Permanent Scars

Chapter four

Harry scooped the skera root up and threw it in the cauldron. Draco didn't see Harry toss the skera root in, he was too intent on stirring the potion correctly. His face was right over the cauldron when it exploded.

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Before Draco had a chance to move away, the potion exploded from the cauldron.

His face and hands were covered in boiling potion. The pain was unbearable. He began to scream and scream.

The room broke into chaos.

"Oh, God, no! Draco, Draco!" Pansy cried. She was kicking and screaming, straining against the arms that held her back, trying desperately to get to Draco.

Harry was standing there in shock, not sure what had happened.

Within seconds, Snape had cast Scourgify to remove the potion from Draco's skin.

Even though the potion had been removed almost immediately, the once attractive face was now unrecognisable.

The whole of Draco's once handsome face was now covered in hideous, raised, twisting scars. The scars ran over his once perfect skin, taking away the smooth softness that once had been there. All that was left of his once striking face were the grey eyes, untouched by the potion, and his still beautiful silky hair.

Snape hurriedly cast a spell that put Draco into a deep sleep. He was afraid if he waited to do something until they got to Madam Pomfrey that the pain and the shock might have been such that Draco would never recover from it.

As soon as he had Draco sedated, Snape lifted him up and ran out of the Potions classroom, Draco dangling limply in his arms.

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"Is there nothing that can be done for the boy?" Dumbledore asked Madam Pomfrey.

They were both standing at the foot of Draco's bed. Draco was swathed in bandages, his entire head engulfed.

"There isn't anything I can do about the scarring," Madam Pomfrey sighed. "But I have put some anti-pain ointment on the bandages. It should help him rest more comfortably. I am going to keep him sedated for a couple of weeks, until the worst part of the pain is over. I think that would be for the best."

They moved away from the bed, and Madam Pomfrey said, "It really is a shame. He was such a handsome boy. I don't know how he's going to adjust."

Dumbledore asked, "I suppose you've heard the news."

"You mean about his parents?" Madam Pomfrey asked sadly. "After the accident, it will be too much for the poor thing to bear."

"It will indeed be difficult for him. He has already gone through a tremendous amount of trauma, and now this." Dumbledore spoke wearily. "How do you explain that friends of the family, people he has known all his life, have gone to his home and brutally murdered his mother and father in cold blood? Not only that, but after they killed his parents they burned Malfoy manor to the ground. Nothing is left."

Dumbledore looked sorrowfully at Draco lying peacefully in the bed.

Draco had now lost everything.