Imperio ⇢ D.M

Chapter Fourty Five

End

"If there comes a day that I cry over a person, then that's the day I lose everything."

Arden woke up in the Hogwarts hospital wing. She looked to her side and saw numerous get well cards from her friends, but nothing from Draco.

At the foot of her bed, she saw Harry. He had his face in his hands, and was mumbling complete gibberish to himself. Arden took a deep breath and spoke his first name for the first time in a long while.

"Harry?" She asked. Harry quickly turned and examined her features. Arden experienced a minor concussion from the fall when Lucius put her unconscious, but other than that she had no visible signs of injury.

Harry's face lit up, and he moved up the bed to get closer to her. "You're okay!" He sighed of relief. "I shouldn't have left you, I'm sorry it's all my fault-"

"Did you find Sirius?" Arden asked. Harry stopped, and his grin washed away. "Oh... I'm so sorry..." Arden sighed. Harry only nodded, and avoided eye contact.

"You were right Harry..." she began, "about Lucius being a Death Eater." Arden took a deep breath. She didn't know what it could mean for Draco. She would never believe that Draco would follow in his footsteps at all. He may be a bit extra regarding Pure Blood supremacy, but Arden knew Draco, and he wasn't the boy to follow the Dark Lord  because of it.

"What are you going to do?" Harry asked her. It pained him to watch her struggle with her decision. Harry knew that it was going to be difficult for her, even if he truly hated Malfoy, he felt sorry for Arden.

"I guess I'll have to talk to him..."

-

Draco's body shook as he read his mother's cursive writing on the letter he had received early this morning. The letter telling him that his father was put into Azkaban after a Death Eater battle against Harry Potter and others.

Draco scrunched up the letter and threw it into the fire, not wanting to see it's contents ever again. He knew Arden left to go to the Ministry after Ginny had helped her and the others escape Umbridge's office, and heard about the battle in the news.

Draco didn't want to visit Arden while she was in the hospital, afraid to witness his worst nightmare which would be Arden in agonising pain.

Draco had no idea what happened to her at the Ministry, all he knew was that she was out cold. Blaise visited her and tried to tell Draco that she was unharmed, but he didn't believe a sentence of it.

Aurors were the people that had to bring her back, meaning she would have had to been found unconscious. He thought of the things that could have happened to her during that time, and it made him throw fits of anger.

Draco sighed as he watched the letter from his mother burn in the common room fireplace. Not only did it describe how his father failed his family's honour, but it told him to take responsibility.

With his father locked up, Draco was now man of the house. His family was always well respected within the Death Eater group, thus keeping him out of trouble and not forced into anything.

But now, he knew what he was about to do. His father had brought it up before, and now it was time to do whatever it took to keep Arden away from Death Eaters; to keep her safe.