Draco's Reason

Scratches

I am back loves. And with a new chapter. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I've enjoyed reading all of the lovely comments and uplifting words you have all left for me.
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     Draco shot up in bed; the sound of shattering glass echoing through his head. Gasping, he looked around and checked that everything was fine. Pulling his left hand into his chest he sucked in a breath, and held it for a couple of seconds before letting it out. Something warm dropped onto Draco’s leg and he jerked away from it; tripping on his blankets and falling onto the floor with a thud. The cold stone bit into Draco’s fingers as he scrambled backwards, kicking at his blanket and throwing his hands above his head. A second later he remembered that he was at Hogwarts, Lucius and Narcissa weren’t here. Shaking from the cold and fear Draco stood and walked to the communal bathroom. It was blessedly empty but Draco had a horrible feeling that someone was watching him.
   “Dobby?” a sharp crack just below Draco’s hip had him reeling back towards the door and sliding down it onto the floor. In front of him the small house elf snickered before holding out
a hand to the shaking boy. Draco grasped it but didn’t pull away from his place against the door.
   “Dobby? What- what are you doing here?”
   “Dobby has found work at the Hogwarts. Dobby much enjoys work at the Hogwarts. What is Mast-” Dobby cut himself short at the look of pure relief on the blonde boy's face.
   “Dobby, I’m so glad you’re alright. I was so scared that you wouldn’t like it in the real world. But I have something that I need you to do. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, I just… I’d feel better knowing it was you that did it,” Draco was rambling; he knew he was rambling, he just couldn’t bring himself to care. “Could you check on my siblings? Just once or twice a month. I need to know that they’re still safe without either of us there and you’re the only
one I trust them with.”
   Dobby smiled, nodded vigorously, and popped out of existence. Draco used the door to steady himself as the floor swayed beneath his feet when he stood. He peeled his shirt off of his chest, stumbled into the closest shower stall, and promptly threw up. The contents of his stomach were replaced with the tang of dry heaving.
   When he finally stopped heaving Draco turned on the shower and began to scrub at his arms. Drops of blood fell to the floor and Draco thought back to what had happened the day before. The cuts stung and itched but Draco ignored it in favor of cleaning the dirt out of them.
   Washed and dried, Draco made his way to his trunk. Rolls of bandages and healing salves were thrown onto his bed and the trunk was closed and locked as silently as possible. The squeak of the bed springs made Draco pause in his trek onto the mattress but when no one
stirred he continued.
   His supplies lay in a single file line in front of him as he worked on picking a salve that would stop the bleeding without being too painful. Deciding on a burn oil, Draco began to slather it over the cuts on his arm. The spider web of cuts on his hand would have to wait. The oil burned as it began the work of cauterising his wounds and Draco let a hiss escape his clenched teeth. After a few seconds, the only thing left of the cuts were angry red marks that would fade with time. Draco wrapped a roll of bandages over the marks, pulled on his robes, and walked out of his dorm.
   There were a few other students roaming the halls as Draco made his way to the Great Hall but it was still early enough that they didn’t really notice him. He passed Professor McGonagall and overheard her talking about what Hagrid’s first lesson would be about. Hippogriffs, she had muttered. Draco knew the beast’s to be beautiful, and so very dangerous. A smirk found its way onto his face as he headed down to the kitchens. As he tickled the pear a sharp noise had him faltering and holding his breath.
   “Is Master Draco ok? Dobby has checked on Masters Twyla, Greyson, and Naomi. They are good, sleeping is good,” Dobby’s voice rose from behind him and Draco sagged in relief. They were doing fine. They would always be fine. He’d always be there for them. “Dobby saws Lilia make medicine for Masters. Is Master Draco hungry?”
   “Thank you Dobby. I am hungry. Do you want to join me for some breakfast?” Draco glanced into the kitchen and back at Dobby as he spoke. He watched Dobby light up with a smile and Dobby nodded furiously.
   “Dobby would be very happy to join Master Draco for his breakfast!” He grabbed Draco’s hand and pulled him through the painting. The elves worked around the two as Dobby continued to pull Draco to a stool near the fireplace. Draco watched Dobby bounce around the kitchen, gathering food as he went. The platter was soon piled higher than Dobby and it wobbled precariously as he walked. Draco reached out to steady the plate but Dobby set it down before it fell. Dobby smiled at him and began to pick his favorite foods out of the pile. Draco chose to grab an apple and work his way through that as he watched Dobby happily eat his way through half of the pile before he noticed that Draco wasn’t eating very much. The house elf paused and swallowed whatever he had just stuffed into his mouth.
