dark side • draco malfoy

23 | The Dark Mark

Several weeks after our first apparition lesson, I had yet to talk to Malfoy. I had tried to corner him in the corridors, and I even took to hanging around the dungeons in hopes of finding him on his way to the Slytherin common room, but I had no luck. It seemed as though Malfoy was going to even greater lengths to avoid me, and I wasn't happy about it at all.

One night while working on a Transfiguration essay in the common room, I lost my patience and decided to send him a note. Whipping out a spare piece of parchment and my quill, I took a moment to think, before deciding just to make the note short and to the point. He'd figure it out.

'Room of Requirement, 9pm'

Now all I could do was hope that he would come.

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At 8:30 that night, I decided to make my way towards the Room of Requirement. Slipping out of the portrait hole, I looked both ways before silently creeping through the corridors. Because this wasn't one of our tutor sessions, if I got caught out of bed by a teacher or prefect, I'd be screwed.

But I was tired of being avoided for weeks; tonight was the night I would finally talk to him. Tonight was the night I would confront him, because I deserved some answers.

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I only had to wait two or three minutes in the Room of Requirement before the door creaked open to reveal an exhausted looking Draco Malfoy.
The door closed behind him with an echoing bang, and then there was nothing but silence for several moments.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" I finally sighed, glancing up at the blonde boy in front of me.

"Please, Ivy. Please don't do this." He pleaded in a broken whisper, and I felt my heart lurch at the sound.

"Draco, I deserve an answer. Did all that mean anything to you, or were you just toying with me like every other girl in this school?" I struggled to keep from shouting, but I could see him visibly flinch as though my words had hit him like a stunning spell.

"I'm sorry, Ivy. I tried to stop them, I really did. I couldn't save your parents." He spoke in a barely audible tone, and I felt my brows furrow in confusion.

"Malfoy, what are you talking about? My parents were killed by Death Eaters." I frowned. The broken look on his face just confused me even more, and he carried a sense of finality in his decision to speak with me, like he had been planning this for awhile.

"You don't understand, I never wanted this. I was a fool and a coward, and I would do anything to change it." Draco whispered, running a hand through his platinum-blonde hair nervously and taking in a shaky breath of air, "They made me one of them, Ivy. I'm a Death Eater."

His words felt like a slap in the face, and I immediately felt like I was going to throw up my entire dinner. No, this had to be some sick joke. It couldn't be real, I was dreaming - having a nightmare. This couldn't be happening.

"No, Malfoy that's -" I froze as he slowly lifted the left sleeve of his knitted, grey jumper, to reveal his pale forearm and the tattoo that tainted his porcelain skin; the Dark Mark.

"Stop it. Draco, stop. That's not funny." I choked out, but he just shook his head as his sad, silver eyes locked with mine.

"I'm so sorry, Ivy. God, I'm so sorry." I could see the glisten of water rolling down his cheeks from the corner of my eye, but I just couldn't tear my gaze away from the black snake and skull tattoo on his left forearm. It was true, Harry was right; Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater.

"How could you?" I finally spoke, feeling my finger nails digging into my palms and drawing blood.

"Please, Ivy, I didn't have a choice. He was going to kill me."

"Well then you should have died!" I suddenly screamed, not caring about the heartbroken look on his face as I stood to face him in a blinding rage.

"You son of a bitch! How could you? You killed my parents, and then you have the audacity to send me jewelry for Christmas! You think you can waltz in here and beg for forgiveness? You have some real fucking nerve, Malfoy. God, I should have listened when everyone told me to stay away from you. I can't believe I was that stupid. I trusted you, and meanwhile you were going behind my back and working for bloody You-Know-Who! I hate you, Draco Malfoy."

"Ivy, I didn't kill them, I swear! They forced me to come on the mission, and I did everything I could to stop them. You have to believe me, I did everything I could! It was Bellatrix who killed them." He begged, but I didn't care.

He could cry and plead all he wanted, but there was no erasing the damage that was done. My parents couldn't be brought back from the dead, and he couldn't erase the black tattoo on his arm.

"As far as I'm concerned, you played just as big a role in killing them as your deranged aunt. Don't ever speak to me ever again, Malfoy." I snapped coldly, before turning on my heel and storming out of the Room of Requirement.

Tears began to blur my vision and even though I knew I should go back to my dormitory, the Gryffindor Tower was the last place I wanted to be.

I stumbled to the top of the Astronomy Tower, and put all my weight onto the railing as I finally broke down into uncontrolled sobs that wracked through my entire body. It felt like everything was spiralling down on top of me at once, and my whole world was crumbling apart around me. This truly felt like the end.