Punishment- Reader POV

Chapter 17

May 8th, 1997

May 8th, 1997. After today everything will be changed, Dumbledore will be dead, the elder wand will be Harry's and hopefully, the Dark Lord will keep his filthy hands off of Draco. Draco and Harry will execute the plan at dusk. Harry was successful in retrieving the locket, now it was time for all our plans to come to fruition. The world felt tense, the sky gray and cloudy, rain threatening to shower upon us all. Draco won't leave his dormitory until his order is complete, Harry was a frequent visitor with the help of his cloak so as not to raise suspicion. I felt beyond awful, there were no words to describe the feeling that filled my entire being. Draco has been at my side since I was born and now I might lose him forever and I cannot even see him before it all goes down. I paced my dormitory like a madman. Valentina tried to ease my worries but it was hard when she could hardly convince herself. I had never seen her carefree self so sick. There was nothing anyone could say or do, until the task was complete we would all be on edge.

***

Potions was my last class of the day. Severus taught in the same manner as always. He never wavered, no one could ever break down his walls let alone suspect anything unusual. I don't know how he could stay so strong after everything he has gone through. I felt pathetic knowing I was crumbling under the pressure, not nearly as strong as I try to say I am. I just wanted this to all be over, for life to go on. I want to think of a way where everything will be okay but I cannot see how it will be possible. Today my life will be left in shambles. The bell rang but my thoughts drowned it out.

"Y/n?" Valentina shook me gently but I didn't budge. All I could see and think of was Draco's lifeless body, the dark evil gloom that consumed the skies when the Dark Lord rose to power, a life lived in fear.

"Miss. Y/l/n?" Snape asked formally as other students had yet to empty the classroom but I did not move. It felt real, the darkness the world would turn to. His followers would inevitably murder Valentina unless she agreed to join him which is something I know she never would, Sirius would be killed no doubt after all he has done, and Snape, if he got found out Voldemort would destroy him. I cannot live in that world.

My breathing quickened and my mouth dried in an instant. Pins and needles prickled over my body as I choked out for air, my chest empty as if an invisible noose was tightening with every second that passed me by. Dizziness overtook my body as my vision blurred. I no longer saw the potions classroom around me, it no longer felt as though I was in a daydream. I gasped for air and I stared down at Draco's limp body, cold and pale blue. He was dead. Gone. Forever taken away from me. I dropped to my knees, pulled his dead weight against my chest, and screamed with all my might. Tears flooded down my cheeks as my throat went raw. I could taste blood as I saw Voldemort boasting cockily in the corner of the Astronomy Tower with the rest of his pathetic followers. Deep down I knew this to be a horrible vision and nothing more but I could not snap out of it. Horror shook through my body as I held him. I screamed, louder and louder. I stared at Voldemort looking back at me amused with the pain he had caused me. I felt the most pain I had ever felt but like a shot, it all went black.

***

I woke to an ache in my back from the rubbish cots in the hospital wing. I winced as the bright lights burned my vision.

"She's awake!" Valentina's frightened voice rang throughout the room. I heard a fast-paced shuffling come nearer before the curtain was ripped apart and more light came in.

"Thank Merlin, I was starting to worry," Madam Pomfrey's voice identified who rushed over to me. I kept my eyes closed not wanting to be awake yet. I felt empty after my panic attack. "I wrote to her family but I have yet to hear back from them yet, I will send over another to let them know she woke up," Pomfrey told Valentina who did not say anything back so I assume she gave her a halfhearted nod and just as quickly as she came she left, closing the curtain behind her.