Dream Girl

THIRTY FOUR - THE BATTLES

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? The one and only dream girl and it seems that she isn't that dreamy after all. Are you tired of my son already? I can't say I'm surprised. I would also trade him without a blink of an eye."

"Don't talk about him like that!" Alora spat angrily but Carnelian only laughed at her.

"Feisty little thing, aren't you? So tell me, what's going on here?" He waved his wand between her and Draco. "Do you sleep with them both or what?"

"Shut up," Draco growled, pulling Alora slightly back behind him.

"I am actually quite pissed, Malfoy. You see, I really don't like when someone is laughing behind my back. You are a liar! I thought we were on the same page, but you were playing your own stupid games. Betraying our cause and for what? And you see, now I am torn. Do I wait till the Dark Lord wins this parody of a war and tell him about your little treason, let him punish you as he wishes. Or, I can do it myself. And I think I would enjoy that very much," Nott completely ignored Draco's little angry burst and started pacing back and forth, blocking their only path back to the castle. Behind them was only the steep reef and dark deep water at the end of it.

Draco tried to evaluate their options but the situation seemed to be hopeless. He didn't have his wand. He dropped it when he was trying to calm Alora down after the Dementor attack. He didn't have any way to defend them, to save them. He could feel Alora squirm a little, probably trying to reach her wand but the small movement didn't go unnoticed by Carnelian. Before she could reach it, it flew away with a quick flick of his hand.

"Ah-ah! I don't think so," he shook his head with a mocking smile while he caught Alora's wand in mid air with ease. He stopped the pacing and started pointing his wand alternately between Draco and Alora instead. Like he couldn't decide who to hurt first. "I think I'll start with the girl, disfigure her pretty little face, make her suffer and bleed. And you will have to watch it all, knowing that it was your fault and that you couldn't do anything about it. But I won't kill her. No, no. I'll kill you first, so the last thing you'll hear is her scream and your last thought will be that you failed. Because you couldn't protect her. You! Couldn't! Safe! Her!" The last words were only a creepy whisper but Draco felt like Nott shout it right into his ears.

He felt Alora scoot just a little closer to him, grabbing his clenched fist into both of her hands, caressing his knuckles softly. "Don't listen to him, Draco. It's not your fault. It's not," she said almost inaudibly, pressing her lips ever so slightly to his shoulder.

"Move!" Carnelian ordered, but Draco didn't even flinch. "I said, move!" With another quick flick of his wand Nott knocked Draco back. He flew several feet, hitting Alora in the process since she was practically behind him when the spell hit him. Luckily he hit one of the fallen pillars that was now lying at the edge of the reef. The impact knocked his breath out of his lungs and he almost cracked his skull open but at least he didn't fall down the cliff, straight to his death.

His ears were ringing a bit and he was quite far from Alora and Carnelian now so he had no idea what he was saying to her. But the blood-curdling scream was hard to miss.

Alora was lying on the ground when the first spell hit her. She felt like something was tearing her back open over and over again. Her shirt started to cling to her unpleasantly and she realized she was probably bleeding. She was tossing in agony and all she could do was scream. She was trying not to, she knew that every little noise she made was also hurting Draco but the pain was too much.

"I bet you didn't know what you were getting into, little girl, when you started this little something with a Death Eater. He is a bad guy after all, who is surrounded with even more bad guys and bad guys are known to do bad things," Carnelian chuckled wickedly right next to her ear, cutting her forehead open with precise move. The pain was nothing compared to the pain in her back, but the wound immediately started bleeding heavily and she had to close her eye to avoid getting the blood in it. Alora wanted to scream at him that Draco wasn't bad, he wasn't evil but she knew better. Speaking wouldn't help anything so she just jerked her head away from the sound of his voice.