Battle Scars {Draco Malfoy}

Chapter Forty Two

Draco looked at all the younger faces that sat around in the circle, the majority of them seemed nervous as they fidgeted in their seats.

"You can all relax in here." Professor Dover replied softly to the students. "No one here will be judged for anything they have experience or feel the need to share. Anything that is shared in this room remains in this room and with the individuals. Should any of you think it's funny to make fun of another student in the room outside of here, I'll hunt you down."

The students' eyes went wide, and several of them scooted their chairs back.

"Oh, maybe not the best idea to threaten the children, sweetheart." Professor Black whispered.

"Ooops, sorry. I mean...I'm just going to stop talking."  she covered her face with her hand causing some of the students to giggle.

Professor Lupin moved his chair forward and leaned towards the students.

"Anyone can start and-"

"Are they all dead?" one student whispered.

The room fell silent.

"I'm sorry?" Professor Lupin looked at the small fair haired boy.

"Are all the Death Eaters dead?" the boy asked. "Are they gone for good? Can they come back?"

"No, they aren't all dead." One of the girls answered before any of the professors could. "Some of them are still around, walking free." Her eyes fell on Draco causing him to look away quickly.

Clara cleared her throat before facing the younger students.

"I know you all carry pain for the things that happened to you. I know..the Carrows hurt you all, I experienced them as well, not to the extent of you all. But I don't have pleasant memories of them either. But to sit here and judge will not heal the pain you feel. Draco has done nothing to any of you. He's here to heal as well, that's why we're all here, isn't it?"

"Except we don't carry the Dark Mark!" Another boy said glaring at Draco. "He does! He was one of them! He's no better than the ones who did those things to us. You think because he said sorry that it makes everything better? Because it doesn't! I don't know how you could sit next to him..look at you! Look at your face."

"Max!" A girl smacked the boy's arm hard.

Draco looked to Clara to see her swallow hard before she took a deep breath and faced the boy once more.

"Draco didn't do this to me. A werewolf by the name of Fenrir Greyback did this to me. Draco wasn't the one who tortured you either, it was the Carrows. So you can sit there and try to blame others for what has happened, but it gets you nowhere. Trust me. When I first woke up in St. Mungo's and found the scars on my face, I was so angry and sad at the same time. I was angry that I had allowed this to happen to me, that I hadn't been strong enough or fast enough to stop what had happened. I was sad because I knew my life would never be the same. Every morning, I wake up to find the scars and I know that will never change. Just like how the memory will never leave me. Sometimes at night, I can still see the attack...sometimes my dreams are so vivid that I can feel it." 

She lifted her hand to the side of her face.

"But over time, I realized and came to terms that it happened. I was attacked but I'm alive. There were people in the war who didn't make it despite the aid we had. They didn't get to go home to their families...but all of us in this room did. We should be focusing on the positives, we're all alive and here despite the bad things that have happened to us. Pointing your finger at anyone isn't going to solve your problems. It's just going to make it last longer in your mind and I don't think you guys want that."

"Clara's right!" Abby agreed sitting up in her chair. "If you guys took the time to get to know Draco instead of judging him, you guys would see that he's a pretty cool guy. He's actually kinda funny even if he is a little weird."

The girl grinned in Draco's direction before giving him a thumbs up.

"So be nice!" Abby said in a warning tone.

"This is a load of rubbish!" One boy said before standing up and leaving the room.

The three professors looked at each other as the students went quiet again, the majority of them shifting uneasily in their seats.

"This is not going the way I thought it would." Remus said placing his hands over his face.

"Maybe we should have started with going around the circle and saying our names." Nixie added.

"I actually think it's going over rather well." Sirius grinned in the middle of them.

Nixie and Remus looked at him.

"What?!"

Nixie sighed and patted Sirius' head.

"You're lucky you're so pretty."