For The Greater Good (A Draco Malfoy Story)

Exit Wounds

        Rose.

We landed abruptly on our hands and knees, sending shockwaves through our bodies. We all laid on a carpeted floor in frozen silence, as if finding it hard to believe we were in one piece and we had escaped. Then, Draco winced loudly and swore.

"Did you have to sink your fucking claws into my back? For fuck's sake, this was my favorite suit!"

"Some things never change," I snorted, pulling myself to my feet and holding out a hand towards Draco. He scowled at me, glancing at my hand before taking it and letting me help him up. "Here, I'll take a look at your back. Gabe, be civilized and switch back."

Gabriel bared his teeth playfully before morphing back into his human form and running his hands through his hair. "Sorry bout that, Malfoy. Where are we anyways?"

I looked at our surroundings and realized we were in the same cottage that Draco took me to during Bill's wedding. The area seemed unchanged and untouched since our arrival there so long ago. The air was so still, so silent except for the sounds of nature. For a second, we were all caught in a moment of limbo where reality froze and every minuscule detail of the outside world came in louder, sharper, brighter. I could feel the desire to just stay here and never leave bloom in all of us. Would we ever get this moment of stillness, this second to take a breath, by the end? The fight was by no means done, it was just getting started but I could feel a need taking root inside my heart to find someplace of clarity for my own.

"This is my family cottage in Scotland. It's been in my family for years but I was the only one who ever made use of it. It's my quiet place, away from the pressures of England and the stifling high society. When I was thirteen, I brought Blaise here to play Quidditch and drink my father's precious brandy, even though we couldn't stomach the stuff," something akin to a small smile began to twice on his face before disappearing. "They'll know I brought you here, they'll track me by my mark."

I looked down at his forearm and covered it with my hand in reassurance. "We'll find a way to get it off. If you're going to come with us, and you are, then we need you completely out of their grasp." He turned his head towards me but kept his eyes on my hand and nodded.

"We must make haste, they'll be here soon." A muscle clenched in his jaw before his hand covered mine and pulled it off him gently. "I need a moment. Decide where we have to go next in the meantime."

Gabriel and I gave him matching frowns as we watched him turn on his heel and disappear up the stairs with a tense set to his shoulders, the back of his suit jacket torn.

"What was that about?" Gabriel narrowed his eyes. I shrugged but I could feel the prickling in my chest appear.

"Stay here, I need to talk to him. After this, we'll go to one of the Order safe-houses. We should find Mum and conduct a meeting with the Order and work with them. Harry, Hermione and Ron are on their own now."

My brother nodded. "Alright, go. I'll keep watch until we leave."

I turned to march up the stairs with increasing urgency, feeling the tightening in my chest grow and grow. "Draco?" A muffled groan drew me to the second door down the right and I burst in, gasping in horror as I saw Draco slumped on the bathroom floor, a towel clenched in his mouth and his body curling over his arm. He had removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeve on his right arm. A vein stood out in his forehead and his flushed neck as he tried to hold in the pain that was radiating through him. "What did you do?" I whispered, kneeling next to him and putting the back of my hand against his cheek, he was sweating. Removing the towel, I wiped his head and looked down at his arm, pulling it away from his body. "Oh God."

A large circle of shredded flesh greeted me where his Dark Mark should have been, bleeding profusely. Looking closer, I noticed blisters as if he had burned the flesh too.

"I had to get it off," he cried. He didn't cry but his face was fifty shades of red from trying to keep the extent of his pain inside. "I-I tried to burn it off but I could still feel it, I could still feel the connection! I tried cutting it off but I couldn't finish...I'm not strong enough for this, Rosie!"

"Shhh," I brushed the hair back from his forehead while urgently pressing the towel to his forearm, soaking up the blood. "It's okay, you're okay."

"Get it off, Rosie! Please," he pleaded. "Cut it out."

"Draco, I can't -- we'll go to the hospital, they'll--"

"NO!" he shouted, doubling over. "No hospitals, are you mad? They'll find us there for sure. Just...Just do it yourself. You're my healer aren't you? You've done it before, do it now. I trust you."

I hesitated, pressing the towel against his arm harder. His watery grey eyes met mine with a fierce determination that made the decision for me. "If you don't do it, I will," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"Alright, alright!" Removing the towel, I looked at the mutilated flesh and steeled my nerves before tracing an oval around the shredded mark with my finger, whispering under my breath and watching as a clean cut followed the path of my finger. Draco roared, leaning forward and biting into my shoulder since I had discarded the towel, all the while I whispered comforting words as if placating a wild animal. I removed the circle of skin carefully, breathing in deeply as the exposed muscle below made an appearance. "Almost done, Draco. Shhh, shh. This is going to get really bad before it gets good, okay? Take a deep breath," I soothed, watching him do so before I handed him another towel to bite and let him hide his head in the crook of my neck. "Okay, three...two..."

I place my palm over the open wound and closed my eyes, picturing heat emanating from my hand and cauterizing the wound. Draco let out strangled sounds into my neck, his other arm wrapping around my waist like a vice. "You're okay, you're okay," I didn't know if I was reassuring him or myself. Feeling the skin scab over under my palm, I exhaled deeply. "Alright, this part is easier." I imagined the nerve endings in his arm, going all the way up to his spine and could see them firing rapidly as they sent pain signals to his brain. I moved my other hand to his back, feeling the knobs of his spine under his sweat stained shirt and pictured the pain signals lessening and endorphins releasing in his system. Dimly, I realized pressure building up in my own body and my arm starting to throb horribly. I was absorbing his pain, his injury, just like my father said I would. As Draco's breathing slowed down, I knew I had succeeded, especially when the throb in my body lessened but didn't completely vanish.

I removed my hands and looked down at Draco's forearm, letting out all the air in my lungs with a force that nearly sent me backwards. I felt as if I had just performed surgery in an operating room for eight hours. A dark purple scab in the shape of a large oval covered where the Dark Mark used to be, an ugly but clean sight. Draco spat out the towel and took in large gulps of air, pulling me into his body with his uninjured arm and crushing me against his chest, all pretenses abandoned.

A cry ripped out of him that could of been of relief or pain when I leaned my cheek against his and whispered, "You're free."