Draco Malfoy, Broken

Chapter 78 - Bonds

Chapter 78 – Bonds

Published: May 3rd, 2021

Draco watched out the window as the train started to move. He felt a little safer now that his Patronus came out last night. Harry had taken him up to the Owlery and they practiced it again, letting their huge, soul-bound Patronuses soar across the sky. Draco had never felt so... happy when they were together. They even made sure that he could send messages, too. Harry kissed him for a long time that night and brought him back to the room to really torture him with his tongue.

They were getting closer and closer to sex, and Draco couldn't help but feel nervous. He had slipped his last vials of his Calming Potion into his bag. They were supposed to try again during the break. He liked to think that they were ready, but he really couldn't tell. Being constantly nervous about it wasn't helping, either.

"You alright?" Harry asked.

"Yeah... you know, the last time we were on the train... it came."

"Maybe our combined Patronuses will send it away for good?" Harry offered.

"Doubtful," Hermione, the morale killer, declared. "A Patronus is a protector, a barrier of light between you and the dementor. They hurt dementors, as it is everything it hates, but nothing can kill it. Deprimero was clear on that. He had altered and strengthened his Patronus in so many ways."

"Who's Deprimero?" Blaise asked. They had removed the walls of two compartments so they could all fit. Daphne sat between Blaise and Theo on a bench turned to block one of the doors. Neville was on Harry's other side, kitty-corner to Blaise. Ginny, Luna took the far side and Ron and Hermione were up against the window across from him.

"He wrote a book called The Origins of Dementors. He studied them for decades and documented various attempts to try to destroy one," Hermione explained.

"You can't destroy them... right?" Theo asked, uncertain, and Draco was glad he was participating.

"Not in a way that anyone can find," she answered.

Draco looked out the window, again. "I guess my wand will be glued to me the rest of my life. I don't understand why this thing has it out for me so much."

Harry gave him a look but said nothing.

"What?" Draco asked.

"I'll tell you later," he whispered, as Hermione gave Harry a look, too. Ron, who was next to her, also looked confused at their behavior.

"I think Deprimero wasn't looking at it right," Luna suddenly announced.

Harry and Hermione looked at her in surprise. "Luna?"

"Well, he acted as though that dementor had a physical body to kill. That would be like trying to kill the Grey Lady or Peeves. They don't have a mortal coil to extinguish. They don't need substance, love or even darkness."

"So, they are indestructible," Draco murmured.

"Indestructible implies that there is something to destroy," she said and started to look in her bag.

They all stared at her. Hermione, intrigued, prompted, "What do you mean, Luna?"

"They are non-beings. How do you kill something that doesn't really exist solely within our realm of existence?" Luna posed, as she opened her bag to look for something.

"An exorcism?" Harry suggested, and Draco gave him a look.

"What's an exorcism?"

"It's how muggles... um... get rid of spirits," he mumbled.