Broken Skulls

Chapter IV: A Peaceful Stroll to Town

After a while, spending time at Pansy's just wasn't appealing enough for Draco to stay there any longer. He began skipping from house to house, staying only there more than a night or two, attending a party here or get-together there before packing up and moving on.

By the day before the Hogwarts Express came, Draco had exhausted every friend and acquaintance up and had finally resigned himself to Malfoy Manor for one last night.

Lucius had not been home since Draco had arrived at seven in the evening. He had gone into his room, immediately getting things set for tomorrow's return to school life. After his requisite two trunks for wardrobe, he packed his various hair products and hygienic bits; after all, a man has to keep up his appearance. Draco would never stoop down to Potter's level, going days without properly grooming his hair.

Deciding to make an early night of it, Draco settled himself down into bed, stripped down to his undergarments like he was accustomed to.

As his eyes fluttered slowly shut, bright shapes flashing across his eyes, he fell slowly into a dream... a nightmare...

He was back at the graveyard. The corpse was still laying spread eagle, crimson staining the ground and the overwhelming sense of death lingering in the cool night air. Draco approached the remains of Durmstrang's former headmaster, barely recognizable as his skin had begun to decay and bones were showing.

Unexpectedly, the skin began to regenerate and time seemed to be in rewind, and soon the body seemed just as it did before Draco had performed the curse that had ended its life.

Slowly, the body rose back up to a kneeling position, Karkaroff's face twisted in pain and silently screaming. The remains floated back into his body and kneeling in front of Draco was an intact and fully alive Igor Karkaroff.

A voice, cold and shrill, suddenly spoke. "You must return to the past, Draco. Commit your lovely sins again, and go my servant."

Draco's eyes shot open. He rose from his bed, his legs stiff and his eyes staring straight ahead. After dressing rather awkwardly, he walked down the cold stone halls of Malfoy Manor and out into the cold night.

Leaving the estate, Draco made no signs that he knew where he was going, his legs guiding him and his mind blank. His swift steps soon brought him to a local wizarding pub, The Hampson.

As it was nearing midnight, very few people were left sitting at the bar, but Draco's uncontrolled eyes spotted a young woman slouched on a stool, staring miserably into her mug and unmistakable tears sliding down her soft cheeks.

Draco smiled for no reason at all and stiffly sat down next to her. The woman turned her face to see who it was and merely gave him an "uh" as a greeting. She was nearly plastered and Draco's face came in and out of her vision, blur lines around his slick hair and pointed face.

After ordering a root beer, his favorite soft drink naturally, Draco picked up light conversation with the woman next to him, although he had no control on what he was saying at all.

Eventually, after several more alcoholic drinks for the woman, Draco escorted her outside and down a few streets, her clinging to his arm, stumbling and laughing and carousing louder than Draco would have liked.

One turn into an alley and he would have her. He saw his opportunity arise and his left hand mechanically shifted to withdraw his wand. Her reaction was already slow and she didn't even notice him shrug her body off of his arm.

"Patesco Ile!" he shouted, using the same incantation as last time.

Her screams filled the night for ten seconds before the silencing portion of the curse kicked in. Just as Karkaroff had done, she took out her wand from her right pocket and slid it slowly, ever so slowly across her stomach.

Her silent screams, although silent to the night, echoed in his mind and rebounded off of every nook and cranny filling his brain, filling him with a sense of sadistic glee and an uncontainable power flowing from his body to his arm to her dying body. In short, he loved it.

He began to see flashing figures across his eyes as they fluttered shut.

Unknown to Draco, he had been sleep...well, sleep-killing, would be the word for it. He left the scene of the crime, the body splayed on the ground with crimson red blood staining the cobblestone street, and proceeded to walk back to his manor.

* * *

Draco woke up the next morning, ignorant of what had happened the night before; but still feeling the leftover high of euphoria from the feelings he had received from killing the girl. He smiled as he descended the cold stone stairs down to the lower level kitchen.

A long, low-ceilinged room with a table long enough to seat a hundred people. Sitting at the head seat was Lucius Malfoy, eyeing his son with intense concern. Draco sat down in the seat farthest from his father out of habit, although he was smiling like a mad man.

"Draco?" he demanded. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Draco looked perplexed for a moment before his cheery grin once more spread across his face. "What do you mean, Father? Nothing is wrong with me, although I simply can't wait to leave for Hogwarts today."

"Like hell, there's not. Why are you smiling? Aren't you supposed to be the Prince of Macabre, the Sultan of Sullenness?"

Waving off this remark with a flick of his hand, Draco turned to his food, which had been placed in front of him by one of those filthy house elves.

Owls appeared from the windows and dropped off the morning mail to Lucius and Draco, at their separate ends of the table.

Both of them however, received the Daily Prophet, whose headlines caught both Malfoys' attentions quickly.

WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN EAST WILTSHIRE;

AURORS DON'T RULE OUT SUICIDE AS A SUSPECT

Regina Sicotti's bloody body was found late last night lying

in the middle of a cobbled alley, Auror head chief

Wesley Higgins said this morning. Her corpse had a slit

across the abdomen, which was determined to have originated from her

own wand, although the spell is completely unknown to the Ministry of Magic.

Sicotti, of the famous Venetian Sicotti Syndicate, had

been visiting a distant relative for the weekend

before she was kicked out of the household because of her

excessive use of the family liquor cabinet.

Supposedly, she was last seen wandering aimlessly

out of the local pub in town, The Hampson.

Because the spell had originated from Sicotti's

own wand, Aurors believe that she may have become

thoroughly downtrodden over the public

rebellion and distress culminating back in her Italian

hometown. If anyone has any

information regarding this event, please

contact Mr. Wesley Higgins of the Auror Department,

Ministry of Magic Headquarters.

"Sweet Merlin," Lucius muttered, slowly raising his eyes to look at his son. Draco was blissfully reading the gruesome report with no sign of guilt, although Lucius knew for a fact that his son had been missing for the house for a good deal of time last night. Having witnessed an exactly duplicate spell as the one described in the papers, Lucius concluded that it had been Draco to kill the girl.

'No matter,' he thought. 'I kill people everyday. I guess it's just curious to see Draco showing no remorse at all.'

Bonzo; the new house elf, appeared at the kitchen door and announced that the carriage to King's Cross had just arrived.