the boy who had no choice [d.m]

𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖞 𝖘𝖎𝖝

ELARA COULDN'T BREATHE.

Her pulse thrummed, painfully, in her neck as she stared at Draco, her eyes wide. Had she heard him right?

Draco was stoic, looking out over the London landscape, expressionless, jaw taut.

"What?" Her voice was barely a whisper, shaking on the one word.

He let out a long exhale and shut his eyes, fingers tightening over the railing, collecting his thoughts. Then, his eyes opened and he looked down at the snake ring on his finger - the one matching Elara's, the Black heirloom.

"I was ten," he finally said, straightening a bit more. "It was the summer before the first year at Hogwarts - I was beyond excited to go."

Elara stayed quiet, twisting the ring he'd given her around her finger. She felt guilty for asking but her curiousity got the better of her and she made no move to stop him as he went on.

"We had a friend," Draco murmured, his eyes glazing over as his mind slipped somewhere else. "A good friend of my father's. He used to come visit us in the holidays - he wasn't married, didn't have any kids - and he used to buy me Sugar Quills and Honeydukes' chocolates."

The wind breezed by, picked up strands of his white-blond hair, making them fall onto his forehead. He pushed them away with one hand, still looking dazed and reminiscent.

"He was kind of like..." he trailed off, his eyes dimming. "Like a father figure to me."

Elara nodded, wanting to reach for him but deciding against it.

"He raped her," he said, bluntly, not even a flicker of emotion on his face. "When my father was away. I couldn't - I couldn't do anything. I didn't even have a wand."

"But - But your mother -"

"She's an exceptional duelist but she'd been sick for weeks before it happened. It was why that fucking monster was in our house in the first place - my father had asked him to look after us while he was gone." A muscle twitched in Draco's jaw. "I tried - to stop him."

Elara's eyes stung at the thought of ten year old Draco, terrified and screaming, trying to get to his mother.

"She begged me to stay away," he continued, quietly. "She didn't even have her wand on her - there was nothing she could even try to do - but she begged me to stay away."

He shuddered and seemed to collect himself, coming back to reality. "He knocked me out and when I woke up - he was gone and my father was back. The house elves had heard the commotion and apparated to get him - he was somewhere in Norway at the time."

Elara caught the brief spasm of his fingers, the way he curled them around the railing tighter again afterwards.

A tear slid down her cheek. "Draco..."