Battle Scars {Draco Malfoy}

Chapter Forty Four

Even though Clara had reassured Draco that he wasn't a bad person and that he was capable of moving on from his dark past, it didn't stop Draco from refusing to go to anymore Support Group meetings, no matter how hard she tried to convince him. He was stuck in his ways of refusing to go and being a painful reminder for the second year students. Draco wasn't mad at the boy for expressing what he felt during the meeting. The boy had every right to feel the way he did. Even though Draco had done nothing to the boy personally, it was obvious that the young boy was probably traumatized from his experiences with the Carrow siblings.

They had tortured the small students, during their first year at Hogwarts. What was supposed to be a magical experience for the children, learning all about the magic that would serve them later on in the lives, had taken a twisted and dark turn for those students that the Carrows preyed upon. He admired their bravery for returning to the school after witnessing and experiencing such things.

There wasn't anything Draco would say or do for the boy as it was obvious the boy was still hurting and needed his time to heal as well. But he didn't want to be a constant reminder for the younger students, if they were trying to get over things that had happened to them in the past.

Clara, however, was not one to be easily deterred. One afternoon as she left the Potions classroom, she found the boy Max, sitting on the floor of the corridor, alone. He had his legs drawn into his chest and the back of his head leaning against the wall, with a distant look in his eyes. She wandered over to him and sat down on the floor next to him. Immediately, the boy glanced over her way and gave her a dirty look.

"What are you here to scold me some more? Or are you here to defend your Death Eater boyfriend?"

"I'm here to talk to you like a civilized being. No need to be so nasty!" she snapped at him sharply.

Max fell silent as he glared at the floor.

"I'm not here to defend Draco's name to you because honestly I know you're not angry with him. You're angry with the Carrows and you're angry with yourself. I don't blame you for being upset or angry. You have every right to be. I was angry when I was attacked. I was angry with the werewolf that did this to me, and I was even angrier with myself for not being able to stop him."

"But you couldn't control that..." Max glanced at her.

"And you couldn't control what the Carrows did to you all. There's no way you guys could have fought them..especially as first years. But you all were incredibly brave to return this year, it shows that you didn't let them break your spirit."

"Is that why you came back?" Max asked.

"I..I came back because I knew eventually one day that I was going to have to show my face to the world. I couldn't hide in my room forever. So I thought my home away from home would be the place to do it."

"And yet here you are hanging out with the boy that hung out with the werewolf that did that to you!"

Clara shook her head."No, not by his choice. Out of fear, he was forced to abide the wishes of the Death Eaters. He didn't want to do any of that ...stuff. But fear can drive people to do some pretty scary things that they would never do. Everyone makes different decisions even if they are presented with the same problem. Also, one can never truly know what they would do in a situation unless they were in that situation themselves. Many of us would like to believe that we would do what's right, because the majority of us would like to believe that we would always do what's right. But when something as your parents' lives dangle before you, what do you do? Do you follow through with what's right and watch them be killed in front of you? Or do you do what you have to do in order to save their lives and your own?"

Max clenched his jaw as he swallowed trying to wrap his head and answer all of the questions Clara had placed in his mind.

"It's easy for us to say what we would do, but when it comes time to actually doing it, a lot of us don't follow through. I don't expect you to like Draco, I'm not asking you to, but I'm asking that in the support group that you show your support, because that's what it's all about. We all come from different paths of life, but I think we can all agree that there is something special about Hogwarts that makes us feel like home. And what's home if you don't feel welcomed in it?"