It Started on the Train

32

"No!" I scream.

They had gotten away, but Bellatrix's knife with them.

"Awww, has the little girl come to care for the 'Chosen One' and his little band of misfits? How darling." She grabs me, and pulls me away into another room. The one were Hermione was. "Tell me what you learned."

"Nothing. They didn't have a plan. They were wandering, trying to figure out what to do next!" Technically I'm not lying.

"Tell me the truth!" She presses her wand into my neck, the wood digging into my skin.

"There's nothing else to tell!"

"LIAR! TRAITOR!" She yells. "CRUCIO." Pain shot through me, like nothing I'd felt before.

I wanted to stay strong. I wanted to stay quiet. But the sound that escaped my lips was one almost foreign to me. The girl who screamed sounded scared and broken.

"Are you ready to tell the truth this time?" The pain stops, and my body relaxes.

"I wasn't lying!"

"Where are they now?"

"I don't know!"

The pain starts again. Almost worse. The sweet taste of relief makes it hurt that much more.

...........................................................................

"Once upon a time," Draco says.

After Bellatrix realized I wasn't going to say anymore, she let me leave. For now she seems to believe that really is all I know. And it is. We didn't have a plan, and there isn't ever a planned place on where to go next.

Draco brought me back to his room, and is reading me old stories. I've always loved classic things like fairy tales.

He is sitting up against the bed frame, reading the stories from an old worn out book. One hand is holding the book, and the other is stroking my hair.

His steady voice lulls me to sleep.

...........................................................................

I wake up in the middle of the night, not completely sure why, but I'm awake.

Draco's arms are around me, and the gentle rise and fall of his chest is almost comforting. A sense of familiarity in this very unfamiliar time.

I'm worried about Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Dobby. Hopefully the knife didn't hurt anyone. Hopefully Bellatrix missed them.

I try to push those thoughts out of my mind for now, there's no use worrying because I can't do anything about it. I lay there for a little while, enclosed in a little pocket of peace.

I started to drift of into that beautiful half asleep feeling, when Draco started to stir.

"No." He murmured. "No. Please no."

"Draco?" I ask. He's still asleep.

"Please. No. Spare her."

"Draco, wake up." I shake him gently, but enough to wake him up. "You were sleep talking."

"Hmm?" He asks groggily.

"You were saying stuff."

"What did I say?" He asks sitting up, but not seeming to be completely awake.

"You said 'no' and 'please' a few times. Did you have a nightmare?"

"Yeah."

"What was it about?"

"You."

"Oh." He rubs his eyes, and yawns.

"Ever since the day we left Dromeda's, I've either not slept, or had the same nightmare. You are pinned to the ground by your mother, her want to your throat, and I am sitting there, behind some impenetrable wall of glass, watching. It always ends with her killing you."

"It's just a dream."

"It's so much better to see you. I can wake up and not have to wait and hope you're still alive." He pulls me closer and presses a kiss against my forehead.

"I love you."

"I love you too." He starts stroking my hair again. "So, were there any stories you have to tell? You never really elaborated on what happened at the library."

So until sunrise, we exchanged stories that we hadn't wanted to write out. He caught me up on everything happening in the real world, and I told him about our adventures.

"I'm hungry." I finally say as the sun comes up.

"Me too. I've been hungry since we woke up."

"Then let's go get some food!" We quietly run into the kitchen, grabbing some fruit and toast.

Draco leads me outside, to the tree which I have deemed ours.

"Oh look!" I point at some bushes as we pass them. "Raspberries!" I go over to them, picking a few, and popping them into my mouth.

I pick some more, and put them with our breakfast.

We keep walking out to the tree, and lean against the sturdy trunk.

I put the raspberries on each of my fingers. I remember doing this when I was little.

I pinch Draco's nose with my raspberry fingers, and he bites one of the raspberries off, laughing.

"Hey!"

"That's what you get for pinching my nose." He teases.

I eat all of the other raspberries off of my fingers.

Draco reaches for my hand, and I lay my head on his shoulder, and we watch the sun come up.

...........................................................................

Draco went back to Hogwarts. I didn't. I wanted to find my friends. And it would be too painful to be in that school, no longer the one I would call home.

From what he told me, it is nothing like the Hogwarts I know and love. The Carrows are horrible, and Snape is worse than usual. Everyone is in constant fear, except brave Neville. I'm proud of him, finally sticking up for himself.

I also wouldn't be able to bare to be there, the place that had so many good memories, and not have the people who I created them with.

It's not my home without my family.

So I'm off to find them.

It's been a week, and absolutely nothing.

I searched everywhere I can think of to go, and I have no idea.

Maybe my best bet is to go to back to Hogwarts.

That's where my father said the diadem was stored, and where he destroyed it, so the Dark Lord will go there eventually. And that means Harry will too.