Broken

Chapter 5: Awakening

            She blinks herself awake. Slowly, she realizes that she is not in her bedroom. The hangings around her are a deep green. Pain starts at her head and courses through the rest of her body. She begins to sit up and finds herself level with a pair of grey eyes.

“Wh–where am I?”

His eyes are full of concern, and it shakes her to the core. He is not the concerned type. “Slytherin Tower. My bedroom, to be precise.”

She smirks at him, bringing a small hand to her head. “And how exactly did I end up here?”

His eyes cloud as he says, “Potter went absolutely ballistic. I tried to distract him, but he didn’t want me. He punched the daylights out of me, though. I saw him slamming your head against the floor, with the whole bloody pub watching. Not one soul was helping you. Not one . . .” His voice begins to crack and he takes a deep breath. “I couldn’t get to you, Red. By the time I could, you had passed out. He was holding you, whispering something in your ear. That’s when that wonderful brother of your decided to step in and help. He pulled Potter off of you and let me carry you out. I couldn’t let you go anywhere where he could hurt you. So I brought you here. You slept all day.”

She looks up at him. His face is smeared with dried blood, a nasty cut lining his forehead. She tentatively runs her finger across it and his eyes go wide.

“You’re hurt.”

He shrugs. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“It’s not.”

“You’re the one who nearly died, Red.”

She tries not to show how much that realization affects her, simply places her hand over his.

“And you took care of me, now let me take care of you.”

She searches his eyes, pleading silently. Begrudgingly, he nods. She mutters a spell under her breath and a bowl of water appears in front of her. Another few words and there are clean cloths, bandages, and pain relieving potions. She begins to work. They sit in silence for a while, before he finally speaks.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

She glances at him inquiringly.

“For what I said . . . You were right.”

He winces as a stinging potion comes into contact with his wounds. Then he feels gentle breath on his skin where the potion had been. He fights down the desire rising within him. Now is not the time. “I wouldn’t hurt you.”

She doesn’t say anything, a sign for him to continue. “I just got so damn angry because I want to tell you everything and I can’t.”

Her fingers stop moving against his skin and she leans down to peer into his eyes. “Why can’t you?”

As he gazes into the infinite pools of brown, he asks himself the same thing.

He is vaguely aware of her hand creeping up his sleeve. He wants to stop her, but he is frozen. And then she tenses, and he knows she has seen it. She pulls away from him.

“The Dark Mark,” she whispers, her voice full of disbelief and horror.

“Don’t tell me your brother hasn’t told you about my family.”

“H–he has. But I’ve n–never seen it before.”

Her eyes are filling with tears as she searches his face. “You didn’t want it.” It is not a question.

He shrugs. “I didn’t have a choice. It had been planned since I was born.”

“You never have a choice with Tom.”

He realizes what she is talking about, remembering that she, too, was a servant against her will.

“He told me I was evil, Draco. Maybe he’s right.” She pulls her knees close to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs.

“He wasn’t.”

She doesn’t seem to hear him. “Look at what I’ve done . . . Harry, he’s . . . I wanted him to hurt. I wanted to destroy him. He was right, he was right . . .” She is sobbing now. “This is why . . . He told me, he told me I was invisible. I’m meant to be alone . . . Why didn’t I listen?”

Without thinking, he sits down beside her, wrapping his arms around her. He embraces her trembling form, smoothing her soft red hair back from her face.

“He was wrong, so wrong,” he whispers against her skin.

He holds her until the sobs subside. She lays her head on his shoulder, the tender gesture surprising them both. He can feel her breath upon his neck, her hair tickling his skin. They sit this way for a while, until her breathing becomes slow and steady. He looks down to see her eyes closed, her pale, tear stained face relaxed. His heart does a funny thing as he watches her sleep. Sighing, he wraps a blanket around her shoulders. She shifts, her hand finding his chest. Warmth washes over him. This has been a very interesting day.