Last Man on The Earth

b u r n i n g

Bright lights were the first thing to blind Draco Malfoy when he awoke from a disturbed slumber.

His whole body ached with a debilitating fatigue, his head throbbing like he'd been concussed by an army of bludgers.

Something felt different within him, not quite unsettled but not quite content...like a wound had been opened or was beginning to heal. He couldn't quite tell.

But he didn't like it.

He squirmed and wriggled his body against the bed sheets, grunting in discomfort when his shoulders rolled back into a hard mattress. His mattress was soft and plushy, this definitely wasn't his. Which meant he wasn't at home...

Sterile walls of white reflected back at him as his eyes shot open in distress, shielding his sensitive eyes as he did so. This certainly wasn't helping his pounding headache.

His body shot forward a little in an attempt to get up, but a sharp tug at his left wrist stopped him from going any further.

A silver chain was cuffed around his bruised wrist, attached to a large metal binder in the wall.

Where the fuck was he?

After adjusting to the unnatural lighting, Draco's eyes drifted downwards to find himself in a hospital robe, his lower half covered by a thin blanket.

His eyes squinted as his hands bunched the rough fabric between his fingers, frowning at the tiny writing that was etched at the side of the blanket.

'Property of the Ministry of Magical Beasts Department.'

But that didn't make sense, how could he possibly be at the Ministry Hospital Ward when the last memory he had was of-

At the exact moment Draco's disorientated memory began to awaken, Theodore Nott unlocked and slipped through the charmed brass door.

"Theo." Draco breathed out, his chest beginning to rise and fall as he examined his best friend before him.

His right arm was in a sling, the side of his left brow covered in stitches and water-colour bruises. Though Draco couldn't quite piece together how the injuries came to happen, his gut sensed that it was his own doing. The wolf's doing.

"Fuck- Theo I'm so fucking sorry - are you okay? Fuck, fuck I didn't mean to hurt you, I- I can't even remember anything I- fuck I'm sorry." Even throughout the excruciating pain, Draco tried to sit up to reach him, but the sharp tug in his abdomen caused him to wince and cower back instead.

"Hey, hey don't try and sit up yet. I'm fine, honestly I'm fine. Your body needs to recover from the transformation, try not to stress yourself. We need you to be relaxed." Theo quickly rushed over, prompting Draco to lay back down into the pillows with his good arm. "Can you remember anything at all?"

"I...I don't exactly remember a lot. It's sort of like blacking out. I resurfaced for some parts, but I just remembered how angry the wolf felt. And then something switched, I don't exactly know. But it felt as if the wolf was suddenly trying to balance with me, like we weren't fighting against each other for consciousness. And then the next thing I knew, I woke up chained to this bastard hospital bed. Which leads me to the question, why the fuck am I here and where's the fucking ethics in this?"

Theo bit his lip as Draco gestured to the chain clamped around his left wrist, not tight enough to dig in but tight enough to stop him from escaping.

"We think because you've been by yourself for so long since you were bitten, your wolf-side hasn't exactly taken well to the isolation, which means it's likely to be a lot more aggressive as you haven't reached a contentment."