Unhinged

Chapter 3

Draco woke up the next morning bright and early; after all he was used to getting up at the crack of dawn from his father storming in after one of his many vicious attacks on the innocent. He would barge into his bedroom to tell him all about it and share gruesome details that Draco could not stomach to listen to. He laid there in bed for a moment longer just thinking, just being. He was grateful McGonagall was nice enough to give him the private Head boy dorm since there was no Head boy or girl this year. He was one of the oldest Slytherins attending Hogwarts, in fact, he was the only Slytherin from his seventh year that returned. He knew some of the sixth years who were now seventh years with him, but still not having his friends attend school this year with him was different. Friends, is that what they really were? Probably not, just pawns like himself put in place, just puppets waiting to be maneuvered about.

He let his thoughts travel back to his private room, he was glad McGonagall could tell more about him than he needed to explain, not that he needed or wanted anyone's pity, but he knew the Headmistress was aware of his touchy situation and thought it best this way. He flung the blankets off himself and went to take a shower when he stepped out to dry off he took a glance over himself. He was met with so many bruises that were almost healed and so many scars from the many beatings he endured. He thought back to one evening when his father returned home from an attack that didn't go as planned and it was taken out on him. He remembered his father using the Cruciatus curse on him that night more than any other night because he didn't lift the curse for a good ten minutes at least that's what Draco figured until he lost consciousness from the pain. It was during that torturous episode that as he fell to his knees and thrashed around on the ground helpless that he cut his shoulder on the edge of a piece of furniture causing a large gash. The Cruciatus Curse, he knew it all too well, unfortunately, his father had found a way to tap into Draco's mind and perform the curse even when he wasn't even around. Sometimes he would be put under the curse in the middle of the night knowing it must be because one of his father's raids didn't go as planned or sometimes just because he wanted to keep him in check.

He ran his fingers over his scar then traced the length of his arm where his fingers traced a few smaller scars over his wrist. Never had he thought he would be adding to the collection of scars his father caused by his own hand. Sometimes it was just too much to deal with and Draco wasn't sure really why he was still alive, why didn't he just take his life already? He knew he was too afraid to go through with it, he was a coward in every way possible, it made him sick to even look at himself in the mirror and brought his fist up to it; shattering the mirror to pieces. He cursed under his breath when he saw his hand full of glass and blood and he quickly cleaned up and repaired the mirror with his wand and got dressed. He wrapped his hand up and headed down to his first class of Potions.

Walking into class he noticed he was the last one to arrive and took a seat in the back. Every eye turned to look at him, but he ignored it. He saw Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny sitting diagonally from him. "That's right the little Weaslette is a seventh year now so she gets to hang with her precious trio every minute of the day now" he thought to himself. He rolled his eyes at this thought and pulled out his potions book for class.

"Ah Mr. Malfoy, glad you could make it this morning. Now class we are going to start with a simple potion for today to get our minds refreshed. Today we are making a sleeping draught potion, so let's get into pairs," said Professor Slughorn as he wrote the instructions down on the board.

The class scrambled about, although there wasn't much of a class, maybe twenty if that altogether. Hermione of course was paired with Ron and Ginny made sure Luna and Harry were partners hoping that Harry would catch on to Luna's feelings for him. She snickered at the thought and shook her head. She went to go find another partner when Slughorn spoke.