THE FURIES ▸ Draco Malfoy

Chapter Thirty-Seven: CLOTHO

◤ ❝What a beautiful ending we could have been.❞ ― Alastaire Erebus ◢

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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: CLOTHO

June 17, 1996 (1 Day Before)

"You're hovering."

Celicia Erebus flinched at the sound of her husband's voice, having fallen so far deep into a trance watching him at his desk that he startled her back to reality. His green eyes were looking back at her when she focused on his face, his pale complexion an indication of how ill he'd grown in the last few months. With the report in the Quibbler that came out from Potter about those he witnessed with The Dark Lord...there was no lack of concern in the Erebus family. Celicia for her husband, and Alastaire for his daughter―who had to face the wrath of hundreds of students that now knew her father was a Death Eater. How could she ever look him in the eye when she returned home for the summer? The only solace he had was knowing she had her cousin.

Her worried eyes burned against his flesh. "You haven't eaten in days, Alastiare, and the last time you properly slept was weeks ago...it will not matter what happens next if you allow yourself to rot from the inside out first. You must keep yourself well if―"

"―Celicia," he interrupted, sighing in exhaustion and laying his quill down. "I have already begun rotting from the inside out. The effects of this are only just catching up to the outside perception of me, as well."

There was a deafening silence shared between the married pair. Celicia knew that her husband's mental state had been tried worse this time around than before. They didn't have a daughter before. Alastiare hadn't known sacrifice to the degree he would give for Andromeda―but now he knew, and that in itself was enough to rot him from the inside out, knowing what he'd put his daughter through because he chose the wrong side. There was nothing he could do now for himself, but he could surely still fight for them. He could block his mind from his Lord, pretend he was loyal, and pray that the ending of the story would favor his daughter and wife's lives better than his own.

"You promised me you wouldn't give up."

His jaw clenched, but he kept his eyes focused on the ground ahead of him. "You call it giving up but it is the complete opposite, Cece. I've made my peace and decided my fate. That is not defeat, that is acceptance. This journey...has brought nothing but sorrow and grief to those I love most. I infect others as deeply as his Mark does, and it is more than just a poison to my own soul but to yours as well―to Andromeda's―to your family...it is my family's dues that must be paid with Death, and He hovers around every corner."

Celicia's eyes widened at him. "You choose to put your life to a children's book?"

"I put my life to history," he corrected calmly, noticing that his wife's patience was wearing thin for him. So was her composure. He knew every move she made, and every tear threatening to fall. "Not one person in my family has lived to tell the tale of a long life, Cece. You know that my lineage is written in blood. Each of us has been cut off, sacrificed to Death to pay our dues. We were not one of the tales that cheated Him twice. I was granted my first pass when I joined the Dark Lord all those years ago, and now I am paying my price. That does not mean you and Andromeda must pay the same as me."