Draco's Bones

I gripped my wand so tightly I felt my arm begin to quiver. Draco Malfoy leered at me from the other side of the gravestone, his pale face streaked with dried blood. His light blonde hair was disheveled and matted with mud, and even his robes were torn in several spots, including his shoulder and wrists. His pale skin was resplendent in the impaling moonlight, but despite his tousled appearance, his eyes were stoked like silver fire, more formidable than I could ever remember.

I longed to jab my wand at him and shout the first incantation that came to mind. But my mouth remained stubbornly shut, my body unresponsive. He stalked closer. The irises that grew in the ground were squished under his feet, and his wand bobbed up and down in his jittery hands.

"Granger, I've never seen you so frightened," he said amusedly, his fetid delight curling his lips into a dismal smirk.

I remained frustratingly silent, willing myself to appear as fearsome as possible. I surely felt dwarfed by his presence, but concealing that wouldn't hurt. The power he'd been granted by dear Voldemort himself rolled off him like tidal waves, encompassing her with tangible force.

"When have you ever been so powerful?" I asked through gritted teeth, the effort just to speak rattling my bones.

He laughed a hollow laugh. "Like my new power? Impressive? It's ten times better than anything Potter can do," he added maliciously.

"You're power is loaned, Harry's is true," I gasped. His eyes snapped, and he was at my side instantly. He jammed the point of his wand into my neck, leaving a trail of fresh blood as he dragged it through my skin and down to my collarbone. The pain that washed over me nearly made me faint, but he grabbed my arm savagely.

"Potter will fall tonight, and I will have the pleasure of watching you die as well," he sneered. His face was too close to mine, close enough for me to detect a wavering sense of confidence.

Distant echoes of the battle behind me pulsed into one sound; the wizards screaming spells, the Death Eaters oppressing with disgusting grace. I couldn't see any of it either, because Draco and I were conveniently veiled from the rest of the group by a large willow tree surrounded by rotting tombstones.

Our conversation ended there, and I watched in horror as his mouth started frantically spouting off a curse. With a surge of anger, I imperiously elbowed him in the stomach and bolted back towards the fray of incinerating spells. But he was too quick for me.

Virulently he pulled me closer and held me against him, petulant loathing winking in the bowels of his silver eyes. I loathed him with a boiling core, and never had I felt like killing someone as much as I did him. I needed to get back to Harry, and Draco was just a parlous obstacle.

I wrenched my arm free of his, and stabbed my wand into his back. Frantically I ran it down his spine, chanting a quick spell. This interrupted his complicated curse, and suddenly he went rigid and his grip loosened. She wiggled free, and took his moment of dazed confusion to cast a Silencio on him. Then she rushed forward and knocked him onto the ground.

The look of white rage on his face as he spouted off a gush of curses with no sound made me snicker. However, he didn't stay on the ground, and quickly jumped to his feet. He chased after me as I vamoosed through the graveyard, eager to fight next to Harry again.

I yelped when he grabbed my hair and yanked me to the ground. In desperation I grabbed for anything to resist as he dragged me along the rocky ground. All I ended up doing was tearing the pretty irises out of their roots, which is what it felt like Draco was doing to my hair.

I wheeled around suddenly, my wand pointed at him. Suddenly he let go, but I noticed him discreetly waving his wrist at his side. Just as I prepared to cast Petrificus Totalus on his arse, his wand was back in his hand. I should have known with his enhanced power he'd be able to use wordless magic.

He pointed the wand at me, and I barely had time for a shield as bright red jets came shooting at me. They bounced off my shield and hit Draco square in the chest. I sighed. Despite his power, he was still not too wise in dueling.

I laughed, the aftermath of his Levicorpus keeping him dangled upside down in the air. Warily, I approached him. He still hand his wand in his hand as he dangled in the air like an invisible giant were teasing him. He was slightly limp, but I didn't allow that to fool me.

As I expected, when I got closer, he raised his wand and pointed it straight at me. A blinding green light shot towards me, and clashed with my own jets of orange. I was thrown backwards, the wind knocked out of me. Dust from the ground curled up around me, blocking my view of Draco.

