Grey-Eyed Serpent √

Chapter Three

Draco Malfoy

I shrink back and she whips her wand out again. "Draco," she says with that same ruthless quiet, "are you aware that our prisoners escaped?"

I don't say anything. If I say no, she'll think I'm lying, and if I say yes, she'll be upset that I didn't tell her right away. "Crucio!" she yells, and my body is wracked with pain. I cry out and clutch at myself, my arms, legs, anywhere. I just want the pain to stop. It gets so bad I loose a scream, and Bellatrix cackles. "How did they get out, Draco? Answer me!"

"They attacked me and I dropped my wand," I manage to spit out before screaming again. The pain grows worse, like ropes tightening around my wrists, ankles, stomach, and neck. Like thousands of fingernails, knives, swords, daggers, being drawn in slow lines down every inch of me.

"You never drop your wand, Draco. And don't do it again." She lowers her own wand, and I take deep breaths. In and out. I can't forget to breathe. "Now," she whispers in my ear, "you must go. You lost them, you find them. Go!" She yells the last word in my face, and I don't hesitate. Grabbing my wand from the desk, I Apparate away.

I only Apparate outside of the gates. I have no idea how to find them. Where would they go? Most likely not to any specific place, that would be too obvious. But as I close my eyes, the soft wind whispering around me, and picture her face, her brown curls, brown eyes, her smile... When I open my eyes again, I'm there, leaning against a tree a few feet away from their tent.

"Granger," I say quietly. She does a double take and leaps backwards when she sees me, pressing a hand to her chest. "Bellatrix made me come find you," I explain. But what I can't explain is that I don't want to take her back there, to that horrible place I can never call home.

"Will you take us, then?" she asks. She seems discreet, but I can see her subtly, slowly, moving her wand toward me. I shake my head, and she carefully lowers it and puts it in her pocket. "Look, Draco-"

Again with that name! Does she know what it feels like every time she says it? I can't even tell, and I'm the one it's happening too. "I won't take you. I don't- I don't want to. I don't want to go back." My voice breaks, and I cover it up with a cough, hoping she didn't notice. From the small smile on her face, though, I can tell that she did.

"Draco, you're welcome to stay with us tonight. But just for tonight, because tomorrow we have to get going again." I nod and follow her into their tent. She's actually starting to trust me. Isn't she supposed to be smart? There's no telling what I'll do... Well, what I'll be forced to do against my own will.

Inside, Weasley and Potter glance at Granger, wondering why the hell she let me in, no doubt. She says simply, "He let us out," and they stay quiet. I secretly smile to myself.

As the three of them drift off to sleep inside of their tent, I slip outside to where stars glitter across the sky in an endless dance of oblivion. I sit and stare up at the sky, wondering who else is looking at this same wonder right now.

I hear a noise behind me and turn around quickly, reaching for my wand. But it's just Granger, and I turn back around as she sits beside me. I lay on my back, my hands folded over my stomach. Soon enough, she does the same.

After a few moments where the only sound is the crickets in the nearby grass, Granger rolls over to face me, propping her head up with her elbow. "Why did you do it, Draco?" She blinks. "Join them?"

I stop looking at her, afraid it'll make me too nervous to answer when she completely deserves one. "I didn't choose too, you have to know that. I don't...I don't like all the terrible things they do. I don't like death."

"But why? Why did you let them?" I can still feel the weight of her eyes on my back.

"Because I'm afraid." She doesn't respond, so I continue. "I grew up being fed the knowledge that I'm better than everyone else because I'm a Pureblood, but I'm not. I'm no better than, well, you." She laughs slightly, and I can hear the smile in her voice. "And my father pressures me into being who he wants me to be, so I really have no choice." I turn to face her again, my gaze catching on the way the starlight dances in her eyes.

"Have you ever seen a death? Have you seen them...kill someone?" Granger asks. I have to consider before I respond.

"Yes, I have. Right before my eyes." Images flash in my mind; the green light, the Muggle Studies teacher's dead weight on the table in front of me, the laughter of the Death Eaters ringing in my ears.

"That's horrible," she says, and I can hear a sharp edge in her tone. "Nobody should be forced to see that if they don't want too." I nod, no words forming in my mouth. She smiles again, softly. "I feel bad for you."

"It always feels like nothing I have is really mine, you know?" I ask. And though I know she doesn't, that nobody else understands, she nods. And it's comforting, knowing she's there. "Hermione," I say, and her name rolls like a melody off of my tongue. She smiles wider.

As we both turn to face the stars again simultaneously, I move my right hand toward hers. She takes it, and it's even more comforting than just having her beside me. This is what true magic feels like.

And we drift off to sleep beside each other, holding hands, the stars winking above us until the break of day.