(1) 𝐍𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐄 | d. m

Chapter twenty-six

Draco

The room fell into silence. Everything happened so quickly; one moment I was holding her in my arms, the next she told me it was all just pretend. At least that's what it felt like to hear those words leave her mouth. I had finally managed to pull her closer to me, at least that's what I believed to be the truth. Now, I wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe it was all just a game to her? Maybe she was right; and maybe we were doomed from the start.

Our relationship had been a rocky one, to say the least, but I had somehow managed to convince myself, that it was all worth it. Worth the pain we had endured, the both of us. Worth the dangerous path we had traveled down. I just hadn't realized how much power she seemed to have over me, and how just a few words from her, could silence me forever. In that moment, I realized just how much she meant to me. I had told her I loved her, before erasing her memories, but this felt different. And I had presumed that she felt the same way, despite our game of cat and mouse.

She gave me the cold shoulder, standing with her back to me. I tried to reach out to her, caressing the side of her arm with my hand, but she refused to look me in the eye. In a matter of minutes, everything had changed. We went from being the closest we'd ever been, to being pulled apart by this... wall she had now built up around her. And I had no chance at pulling her back to my side.

"I MEAN, I can't do this anymore". She said, as I waited for some sort of explanation to her sudden change in tone of voice. "It was all an attempt to fool you into releasing Luna and Neville. And now that I see that it's not going to happen, now that I see that my feelings we're never real, — I can leave. Whether you choose to throw me back in the dungeons with my friends, or hand me over to Voldemort, it doesn't matter. Because I know the truth of what you are. You're just a pathetic, vile, little boy, who no one could ever love".

"You don't call me that!", I exclaimed angrily, forcing her to turn around and face me again. I had taken her sudden outburst of malice to heart and it felt like her voice would be forever etched in my mind. I knew that the things she was saying were probably close to the truth, if not exactly that, but I had spent so much time learning how to bottle up my emotions. Hiding away what I was feeling and thinking. And the truth was; inside, I was falling to pieces.

"Haven't I made myself clear in saying that you don't talk to me that way?", I curved my eyebrow in disbelief of what she had just said to me, forcing myself, in that moment, to become the person I used to be. The Draco she had first met, shattered the glass wall and stepped out once more.

She didn't say a word to that. We just stood there in silence, neither one of us willing to look the other one in the eye. I presumed she was just as baffled as I was, by the fight we seemed to be having, as we were just about to fall deeper into each other.

Then she left. She stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her, leaving me to deal with the destruction she had left behind. However, I refused to let to let her leave, and was terrified that my parents or any of the other Death Eaters would come back, and realise that one of the prisoners had escaped. After all, I was the one who freed her; and I was the one who would be punished.

"Don't you dare walk out on me!", I cried out, hoping she would change her mind and walk through the door again. I felt my heart turn heavy in my chest and my pulse start to rise in worry. I was scared I had pushed her away for good, a part of me wanting to protect her from harm. But I was also too conflicted and confused to go after her, and as I was just about to fall into my bed in complete despair – I heard the door creak open once more. For a second, I caught my breath, relieved that she had made the decision to turn around. Perhaps she was even going to apologise for her sudden outburst. I stood up again, turning my gaze towards the now ajar door. Lane was nowhere to be found, and the place was echoing with her absence. I felt a shiver down my spine and my worried mind traveling back and forth between theories of where she might have gone to.

"Ross!", I shouted, still without any sort of reply. "Lane!". But she refused to answer my clamours, it seemed, instead leaving me to fear the very worst. Finally, I found myself leaving my bedroom and travel down the flight out stairs down to the ground floor, hoping she wasn't too far out of reach. The hall was dark, barely lit up by the virgin moon hanging in the otherwise darkened sky. The only thing I could make out was the shadow of a figure out in the dining room, standing in front of the now crackling fire that was barely ever lit.

"Hey, you shouldn't have just left like that. Someone might find you out of the cellars–", but my sentence was cut short by the hitting realisation that the person standing there, wasn't who I initially thought it was.

Bellatrix, with her tar coloured hair and dark eyes that depicted the madness she was in, stood only a few metres from myself, staring deeply into the fire that warmed the otherwise ice cold house. She seemed to be in deep thought, barely noticing my stealth appearance. I could hear the beat of my heart ring inside my ears.

"If it isn't my favourite niece. Draco! Welcome!", she exclaimed, her intense eyes gazing into mine. I could barely answer them back, but tried my best to look unbothered, as I had grown quite good at pretending to be over the years. "You know, I was worried you weren't quite cut out for this job, but your parents managed to convince me otherwise". She grinned maliciously, putting  her rotten teeth on full display. "Now... Well, I'm starting to question your motives once again". Her voice was much like the sound of nails against a chalkboard; painful to my ears.

At first, I wasn't quite sure to what she was
referring, and continued to act proud and oblivious to anything that might've implied my disobedience. Then, I quickly dropped my charade in outmost disbelief, letting go of any sort of game of trying to be the son my parents had wished for. Instead, I found myself met by the worst sort of pain that could be. A broken down and tarnished voice that seemed to be pleading for mercy, was echoing in the very room I was in. I couldn't fathom why the person seemed to be in so much pain or what exactly was going on, but my instincts seemed to kick in; telling me I had to investigate the sound. Find out what the hell was going on.

Before Bellatrix could explain any further on the subject of my apparent disloyalty, I headed straight for the source of the sound. It seemed to be coming from the very room in which I had received the Dark Mark by the Dark Lord. As I came closer, the voice seemed to grow louder, and whoever it was that was much pain, seemed to be hanging on my a thread.

The door creaked open as I readied myself to find out what was going on. The screams were suddenly cut off, as if the person was given time to breathe out. I stepped inside, not yet convinced of whom the voice belonged to, but with an evident guess. A guess I hoped to God, would turn out to be wrong.

Lane was lying on her stomach, stretched out as if she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Blood seemed to be gushing out from all kinds places upon her body, and she was quiet — at least for now. All I could hear, was blood rushing out of her slashed body, and her heavy breathing not at all close to slowing down. The mere sight of it, made my head spin and my stomach turn inside out. I felt horrible, on the brink of losing conscientiousness myself and in dire need of throwing up. I felt powerless and without the ability to do anything but just stand there, raised over her small body. The body which I had had close to mine only hours ago.

"Well, Draco? I think it's time we give the Dark Lord what he wants, don't you think?",  Bellatrix chuckled, looking at me with a scornful expression upon her face.