Forbidden Love

Chapter 38

My vision becomes blurry. I can feel the life being pulled from within me as I continue laying there on the floor.

"Draco! What do we do?" Mattheo screams over his shoulder as he cups my face with his hands. The room starts spinning and I look up at the ceiling, thinking about how this is the second time I've almost died in a matter of weeks. 

"He's inserted the Draught of Living Death into her. I can tell by the markings on her chest. We need an antidote and fast!" Mattheo continues yelling over his shoulder, barely audible to me now. 

Mattheo rustles in his pants pocket and searches the floor, looking for what I'm assuming is his wand. I can see it just a few inches away from us, so I use what little energy I have left to raise my finger and point at it. He darts his eyes over to his right and slides across the floor to pick it up, then returns to my side. He laces a kiss on my cheek and sniffles. 

"It'll be alright, baby, please stay with me, give me one minute, please, please Eden," he begs, trying to keep me awake.

He whispers a barely audible spell, then a small bottle appears in his hand. He throws the bottle over to Blaise and looks up.

"Veritaserum. Pour it in his mouth, NOW," he demands as Blaise quickly opens the bottle and pours it down Theo's throat. I watch as Theo fights against Draco's hold and some of the potion rolls down his chin. 

"Ugh! Why would you give me that, it's fucking nasty!" Theo yells as Draco slowly releases his grip around Theo's throat. Draco and Blaise stand back, waiting for whatever Theo is about to confess.

"What are you doing?! Why are you trying to hurt her, Theo?!" Blaise yells.

"Voldemort..." Theo mutters as he gasps for air. "He confronted me in our room today and told me that I had to kill Eden. He was speaking Parseltongue and he did something to me with his wand.. I can't remember, fuck. He said.. He said that I had to destroy her, and that I would get eternal glory for my actions." He looks down at me laying only feet away from him. 

"My father.." Mattheo says through quiet sobs. "Why.. Why would he do this, Draco? You have to know!" He yells.

Draco swallows hard, thinking for a moment before speaking. "He wants Eden dead because of her father's betrayal. Eden's father tried to kill Voldemort.. William tried to create a rapid poison to destroy him years ago, so he could live in peace with Eden and her mother. However, Voldemort could sense William's thoughts and knew he was plotting his death. So, Voldemort thought two steps ahead and tried to make it seem like he'd agree to William leaving his army. Instead, he murdered him. Now, he's after Eden, as revenge to William." Draco stammers with every word and comes by my side with Mattheo. 

"We have to do something, or she's dead in minutes, Mattheo. You know the potion, but it's dangerous. Do you want to risk that?" He asks looking into Mattheo's eyes above me. 

Without hesitation, Mattheo conjures up a potion in his hand. He opens the bottle and wraps a hand around the back of my neck to lift me up from the floor. I look deeply into his eyes, a tear falling from one of mine, as he kisses me on the lips roughly.

"I love you, Eden. If this doesn't work, I'm so fucking sorry.." He leans down and places his head into my chest and kisses my lips once again before pulling away to replace his mouth with the bottle. 

The liquid goes down my throat, soothing the rawness from crying. He releases me to lay on the floor again and stands up with Draco and stares down at me. Theo walks over to stand beside them and begins to cry. 

"Eden, I'm so sorry.. Please live, live for us," he begs. I don't respond to his plea because my throat is numb from the potion. 

A few more seconds pass, and I feel my body tense up. I feel similar to how I felt when I accepted the dark mark. My body begins to change from within me and I close my eyes, preparing for the absolute worse. 

Suddenly, I open my eyes seeing bright white lights all around me. I stand up to brush off my pristine white dress and notice that my dark mark is gone. I examine the room for a moment and try to make sense of everything. It looks just like the Great Hall at school.  I walk down the hallway, looking for a door, a window, something to look out of to see where I am. Then, a shadow appears ahead of me, and a tall man, dressed in a clean cut suit approaches me. 

"Dad?"

"Hello darling," he answers and I almost faint. His voice is so soothing to hear after years of not having that opportunity. I wrap him in a hug, embracing every moment of this.

"What are you doing here? It's not your time," he says pushing me back with a worried expression plastered on his face.

"I'm.. I'm not sure. I don't know what happened. I closed my eyes and I woke up over there," I tell him pointing to where I just came from. 

"You have to go back, Eden. It's not time for you to be here, yet. You have so many wonderful years ahead of you." He says pulling me in for another hug. 

"Why can't I just stay here with you, forever?" I ask him as quiet sobs escape my mouth. 

"Sweetheart, you will someday. For now, you must go back, live your life, fall in love, and make me so proud."

I continue looking into his eyes, trying to make sense of everything again. He stands back and points his finger behind me. "Go on, dear," he requests. 

"I love you, dad. Please don't ever forget me," I turn around and hear him reply before he disappears into the glowing light behind him. "I love you, Eden. I'll see you soon."

I gasp and sit up to see Blaise, Mattheo, Draco and Theo sitting around me on the floor.

"Eden!" Draco shouts and pulls me into a hug. "We thought you.." He continues but cuts himself off. 

Theo stares at me with a guilty expression and he grabs my hand. "Eden, that wasn't me. I would never try to purposely hurt you, ever. Please believe me," he pleads and places a kiss on my forehead. 

It takes me a few minutes to even trust that he's normal again as I look between Draco and Mattheo. "We gave him an elixir, he's normal again. Trust us," Mattheo says with compassion in his words. 

I stand up with the guys and they each pull me into a hug, one by one. 

"Are you okay?" Blaise asks taking my right hand in his. 

"I'm okay," I reply with a slight smile. "I just saw my father.." I confess. They all stare at me, probably confused as hell right now. 

"I woke up in a bright white room. Dressed in white and my dark mark was gone. He told me I had to come back, and that I need to make him proud. I don't know what he meant by that but considering I accepted the dark mark I.." I stop speaking as I look down at my forearm. My dark mark is no longer there, the black ink completely erased. Draco, Theo, and Mattheo take out their arms and their dark marks are also gone now. I stand there fingering the area and look up at them.

"Something happened while you were out. The three of us passed out for only a second and when we woke up, they were gone," Theo explains. 

"Does this mean that Voldemort will try to come after us again?" I ask them.

"Probably.. We just have to be prepared. Mattheo knows how his father operates on occasion," Draco says. 

"I'm done with his bullshit. He tried to kill the woman I love.. we love," he clears his throat and corrects himself.

I laugh for what seems like the first time in days. "I don't know what I would do without you all. But, this does not mean I'm choosing between the three of you. I couldn't possibly do that." They all look at me with smirks plastered on their faces as I wait for one of them to respond. 

"Well.. No way in hell does this mean we're asking each other for permission to have you any time we want," Mattheo laughs, looking between Draco and Theo. Theo and Draco quickly grab my hand and we head back to the Great Hall to continue the Hallows Eve festivities.