Jump

Chapter Eight

I opened my eyes as soon as I heard the door open. I wasn't sleeping but my arms hurt so bad I had to focus on something else. I was thinking back to when Draco and I spent his birthday on the lake. The look on his face when I gave him his ring. That was cut short when I heard the stomping of Yaxely's boots trudging down the steps. I squinted through the dark to try and see if he was alone and what kind of chance I had to make a run for it. He rounded the corner and my heart sank when I saw another man with him. They both had mugs in their hands and from the smell of it, it wasn't butterbeer they were drinking.

"I told you she was pretty." He hiccupped to the other man.

He stumbled over to me and roughly caressed my face with his sweaty hand. I turned my face to the side and tried to avoid his gaze.

"Let me go." I whispered. "Please. My arms hurt."

He looked up at my arms that were still tied tightly above my head on the posts. He seemed to trace my arms with his eyes as his gaze slowly drifted from my hands to my face.

"Nah." He spat out with a laugh.

The other man sat on the ground and leaned back against the wall of the cell. Yaxely took a step back and began to slowly pace the room.

"I knew your father you know." He began to say. "I thought he was a good man. Turns out hes a blood traitor. Just like you and your brother. Maybe, if he had acted right, he would still be here to protect his little girl." He flashed me a drunken, nasty smile. My stomach churned. "Maybe he wouldn't have been killed."

"My father was killed by a gun. By a muggle gun." I argued. "Not by you or your men."

"Who do you think cursed the muggle who did it?" He winked at me.

Suddenly it was like my heart was going to explode. My ears were ringing, and my arms began to shake. I lifted my head and stared at him.

"You- you killed my father?" I screamed. He laughed.

"It felt good too." He grinned. "Cleansing the world of trash like him. Maybe I should take out one more blood traitor." His face turned serious and he reached his hand behind his back.

I followed his hand as he pulled out a small pistol from behind his back. Suddenly my arms didn't hurt anymore. Suddenly I couldn't breathe. The room began to spin, and my world began to crumble. This was it. He was going to shoot me, and I was going to die, just like my father and id never see Draco again. Tears began to pour from my eyes, and I began to pull at the ropes that were tied around my wrists.

"Don't cry love. It'll be over soon." He whispered, stepping closer to me and pressing the gun against my forehead.

I closed my eyes and held my breath. I pictured my father. Was this how scared he was that night? I remembered his funeral. How angry I was at the world. How angry I was at muggles. To learn it wasn't even their fault.

"I came to warn Draco about Harry potter." I blurted out.

I bit my lip and sucked in all the air I could. Did I just say that? I didn't mean to give him up but our brain does funny things when its afraid. I looked up at his face and he was glaring back at me. the other man in the room stood up and stepped forward, pushing Yaxely's arm down.

"We have to let the dark lord know that this girl knows of the boys whereabouts." Hearing that made me feel guilty, like I had just signed Harry's death wish.

Quickly they seemed to sober up. They stepped forward and both took one of my arms. Once they untied my wrists, I slumped forward on to their shoulders. I couldn't feel my arms or my hands and my legs felt like jelly. My head slouched forward and I tried to keep it up but was failing miserably.

"We soaked the ropes in Draught of living death, so you may feel a little sleepy." The other man explained.

"Just keep quiet and don't try anything funny, girl." Yaxely demanded.

I could feel them dragging me instead of carrying me. they were still drunk and only at half strength. If I could just keep my eyes open, I could run. We managed to make it to the top of the steps and I could hear a bunch of laughter and commotion in the other room. I could see the front door and decided this was my moment. I lifted my head as best I could and slammed my feet on the ground. They felt like bricks. I managed to sturdy my legs long enough for them to stumble over me, which caused me to fall as well. I got to my hands and knees and began to crawl. I felt one of them grab my foot and I let our a scream and kicked as hard as I could manage with my other. I looked down and could see the other man grabbing his nose and screaming 'SHE BROKE IT!'. I focused back on the door and kept crawling. My vision was blurry and the room was spinning but I had no choice but to keep going.

Suddenly, someone flipped me to my back and was sitting on top of me. it felt as though a brick was dropped on my face and I realized Yaxely was sitting on me, punching me. another blow but this time I managed to snake my hands in front of my face. Each hit began to feel harder and harder until I realized it was causing the potion to ware off. My brain was becoming less foggy but now each time he hit me it hurt more and more. I began to kick my feet and squirm my upper body, still blocking my face, in hopes he would drunkenly stumble off me.

"STUPEFY!" I heard Draco scream.

Suddenly there was a crack of red light in the air and Yaxely fell off of me. I sat up and scrambled backwards away from him as fast as I could. I couldn't catch my breath and I could feel blood dripping from somewhere on my face. Before I knew it the room filled with people and Draco was sprinting down the stairs. Narcissa gasped as she saw my face and Lucious rolled his eyes. Bellatrix let out a snigger but slipped away into the kitchen. I didn't know or care to look at the other people in the room once my eyes fell on Draco. He made it to Yaxely and stopped over his body, glancing up at me then turning his gaze back down to him. Disgust washed over his face and he lifted his foot and dropped it on Yaxely's head. Yaxely didn't move since he was stunned from the spell. Draco lifted his wand and pointed it right at Yaxely.

"Avada ke-" He began to shout.

His mother gasped and his father grinned. Proud to see his son killing another man.
"DRACO!" I screamed, stopping him mid curse.

