How...Unfortunate

9

Legolas wasted no time and grabbed Draco's arm harshly, pulling the sleeves up and showing Elrond the mark. Draco winced at the suddenness. He knew that this was what they had made the trek for, but could they at least give him a moment to process everything? Like, seriously come on. Elrond, for his part, was clinical, and Draco will give him that. It had made him somewhat calmer, until the idiot decided to try and touch the mark. Just like that dumb other healer, and Draco yanked his arm away, pulling it close to his chest, and leaning over it. He was not going to risk this happening again. Not again! Once could have been a fluke, but twice? Who knew what was going to happen. He still did not know how the marking worked, and honestly, people keeping trying to snatch it and touch it was annoying. He hated it enough and it was painful. Legolas sighed. 

"Draco, Lord Elrond has to touch it to understand the..." Draco glared, grey eyes gleaming with anger, and a hiss echoing from his lips as he shook his head. The Lord, for his part, did not seem to be all that bothered by his behavior, and just gave him a small smile. Legolas' eyes fluttered shut, and a sigh echoing on his lips. "Please just let the Lord do what he needs to, okay? I do not want to have to force you, we both know how that turned out last time. Besides, Father pulled most of the malicious magic from the marking. It is weaker than before. Whatever you are so terrified of...Just tell us, yes? Perhaps we can work around it." Draco narrowed his eyes at the Prince, thinking it over. He could tell, but who knew what that could do. 

The more immediate threat, though, was the Prince and the Lord, and Draco knew that the Dark Lord himself was the most threat of anything else, but he also had to survive long enough to worry about the Dark Lord's response. Plus, he still had no idea where he was, and the magic in this place was quite thick...Draco gnawed on his lower lip, trying to think about his options, but his options seemed rather limited in nature. 

"It calls Him." Draco whispered, his eyes dropping to his knees, his arm still held protectively to his chest. 

"Calls..." Legolas paused, they still did not know who this person was. He had mentioned them before, given the tone he used. The hushed, almost terrified tone. Yet, they had no name, no description, nothing. 

"My master," The words were even more hushed, and Draco curled himself up tighter, his body trembling slightly now. He just couldn't help it. The whole situation was unnerving. 

"Your master carved a magical brand on you?" Draco nodded slowly to the Lord's rather shocked and horrified question. 

"He does it with all His followers. At least, the important ones. I do not know if every single one gets a marking. I do know you typically have to be seventeen." Draco let his fingers curl into his palms, still unable to look at the Prince and the Lord in the eyes. "I was an unlucky exception." 

"How old were you when you got yours." 

"I had just turned...just turned sixteen. It was a... a statement, I think. The only other follower marked so young was my cousin, who died at eighteen." Lord Elrond stared, and Draco could feel his gaze staring at him, on his skin. He shuddered more violently at it. "I do...I do not know for certain what it does. I just know it is supposed to call Him...but I do not know if there are other conditions, or if only certain marks can do so, I just...I just do not know. He also does not always answer. I am supposed to be at school at the moment, so..." Draco trailed off, his ability to continue talking about this fully depleted. He had spoke too much, and he did not even know these people. 

"So you have a...a master, and they marked you before the prior age, what exactly were you supposed to do?" Draco laughed, gripping his arm tighter. 

"It was a fools errand." he said softly. "I was not supposed to manage it, just fail so that I can be punished however He saw fit. He...claimed that i was because I was the best suited for his needs, but it was just a lie. There was no way that I was going to be able to succeed, and he knew that." 

"What exactly was going to happen if you failed?" Legolas asked, his voice gentle. Draco laughed, loud and slightly hysterically. 

"we would all die. Me, my mother, Well, likely not me, but definitely my mother. Father had already pissed Him off, and then I would have failed a specific task that He gave. Mother is the only one that could punish both of us at once." 

"I see," Lord Elrond sighed, and pulled himself together. "I can shield our location, would that be acceptable enough for me to assess what is going on with it?" Draco paused, wondering. He did not know how powerful Lord Elrond was, but...it was obvious he was some sort of seer, and Lord Voldermort was not, at least not that they knew of. He also did not know occlumency, at least as far as Draco was aware. That being said, he could be wrong, but he figured that there was not much that could happen that could be worse than what he was currently dealing with. Besides, he was supposed to be at school. 

"Yes...I suppose so." Draco reluctantly agreed. There was little else to do, and if the Dark Lord had not come yet, it was likely he was not going to. Particularly since he was supposed to be at school, so maybe he could handle this. 

Plus, the place was quite magical, and Draco could feel the magic. perhaps, this was the best bet he was going to be able to get.