"It felt like he was using Crucio on me, while getting bit by a thousand snakes. The pain was unbearable, and in that moment it felt like I died. Honestly, I would have preferred death over getting the mark at that moment." Draco Malfoy had received the dark mark mere days before the timeline this story is set in. Nightmares of the event that took place the night he got it plague him at night, and if you were still awake you could hear the screams of agony coming from the boy as he sits in the bathroom for hours at a time, trying to cut the mark out of his skin. Harry Potter could hear these screams, but due to everything that had happened to him in the past, these screams were waved off like a speck of dust, with Harry thinking they were just his nightmares. That is, until Moaning Murtle came to Harry one day about the screams, seeking his help to end them. "You knew that it would be painful, so why did you get it?" "Harry, are you dense? The Dark Lord ordered me to get it, I had no choice. Unless I had a death wish, and I would prefer to stay alive." **Cover art not mine **TW: Cursing, gore, torture