After Everything (Dramione)

Chapter 18

Avada Kedavra.

Two words, so simple.

I destroy as I speak.

For me, taking another's life was never an option. To kill, in my books, was absolutely inexcusable. At my discovery of magic at the age of eleven, I lost all belief in anything religious, but somehow I felt that surely, if you commit such an offence as murder, there could be no good place waiting for you after your own demise.

It was different with Astoria.

Her.

I don't like to think of her as having a name. It makes her seem vulnerable, human.

But she was no human.

Humanity involves empathy, a conscience, love for some, dislike of others.

Astoria only ever had one emotion drilled into the empty space where her heart should be.

Hate.

She was no human, and I felt nothing as I watched her fall to the ground. There was no light in her eyes that flickered off as if the words I had uttered were a switch, like you would imagine.

Nothing changed apart from the fact that she no longer moved, she just lay still, face down on the floor.

She had been nothing but an embodiment of pure evil. And I had put an end to it.

For what felt like hours, though was really probably a matter of seconds, I watched her lifeless body before turning to my now unconscious lover.

Draco lay there, still, his own blood puddling around his body. I took my wand and ran it the length of his body and watched as the cuts slowly closed up, the blood stains disappearing from his clothes.

The larger wounds would take longer to heal, but I had no energy and lay next to Draco until, like him, I fell asleep.

---

*Draco's POV*

After many hours, I didn't know quite how many had passed, I awoke.

Every inch of my body was screaming and as I stretched my injured limbs, a fresh shot of pain surged through my muscles.

I was distinctly aware of being lifted onto a stretcher, and as my arm was knocked and fresh blood oozed from the lacerations, I once again fell into darkness.

When I awoke for the second time, I had to blink several times before my eyes adjusted to the harsh brightness of the room I was in.

I was aware of a warm hand holding my own, and I turned to see a fairly exhausted but otherwise smiling Hermione sat beside my bed.

"Where am I?" I asked before wincing at the sound if my crackly voice.

"You're in St Mungo's." She replied very quickly before lowering her voice, "And we're both fine, well you'll take some time to heal, but we will both be fine and Astoria's dead and will never hurt us anymore and the Ministry have burned the body."

She had said it all in one breath.
Just then, the door to my hospital ward opened, and a bearded healer walked in.
He greeted Hermione before sitting at the end of my bed and drawing out a wand.

"Mr Malfoy, it's excellent to see you awake, and I must say you are recovering exceptionally well considering the extent of your injuries. While most of the cuts and bruises were very easily curable- they were simply a matter of using a healing spell, there are a couple that have, er, perplexed us rather." The healer said.

"You mean, you don't know what they are?"

"Oh, we know exactly what they are. That huge gash on your stomach has all the signs of a snake bite. Indeed it contains the venom of an extremely poisonous snake." He paused, "A snake that has been extinct for nearly five centuries."

"Oh." I looked at Hermione, but she did not appear surprised. Apparently she had already been informed of this.

"The wound on your left arm, also, is problematic, as it simply refuses to heal." The healer continued, "It is evdiently the work of terribly evil magic. Nothing we have done, including muggle techniques, have seemed to work."

"Hermione had told me nothing about how you came to be in this state." He said sternly, aiming a pointed glare at Hermione. "She said I must wait until you wake up so that you can give your own explanation."

"I can tell you in complete confidence?" I asked him.

"Of course."

I sighed deeply before telling him everything. As I recounted my story, I watched his face grow from curious to disgusted, from angry to pitiful.

I sensed that. afterward, he didn't quite know what to say.

"I'm going to have to put you to sleep now, so that we can attempt to operate on the, er, snakebite. I'm sorry to hear about your horrible story, and I am glad I can help you recover."

With that, he waved his wand over my head, and for about the millionth time in what felt like a very short time, darkness overcame me, and I though nothing.