He quickly stopped and shot his eyes to me. I wonder what I look like to him. Bloody and beaten, crumbled on the floor. Do I look pathetic? Do I look fragile? I shook my head at the thought and focused back on him. I couldn't let him kill another man. No matter how much he deserved it, Draco did not deserve that guilt. I raised my hand up too him, hinting him to come to me and take it. He looked back down at Yaxely and spit on him, then rushed to my side.

"Take me upstairs." I whispered.

He nodded and lifted me to my feet. He scooped me into his arms and began to walk back up the stairs. I glanced over his shoulder down at Yaxely and his eyes were set on me. my stomach flipped and I tucked my face into Draco's chest. Once we reached his room he laid me on his bed and hurried into the bathroom, returning with a wet rag. He sat down next to me and began to gently wipe the blood from my face.

"Quinn." He gasped.

I followed his gaze down to my wrists that were now turning purple.

"I'm fine." I squeaked, trying to smile at him.

His face turned to stone. This time I knew it was to keep from crying. I lifted my hand and put it on his cheek, but he wouldn't look into my eyes.

"Draco." I whispered.

He stood up and threw the rag to the floor. He slammed his hands on his hips and began to angrily pace his room. His breathing became raged and his face twisted and turned until I didn't recognize him.

"FUCK!" he shouted so loud it made me jump.

He threw off all the lotions and colognes he had sitting on top of his dresser and they hit the floor with a crash. He began punching the post on his bed until I could see blood dripping from his knuckles.

"DRACO!" I sobbed. "STOP! You're scaring me!"

"GOOD! You should be scared Qinn! You should fear me and my life. You should hate me! you should want nothing to do with me!" he began to smile but had tears rolling down his cheeks. "You should never love me! you should have kept ignoring me and I should have left you alone! Quinn, I can't be with you! I can't do this anymore!" he dropped to his knees in the middle of the floor as I watched him fall apart.

I was the one bleeding and he was the one breaking.

"You don't mean that." I whispered, shakily.

"You're getting in the way of my task." He said, quickly changing his expression from upset to annoyed. "You have to go. You have to leave me alone."

I sat up and stared at him for a moment before dropping my gaze to my hands in my lap.

"You know Yaxely killed my father." I admitted. "He told me tonight as he held a gun to my head."

Draco's eyes shot up to me and I looked up at him.

"Want to know what the first thing I thought of when he pressed the gun to my head?"

"Quinn." He said lowly, standing to his feet.

"I thought about how I would never see you again. How I was going to die just like my father and that would be it. No goodbye, no last words." I stood up, anger rising in my voice. "And you want to, what? Break up with me? That's all you can think of. All you can think to say?"

He began to walk closer to me and I held my hand up and shook my head.

"Quinn..." He whimpered.

"NO!" I shouted. "no. You don't get to do that. You don't get to keep running from me or pushing me away. I could have died tonight. So I am done with you telling me that you're done. We are going to fix this stupid cabinet and whatever else you must do so that all of this can be over. And you are going to stop pushing me away."

He grabbed me just as I crumbled to the floor. I began to sob into his shirt, and he placed his lips on my head.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered into my hair.

"Just don't leave me." I sniffled.

He held me tighter as I cried. It felt like years were going by and all I was doing was crying. Finally, when my eyes were sore from crying, I wiped my face and sat up, looking at Draco.

"Quinn, I can't hear you cry anymore." He breathed.

His eyes were empty, and he had bags under them. I could tell he was sad, but he would never show it. I placed my hand on his cheek and rubbed my thumb across it.

"I'm okay Draco. We will be okay." I reassured him with a soft smile.

We both stood up and I could tell he was still angry.

"You are going back to the school. Now." He ordered.

"Draco, I still have to tell you why I came here."
He turned around and looked at me with concern on his face.

"Is everything ok?" he asked.

"It's Harry."

"What did potter do?" he asked, stepping towards me, anger growing on his face.

"He knows something. I don't know what, but he was asking about you today. He kept staring at me in Potions class, and after, he drug me to the room of requirements to interrogate me about you."

Draco ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

"What did you say?"

"I told him I didn't know anything." I replied. "But he was irritated. He knows something, or at least suspects-"

"Fuck." He whispered under his breath.

"Yaxely knows." I said under my breath.

Draco shot a look at me that made my stomach drop but he closed his eyes, tilted his head back and took a deep breath.

"What all does he know?" he grumbled.

"Not much. I only told him that I was here to tell you about Harry."

"That's where he was taking you. To see the dark lord." Draco began to tap his foot and I could see the wheels turning in his head.

He grabbed me by the hand, and we walked out into the hallway. I stopped outside of his door and dropped his hand, shaking my head at him. I couldn't go back down there. What if he was still here? What if he attacked me again?

"Hey." Draco soothed me. "He won't hurt you again. I will kill him if he even looks your way."

I bit my lip and nervously looked down the hall towards the stairs. I knew we had to leave but I would rather jump out the window. Draco grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips, placing a soft kiss on it.

"Quinn. I am right here." He spoke.

After a moment, I nodded my head at him and he quickly turned around, dragging me behind him. When we reached the stairs, I looked around the room to make sure they were gone. Yaxely was gone but there was so much blood left on the floor. A house elf was mopping it up, glaring at me the whole time. Was all this mine? There is so much. I focused my eyes on Draco, but he too was studying the blood on the floor. I could see his jaw clench and he squeezed my hand tighter. We made it to the door and when he pushed it open, a gust of cold air hit my face. I took a sharp breath in as it caught me off guard. We stepped outside and he dropped my hand. He stood for a moment with his back to me before slowly turning around.

"I have an idea." He said with hurry in his tone. "You're not going to like it."

I furrowed my brow.

"Why not? What is it?" I queried