girl on fire // draco malfoy

// prologue //

My hair stood on end, a shiver raced down my spine and a lump came to my throat. It was him. I could see him, as clearly as I could see in the daytime. Behind me I could hear the screams of my mother and father - but I didn't move. I couldn't move. My bare feet seemed to be glued to the hardwood floor. As badly as I wanted to run over to my parents and become the hero of this moment, I couldn't do that. It wasn't that my feet were actually glued to the floor - it was that I was a coward. I was nothing but a wimp. People have told me that before, and it was now that I finally admit that I am what they say I am.

This was all my fault. My parents wouldn't be on death's door if I had been a braver soul. The scene I saw before me was red, fiery flames shooting out of his wand, directed right at my mother and father. I was too late. The flames surrounded me also, and I knew that this was the end for the Laurents. I started to feel the hotness dance along my skin, and I was already prepared to meet my end.

But I didn't die. I stood there, with my arms spread out, as the flames swayed around me. Yes, of course it was blazing hot, but that didn't distract me from how I felt. I don't know what I really felt, but whatever it was made me realize that I was on fire. I was on fire. Between heavy breaths I looked up to see him, but he was gone. As I stood there with the flames dancing on me, my realization that my parents were dead hit me, and the tears started falling from my eyes and rolled onto my cheeks. Once a tear hit the fire, it stopped. It just disappeared. I looked around Laurent Mansion, and saw that it was burned to ashes, just like my mother and father.

How I survived - I don't know. But all I could think at that moment was how I was on fire, and I vowed that from now on my duty was to serve, to listen to the ones above me. Because, I was too stubborn to listen to my parents, and now they were gone. I would stay in the background where I belong. Nobody would ever have to know about Arielle Laurent, the girl who was on fire.

// author's note: i know this is a very short prologue but i am so excited to get started with this story. i promise that the chapters after this will be longer. also, here's a notice: there are a lot of things that inspired this story. i'll always put the inspiration at the end of each chapter so you can know that not all of this was my original idea. thank you! //

// inspired: the nickname "girl on fire" was inspired by the hunger games series by suzanne collins, in which the main character katniss everdeen is given that nickname //