They've been in St Mungos since the last war thanks to the Lestranges and nothing good's come of it."

Parkinson chose that moment to wake from her mid-afternoon siesta – or what we thought was mid-afternoon.

"What's this?" She asks, rubbing her eyes. "What's going on?" She stares. "Is there something wrong with Draco?"

I turn to look at her. "Draco's gone. That's just some sort of zombie Draco shell."

"What?" She scuttled over to where Draco was sitting, still drawing in the dust. "Are you alright Draco?" she asked.

I rolled my eyes. Higgs threw a sock. "He's not going to answer you," he said.

"Potter," Draco said.

"He did just then," Pansy retorted.

"Parkinson, you lout. That's not a reply. He's just saying that."

"Believe what you want, Zabini," she glared. "And I'll believe what I want."

I shifted, ignoring her. "As I was saying, there's one thing that will definitely not help. And that's violence or conflict of any sort. Can we all please try to get along? For Draco's sake."

"We can try," Millicent said. "But knowing this lot, there's no guarantee."

"I just want you guys to try."

I could see Higgs mimicking me out of the corner of my eye. "I know I sound absolutely pathetic, but it's Draco. We like Draco."

"And Slytherins stick together," Nott added.

"I'm not a Slytherin," Avery stated.

"But you probably will be," I said.

"Hey," one of the Hufflepuffs in the corner said. "We aren't Slytherins either."

"Alright, alright. So we're not all Slytherins. So what? We're all sharing this experience. We're all Death Eaters' children. We are a group, and hopefully when the time comes, a team."

"Let's be the DEC," Parkinson suggested.

"DEC?" I questioned.

"Or Dec, if you want it that way. The Death Eaters' Children."

"Not such a bad idea," I agreed. "Anyone opposing?"

Higgs looked about ready to open his mouth. "Besides Terrence?"

No one said anything. "Okay. From now on, we're the Dec. And don't you dare tell anyone what that stands for. The rules. We don't tell anyone anything. Anything said in this room does not leave this room until we do. Everything stays just between us. I don't want anyone involved in this. Not your parents, not Snape. None of the teachers at school, not even Dumbledore. No one. Not a single one of your friends outside this room. And I'm looking at you, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors when I say this. Not a soul."

The Gryffindor Patil looked at me. "I think we all get that, Zabini." Her sister glared on her behalf. And I was faced with a double-Patil stare.

I glared back.

"Potter," Draco broke the silence and everyone went back to doing what they were doing before Draco came in. That is, absolutely nothing. Draco rocked back and forth on his heels. "Potter," he repeated again, while dragging his finger through the dirt.

It really was sad that someone as witty and intelligent as Draco could be reduced to a babbling mass of airheaded-ness. Not to mention he was muttering his most hated enemy's name over and over again. Slytherin house breeds loyalty and the Dec showed that, even if not all of them were Slytherins. When it came down to it. If it was Draco against Voldemort, it was all of us against Voldemort, no questions asked.