Battle Scars {Draco Malfoy}

Chapter Forty Five

Draco was working on his Transfiguration paper, or at least trying to focus but he couldn't bring himself to write two words without spacing out completely. He hadn't spoken to Clara all day and he knew it was all his fault. Since the support meeting, he hadn't been the kindest to her, even though she had done everything to defend his name. He really liked Clara, he loved the way she made him feel when it was just the two of them, but he could not for the life of him understand why he had been given a second chance with such a good-hearted person.

She tried so hard to keep him happy but one his low days, her efforts were unsuccessful which made him feel worse because he wanted to be happy, for her sake. But he didn't think he deserved to be happy while she believed it more than anything.

He sat quietly staring at the near empty parchment paper that was supposed to have nearly two thousand words by the next class but he couldn't wrap his head around anything. He rubbed his face and internally chanted his will to work but it failed again. He sighed and placed his head down on the table, until he heard one of the chairs pull out across from him.

He expected to see Clara and he was all set to apologize for being so harsh with her but instead he saw the second year boy sitting across from him. Max, didn't make any eye contact with him as he twiddled his thumbs on the table but cleared his throat before he started to speak.

"I don't hate you." Max told him. "And I don't think it was your fault for what happened to me."

Draco looked on at the boy completely stunned by his words. This was the same boy who had lashed out angrily in the classroom and then stormed out. Now he was sitting before him with an apologetic tone.

"I..I..I guess I would have probably done the same thing you did, if it meant protecting my parents too."

Draco quickly realized that Clara had gotten her message through to the boy at some point. He didn't understand how she did it.

"You don't have to apologize to me or anything." Draco told him. "I..I would have probably reacted the same way if I was in your spot. I don't know what...they did to you or the other specifically but I don't blame you for being angry or upset at all."

"He put the Cruciatus Curse on me." Max admitted. "That was his favorite one to you."

The boy didn't dare mention the name of the Carrows as he shuddered. " All I could feel was..I dunno it was like I was being stabbed all over my body and there was nothing I could do about it. I could hear those sick...monsters laughing at me as if someone had told the funniest joke. And I could hear my friends..begging to make them stop but it didn't work. If you spoke out against them, chances were you were going to be chosen next. But they really liked picking on me."

"W-why?" Draco asked.

"I don't know." Max said. "But whenever they saw me, the taunting would start and before I could even think to run they had me. They just wouldn't stop. Even when Neville stood up to them, it would take the attention off of us, while they basically tortured and beat him too, but it gave us a chance to get away for a moment. I'll always be grateful for him standing up to the Carrows."

"Yeah," Draco nodded his head. "He's a really good person. I wish I had acknowledged that when we were in school together."

Max looked over him. "Were you mean to him?"

"I was mean to a lot of people. I was even mean to people I considered to be my friends."

"Why?"

Draco shrugged. "I don't know, because I didn't know any better. Because I wasn't taught any better. I..I was a spoiled little git who got whatever he wanted and...I thought I was above everyone."

"Do you still believe that now?" Max asked him.

"No. I realized I wasn't anything special a long time ago. I was just a stupid boy who got involved in the wrong crowd-"

"But it wasn't your fault-"

"I'd like to believe that but at one point I was given a chance to escape but I didn't take it. I let fear consume me and I became nothing more than a coward."

"Why did you come back?" Max asked him.

"Because I couldn't think of any other place I wanted to be."

Clara was on her way back to the Hufflepuff Common Room as she promised Abby and the younger girls to help them with their homework but as she walked down the seemingly empty corridor, she heard footsteps approaching behind her quietly. She turned her head over her shoulder and saw Draco, bringing her to a full stop.

"Are you okay?" she went to ask him but he grabbed her hand and pulled her into him. He didn't say anything but he just held onto her in the middle of the corridor wanting nothing more than to be in her presence.

"I'm getting there." he said eventually. "Slowly, but surely."