Chasing Shadows || Draco Malfoy x OC

(Summer) Year 4- Ch. 26

*T.W. Depictions of abuse*

After a couple of days everyone had been sitting in the living room playing a game, while Mr. And Mrs. Weasley, Bill and Charlie were in the kitchen. Suddenly those in the kitchen heard a familiar pop of someone arriving. Moments later a firm knock on the door was heard throughout the house. The laughter died down and Céline suddenly had an intense feeling in her gut.

Mr. Weasley opened the door, "ah, Charles, I'm glad you—"

"Where is she, Weasley?" Celine's father looked at Ron's father with a glare. He looked furious.

"She's in the living room." He said and immediately Mr. Everhart strides in angrily slamming open the door to the living room startling everyone in there. He looked around until he spotted Céline, looking incredibly pale at the sight of him.

"H-hello, father.." she said fearfully. Before she could say anything else, there was an earsplitting slap that resonated through the house. Celine's head jerked roughly to the side, and she grabbed onto the coffee table so that she didn't fully fall to the ground, but as she grabbed the table, she knocked off some things from the surface.

The girls gasped and covered their mouth and all the boys were left speechless. Everyone's eyes wide, jaws opened.

"I'm sorr—" she said quietly not looking up

"You disobeyed me, girl." He said in a menacing tone as he looked around him in disgust, "really? This again?" She winced. "We are leaving.. now." He grabbed her upper arm, roughly pulling her up. Céline didn't fight back, and didn't she look up at anyone. She just kept her head down letting her hair fall, covering the sides of her face.

He dragged her out of the living room through the kitchen, ignoring the furious looks on Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "Now see here, Charles!" Mr. Weasley started after them out the door, while everyone else scrambled to the entrance door.

Harry's hands were clenched into fist. He took a step forward, when a teary eyed Hermione stopped him shaking her head. "Don't, Harry, it will only make things worse." She whispered.

"That is not how you should treat your daughter!" Mr. Weasley continued furiously, "How dare you lay your hand on her, in front of her friend no less!" Celine's heart dropped at that moment, knowing those words just made things worse for her.

Her father stopped in his tracks and started down at her murderously. Then he turned to face Mr. Weasley with a threatening scowl. "How dare you, try to tell me how I should treat my daughter." He said adding some disgust in his tone in the last word. Before turning back to the field, hold her arm in a vice grip. As he tightened his hold, Céline let out a whimper that Mr. Weasley heard and broke his heart. But before he could do anything else they Disapparated.

Everyone just stood there in horror. Hermione and Ginny had tears in their eyes, they were so shaken because they had never been hit like that, especially by their parents.

"Mum, we can't just let them go like that, right?" Ron said, shaking barely containing his anger. He felt bad for Céline. He felt bad for how he treated her in the beginning. She was genuinely a nice person and he didn't trust her in the beginning solely because she was Slytherin.

After a while, she had grown on him. So seeing her own father hit her like that with all his might, he felt disturbed. Especially when she just took it, as if she expected it to happen.

"I-I don't know." Mrs. Weasley said perturbed. She couldn't imagine a parent slapping their child with such force. "It's hard to meddle in another family's affairs, especially a family like the Everharts." She thought of how stiff Céline felt when she hugged her. It made her think that the poor child hasn't felt the affection of her parents before. Her heart hurt for her.

The twins were comforting Ginny and Hermione, they're faces in a deep frown. Harry was very upset. He wanted to fight back, but they stopped him. He thought about the things Céline told them back at school. He figured that her parents were just very strict, but he never thought they would hurt her.

He thought back to Draco when they were in the woods. He told her to stay there with him, like he knew how her father would react. Then his face paled. He knew and he tried to stop her, so that she wouldn't get in trouble. They took her with them anyway. He started to feel incredibly guilty.

Had he fought back and defended her from her father, he would have only made it worse. Guilt was eating up the trio, they all thought about their excited conversation with Céline on the train when school had ended and the letter, trying to figure out how she could sneak away to meet with them. They found her at the campsite because she went to go see them.

Mr. Weasley had still been staring at where the Everharts stood. He was also perturbed by the entire situation. His heart hurt for the child. He was hesitant about taking her with them, because he knew how Mr. Everhart felt about others who don't have the same beliefs as him. He knew that he'd likely be upset once he found his daughter around his own family along with Harry and Hermione.

But he took her anyway, because the safety of the children was his main concern, he only assumed that Charles felt the same way. He sighed and turned around to see everyone just standing there.

"Alright," he said solemnly, "let's get back inside, everyone." He halfheartedly waved them back inside, when no one moved he sighed again.

"So that's it?" Asked Ron, "we're just going to stand here and do nothing while he does who knows what to Céline?" He looks at his dad in disbelief, "isn't there something you can do, dad?"

His father looks at everyone who has hopefully faces and he shakes his head, "unfortunately there isn't much, son. The Everhart is a very influential family so accusing them for the mistreatment of their child without any proof wouldn't do anything."

"But we all just witnessed him hitting her." Fred spoke up this time.

"But that could have been the only time. Only they know what goes on behind the doors of their home. We can only hope that what we saw was the extent of it." Mrs. Weasley said dejectedly. She was already standing next to her husband with a hand rubbing his back in comfort.

They all went quiet again. Finally one by one they all stepped back into the house in defeat. The rest of the day went by quietly, the boys played quidditch listlessly, and the girls stayed in their room reading.