Venom & Virtue

chapter 53

I burst through Draco's door, not bothering with pleasantries in my panicked haste.

He turned in his desk chair, raising an eyebrow as I tried to calm my breath, the run through the dungeons catching up with me.

I shoved the letter into his hand, "read this."

"What is it?"

"A message, from your mother."

He eyed it, as if I'd just handed him a dirty sock, before finally smoothing the creases in the parchment and reading the words written there.

My legs paced back and forth as he absorbed it, the speed of his scan painfully slow in comparison to the erratic beats of my heart.

Finally, he finished, his pale gaze lifting to meet mine.

I braced myself, waiting for the moment realisation clicked within his brain, for the shift to reflect in his expression, just as it had done in his sister's face.

But it didn't come.

He remained stoic, calm, eerily serene, as if the letter contained nothing more than the weather forecast for tomorrow.

There wasn't an ounce of fear or alarm or terror, no sense of urgency or any motion to jump to his feet and spring into action.

He merely held my gaze, unwavering and cold, so cold, just as he had been the first time I'd seen him.

And then, all understanding crashed over me.

"You knew about this."

It wasn't a question, no hint of an open-ended intonation seeking confirmation.

His demeanour was all the validation I needed, awful horrific realisation zapping through me as the picture cleared in my mind.

"Yes, I did," he replied, his tone flat, absent.

"Tell me, everything."

"I don't thin-"

"Tell me," I hissed, my strong facade cracking.

He sighed, shifting in his chair.

"What exactly do you want to know?"

"How- how long have you known it was going to happen?"

"Since last April."

"That was 10 months ago!"

"I'm aware."

I balled my hands into fists, forcing my feet to remain in place despite my furious urge to slap him.

"And you didn't think to tell anyone? To help prevent this?"

"Believe it or not, I wasn't eager to rat out my own father and aunt," he retorted.

"No, that's not fair, you cannot use them as an excuse for withholding this."

"Fair?" he sneered, "don't get me started on what's not fair about this situation."

"How can you just sit there and act like this isn't a big deal?"

"I told you from the beginning that you wouldn't understand."

I began to pace again, tugging at my hair aggressively, "for Merlin's sake! Draco, we're talking about the fall of the Ministry, not some stupid purity lineage."

"The two are entirely linked, they always have been," he bit back, gritting his teeth.

"So it's true then? Your relatives are planning an eradication programme?"