| Girl on Fire |

50

VERONICA MALFOY

"You're right"...

We both whipped around and Mattheo was standing in the doorway. Draco looked at him and then me. "Veronica, can we please talk?" he said. I nodded at Draco and he left. Mattheo shut the door and I sat down. "Talk." I said. "I'm sorry," he started. "So you've mentioned." I said. "I never meant for this. Any of it but I couldn't let you take the mark." he said. "I wanted it but you-" I started. "That's not why," he said. I looked at him with confusion. "Show me your arm Veronica," he said. "Why?" I asked. "Just do it." he said. I held out my arm and he lifted my sleeve. There was a dark red outline around the mark. "Fuck-" he mumbled. "What?" I said. "I was right." he said. "Right about what? Mattheo, what do you know?" I asked. He sighed and looked at me.

"Your body is rejecting the mark," he said. "What?" I exclaimed. "It should have killed you but..." he trailed off as he traced a finger over my skin. "But what?" I said. He moved my hair to the side and tapped on his mark. "This," he said. I gently rubbed my fingers over it. "This is keeping the mark from completely corrupting your magic and killing you," he said. "How did you know- Why is your mark doing that?" I asked. "That mark I gave you is intended to save your life. So it does whatever it has to to keep you alive. Right now, that means acting as a shield to the dark magic that should have killed you already." he said. "This is insane, how do-" I started.

Then Mattheo collapsed to the floor. He started coughing blood. "Mattheo!" I yelled. I dropped next to him and turned him on his side. I gently moved some hair from his face as blood poured from his mouth. His hands were trembling. Eventually he stopped coughing. I pulled his head up onto my legs. "I'm fine." he mumbled. "No, you aren't. Tell me what happened." I said. "He said I forgot my place," he said. "Mattheo, what did you do?" I asked. "I tried to kill him," he said. My veins iced and I froze. "You did what?" I said with a shaky voice. "I'm sorry Veronica, but after what he did to you, and what he's going to do. I couldn't just do nothing," he said. My eyes watered and I held his hands. "Mattheo, I'm fine-" I started. "No! It's not fair. I won't let him force you to whore yourself out to Harry Potter" he said. " I'll be fine." I said, my voice softer. He shook his head. "No, no, no. Don't-" he started but he was cut off when he coughed more blood.

"I need to heal you so tell me what he did." I said. "Cruciatus, death eaters beat me up, a spell to cause my chest to fill with blood. It's supposed to make it harder to breathe. But none of it will kill me. He just-" he started as he began to fade. I shook him gently. "Mattheo, keep your eyes open." I said. "He just- just wants pain." he said weakly. Then his eyes closed. "Fuck!" I said.

"Draco!" I yelled. Draco ran in and his face dropped. "What the hell happened?" he asked. "His father. Mattheo tried to kill him." I said. Draco looked at me in shock as he lifted Mattheo up and dragged him to my bed. "Why?" he asked. "Why do you think?" I said. He nodded. "I'll get mum's healing kit," he said. I nodded. I brushed more curls from his eyes. "It'll be ok. Please don't leave me, not now. I- I don't hate you. And if you leave, I'll never get the chance to tell you that." I whispered. Then Draco came back in. He started to look through the book for that spell that caused the bleeding while I fixed his ribs and cuts. I bandaged him up and Draco couldn't find anything. "If we can't find a way to stop the bleeding in his chest, he's gonna drown in his own blood." I said. "Mum will be home soon, she'll know what to do-" he started. "And if she doesn't?" I said. "Ronnie, just-" he started. "I can't lose him. I tried to hate him for what he did but I can't. I can't hate him and I can't lose him. We have to fix him. He wouldn't even be hurt if not for me.

"You didn't force Mattheo to go after his father, he did that on his own. He should have known it wouldn't work." Draco said. "He did it for me!" I snapped. Draco sighed and nodded. I sat with him until mum got home.

Draco brought mum in and she immediately began to help. "Do you know how to fix him, mum?" I asked frantically. "Yes, I know the spell that was used." she said. "Will he be ok?" I asked. She was quiet. "Mum! Will he be ok?" I yelled. "I don't know." she said. My heart sank. She pointed her wand at him and he coughed more and more blood. Then she gave him a blood replenishing potion. "He should wake up in an hour." she said. "You mean if he wakes up" Draco said. She nodded sadly. I sat next to him and held his hands. "Please don't go. Not yet." I whispered.

"Veronica-" a weak voice said. I looked up and Mattheo was awake. I smiled. "I'm here." I said. "I'm sorry," he said. "I know." I replied. "Do you hate me?" he asked. He was like a child. A scared child. I wiped the blood from his cheek. "I could never hate you." I said. He smiled. "I love you Veronica." he said. I nodded. "I love you too." I said. Then he went back to sleep.