Moving Forward (Drastoria Fanfic)

Chapter Three

Draco's POV: Malfoy Manor two days before the Battle of Hogwarts

Draco,

It's getting worse here...I'm not sure how much longer I will last here at Hogwarts without you. I am constantly afraid and freezing to the point, I think I'll never feel warm again. I know that it's the Dementor's getting to me as well as the Carrow twins. Their tortures are getting so much worse...

I've been punished a lot more than any of the others in Slytherin. I did not want to tell you this because I know you'll get angry and in the end, it will only make things even worse. When they think someone is disobeying even in the slightest, they assign special 'detentions' where we are meant to use the Cruciatus Curse on the younger students and if we refuse they chain us up in the dungeons using the curses on us. I cannot torture an innocent first year just because of their magical blood isn't as 'pure' as the Carrows think it should be.

I'm sorry I haven't told you the truth about the bruises on my body during the short time we had together during the Christmas holidays. Yes, a few were from my father but majority of the faded injuries were from the Carrow twins, mostly Amycus. I tried to heal them and hide them from you but I know I shouldn't have. We know each other's darkest secrets and I feel like I have somehow destroyed the trust that we've worked so hard to achieve.

What do I do, Dray? If I drop out my parents will probably disown me and I'll have nowhere to go. Your home is being destroyed and darkened the longer the Dark Lord and his followers stay there. I know that maybe one day it will change and things will get better for us but right now that feels like a lifetime away. I am scared that this will not end well for us...
Sorry, again.
Astoria
P.S. I love you so much, my dragon.

I sigh deeply and rub my eyes letting my girlfriend's letter from a week ago fall from my hand to the bed where I am still standing at the glad to end another horrible day trapped here. I groan practically hearing Astoria's weariness, desperation, and worst of all her pain making the guilt inside me swell even more. When the Dark Lord returned to the Manor just after Potter and the rest of our prisoners escaped, our punishment was to be detained in our own home until we are needed and I certainly hope that we are not. I shudder still able to hear Granger's screams as my aunt tortured her for information about Godric Gryffindor's sword that was meant to be in her family vault only to be outwitted by a stupid house elf that proudly supports Potter.

During the earlier part of the school year, I did everything I could to protect Astoria from the Carrow twins but being in different years separates us throughout the days of classes. I have tried to plead my way back to finish my last year at Hogwarts but my efforts have only ended in not only my pain but hers as well. My heart breaks as I picture her chained up to the dungeon walls and can clearly see the bruises I saw along her body during the two days we got to spend together during the Christmas holidays. Even then, she was close to the breaking point then with bruises she thought she could hide under baggy clothes and make up but I could see that she was truly exhausted. She already seemed beyond fragile the last time I saw her just before coming home for the Easter holiday and in the following weeks I wrote to Theodore Nott telling him to look after her.

I sigh and slowly make myself turn to the bathroom those glasses of Firewhiskey I had with dinner hours ago making my head spin. I stumble my way into my bathroom and grab on to the marble sink countertop the man in the mirror looking pale, hollowed out and so unlike the man I wanted to be. I take a moment to steady myself and then turn stripping off my clothes to step into the shower hoping the fresh water will help my nerves of the ever occurring nightmares. Once I step out, my eyes look to the scars that still crisscross along my chest and I fight the shudder that goes through me grabbing a towel to dry off. I step out of the bathroom pulling on a pair of pajama pants and reach for Astoria's letter to fold up placing it back in the drawer of my nightstand. I spot the picture of her from the beginning of our relationship that hid when the Dark Lord made our home into his headquarters and sigh watching Tori wave at me from inside the frame.