arranged / dm

06

possible TW: this chapter has mentions of violence, brief mention of blood, and brief trauma.

December 31

Draco sat silently beside Amara as the two ate dinner. The past days have been peaceful between the two and not a single issue has risen to the surface.

Wedding planning got more intense; Amara found it hard to keep up now. Lucille was seated across from her daughter, Michael beside her. Nobody dared to speak, a harsh glare from Lucius lingering over their heads.

"Draco and I need to head into Diagon Alley tomorrow." The man's voice boomed in the large room, his deep voice ricocheting off the walls encasing them. Narcissa nodded respectfully at him, though her eyes were on the ground--almost like she feared her husband almost as much as Amara feared him.

"Father, don't you think I should be helping here?" Draco spoke up, his arm brushing against Amara's as he rested it on the table.

"No. Planning is the job of the woman. You have better things to be doing." Disgust laced his tone as his eyes glazed over the girl beside his son briefly.

Amara hoped Draco would stand up to him, clap back. But he didn't. He sat silently and agreed.

Amara knew he'd never be able to stand up to his father. Lucius Malfoy is intimidating. And even for the asshole bully, Draco Malfoy, it was hard to speak up. While she knew this, her imagination believed other things. She believed he should be able to speak up. She believed he was a coward, even now.

"Mother, should we go?" Amara's voice wavered slightly as she rose from her seat. Lucille nodded and pushed her chair in, hesitantly following her daughter out of the room. Draco watched closely, studying every one of Amara's movements--almost memorizing them.

He wondered why she had left so quickly. Why she hadn't spared him a glance as she exited the grand dining room they sat in.

"Draco." His father spoke sternly, his fist on the wooden table. "Do not let that ignorant girl weaken you. A wife doesn't change you. If you go soft because of her I will get rid of her." Lucius was angry. His eyes were narrowed and his jaw clenched.

"Father I won't. Believe me, she has no effect on me." Draco scoffed, leaning back into his chair.

Every fiber of his being knew it to be a lie, but he needed to believe it. It needed to be the truth. So he began changing his mindset--the way he thought about the girl he was destined to marry. Began trying to rewire his brain as his father did years ago.

Amara had taken her mother to her bedroom and dropped herself onto a chair, her arms crossed firmly.

"What did you need, Amara?" Lucille spoke softly. Words always rolled off her tongue like soft melodies. The woman was very genuine--something her and the Malfoys didn't have in common.

"I need out of this, Mother. We could run. We could. You don't have to make me do this." Amara's voice wavered as she spoke out.

"Amara, listen to me closely. Draco needs someone like you. Someone to show him how to be respectful. Someone to be there for him."

"That's not my job, Mother. My life shouldn't be all about teaching someone, someone who should know how to act like a decent human, how to act humanely and be civil. My job is not to show Draco what respect is. He should've learned years ago. Instead he learned how to be a dick." Amara spat, her blood boiling with anger.

Lucille stared emptily at the girl, her eyes filled with regret and defeat.

"This doesn't have to be awful like you're making it. Look at him with an open mind." The woman sat next to Amara, her arm draping over her shoulders. Amara glared at the door silently as her mother gazed at her.

"I did. I saw his human side. The side he never shows. But the next day he reverted to his old ways. He is incapable of changing. Not with Lucius breathing down his neck. I want to believe he can change, that's what is killing me. That's what is keeping me awake." A sigh left her lips.

In her mind, she was happily alone in her own room at her own home, not bearing a single thought of Draco or his family. But the harsh rush back into reality made the happiness she could feel radiating off of her thoughts vanish, leaving her cold and empty.

"Give him another chance. If he doesn't change we will leave." Lucille mumbled slowly. Amara didn't speak.

A million scenarios were playing out in her mind occupying all her attention. She hadn't noticed her mother left until long after, her eyes dragging slowly across the wall opposite of her.

She pondered giving Draco a chance to be human--to not say something completely insulting to her. Half of her hated the thought of being so open to him. But the other half wanted to give him a chance. Some of her truthfully had hope for the blond haired boy.

She slipped into the sheets, her mind fixated on Draco. Someone she never thought she'd fall asleep thinking of. Yet, there she laid, dozing off as Draco Malfoy ran circles in her mind.

✩☾✩

Nightmares struck often. Vivid images of the torture Amara had been put through. Vivid images of the torture Amara put others through. The Mark on her arm squirmed and burned her skin as shrieks of pain fled her victims. The horror only spread faster. The writhing humans below her inflicted panic in her, making her flare her wand hastily in attempts to stop it. The screaming only got louder in her ears, blood seeping from the innocent as she waved her wand in desperation to end the torture. Nothing she did worked and the girl below her died slowly. Her ears rang with the screams of the girl as tears fell down her bruised face. The images were so clear, so real. She relived the trauma over and over again until it became routine. She began silencing her room so she wouldn't wake her parents with the God-awful yells that these dreams inflicted.

Tonight, however, she didn't. Soft knocks on her door ripped her from the terror. Her body trembled as tears pooled in her eyes. Her eyes were glued to the door as it opened, letting orange light flood the room. Amara tried to catch her breath, squinting to see whom she had woken.

A concerned Draco closed the door quietly, illuminating the tip of his wand.

"I'm sorry." Amara choked out while trying to stop the shaking.

"Bad dream?" Draco mumbled, pulling the cushioned chair closer to the bed before sitting in it. "You don't need to apologize for that. Happens to me too."

His voice wasn't the usual disgusted tone he flaunted. It was soft, it was comforting. His raspy voice tore the images from Amara, leaving her in near peace as she gazed at him.

"I'll be here if you need me." The light went out, leaving the two in darkness.

"You don't have to. I don't wanna ruin your sleep." Amara spoke slowly, her mind in shambles after the horrid things that were presented.

"I know. But I will. I'm not a monster."

Silence fell. The only sounds audible were their breaths as the night grew darker.

Amara laid back in her bed and stared at the ceiling, terrified to fall asleep. Instead, she stared in the direction of Draco. Comfort flooding her senses instantly as she made out his figure in the shadows.