Your Grief is My Grief [DM] sequel to Beauty and the Beast

Chapter One

Lizzie's POV:

"Get it off!" I screeched at the top of my lungs, sitting on Draco Malfoy's bed in his bedroom at Malfoy Manor and clawing at my newly acquired tattoo. Hot tears ran down my face and dripped from my chin to my hands. My fingernails, as short as they were, dug into my skin, peeling off layers of skin and even drawing some blood. My breathing spiraled out of control as I rocked back and forth crying hysterically. "Please! I want it gone!" 

"Liz," Draco whispered with a tone of pity, guilt, and love, attempting to calm me down. "It won't come off. Believe me, I've tried everything." He wrapped his muscular arms around my shaking form and held me close; so close that I could feel his heartbeat through our clothing. I continued to scratch at the Dark Mark on my forearm despite his protests causing long, angry red marks to appear with every swipe of my hand.

"H-how can one man be so cruel?"

"I know, I'm sorry. This is all my fault," Draco murmured, gripping both of my hands tightly in his to stop me from scraping my arm up any further. I tried to pull them back to persist attempting to remove the ink from my body that bound me to Voldemort, but Draco was stronger than me and held them fast. "I dragged you into this and I am so sorry." I wanted to be comforted by his words, but I was too upset for them to take hold within me. "I never wanted any of this to happen."

"It's not your fault," I sobbed. "It's not. It's his. It's h-his fault and I'm going to kill him for it. He thinks t-that he can leave my family all alone for sixteen bloody years and then give me away like I was his in the first place?" I felt the hate for my father boil up inside of my stomach and bubble through my veins. The image of his face as he handed me over to Voldemort was one that would fuel my anger for years to come. I don't think I would ever forgive him for this. No. I knew that I would never forgive him. He had caused me irreversible pain that would scar me until the day I died, so I would hate him until the day I died.

My father had left my mum to care for two small children by herself after I was born, and just today, he gave me and my future to the darkest wizard to ever walk this planet. How could he do that to his own daughter? Not that I'd claim him as anything more than a dirty, rotten bastard who just happened to have made me.

"And he wants us to kill someone? He w-wants us to end someone's life? And not just anyone, but Albus fucking Dumbledore who could kill us with a twitch of his finger. Draco, h-how are we going to do this?" I managed to squeeze all of this out between desperate breaths of air. I felt as if I were drowning on land, the air being sucked from my lungs.

"I don't know, love, but we're going to get through this safely. I'll swear my life on it. I will not let anything happen to you if it's the last thing I do," he spoke softly, placing a hand under my chin and lifting my head to force me to look at him. My watery eyes met his and I felt my heart explode with love for this man sitting in front of me. The hate bubbling in my stomach turned to butterflies with just one look at Draco.

His silvery eyes were full of guilt and shame as he stared back at me. My lip quivered and my eyes began to leak even more as I threw my arms around his shoulders. "I love you, Draco," I wheezed.

"I love you too, Liz." His arms made their way around my body once more and we sat there for quite a while, me blubbering and him rubbing circles on my back.

By the time my body-racking sobs had switched to body-racking hiccups, the sun outside had begun to set, casting a slanted shadow across the room and filling the rest with an orange glow.

"What am I - supposed to - do? My mum can't - f-find out. It would - crush - her that my father - did this - to me, and my - brother can't find - out because he would - disown me," I gasped between hiccups. I pulled back from our hug and rubbed my face, trying to wipe away stray tears and any redness that might have stuck around. Though I'm sure I only made my face redder.

"Stay. Stay here with me until school starts," he suggested in a voice so quiet I almost didn't hear it. "I'll keep you safe." His slender, right hand moved to my cheek and cradled my face. I placed my left hand over his right and leaned into his touch.

"Okay." It wasn't going to do me well to run from my problems, but I was so weak, so tired, and so terrified that that was all I could do at that moment. My mother would be extremely worried when I didn't return that night, but I figured that not coming home would be better than learning I would be working for Lord Voldemort.

"I'm not letting you out of my sight," he told me with a small shake of his head. I managed a small smile at his reassuring words.

I decided to take advantage of the silence that suddenly encased us. "Draco? Why didn't you answer any of my letters?"

His hand dropped from my face and he held my hands in his again. "I thought that if I stopped speaking to you, you would let me go and I wouldn't end up bringing you into a mess like this, but look where that got me..." He trailed off his last sentence and looked away with regret.

"I wrote so many letters this summer, and nobody answered. Not one. Most of the letters were to you, but I also wrote Hermione and - Harry..." I looked at Draco in horror. "Harry, oh Merlin. We can't let Harry find out about this. He would never speak to me again." I felt my eyes begin to well with tears again. Even though Harry had been nothing but rude to me since he had kissed me and hadn't returned any of my letters, I still felt more than guilty about what had happened.

"You can be sure I won't tell him," Draco replied with a stony expression written across his face.

We once again became caught under the spell of a slightly uncomfortable silence as we sat there on his bed studying each other closely.

Over the summer, Draco had changed significantly. His old, longer, blonde hair that had hung in front of his forehead the previous time I had saw him had been cut and swooped to the side, making him appear older. In addition to his new hairstyle, his face had hollowed out somewhat due to lack of sleep and food, bringing out the deep-set of his eyes and the dark bags that had formed. His jawline had become more defined than I had ever known it to be. There was no denying it. Draco had matured incomparably. Physically and emotionally.

"Are you tired?" He broke the silence with a whisper, his eyes switching between both of mine.

"Exhausted," I answered him with an equally as quiet voice. All of the crying from today had rendered me weak and tired.

"Alright." Draco stood and retrieved a white shirt, handing it to me carefully. "You can wear this." I quickly began to remove my clothes, folding them and placing them on his bedside table.

I watched Draco change after I had finished. He removed his suit with nimble hands, pulling his jacket off and hanging it in his wardrobe, then undoing his tie. His long, slender fingers then began to work at the buttons on his shirt. He slid it off of his shoulders and neatly hung it beside his jacket. I admired the way his muscles rippled beneath his pale skin. Though he had lost a bit of weight in the last few months, his muscles remained fully intact and fully attractive.

He unbuttoned his trousers and slipped his legs out. I felt my cheeks redden as my eyes fell on his green boxers. As he carefully folded his trousers in half, he glanced over his shoulder to see me watching him. My face temperature rose considerably at being caught.

"Like what you see?" he asked softly with a cheeky grin. I bit my lip in embarrassment while he chuckled.

When we were both changed from our day clothes, we crawled into Draco's bed, making a silent agreement that I was to sleep with him.

"Lizzie, we're going to get through this," Draco spoke to me, wrapping his arms around me. And at that moment, I believed him.