captive | d.m.

chapter 20

-Terra-

Wherever Voldemort had chosen to hide, to keep himself Occluded and disappear under a spell that wouldn't contribute to his location, it was working because Harry, Ron, and Hermione were growing angrier and frustrated by the second.

So close, so close they had said. Maybe if saving me wasn't an option they would have found him. They'd visited me countless times, trying to figure out if I had any clue of where he might be hiding or keeping his beloved snake. Well, obviously Nagini was with him.

I caressed my stomach and sat with my legs folded under me. A bloody week in this hospital bed while watching the reconstruction of Hogwarts under McGonagall's orders and Hagrid's work and the students' perseverance. Students and fighters were buried, funerals were planned. The castle was quiet and sad.

At least the elves were freed. And then I thought there was something to smile for when I watched the elf known as Kreacher drag a portrait across and place it back on the wall. But it remained vacated.

Theo's curtains were still drawn and Pansy was nowhere to be seen. I didn't ask either. I didn't know what to ask.

But after awhile, slowly they began to tell me who had passed and I felt my heart sink lower and lower.

Snape

Lupin and Tonks

Lavender Brown

Colin Creevey

Susan Bones

A Ravenclaw who was a year below me

several elves

Vincent Crabbe—who we'd found out was actually a Death Eater...along with Gregory Goyle

Fred Weasley was severely injured and in critical condition at St. Mungo's which was why I rarely saw Ron and Ginny.

"He's gonna die a slow and painful death," Ron had muttered one day. Ginny had shot him a death glare while Hermione rubbed her shoulders soothingly.

"He'll be okay," Hermione had said but Ginny wasn't convinced and Ron was furious in silence.

Harry had stared ahead, lost in another world. He hadn't really said much since the battle. Voldemort was his main priority, always his main priority. He'd barely even flinched when Hermione told me of Lupin's death. I suppose he'd grown used to losing family. Just like me.

Gladly enough, the Minister had been murdered.

I had a feeling Kingsley Shacklebolt had something to do with it, which was why he had been absent since the battle. And ultimately this meant that Voldemort was losing. Death Eaters disappeared, fallen. Some were even caught. All we needed to do was finish them off, Neville had said. I'd never seen Neville Longbottom more triumphant than ever. As if he had been preparing for the war his entire life. And maybe he had. We were about to win, he was sure of it.

And here I was, stuck in bed, unable to fight, unable to help.

During the day I roamed the castle. I ate lunch in the Great Hall alongside Luna, Cho, and Hannah. I wondered where all the Slytherins had fled. I suddenly felt out of place and lonely without the infamous face of Pansy Parkinson and her dysfunctional gang. Was that weird? That the Slytherins had in a ways turned into my family?

I told the girls about my mother and they told me they remembered her, they remembered me. They didn't address who I became in the past and I was glad for it.

Everyone remembered me, everyone except Draco.

I knew he was probably at Grimmauld Place with Andromeda and Teddy. He'd disappeared after finding me at the lake. After I'd shamelessly kissed him. I shivered to myself.