[2] storm of rage ~ harry potter × marvel

6.

Tears slowly roll down her cheeks as she looks at the sky. She loathes herself at this moment. How could she let all those things happen – how could she let a girl no older than her be cursed right under her watch?

Katie Bell, a sixth-year Gryffindor, got cursed that afternoon, whilst Skyler was having a heated discussion with Ron about Fred and George's business. The girl had screamed and had been in so much pain, and Skyler did not know one thing to do about it.

The tears keep coming, and she can feel them get cold on her cheeks by the cold wind. The Astronomy Tower feels like her safe place... and yet Skyler also knows it is someone else's safe place too. A person she tries to follow every night, hoping to figure out what the hell is making her boyfriend shut her out.

"Skyler?" As if on cue, Draco's hoarse voice fills the cold air. The storm filled with snow does not calm down. Skyler just keeps on crying as the Malfoy heir repeatedly calls out for her.

"You are freezing, Sky! You need to get out of here," he says worriedly, once he reaches her crying figure. He puts his arms around her, hoping to get her to move. Instead, Skyler cries into his chest – upset about all sorts of things, things that had happened years ago and things that happened recently. Skyler cries for everything that hurts too much to talk about.

"What are you even doing here, Draco?" she hiccups in his chest, and she feels his muscles tense cautiously, "Are you doing the same as you always do when you come here, every night?"

"What are you talking about?" Draco asks, pushing her away, eyes wide in surprise.

"I'm talking about the fact that you're not only pushing me out, but that you're also sneaking out of the dorms every single night. I never find out where you go, because you always disappear from my sight somewhere in the school!"

"Are you stalking me or something?" Draco shouts angrily, raising his eyebrows as his eyes burn through Skyler's teary ones.

"I am worried for you," Skyler replies crying, "you shut me out, you don't even talk to me about the tiniest thing, yet you still expect to be called my boyfriend. What the hell do Theo and Pansy know that I don't?"

"Well, maybe they haven't sent my father to Azkaban!" Draco yells at her, "Maybe they haven't inflicted pure hell on me because of that!"

Her breath hitches as Skyler takes a step back. New tears form in her eyes, but this time they are created by anger and anger alone. "That's it. You hate me because of that, don't you? I should've known it was stupid to start all of this again."

"Sky..." he whispers softly, "don't, please."

"I bet you just don't have the guts to break up, then," Skyler assumes bluntly.

"No!" Draco denies, "Skyler, please just listen to me. It's not what you think!"

"Then please enlighten me, Draco!" Skyler is the one to shout this time, "What the hell happened to you this summer that I could not understand?"

A long silence rises, and Skyler notices that Draco gulps multiple times, trying to restrain himself from crying as well.

"He tortured me," is the faint whisper that leaves his mouth. Skyler gasps and immediately reaches out for him, pulling him into an apologetic embrace. They stay exactly like that for a few minutes. Skyler eventually moves away and looks into Draco's stormy grey eyes, stroking his cheek soothingly.

"He didn't only torture you... did he?" she mumbles, as her submerge blue eyes pierce through his. Skyler sees his expression change from hurt to guilt and immediately understands the situation.

"He left you no choice but to join him, didn't he?" Draco shakes his head, and Skyler knows that he feels surprised that she knows such things.

"He always gives new recruits an assignment," she mumbles slowly, looking at Draco again, "What is yours?" Once again, Draco seems to swallow away pressure and something else...

"H-he said that he'd kill the ones I love the most painfully if I don't succeed in killing the most powerful wizard in this country," he whispers, and even though he looks as if he wants to continue, Skyler takes a step back again.

"Dumbledore," she states, her wand appearing in her hand as she holds it read, "I can't let you..." her voice is pleading and somewhere even forgiving, "isn't there another way?"

"The Shadow," Draco croaks out, "I have to kill either Dumbledore or the Shadow..." Skyler gulps, her eyes wide. Her wand disappears and a knife is conjured in her hand, as she holds it out to Draco. The boy looks at her questioningly and scared somewhere.

"Get it over with, then Draco," she whispers softly. The shock on his face is almost unbearable, and Skyler reckons that he does not understand it quite yet.

"W-what? Get what over with?" he stammers, before gasping, "S-Sky? Are you – are you the Shadow?"

"Yes, I am," Skyler promptly states, holding out the knife, "now please, Draco, just do it..."

"But why? Why kill all those people?"

"They weren't just people, Draco," Skyler says hoarsely, "they were monsters. Each of them guilty to murder. And I wanted to justify those murders."

"But why would you feel the sudden need –"

"Because Voldemort located the Avengers' compound! He gave Urikson the location for an attack, an attack that killed one of the few innocent family members I had; my mother!" Skyler exclaims, clenching her fists for control when the storm blows around the tower again, snow entering the building.

The young princess sighs, before putting the knife in Draco's hands herself, leading his hand to the nape of her neck, "Please, just do it," she begged softly, tears brimming in her eyes. "I'd rather have a clean and fast death by your hands than a slow and painful death by Urikson's."

Draco pulled his hand away from the dagger slowly, and the iron blade fell to the ground as he cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking her cheekbone. "I can't kill the thing I'm so eager to protect..." he whispered, "It'd be the most pointless thing to do, killing the person I am actually killing for..."

"You'd be protecting your mother because of it, Draco," Skyler says, "you'd be protecting the ones you love the most. Killing me is a small price to pay, and you would do me a favour as well."

Draco shakes his head, "I'm not only doing this for my family, Sky. That is why I cannot kill you..." he says, staring down at her, "I love you."

_____

feels? anyone?