Bruised & Broken // D.M.

Chapter 68

Sixty-eight
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The nightmares became a regular thing.

Every night it was the same dream. Every night Malfoy woke up covered in sweat — screaming. Every night Amara held him, whispering the things he needed to hear.

It was a never-ending circle — night by night.

Amara and Theo spend a month convincing Malfoy to take a sleeping draught. Draco didn't agree until Theo started yelling at him, demanding to give his sister some rest. He couldn't bear the sight of his sister's cheeks losing more and more colour with every passing night.

Malfoy was too anxious to fall asleep, too scared to have the same nightmare over and over again and after the sleeping draught didn't seem to help, Amara read her favourite book to him — Pride and Prejudice.

It relaxed his muscles and mind. giving him the chance to rest. He finally received the rest he needed.

Draco changed. Amara noticed it more and more with each passing day. How he was cruel and heartless with others yet with her he seemed to crumble.

He always had been gentle with her yet Amara noticed a difference. Everything about him seemed to be different since their fifth year ended.

He rested his head in her lap while one hand played with the strands of loose hair and the other held the book.

"...The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistencies of all human characters, and of the little dependence that..." she stopped and Draco's head snapped up to hers by the abrupt ending of her reading.

She sighed and he knew something was on her mind. She worried — all the time, "Do you sometimes think we are on the wrong side of the war, Draco?"

A crease formed between his brows as he studied her face from below.

"We would lose everything if Potter manages to kill him,"

Draco sat up so that his body was facing hers and brushed a strand of her coal hair behind her ear, "I won't let that happen," he whispered, "If Potter wins we and your brother will go to where they never find us,"

She smiled weakly at that. The thought of them running away together. Like they would never manage to live without the luxury their lives provided them.

"I saw him following you- Potter," she twirled the ring on her finger, "I was on my way back from the library and he looked so suspicious... so I followed him and then- then I saw you,"

"He is thinking I'm up to something-" Draco said, his hand cupping her jaw —stroking her soft skin with his thumb.

"Well," she bit the inside of her cheek, "are you up to something?" her eyes met his.

"Of course not," he lied and Amara believed him — she had to in order not to lose him or herself.

"I found the spell," she said and Draco frowned again, "to repair the vanishing cabinet,

"oh that- it's nothing you didn't have to do that," he muttered. He didn't want her involved, her father made that clear.

"I thought you wanted to repair it-" Amara knitted her brows.

"I did but that was weeks ago," he kept lying and dropped his hand from her face.

"Well if you ever want to repair it," she got up from the bed and walked over to her bag, "Here," she handed him a parchment.