This Bitter Earth

EIGHTEEN

A/N: So content warning I think we need for this chapter is there is a very brief mention of fat shaming and a cruel, crude joke about sexual misconduct involving a troll. It is purely Draco being an asshole and only a very brief mention, but I figured I would give anyone who wants it a heads up.

My eternal gratitude once again to the lovely Bree for betaing for me. (And also letting me live long enough to write another chapter). And a special thank you to Jackie and Ella for helping me work through a couple phrases where I stumbled and also not minding the vague statements about what they were helping me with.

Soundtrack- "Sick Obsession" by Landon Tewers and "scorpio rising" by paris jackson

EIGHTEEN

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Granger's head lay on his chest, Draco's arm looped around her. The room was dark and he could just barely make out the shape of her under the covers. But he could feel it. Granger was there, with him, in this lumpy, cramped and... kind of cozy bed. His feet hung off the bottom and Granger was halfway on top of him for them both to fit, but he wasn't complaining.

She was warm. After a lifetime of velvet pillows and thick, fur blankets trying to hold in the heat, Draco finally didn't wake up shivering. Granger slid her hand up his stomach and Draco grabbed it, holding it in his own so she didn't have to feel his scars. They had gotten worse. Deep, ragged marks. Rough and uneven.

Fucked up.

It's what he was. What he'd always be. And now Granger knew.

He took her hand from his chest and tucked it in between them. It was a shame she didn't get to enjoy him before he was cut, that he had to hide his body from her for so long, but it was useless putting effort into something that would never be. These scars weren't going anywhere and his Father had taught him to be pragmatic, to go after what he could get, not foolish dreams.

"Draco?" Granger asked softly.

He didn't say anything, just dipped his chin, looking down at her a little.

"Did you know this whole time?"

Draco breathed in, chest expanding and raising her head up with it. "Yeah, kitten. I've known ever since I was branded." He tightened his hold around her just a little.

Her question had been such a simple one. He didn't know why she had even asked. The answer struck him like a bolt of lightning. She already knew when she asked. She was just giving him a chance to talk about it, if he wanted to.

Hell, he didn't deserve someone like Granger.

But they'd have to pry her from his cold dead hands before he let go of her.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Draco bent his free arm behind his head. He thought of half a dozen excuses he could push off on her before deciding to just... tell her the truth. "I didn't want you to know."

He looked up at the shadowed ceiling and saw Theo's dead face staring back down at him. Draco closed his eyes in a long blink, trying to hide from it, but it was there, waiting for him in the darkness of his mind. He had known what he was doing to Theo, what he had been condemning him to as he held that curse. And still, he hadn't stopped.

Because he was scared. Draco wasn't a Gryffindor, full of courage and rash pride; he was a Slytherin and able to slide his way out of every slippery situation he had been in. But not this time. There was no running from this, that black ink was trapped under his skin just as much as he was trapped in this fate.