Hallows Game || HP X Squid Game (Draco Malfoy)

31 - Hallows Game

I awoke with my face squashed against a crumpled shirt. Beneath it, the steady rhythm of a heartbeat thrummed pleasantly against my ear.

As arms tightened around me, I found myself wanting to smile, but then reality hit me like a cold, wet fish slapping me hard across the face.

"Morning, beautiful," Draco's voice murmured sleepily above my head. I tilted up my face to find silver eyes piercing into mine, the tenderness in them filling me with both warmth and sadness as he lovingly reached out to brush my hair behind my ear.

If I wake up with him again, I thought, my chest aching with a horrible tight feeling, then it will be nothing short of a miracle.

Harry's loud snores echoed around us, reverberating against the walls. He was passed out on the table, empty bottle of port next to his head, the pink guard nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, the 'good morning' music blasted into the room. Thankfully, for the last fucking time.

"Wha-?!" Harry said blearily, quickly lifting his head off the table to reveal glasses sat askew on his face and a line of drool hanging down from his chin. "Is it time to put the bacon on?"

"Ugh, go back to sleep, Potter," Draco drawled, tiredly pushing a hand back through his hair so that it fell back down in a tousled mess. "You're ruining a perfectly delightful moment."

Yawning, I untangled myself from Draco's limbs and sat up, hugging myself, my mood - as usual - not in line with the upbeat tones of the music.

"Good morning, finalists! We hope you had a wonderful night's sleep. In just a short while, our guards will arrive with what we like to call a 'champion's breakfast'. We will also take this opportunity to wish you luck in your future endeavours, wherever the outcome of today may take you."

I shivered, and suddenly found I wanted my mother.

"Alia?" Draco's voice was like honey: soothing and sweet, and the most comforting sound in the world.

"I don't think I can eat," I murmured, pressing my fist against my mouth to stop me from crying, or simply just screaming out in frustration and fear.

A hand stroked my back. "Alia, you must. You need your strength to get through this."

"I don't think I have any left." I said in a small voice trying to ignore the dragging feeling in the pit of my stomach. "I just want to walk. I'll even go back to the sewers- anything but this."

Strong arms circled around me as Draco pulled me back against his chest, nuzzling his face in my hair. "You are going to walk. And you're going to leave with that money so that you never have to spend another night living in poverty. I promise you. You just need to trust me on this, okay?"

I began to shake from the force of my grief. I couldn't understand why it wasn't enough for him for both of us to live. Even if we were the poorest people in the world, we'd still have each other.

But I did not have the strength in me to ask him. Because he'd already chosen not to forfeit, and with Harry determined to see it through too, I had no choice but to fight against them for my life.

So, rubbing my face, I sniffed back my tears, refusing to go to my fate weakly, not when Luna, Neville, Parvati, Nico, Fred, George, Hermione, Dumbledore... amongst so many others, had shown true bravery in facing their demises.

A mouldy old banana was tossed carelessly into my lap by a passing guard.

Breakfast of champions, indeed.

*****

A loud belch broke into the silence as we trudged through the pastel coloured corridors for the final time.