Harry Potter One-Shots

Dark Arts Part II (Draco Malfoy)

WORD COUNT: 1230

How could I be so stupid...

"Well, that's alright Draco, we'll just get some answers from the girl herself. You, girl, tell us, when was the last time you spoke to dear old mummy and daddy?" Bellatrix shouted, and it took everything in my body to keep from flinching at her volume. Draco's words ran through my head like a mantra -- pretend like you're hurt, don't answer any of her questions, and don't try anything else stupid. Instead of answering, I just groaned again, hoping my acting was convincing because I was beginning to realize that my life probably depended on it.

"Don't be shy dearie, speak up now!" Bellatrix urged, striding closer to me. I still couldn't give her an answer.

"What's wrong with her? She wasn't hurt that badly," Lucius hissed, taking a few steps forward too. My heart was pounding in my chest.

"I have an idea that could wake her up a little bit," Bellatrix offered, and out of the tiny slit between my eyelashes I saw her raise her wand. I braced myself for what I knew was coming. I had to be strong, for the sake of my family. I wouldn't betray them no matter what kind of pain I was in... I had to stay strong for them.

"Cru-"

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Draco before Bellatrix could finish her spell. I was so surprised my eyes snapped open for half a second before I realized that I was supposed to be still pretending to be unconscious, so I closed them again. The image of Draco's face, pale in a different kind of way than normal, was burned into my brain.

"Draco!" shrieked Bellatrix. "What on earth do you think you're doing? You haven't gone soft now, don't tell me you feel any kind of sympathy for the blood traitor!"

"I don't, but just... look at her! She's barely even breathing! You don't know your own strength, Bella, the Dark Lord wanted her alive, and if we can get her to wake up she might be able to give us inside information, plus we might be able to fi-"

"Stop your blubbering Draco. I won't be taking orders from you," Bellatrix sneered. "A child, who can barely finish a simple task given to him by his master as a test of his devotion... it sounds to me like your loyalty is wavering, Draco. How do we know you aren't taking the blood traitor's side?"

"I'm not," Draco answered quickly, panic evident in his voice. He was losing his cool demeanor rapidly.

"Ah, there you go again with the lying, cousin. We have important work to do here, and no room for those who don't support our cause," Bellatrix cooed threateningly. Through barely-opened eyes I watched as she raised her wand to point at Draco. He raised his right back. Was it just me or was his arm shaking a bit?

"Now Bella, Draco, let's not let our petty squabbles get the best of us. We must remember what's most important right now," Lucius interjected, stepping forward to stand between his son and his cousin. Reluctantly, both Death Eaters lowered their wands but didn't break eye contact for a second.

"Lucius," whispered Narcissa, taking a step forward out of the shadows where I had almost forgotten she was standing. "We need to know."

"She's right, cousin," Bellatrix growled. She raised her wand in my direction again, and involuntarily my muscles tensed up.

"Crucio!" The pain that I felt was indescribable. It coursed through my veins like electric shock, unbearable. I wanted to die. I didn't want to feel this pain anymore. All I could do was scream in pain.

"Stop it!" cried Draco, stepping in front of Bellatrix. The pain vanished just as suddenly as it had come and I lay panting on the floor. At this point, I wasn't sure I had to continue acting how unwell I was.

"You're a disgrace to the Dark Lord and his servants!" Bellatrix screamed at Draco, and a sudden bang of bright light echoed from her wand at him. He deflected it quickly, and before I even realized what was happening, they were dueling. Lucius and Narcissa stood by and watched, frozen. Lucius looked like he was struggling to pick a side, and Narcissa's face looked as though she wanted to step in and save her son but knew better than to interfere.

The room was filled with loud bangs and crashes and jets of colored light. Bellatrix squealed with delight as she cast curse after curse at Draco, who deflected them all with lightning-like reflexes and cast his own spells right back at her. Slowly, I realized, he was making his way across the room over to where I lay. It was like he and Bellatrix were circling each other in orbit.

When he reached me, he stopped moving, focusing only on his duel. Then, during a split-second break in the action when Draco disarmed Bellatrix, he darted forward and grabbed onto my arm and promptly Disapparated from the room. The world around us was spinning and I simply closed my eyes and let Draco figure out where we were going. There was an impending blackness around the edges of my vision threatening to close out my consciousness.

Suddenly, my back collided with the ground with a painful thud, and I winced as I felt the prick of thousands of small pieces of gravel digging into my spine. The blackness in my vision closed up even tighter.

Draco dropped to his knees beside me and grabbed his wand, hands shaking as he whispered incantations to himself to heal the scratches and cuts and bruises on my body.

"Shh, it's okay Y/N, you're safe now. They won't be able to find you here," he whispered in a way that made me think that he didn't think I could hear him.

"Draco," I croaked out, my voice weak and scratchy. "Thank you. Why did you save me?"

He looked down at me with a pained expression, like he wanted to tell me something but at the same time didn't want to.

"Because I love you, Y/N. I don't just like you, I love you. I've loved you for years but I could never get up the courage to talk to you until recently. Guess that explains why I wasn't sorted into Gryffindor," he chuckled. I was so overwhelmed with emotion from the combination of the news about my parents being targets, being kidnapped and tortured by Bellatrix, and now Draco's confession, I didn't know how to process everything. I squeezed my eyes shut and felt a tear trickle down my cheek. Draco reached out his hand to brush it away tenderly, but even that simple gesture of kindness was too much for me and I began to sob, unable to form coherent words or thoughts. He leaned down and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to his chest and holding me, comforting, while I cried. I don't know how long we stayed like that, but the last thing I remember before succumbing to the utter exhaustion of the last 24 hours was pressing my face into Draco Malfoy's shirt, soaked with my tears, and feeling his strong arms wrapped around me protectively as he whispered in my ear that he would always protect me, no matter what.

--

A/N: Okay confession, I absolutely HATE how this ended. Maybe in the future I'll come back and do a rewrite because I feel like this ending is SO bad and just not realistic with the storyline at all, but it'll do for now because I wanna publish something for you guys and it's still cute tho.  Also, please feel free to appreciate me and how nice I am for not making you wait another couple of days for part 2 and by giving you ANOTHER two updates in one night... I'm the best but no big deal teehee