SLITHER IN! → S. MALFOY

ACT III, SCENE X: CHOOSE ME

C H A P T E R  T H I R T Y - S E V E N

   THE UNFORGIVABLE RICOCHETTED OFF of a stunned Malfoy and into a wall behind Albus, splattering into thousands of fluorescent emeralds as it did.

Rose's scream was stuck in her throat— she was frozen in place. She turned around swiftly before staring at Albus, her mouth agape.

   His face had been stained with tears— rivers of them— oceans.

"Albus!" Rose uttered, her eyes wide. Her voice softened ever so slightly. "Albus, what happened?"

  Rose glanced over at Malfoy, and was not surprised to see his features turn to stone. His reaction, the swiftness of the protection charm he'd wordlessly cast around himself like a facade, showed her how much power was held in that pale, pointed face.

   Albus wasn't looking at her. He was trained on Scorpius like a bull, ready to strike, — except for the bull had been trained to see green instead of red.

  "You killed him," Albus spat lowly, his voice thick with tears, "and now, you're going to die."

  Scorpius was unmoving. His was was lowered, his features a mask, and yet Rose could see incredulity swimming behind his full black lashes.

   "Not with her in the room." Malfoy nodded over at Rose, not once breaking eye contact with the choking and sniffing boy.

   "Nobody's going to kill anyone!" Rose exploded. She could feel like wheels in her head turning as she spoke. "Albus, lower your stupid wand! You're at Hogwarts, Merlin, what were you thinking—"

  "Granger," Malfoy warned huskily.

  She wasn't looking at him. She paced towards Albus, and, jerking the wand out of his suddenly limp hand, wrapped her arms around his shuddering shoulders. He fell into her like he used to when he'd find limp and suffocating birds by their house, or when his brother would go too far in his teasing. When he'd find broken eggs in the nests on their trees.

"He's dead," Albus whispered, and his words fell from his lips like a guillotine. "James' dead."

Silenced lapsed over the trio in the vacant, cool room. Silence — except for Rose's heartbeat, Malfoy's untraceable exclamation, and Albus' chokes sobs into her shoulder.

She stood there for a few moments, her mind racing. She didn't dare looking back at Malfoy — who knew what could've been written on his face. Besides, she didn't want to see what she might have.

The confirmation. The confirmation of him being a monster.

—You've known all along, her conscience whispers, amused. You've known. You've stayed.

Rose shook her head to silence the voice. Not now, she thought. Not ever.

Malfoy broke the silence, as thick as butter, with a cough. "I didn't kill your brother, as much as I despise your family—Potter."

The last words seemed to be drawn, sipped out of him like caramel, — except for that caramel was poisonous, and the pale-haired boy knew of all of its damage. Rose turned her head ever so slightly and caught Malfoy's intense stare on her face.

His face was a mask, as always. Only the eyes — green and gleaming like two charcoals in the night. She could feel his thoughts racing faster than hers—darker than hers.

He wasn't lying. Malfoy wasn't lying.

Why did she feel so much relief?

"You didn't?" Albus asked, and the witch realized that he was hoping it wasn't Malfoy, too, behind all of his intensified anger and pain, he was hoping that it wasn't Scorpius. It wasn't someone he'd known.

"No."

Malfoy strode towards them leisurely, as if he hadn't just reflected an unforgivable. "Let the girl go. She's tired."

"I'm not—" Rose began, but he stopped her by pinning her down with a look.

"I'll sort this out, kitten," he whispered quickly, so that Albus, too overhauled by his gulps of wet air, couldn't hear. "Okay?"

Rose didn't know his voice could be this gentle.

She nodded. "Okay."

Malfoy's shoulders relaxed the slightest shade of tenseness. "Good girl." He pulled her back from the shuddering boy by her shoulders, cold fingers in a clasp. "Go."

Rose didn't need a second command. Too shocked and too tired to stay, too overhauled by emotion, she turned around, and, before exiting the Room of requirement, attempted helplessly to choke down the hot, real tears burning down her slightly freckles cheeks.

"FATHER."

The green flames illuminated the walls of the Manor in a somber, luxurious manner — just as Draco Malfoy preferred it. It pleased the man, Scorpius often though, to keep the house as dead as he could, as clean, as solemn.

Draco Malfoy lifted a blonde eyebrow before welcoming his son with a gesture. "I didn't expect you this late in the night, Scorpius. Is anything the matter?"

"I shouldn't have used the fireplace," Scorpius said cooly, attempting to clean his shoulders from the fireplace dust. He lifted his gaze. "But you shouldn't have murdered James Potter."

There was a flash of anger in Draco's gaze, and it didn't go unnoticed by his son — Scorpius tensed, stranded in the middle of one of the vast rooms of the Malfoy manor.

"You know exactly why I did it." His words were sharp and toneless.

"You didn't have to. The Potter boy—"

"You don't tell me what to do or what not to do," Malfoy senior interrupted, and the fire illuminated his snake-like scowl. "It was necessary, and you know that. Stop resisting me."

His father was angry — Malfoy could sense the staccatos in the man's voice.

"To clear the Wizarding world of the shameful," Scorpius drawled out, having mastered the art of hiding his abhorrence from his father's watchful eye, "you're going to have to start a war. Kill many."

"Not many," Draco said with a slight chuckle. "I only want the few traitors that yet deserve punishment, Scorpius."

"Who?"

The question fell like a stoned bird in the middle of the room.

Draco's stare intensified — the man was testing his son for traitorousness, and the son knew all along that he would not hesitate to kill. His father's ambitions were thicker than any royal blood. Than any blood.

Scorpius knew, with poorly suppressed horror and vengeance, what he was going to hear from his father's lips before he spoke.

"First — mudbloods." Draco's eyes danced with delight. "And you're going to help me."