   “Is Master Draco alright? Dobby is very sorry that he chose foods that Master Draco doesn’t like. Dobby is a bad elf.” Draco grabbed Dobby’s arm before he could hurt himself.
   “Dobby. I’m not your master anymore. You’ve been set free. And I do like the foods that you picked, I just can’t eat a whole lot right now. Thank you for checking on my siblings, I really
have to get going now before anyone starts to question my absence,” Draco stood and walked out of the portrait, making his way towards the Slytherin common room.
   More students had begun milling about and Draco realised that it was almost time for breakfast to start. More and more students began to appear from the entrance to the common
room and Draco waited for his friends to come through. When they finally appeared Draco approached them. Blaise was the first to see him and he opened his mouth to say something.
Probably to ask where Draco had gone.
   “We should get to the Great Hall. McGonagall will be passing out the classes and I want to see if we have any classes with the despicable Gryffindor’s,” Draco cut Blaise off before he could get anything out and the rest of the group nodded.
   Draco could feel Blaise staring at him as they walked to the Great Hall but he didn’t really care right now. His hands had begun to sting and the bandages he had wrapped around his arms itched. The burn oil may have been a bad idea but Draco was sure that it was the only
one that wasn’t going to hurt him more. He sighed as they entered the Great Hall.
   More eyes landed on him and Draco could hear sneers and insults whispered about him from the Gryffindor’s table. He held his head higher and strutted to the Slytherin table. He just had to make it through breakfast. After breakfast he could put his plan into action.
   The great hall quieted as shadows covered the windows. Draco had almost forgotten about the Dementors that would be staying at Hogwarts until the escaped convict was found. Sirius Black. Draco had heard his father talk about him and knew that his mother was his cousin but they held disdain above any other feelings for the man. Lucius especially. He called the man
a fake follower and hated that he hadn’t been the one that had caused the man to be put in jail. Draco just wished that they would have some respect for anybody in their family.
   Draco looked down at the paper that was set beside his plate and grimaced. They had three classes with the Gryffindors and Draco really didn’t want to try to fake hatred to people
that had really done nothing to warrant it. There was some hope yet though. Hagrid’s class was first on the list and that meant that Draco would be able to avoid people for part of the day.
   Soon the breakfast started to disappear and students began to gather their belongings before heading to their first class. Draco grabbed the monstrous book that Hagrid had requested they bring and, along with the rest of the third year slytherins, began to head out of the castle and to Hagrid’s hut. The giant man stood in front of it, practically trembling with excitement.
   Once everyone had gathered he headed off to a clearing not far away from the hut. Hagrid instructed the class to open the book and Draco watched as Neville failed multiple times to get his under control. While Draco had never read this specific book there were plenty in his family's library that were similar. Draco felt Harry staring at him from where he
stood and decided that enough was enough. He approached the other boy as Hagrid was getting the class ready to meet the magical creature he had for today.
   “Potter.”
   “Malfoy,” it was Ron who spoke up and tried to start something with the boy.
   Draco was done with the Weasley and pointed behind the two boys. “D-Dementor!”
   Harry and Ron spun around and upon seeing nothing looked back at Draco, who had put his hood up and was pretending to be one of the creatures.
   “A’right class! I’d like to introduce ya to Buckbeak,” Hagrid’s booming voice and the appearance of the hippogriff drew Draco’s attention away from the idiots. Draco stared in awe at the creature. It was beautiful and Draco could feel the power behind it from where he was standing. His mind seemed to falter at the idea of using Buckbeak but he steeled his nerves and waited for the perfect opportunity.
   Hagrid talked Harry through approaching and riding the hippogriff. As boy and beast returned to the clearing Draco walked up to the creature and ignored the awe and respect he had for the creature. As he had hoped Buckbeak reared up and slashed it’s clawed talons down
at Draco. At the last minute he turned so that the beast would scratch his arm instead of taking off his head. The wound stung but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t deal with. Falling to the floor
despite his lack of pain, Draco cried out and started spewing nonsense about telling his father. Hagrid scooped him up and took off towards the castle, excusing the rest of the class. Draco
looked back and saw Harry staring at him with barely restrained anger in his eyes. It hurt Draco to see someone that had acted like they had genuinely wanted to help look at him with so much hatred and anger. Draco tore his eyes away from the boy and back towards the castle, thinking
about what he could have done to receive such a horrible hand in life.