For The Greater Good (A Draco Malfoy Story)

Explanatory Dreams

        Mother of God, I was comfortable. I felt as if I was sleeping on a cloud that smelled strangely of the fabric softener my mother used. When was the last time I had gotten a good night's sleep? When was the last time I was this comfortable, with nothing to worry about? A hand brushed my hair back from my temple before tugging on my earlobe gently. Only one person who used to do that.

"Dad?" I opened my eyes.

My father, Alec, sat next to me with a tender smile. "Hello, petal."

The familiar twist in my gut I always felt when I thought of him came back at the sound of his voice. He looked so relaxed, so happy. The afterlife was treating him well.

"What's happened? Did I pass out?"

"Well, yes. You healed Harry Potter's hand, if you can recall. Quite the feat, if I do say so myself."

"Oh, right," I sat up, bringing a hand up to my head and rubbing between my brows. I still didn't know how I managed to do that. "I healed myself too. I didn't know I could do that."

"Your powers are progressing, petal. There's a lot more where that came from that you need to learn."

"But how did I even do that?"

"Well," my father started, sitting back against the headboard of my bed. "You act as a sort of filtering system. You take the infliction or wound onto yourself and your body does its best to dispense of it. Take last night, for example. You sucked the poison out of Harry's hand and took it into your own before promptly destroying it. It's quite remarkable, actually."

With a frown, I cast my eyes down to the duvet on my bed and traced the intricate patterns with my finger. I still couldn't wrap my brain around how someone as insignificant and average as me could do something as cool as that. My father put his finger under my chin and lifted my face to meet his eyes.

"You amaze me Rosie, I'm so proud of what you've become," he said, making her smile softly

"When you said I can take the injury onto myself, like from some curses. Which ones did you mean?" I asked.

"Well, you can only heal spells that have a physical damage, to an extent. Take the killing curse, for example. It kills the opponent immediately and stops the body from functioning. It's not a poison to which you can suck out nor is it a disease. Out of the three Unforgivable Curses, you can only heal two of them. For the Cruciatus Curse, you can't destroy the spell after sucking it out. If you suck it out of someone, then you bear the curse instead of the person you had healed. Otherwise, if it is a superficial open wound, you can heal it or stitch it back together but the rest is a different story. Which is why you must exercise caution, Rose. You can't save everyone."

"I can bloody well try."

My father laughed, patting my hand. "That you can, my dear."

I felt a smile creep up on me but the pressure between my eyes deflected it. God, there were so many things to keep track of, so much information and responsibility. My head felt ready to burst.

"Dad?" I frowned, a thought occurring to me.

"Yes?"

"When Harry, Hermione, Gabe and I went to Godric's Hollow, I had felt a weird prickling feeling in my head and my chest felt like it was being squished. There was this awfully loud buzzing in my ear the whole time. What was that about?"

"I was wondering when you were going to ask me about that. That's another benefit of being who you are. Those are your signals when danger is near. The prickling feeling and the buzzing will guide you to where there is danger or help needed. They'll only go away once you've reached where you need to be."

"Huh, well isn't that convenient," I snorted.

"I daresay it is," he chuckled, squeezing her hand. "Now, there's just one more thing left for you to do."

"What's that, Dad?"

"Awaken," he whispered before everything turned to black.

I jumped awake, tension tightening every muscle in my body. I was laying in one of the bunks and the sun was just beginning to set. Jeez, how long was I asleep? I spotted Gabriel walk out of the bathroom, whistling and his eyes moved over to me. He didn't expect me to be awake so he jumped back and fell over a love seat with thud! A chuckle left my lips, Gabriel was handy to have around in when things got too heavy to handle.

"Merlin, you scared the living crap out of me!" he said as he moved towards my bunk. He sat next to me as I pulled myself up. "You alright? Gave us quite a scare back there, Rosie. Do you remember what happened?" he asked tentatively. I thought of my dream with my dad for a moment before I nodded. He chewed on his bottom lip and I knew he wanted to ask about it. Every time he wanted something or to talk further about something, he would bite his lip as if he was holding himself back. I sighed and ran my hands through my knotted hair. Merlin, I need a shower.

"Alright, alright. Cool your jets, I'll tell you everything." I suddenly felt exhausted. How long had we been away from home and hearth? I explained everything to my brother and watched the play of emotions across his eyes. He was good at keeping a poker face but his eyes usually gave him away. I hoped the day would soon come when he'd stop fighting to be a man and let himself be a boy.