ichor - DM

𝟎𝟒. 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐚

Draco groaned softly as he slid the glass door to his shower open. He grabbed his towel that hung off a hook and wrapped it around his waist after using it to pat his hair a bit dry.

He used his hand to wipe some of the condensation off of the mirror. Some was left behind, making his appearance look cut up.

He started with his hand, slowly flexing each of his fingers before rotating his wrists. Draco stretched out his forearms, biceps, and triceps, sighing at the feeling. Hot showers helped loosen his muscles, and he made sure to spend the time stretching them every single morning and every single night.

Draco was not always so... weak.

When he first turned, he woke up hungry. Starving, in fact. It had felt like every cell in his body was screaming at him that he would die if he did not eat. It did not matter how much shame he had felt being handed over to a beast by the Dark Lord. He did not feel anything other than hunger. He did not know anything other than that he needed to eat.

When he woke up that day, he had unbridled energy and strength. He was quicker than lightning, and within no time, he found himself out of the woods and in a Muggle town he had never stepped foot in before. Nobody was around, and it was no surprise why. Half the houses were demolished, likely victims of a Death Eater rampage. But he smelled something, and he knew it was blood.

That night, he practically blacked out. He could not remember to this day how he found that girl, but he could remember his mind waking up halfway through draining her body. The blood he took from her was exquisite, soothing his body and his brain, but it brought him to his senses, and he stopped. He left. He did not know that he was signing himself up to a lifetime of pain.

The high from that girl's blood — from Reva Vora's blood — lasted only a day. He became hungry once more, and in the young form of his state, it was impossible to keep himself from attacking the first human he saw. Draco fed from many humans, magical and Muggle alike, but none of them had blood to give that was anything like hers.

It fed him, and it filled him, but it could hardly sustain him. Those vampiric privileges he woke up with faded away quickly. After some time, he could not even run as fast as his human self was able to, nor were his senses as heightened. Devoid of the sustenance it needed, his body began to shut down. Blurry eyesight in the morning before drinking blood, knuckles that ached from simple tasks, and entire body parts that were beginning to refuse to work.

He trained himself to stop attacking humans eventually. If they could not give him what he needed, he did not want to feel guilty for feeding from them anyways. He tried animals, but he found himself deteriorating even quicker for those few months. Eventually, Draco was lucky to meet and cut a deal with Leveret.

After nine years, Draco found himself with the problems of a middle-aged man. It was a wonder he was able to maintain his figure along the way.

It was only after months and months of research did Draco find out why his condition was the way it was a few years ago. It was all because he didn't kill her. And when he smelled her blood that day in the hospital, it was as though he was given a taste of everything he could have been if he had simply killed her all those years ago.

Still in his towel, Draco wandered to the kitchen. He opened the cabinet where he kept his blood. It was charmed to be bigger and deeper than it appeared on the outside as well as to maintain the perfect conditions to keep the blood for long.

As he poured a bag into a cup, he heard a knock at the door and froze.

Exactly five people knew where he lived: his mother, his father, Theo, Pansy, and Leveret. His parents had never been to his apartment before, and he was certain they never planned to. Theo and Pansy did occasionally invade his privacy and come without warning, but he knew confidently that they were out in some club that particular night. And Leveret already came the day before to drop off the monthly blood bag supply.