L O Y A L; [d.m.]

| T R A I T O R |

~Narrator's POV~

The cold air hits Katrina's bare body like a knife- sharp and cutting against her pale skin. It's always cold in this room. She shivers under the satin blanket that smells of money and dust. A vile laughter echoes down the hallway and descends down as Katrina is left alone for the first time since she arrived at the Malfoy manor.

She closes her eyes, the falling of her grandfather of the astronomy tower lingers in her mind. A scene she will never forget. She screams out in anguish as greying moon ascends into the night sky, glistening through the window. Blood stains the crisp white sheets of the guest bed as it drips down her arm.

The night that was Dumbledore's death left the murder scene with a witness- something the Dark Lord never intended to happen. Careful to not anger him fully, Bellatrix took Katrina as a prize and apparated at the front gate of the Malfoy manor. Her heart broken and betrayed, she dared not look the lonely blond boy in the eye. She remained loyal to him, even when Harry, her friend, had try to convince her otherwise.

Draco was a wandering soul, not knowing whom to trust. She has tried to be that person for him, but in the end, he had deceived her heart, mind, and body.

Now, held against her will as Voldemort's prize capture, she is tortured every day to spill the secrets she swore to keep.

She would remain loyal to her friends, her family, and herself even if it meant dying along the way.

"Kat," a familiar voice pleads with her, "please just say something." A soft hand gently grasps her covered shoulder, heavy on her fragile body. A silver ring glistens in the moonlight. "They'll stop once you talk."

"Don't....call me....that," Katrina says through gritted teeth from the cold and anger and rolls away from the warm touch- her skin screaming for her to move back. "Only my friends get to call me that."

"Katrina, please, I can't stand it," Draco begs, a tear staining his cheek.

Katrina turns her head to see a set of reddened and puffy eyes. His brow furrowed with concern as he sits on the edge of the bed, causing the pain to course through Katrina's body. She closes her eyes as she winces, the first time she's ever showed any of them pain.

"I'd rather die than to be disloyal," Katrina says before looking at the frowning face of her once lover. He had been her best friend before. Now all he was was a stranger in the dark looming corner too afraid to come out to save her. He watches as his aunt tortures her for the sake of the Dark Lord's bidding. Draco runs a cold hand against Katrina's knotted black hair, his fingertips gentle against her sore scalp from Bellatrix's pulling of her hair.

The day's events roll out before her prior to her vanishing it from her mind. Bellatrix putting her under the Cruciatus curse when Katrina refused to answer any questions about the Order or her grandfather before dragging her by her hair upstairs to the guest bedroom only to cut Katrina's arms in the word of "Traitor".

Traitor.

That was something Katrina Turnwell was not.

Draco cautiously attempted to wrap his arms around Katrina in order to comfort her, but Katrina pushed him away with the little strength she had left. "Get away from me. I can't stand the sight of you."

Draco stands, wiping the tears from his eyes before leaning over to pull the blanket further over Katrina's body, hovering over his moth over her forehead in thought of a kiss there.
"I'm sorry. I-" There wasn't any words for him to say.

The sight of Katrina hurting, being tortured, angered him. But what infuriated him more was that he was the cause of it.

And he couldn't stop it.

He hated himself for it.

Then so much as a whisper, he disappears from the room and Katrina is left to her own demise.

It was the first time she let out all of her grief, staining the pillowcase with salty sadness.

Grief of losing her grandfather.

Grief of losing her lover.

Losing her best friend.

All in the same night.

In the same moment.

Her world shattered and she had failed her mission.

But, still in her heart, she loved Draco Malfoy more than anything. She loved him more than her own life.