The Babysitter (Dramione Fanfiction)

The Flashbacks

Light

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"We need to fucking leave."

Draco tiredly blinked at him as he shrugged off his Death Eater robes and mask. Glancing at the wall clock in his bedroom in the manor, he noted that it was already three in the morning.

"Where do you want to go at this time of the day?" he asked, plopping down on his bed. Draco closed his eyes and started to clear his thoughts, numbing himself away from the events that had happened earlier.

They were summoned to a Death Eater revel in celebration of another 'victorious' infiltration of an Order safe house. Although not really a fan of these revels, the Dark Lord thought it would be fitting to award his most faithful servants by letting them do whatever they liked to do during days of rest. Seeing that they were the sickest bastards Draco had ever met, his brethren thought pillaging Muggle villages, ransacking their houses, killing and raping and torturing were the best ways to spend their 'rest days'.

Sneering, Draco forced himself to numb his feelings away until all he could feel was... nothing.

"No, dammit, Draco," Theo continued. "As in leave. This life. This place. Everything."

His eyes popped open in clear disbelief. "What the hell, Nott?" he snarled, immediately sitting up from his bed and clutching his wand. He nervously looked at his bedroom door, half-expecting Bellatrix to burst inside and blast them off for even thinking about leaving.

"Draco," his best friend said, striding forward and gripping the blond by his shoulders. "I can see it in you. You want to fucking leave, too."

Draco scowled and was unable to retort something in return. He was, after all, right.

"We should stop kidding ourselves and start making the right choice."

"By betraying the Dark Lord?" Draco thundered and pushed Theo away. "Are you out of your damn mind, Theo? He'll kill us; mercilessly kill us, if he even got wind of what we are talking about right now."

Theo's face helplessly crumpled as he ran a hand through his hair. Draco was driven to look away, unused to the expression on his normally carefree friend. But then again, ever since the war had been at its peak, carefree, quiet Theodore Nott was but a memory for eighteen-year-old Draco Malfoy.

"I can't do this anymore, Draco. I just... I can't." Theo expelled a weary sigh and sunk down on the chair beside the bed. "Please tell me it isn't just me. Please. I can't pretend anymore that what we are doing is right. Our fucking revel a while ago was the last straw. When Greyback... what he did to that little girl, I -" Theo's breath hitched and he paled.

Draco shivered with the memory and turned his face away from Theo. "I can't leave," he finally whispered.

"Yes, you can!" Theo exclaimed, jumping out of his seat to force Draco to look at him. "I know that the only reason you stayed was because of your mother, Draco."

"Don't you dare fucking bring my mother in this ridiculous conversation-"

"YOU CAN'T PROTECT HER HERE!"

Draco's jaw dropped at Theo's declaration, his breath turning ragged and shallow. Theo's face clouded with guilt at his outburst, but his jaw was set with determination. Slowly, Theo sagged down on the bed beside him and looked at him squarely in his eyes. "You can't protect your mother here," he repeated, this time quieter and calmer.

"You don't know what the fuck you are talking about," the blond snarled, whipping his wand underneath Theo's chin.

"Let's face it, Draco, this... this bloody madness isn't healthy for your mother anymore, especially after your father's... death." Draco bared his teeth in anger, but Theo wasn't finished. "The Order... I think they can help her better. Narcissa will be safer under the Order's care rather than surrounded by a bunch of Death Eaters."