Happy Sunday, my wonderful spectacular readers!
This chapter is nice and long. However! I am placing heavy content warnings right now for multiple mentions of suicide- not particularly vague, but also not particularly detailed. Also, minor content warning for mentions of drugs and drug use.
And drug abuse if you consider potions drugs.
More detailed and spoiler-containing warnings are in the end notes for those who feel they need the more detailed warning before jumping into the chapter.
Well, please let me know what you all think, and, as always....Enjoy!
The cool moonlight glinting into Malfoy Manor gave it a surreal appearance as Draco stepped across the cold tiled floor of the corridor. He wasn't sure what he was doing or where he was going. He simply walked forth. There was a door ahead, and he opened it to reveal a small, quaint room made of hardwood, lit by warm colours spilling through stained-glass windows.
Something passed him from behind.
One of the windows in particular called out to him, beckoning him toward it. Slow, measured steps led him to stand directly in front of the glass. He squinted as he looked through it.
There was a distorted view of two wizards. Draco moved closer to get a better look, pressing his face right up against the textured and coloured glass. Tall, blond, lean...
Draco was watching a distorted, blue-tinted image of himself standing over a child, his wand pointed out and down as a flash of red emitted from it. (He knew it ought to be red, because behind the distortion of the glass, it appeared something of a purple). His face twisted in disgust as the child squirmed. There was an echo of a shout that he couldn't remember being uttered.
Draco stumbled away from the window, focusing instead on the image of the Virgin Mary on the glass. He knew that memory- one of many times that he was forced to cast the cruciatus curse on fellow classmates during his seventh year. He stumbled backwards, right into a body. Hands grasped him by the base of his neck and shoved him forward.
"You think you can be forgiven for your sins? You think God will stand for this?"
The sight through the window had changed. It was him again, atop the astronomy tower, threatening to murder Dumbledore. Draco blinked back and squirmed against the person's hold.
When Draco looked again, he was himself in rooms full of bodies. Another blink, then in his dining room with Charity Burbage hovering over him, dripping blood onto the dining room table, then in Borgin and Burkes, inspecting the vanishing cabinet, then stomping over Harry's nose on the Hogwarts Express, then-
"You were, and always will be, a monster."
—-----
Draco awoke groggy with a tight chest and a disgruntled expression on his face. There were fragmented images of stained glass and pain and blood. He felt distanced from his brain and unsettled. The first thing he noticed was a fireplace. Then Harry, who was standing at the foot of the bed with arms crossed, a tiny potion bottle dangling from the fingers of one hand, watching him.
"Have this," Harry insisted, handing the phial to Draco once he looked awake enough to grasp it.
"What is it?" Draco croaked. His throat felt as though it hadn't seen a drop of moisture in years. His eyes felt gritty and sticky beneath the lids.
YOU ARE READING
Cicatrices- Marks That Remain
Fanfiction"Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy." Draco stopped, closing his eyes for the briefest of moments. He thought of the scars on his left arm. He thought of the scars across his torso...
