Black Roses

He was in a dark room. The ceiling was so high he couldn't see it, but he didn't even try. He was sitting on the floor, staring at his left arm. There was something forming on the soft skin there.

He gasped as a skull appeared and looked away before seeing the snake taking form around it. He knew what it was. The Dark Mark. He was cursed.

He got up and started pacing around the room. This is not possible, he thought. The ceremony hasn't taken place yet. However, the skin on his left arm burned. He reached a wall and leaned against it.

Suddenly, he heard a small sound in the middle of the room. He slowly got up and walked there. He stared at the object on the floor for a long moment before realizing what it was. A black rose. What on earth is going on?

He sat on the floor and stared down at the rose. It was perfect even though it was the symbol of death. Just like me, he thought. He smiled a dark, bitter smile that would've made his schoolmates' skin crawl. If they weren't Death Eaters too.

There was another sound, this time somewhere near the ceiling. As the sound got louder, he realized it was the fluttering of wings. He got up and walked in the direction of the sound. There was a dark forest at the opposite side of the room. It was bordered by a lake.

A snowy owl was flying over the water. It carried a black rose in its beak. When it reached Draco, it dropped the rose at his foot. When it hit the ground, it turned into a parchment. He stared at it.

After a while, he took it and went to sit on the roots of a nearby tree. He unrolled the scroll and read it in a trembling voice.

You are cursed for eternity; the mark on your arm will deny you a place in heaven or hell. You are cursed to forever wander the Dreamland and never find peace. You are condemned to solitude.

He took out his wand and started mumbling incantations, pointing at the ground in front of him. A minor demon appeared.

By the eternal God whose name and power

Thou tremblest at, answer that I shall ask,

For till thou speak, thou shalt not pass from hence.

The demon nodded and waited for the question.

Am I allowed to go to hell after my passing from this earth?

Thou shalt not be allowed such a thing.

He broke the bind and the demon disappeared. He shrugged and threw the parchment in the lake. It disintegrated immediately. He went back to the middle of the room and sat in front of the rose.

This is it, then. I can find peace at last. Eternal solitude. Eternal silence, which I craved for as a child at the Manor.

He leaned over the rose and picked it up. He held it, as if to weigh it. It was heavy, but it felt like velvet. He pushed its thorns into his left wrist. The blood started dripping, the blue blood that had been his curse. It pooled around him, and the rose became lighter with every drop. He fell to the floor and stared up at the ceiling. Light showered over him.

As the last drops fell, the light turned to darkness. The fell into the abyss, still clutching the rose in his tainted left hand. And then there was nothing left but blissful peace and eternity.