Battle Scars {Draco Malfoy}

Chapter Three

Draco wasn't sure how to respond to the girl hiding beneath her robes. He had asked her a couple of times to remove the robes, thinking she was being silly, but every time he asked her, she gave him a flat out no. He certainly wasn't going to beg the girl to reveal her face, if she was going to be weird about it, it was her problem not his.

Fortunately, for him it meant he could stay inside the compartment with her for the duration of the train ride to Hogwarts. After she told him to look away from her, the compartment went silent again. Draco figured the girl had fallen back asleep, and even he felt a little tired himself. He told himself that he was only going to take a short nap, so that he was rested in case he had to outrun the angry mobs in the castle that didn't want him there.

He leaned his head against the window and stared out of it until sleep overcame him.

Clara waited until she heard some light snoring grace her ears before she peeked out from beneath her robe. She saw the young man that had joined her for the trip, and found him asleep before pulling the robe off her head.

"Thank goodness," she muttered to herself, it was getting harder to breathe under it.

She glanced over in the man's direction again, and instantly recognized him. Only an idiot wouldn't recognize that person. He was almost as famous as Harry Potter when it came to his name being whispered around.

Draco Malfoy.

Easily disguised by his platinum blonde hair that his parents shared as well, he bore a resemblance to his father rather than his mother. Clara could remember the first time she had seen the boy, it was her first year as well as the first year for both Harry Potter and Draco.

She watched as Harry stood along side another boy that Draco felt the need to taunt before offering his hand in friendship to Harry Potter. But once the bespectacled boy declined, Draco immediately turned sour towards the boy as well. Telling Harry that he had made the wrong decision.

Turns out though, it was Draco who made the wrong decision, like his father, he became a death eater. He followed the orders of the Dark Lord.

Clara had personally never shared a word with the boy during their time at school together. But Draco spoke in such a loud, pompous tone most days that it was hard not to hear him. He would boast about his pure-blood lineage, his wealth and more often than not, he could heard ridiculing muggle-borns and blood traitors. He also never had anything kind to say about the other houses outside of Slytherin. It was bad enough, most of the other houses didn't take Hufflepuff seriously, but then again, it was a woman from her house that had ultimately helped Harry Potter save numerous lives and in fact the wizarding world.

So much for Hufflepuff being a bunch of duffers.

Clara averted her gaze after finding herself staring for too long at sleeping Draco. If would have woken up to her staring, he'd probably piss himself and that's not what she needed as she was trying desperately to boost her self-esteem. She leaned back into her seat and covered her cold body with her robe before taking a gaze outside the window. The sky was growing dark  which meant that they were getting close to the school.

She wondered what the school looked like, did it appear the same after the repairs? She hadn't been there since she left the school with the Healers and her parents to receive emergency help for her wounds.

She hoped nothing had changed about the castle, she wanted something to stay the same.

After a few minutes of staring out the window, she found herself looking in Draco's direction. Perhaps it came across as extremely weird to see him alone. Throughout his previous Hogwarts' career, it was easy to find Draco as he almost always traveled in some sort of Slytherin pack. Whether it was in the company of Crabbe and Goyle, his loyal guard dogs, or with Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson.

Pansy Parkison, Clara would never claim to hate a person, but she had come so close on numerous occasions to declare her hate for the pug-faced girl. Pansy was a nasty girl, similar to Draco's bullying antics, Pansy never hesitated to spit out a nasty insult at any girl she didn't like in passing.

All too many times, she had something nasty to say to Clara when they had the unfortunate crossing in the corridors. Clara's former friends normally reassured her that Pansy only lashed out at her because she was jealous. Because Clara's status as a pure-blood herself, Pansy couldn't go as far as she probably wished to put Clara's respectable status on blast. But she did like to throw the term "mudblood lover" at Clara several times. When Clara didn't respond to the childish bullying,  Pansy focused on appearance.

She called Clara's hair ratty, Clara's eyes beady, and her nose huge, but all of those claims were untrue and Clara knew that.

Only now she was thankful she hadn't seen Pansy around , because Clara was certain the moment someone tried to insult her appearance she wouldn't be strong enough to hold back the tears. Over the course of the summer, Clara had tried to come up with the nicknames she figured the students would call her due to her new appearance. She would repeat them to herself over and over with the idea that if anyone was to call her it, she would be fully prepared. 

But it didn't work as she hoped.

People didn't have to say anything to Clara to make her feel upset, a simple stare was enough.

So wrapped up in her own thoughts, Clara didn't even feel the train come to a stop, but Draco did as he woke up. He blinked several times to wake himself up fully, when he turned his head to see the girl. Only this time she wasn't hiding beneath her robe, she was visible, and currently staring out the window with a blank expression. The majority of her hair had fallen over her face, so he was unable to get a good look at her to determine if he recognized her or not.

Suddenly, her head jerked in his direction and he was finally able to catch a glimpse of her face as she looked at him. A small whimpering sound escaped her lips as she immediately turned her head away and grabbed her belongings to exit the compartment at record speed but not before Draco was able to see what she had tried to hide from him.

Scars.