I stood hastily, pain rushing to my head. He was no longer in the air, but sprawled amidst the out-of-place irises. His wand had clattered away. Frowning, I leaned closer. He looked paler than usual. I felt for a pulse. There wasn't one, but I just told myself I wasn't in the proper state of mind to tell. My heart was clattering frenetically in my chest, and my brain was a bowl of cold soup.

Then I realized something with a start. His spell had been bright green. Avada Kedavra, perhaps?

Had I killed Draco Malfoy? Inadvertently of course, but that couldn't wipe away the guilt. But why should I feel guilt towards him? He would have killed me if I hadn't gotten rid of him, though I had no intentions of killing him. I may have wished to, but I never intended to.

Desperately, I felt for a pulse again. Then, I grabbed my wand and checked with one of the spells I had read in a book once. Dread washed over me as the truth sunk in. He was dead.

However, I found it ironic and coincidental for him to die in a graveyard, surrounded by purple irises. I remembered reading once that in the magical world, purple irises were a symbol of death. How morbid and fitting for him to die so.

I swallowed hard. I quickly picked a handful of the best looking flowers, though they were all rent with magical stress, and then placed them on his chest. I felt awkward about it, but somehow through our spell clash I had been the one to survive. I couldn't just let him rot, my conscious would drive me insane later, I knew it would.

Ruefully I gazed at the flowers, the sounds of the ensuing battle fading as I thought of the song my mother had once sang to me to rock me into slumber. I was always a restless sleeper, but it had worked charms on me. Even though Draco was lost to slumber already, I felt no harm in singing a quick verse. Plus, it wasn't only to his benefit. It soothed me, and I needed all the consoling I could get at the moment.

Timidly I began to hum it, falling into the sweet rhythm of it before allowing myself to sing it. When I did use the words, I hated the sound of my warbling voice. It was cracked and strained, like a muggle who smoked too much.

As I sang, I squeezed Draco's cold wrist and stroked one of the flowers with my other hand. I stared at his face, rigid and abhorrent even in death. I stopped singing abruptly, and my words hung in the beleaguered air like the echo of wind chimes did. Discreetly I tucked his wand into my robe, and then gingerly stepped over his prone body, heading towards the tumult that awaited me.

Suddenly I felt a surge of energy, as if my small act of compassion had washed away any guilt or lingering remorse. I leaped over some gaping holes in the ground, foolishly looking forward to being trapped in the battle beyond this willow tree. Harry needed me though. I was a stronger reassurance than any of the other Order members.

Just at the edge of the tree, I could see dark shadowy figures loping across the dingy ground, jets of bright colored curses zinging through the morose night. I saw green too much, and there were too many bodies that lay haphazardly on the ground. As I gathered my courage, I heard a strange sound behind me. It was like a crackling noise, growing stronger by the second.

I didn't have time to look behind me before something white acme hurtling at me. It made contact with my stomach, and sent me reeling to the ground. I gasped as a possessive coldness wrapped itself around me. I had clambered to me knees, but I quickly lost my balance and fell to the ground. My vision spun as I opened my eyes.

Right in front of me, nestled between the grubby stones and haunting flowers, was a long, insipid bone. Revulsion rose to my throat, but I stifled a scream. I reached for my wand, but it was gone. Frantically I searched for it. It wasn't there.

My heart jolted when I looked over at Draco's body. It was gone

The crackling noise was gone, but now I could hear a faint snapping noise approaching me. Disgusted, I grabbed the bone from the ground, as it was my only weapon then. I had no clue what was going on, but I didn't want to be caught off guard.

I spun around hysterically, my eyes peeled for an ominous shadow or person.

What I saw was nothing like I'd expect.

Standing before me was Draco, his gray eyes as fiery as when he'd been living. And what made me assume he wasn't living? Parts of his skin were missing, like they'd been chipped away, and through the missing skin I could see his bones. No blood, no muscles, just radiating white bones. He still had his hair, and his eyes were still intact, but a few of his fingers were skeletal, as well as his arms. The rest was hidden by his robes, but I could only imagine the horrors hidden beneath them. He bones snapped when they moved, and the missing skin made him seem surreal.

He limped towards me. "Give me my leg back," he rasped in a hollow voice. I shivered at the crudeness of his tone, and realized I was probably wielding his femur bone, which would explain his limp.

I gripped it tighter. "What...what happened to you?"