Chapter Six

"Mother, I tried, please believe me

I'm doing the best that I can

I'm ashamed of the things I've been put through

I'm ashamed of the person I am."

Isolation by Joy Division

Draco had a horrible headache when he woke up, blearily taking in everything around him. He swiftly realised that he wasn't in his room nor even in the Manor. The white stone walls and the smell of the sea, he stood up and looked out the window. The sea crashed against the rocks a thousand feet below. He was in the Malfoy villa in Crete, but how had he gotten here?

The last thing he remembered was Astoria with her wand to his temple.

Oh fuck.

What had she seen when she performed legilimency on him? Everything he had to assume based on the fact that he was now nearly 4,000 kilometres from his home. She must be livid. Draco was torn between hiding in this bedroom and seeking her out.

After staring out the window for an hour and no food appearing, looking for Astoria won out. He didn't have to look far however, because as soon as he opened the door, she was waiting there with her most malicious smile on her face and her wand tapping on her arm.

"If you were hoping to escape, I've warded you in. Your pathetic excuse for magical power won't get you out of the villa." Astoria smiled as though she was discussing the weather, "I was so disappointed, husband, to learn that you have been unfaithful to me in your heart and your dreams. It's a shame really after all the indignity that I have suffered after marrying a disgusting Death Eater."

"You are going to keep me prisoner here?" Draco asked, startled that Astoria was going to take it so far. He hadn't actually cheated after all, but he had lied to her. He was a very poor excuse for a husband.

"Oh, I plan on keeping you here until you die," she hissed at him, "For the rest of your life no matter how long or short that is going to be."

The rest of his life? The rest of his life here? All alone? With her?

"If I am never allowed to leave, Stori, please I beg of you to give me an heir, a child to love and dote on." He dropped to his knees, pleading desperately. "Please Stori. You know I have always wanted children. Please can we have a child? I will care for them. You won't have to do anything after the birth."

"Why would anyone want YOUR children?" She screamed, "You're practically a squib!" She shoved him to the ground and he laid there in shock for a moment before he pulled himself up.

"Please."

"Absolutely not. The Malfoy line is going to die with you. I will be the extinction of your House. And it's all your fault, Draco." She pointed her wand at him with hatred in her eyes.

"Tell me what I can do to make this right. I've only ever wanted to be a good husband to you, to make you happy. To have a family. I didn't mean to lie to you about Granger and Nott, but I swear I wasn't unfaithful. What can I do to make you happy, Stori, please?" Draco pleaded with her, because he knew that she meant it. He was never going to see another person as long as he was alive; he was trapped here.

"The only thing you could do to make me happy is to get a time turner and go back to the Battle of Hogwarts and die in the Room of Requirement instead of Vince! You took the only person who ever really cared about me." Astoria punched him repeatedly in the chest, the tears running down her face. "It should have been you that died! You! I hate you! I hate you!"

Draco stood as still as the grave. Suddenly he understood. Their ten years of marital hell made sense. She was punishing him for Vince's death. Draco had always felt that it was his fault. He should have stopped him from casting the fiendfyre. Should have stopped Vince from joining the Death Eaters. Vince had just followed him. Draco could have been honest and could have told Vince that he hated it, that it was a nightmare. Instead here he was in a new nightmare of his own making.

Lucius had chosen Astoria as his bride though, so like most of the pain in his life, Lucius was responsible for this, too. Astoria kept hitting him until Draco knew that he would have bruises all over his chest, but he never fought back. Eventually she tired herself out and fled from his presence. He stood there for a while feeling the pain in his flesh until he returned to his new bedroom - his new cell. It wasn't that different from Azkaban really.

He stared out the window of the villa and watched the sea churn far below.

Maybe he could drown himself in it.

Death was the only way that he was going to escape from Astoria.

No one was going to rescue him.

No one knew where he was.

And besides there was no one left that cared.

Hermione and Theo's image haunted him, but he knew that he would never see them again.