Little Bird

Chapter Thirty-Five

Draco

            When the Dark Lord had finally Disapparated and we were able to leave the dining room, it was getting very difficult for me to keep myself together.

            I had no idea how Eve was managing to make herself look so composed.

            We entered the parlor where Lucius was waiting, both of us looking around as though we were in a daze and had little idea of where we were. Lucius stood from his seat and started over to us, looking at me cautiously as though he could tell I was seconds away from passing out. "Are you alright? Is he gone?"

            "Yeah. He's gone," I said quietly, having to swallow hard to get my voice to work. Eve's hands were wrapped around my upper arm, like she could hold me up off the ground—though if my knees gave out on me, we'd probably both go down.

            "He told you, then?" Lucius asked, ignoring my pale face and sickened expression. "The school year starts in less than three weeks, I'll have to teach you how to—"

            "I need to step outside," I blurted suddenly, the stale air inside the shrinking space of the parlor beginning to suffocate me. I started for the hallway that led to the back door, Eve still holding my arm and automatically following me.

            Lucius must have opened his mouth or moved to follow us, because Eve said over her shoulder quickly, "We'll be right back", though we both knew we wouldn't be.

            Leaving the Manor behind forever was starting to look better and better.

            I hurried down the length of the hallway with Eve just behind me, reaching for the door knob with my vision blackening around the edges. When I threw open the door and burst outside, I sucked in a deep breath of cool air and stumbled away from the house. Eve let go of my arm and stood beside me as I put my hands on my knees and leaned forward, retching slightly and trying not to vomit. I fixed my gaze on the blades of grass at my feet and focused on just taking deep breaths, swallowing hard to keep the bile from rising any further in my throat. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to force the images of Dumbledore from my mind, because the more I thought about it, the more my stomach twisted inside of me.

            I had known the task would be something bad, but never would I have thought the Dark Lord would be telling me to kill someone—let alone Dumbledore.

            After coughing a bit and swallowing hard, I twisted my head to the side to look up at Eve. She was staring at the ground before her feet, her entire face turned pale and her lips impossibly white. I realized she was shaking slightly, a thin coat of sweat shining off her skin.

            I straightened up automatically and reaching for her, asking in a strained voice, "You okay? Do you need to be sick? I can—"

            But Eve shook her head quickly, squaring her jaw and running her tongue over her pale lips. Her eyes started to tear up then, so I gripped her arm tightly to let her know that I was here—even though a lump was forming in my throat and I wanted nothing more than to run away from this.

            "I need to sit down," I said, but mostly just because I could see that Eve was seconds away from pitching forward to the ground. We held each other as we made our way back to the door, sitting down at the bottom of the steps and facing away from the house. I held her hand, neither of us noticing that our palms were sweaty or that our fingers were shaking slightly.