Battle Scars {Draco Malfoy}

Chapter Seven

When Clara awoke the first morning of classes, it appeared she was the first one awake as she sat up in bed and caught the rest of her dorm mates in bed still. After her encounter with her former friends the previous night, Clara asked to share another dorm and luckily the prefects and Head girl made the accommodations for her. She now resided with a few second year students that didn't seem opposed to having the older student to share space with.

As she pushed herself out of bed, Clara tiptoed lightly around the room collecting her uniform and robes to head to the showers and prepare for the day. Showers had changed for Clara since the attack as well, it was weird to feel the warm water trickle over her face, because as it ran over her scars she couldn't feel it. It was as if that part of her face didn't exist, which really freaked Clara out in the beginning. Slowly she adjusted to the new feeling or lack of.

One problem with the girl's shower room was that it seemed like the majority of the girl's bathrooms throughout the castle, they were lined with mirrors. It came useful to the chaotic mornings when girls were fighting for a mirror, but in the early hours when Clara awoke, it was a nightmare. She was surrounded by them in that moment. She looked down to her feet as she wrapped her towel around her body tightly. She saw the scars on her arm as she wrapped the towel around her.

Her hair was dripping to the floor before she took a deep breath and forced herself to look up. It was going to have to be part of her healing process. To be able to look at herself in the mirror and not be disturbed by what she saw staring back at her. At first, her eyes only focused on the unblemished side of her face. But soon enough her eyes wandered to the other half of her face.

She lifted her hand to touch one of the scars when the image of the werewolf flashed before her eyes causing her to squeak and jump back. She could hear her heart pounding in her chest as her hands clutched her towel and her eyes squeezed shut.

"Pull yourself together, Clara. It's okay," she told herself softly. "It's okay. Everything is alright, it's over and-"

"Can you believe it?!" Clara jumped at the sound of a voice behind her. She turned around to see Abby strolling into the shower room. "This bathroom is bigger than my house I think!"

Clara sighed in relief and gave the girl a kind smile. 

"It is quite big isn't it?"

"I can definitely tell I'm going to be late for classes...I mean, someone's going to have to literally drag me out of here every morning." Abby told her. "I wonder if my voice will echo in here...HELLO!?"

Clara flinched at the girl's yell but couldn't but laugh at her antics.

"Try to keep it down, Hufflepuffs might be known for their kindness, but badgers don't like to be woken up from their sleep."

"Good point, Clara. Good point. Well, I'm gonna shower...are you heading to breakfast after here?"

"Yes I was."

"Good! I'll meet you there!"

"Try not to take too long."

"No promises."

Being up that early in the Great Hall had it's benefits for Clara. With little to no students awake at that time, she was able to get first dibs on the breakfast foods and didn't have to worry about anyone staring at her. She sat down at the table with a plate of fruit, glancing over her Herbology book preparing for her first class of the day.

Herbology wasn't her specialty when it came to the subjects taught at the school, but she thoroughly enjoyed how warm it was in the Greenhouses, and the pleasant smell that emitted from the majority of the plants. Besides, the head of her house, Professor Sprout was probably the nicest person Clara had ever met. She was glad she would be able to start off classes in her presence.

She rested her chin in her hand, while reading over the text when she heard whispering in the Hall. She looked up, prepared to see people looking at her or pointing in her direction, but she was surprised to see it coming from the Slytherin table. It wasn't directed at her, but towards the Malfoy boy who was sitting at the end of his table looking off in the distance. He looked tired, the dark bags under his eyes providing clear evidence of the lack of sleep he was getting. 

She saw the other Slytherin students pointing in his direction while whispering snide remarks to one another. For some reason, it infuriated her to see the students acting so catty. With the war over, she just wanted everyone to stop being so mean to each other, it was prejudice views and horrid thoughts that had gotten the wizarding world into the mess in the first place. 

Why couldn't people just accept people for who they were?

Of course, it seemed a little strange as she felt defensive with Draco, after all, he and his friends had been the top blood supremacists in the school before  the battle. But without his pack beside him, Draco looked like a little lost lonely boy. And she found herself feeling pity for him.

Clara decided it was best if she just minded her own business and focus on her fruit and textbook.

Draco could hear the whispering, because in the quiet hall, it really couldn't be considered whispering with how loud it sounded.

The fellow slytherins, he could hear them calling him and his family all sorts of things. 

Coward being the main one they threw around.

He wasn't going to argue with them. Instead he did his best to ignore him, he didn't want any trouble. He had been through enough troubles with the last couple of years that he wasn't even going to bother trying to defend himself.

What was there to defend, anyways?

He had followed the Dark Lord's orders until the last moment, but still had done things that he wished he didn't.

He rubbed his eyes, feeling the burn as they wanted to close, his body wanting return to sleep. However, anytime he closed his eyes to sleep, Draco was only met with haunting dreams and nightmares making it impossible to get a goodnight's rest.

Dropping his hand to the table, he looked up to see the girl from the train was now in the Great Hall. He hadn't even seen her walk in earlier. She sat with a small plate in front of her, her legs tucked beneath her on the bench as she read over a book to herself quietly.

With her hair pushed out of her face as she read, he was able to get a better glimpse of her. Although as if she knew someone was staring at her, she quickly moved her hand to cover up the left half of her face.

Draco frowned slightly wondering why she felt the need to cover it up so much. The scars weren't as bad as she probably thought. It reminded him of Professor Lupin during his time of teaching at Hogwarts, the scars that ran over his face. One could see them but it didn't do much to dwell on them. Suddenly, guilt rose in his chest as he remembered being one of the few to let the entire school know of Lupin's lycanthropy during the end of his third year. 

The man didn't return to teach the next year and he remembered how the Death Eaters spoke about him and his daughter. The nasty things they said about them, even though Greyback had been around them at the time.

Werewolves, Draco learned, had a complicated life and it sounded like they only wanted acceptance. Lord Voldemort gave them the false hope of such a thing, when in reality, he only wanted the werewolves on his side rather than be against him. In the end, the werewolves were really out to fight for themselves. Under Greyback they believed they could overpower everyone and take over the magical world. Except for Lupinm he remained loyal to the good side and fought bravely despite the things said against him.

Draco admired that.

He was caught staring too long again as Clara looked up at him and immediately turned her head away as her cheeks flushed a bright pink. Now he was certain she believe he was only staring at her because of the scars, but how wrong she was to assume such a thing.