The Girl Who Lived

Protection

June 9th, 1996.

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The days had been filled with endless questions and neverending pestering about what her arrest and trial had been like. Multitudes of inquiries and heaps of assumptions about her behavior.

Elena wanted to just suffocate herself right then and there.

The only time she could find any peace and quiet was those moments she stole for herself and wandered the halls. Occasionally she could hide away in the library and read on the pillowed edge of a windowsill and lean against the stained glass window that overlooked the courtyard but recently, Harry had started sitting with her. As much as she loved her brother, she needed to be alone.

Harry wasn't Malfoy. And the only person she wanted was Malfoy.

The past few days, she had familiarized herself with every corridor and every hall and passage in the castle. From her last class of the afternoon and midnight, she walked around while letting her thoughts consume her and the silence.

Past midnight, she would lay down in the Astronomy Tower and try to sleep. Every night, she only managed to get a couple hours of sleep. Elena was afraid that she would fall asleep and be woken up by being hit. Or just not wake up at all.

It had been days since the last night she spent in her confining cell and nearly grazed literal death and yet, she still could not rest. She could not forget what it felt like to feel every system in her body begin to shut down and feel her mind begin to accept the death that was to come.

Even seven days later, a full week, she still felt the immeasurable amount of anger in her chest brewing. From the moment the knife flew at Moody, Elena knew she would not forgive anyone in the Order. Not for a long, long time. Nobody deserved her forgiveness and she certainly would not hand it out after they didn't hand out their help.

Her body, the way it ached and the way her bones were still fused together incorrectly, was screaming in pain more and more every day. Her migraines grew unbearable and at times, her vision would black out. Would she let anyone know that? No. Would she act as if nothing had changed? Obviously.

Elena was supposed to be in Potions right now. After everything she had endured last weekend, she still could not face Professor Snape. Or Malfoy who had grown suspiciously close to Daphne Greengrass. It felt like a knife through her own heart when she saw them walking together the way they used to walk together. Although there was that sense of detachment from Draco, she knew very well that there was something growing between both Malfoy and Daphne.

What should Elena have expected at that point? She had been gone for a weekend, became a criminal and then came back to Malfoy with open arms only to abandon him the next morning. It was better this way, she told herself. It had to be better this way especially since she needed him to be out of her life for good.

Having him so close was risking everything. Risking his life and that was what she cared about most. Elena was well aware of the pain Lucius could inflict on his son if Elena became more involved with him and she would not be the reason Draco got hurt.

She couldn't protect herself but she would lay her life down for him if she needed to. There wasn't anything in the world she would risk, not if it meant that he was safe and protected.

A small hint of a black shadow wrapped around her ear, curling like a cuff. Someone was coming. She felt the chills on her spine return.

Elena straightened and her fingers danced on the handle of the dagger she concealed underneath the heavy knit cream sweater she wore. It concealed every bruise on her body that concealer wouldn't.