Poison Ivy || Draco Malfoy

21 - Poison Ivy

A/N: WARNING: this chapter contains dark, traumatic and disturbing scenes (and also a complete HP character assassination)

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I know what you are all thinking: 'What the hell is this woman doing with Percy Weasley? If she is so unhappy, then why doesn't she leave him?'

Well, let me tell you this; life isn't always that black and white.

It actually started off as a sweet romance. I had known him, of course, through Ginny back in our school days; but romance didn't blossom until I returned home from art college.

Despite Draco Malfoy being incarcerated in Azkaban; I had still found it difficult to remove him from my mind. Because of this, I found it hard to meet men. Subsequently, the loss of my virginity was a disastrous awkward fumble with a fellow art student who was just as clueless, and ended up just as disappointed as I was over the experience.

So, just like Pansy, I had decided sex was not for me.

And then, after my return from college, Percy Weasley offered me a job in his department in the Ministry. I happily accepted, knowing Percy would be a good boss; he had always been kind to me and I found he was easy to chat to.

It was soon pretty clear he was interested in extending our relationship beyond employer and employee, however.

He made me laugh with his awkward jokes, even though Ginny insisted they were just daggy 'Dad' jokes. I also admired how he took his career seriously and was always keen to impress to get to the top.

I was fond of him, and for the first time, I wasn't completely obsessing about Draco Malfoy. And plus, I adored his family; his sister was my best friend, Molly and Arthur were like second parents to me, and all his brothers treated me like another sister.

So, when he asked me to marry him, I couldn't think of a reason not to say yes. The idea of becoming a permanent member of the Weasley clan made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

When it came to sex, he appeared to have quite a traditional attitude towards it. He didn't want us to start doing it until we had our own place.

I was more than happy to wait; my only previous sexual encounter quite frankly having put me off for life. Obviously, I knew we'd have to have sex to have children, but that was a thought far from my mind at the time.

His reluctance for sex made Percy the ideal partner in my book. He wasn't big on kisses and cuddles either; preferring to keep our mouths closed whenever we did partake in the occasional physical act.

For some reason - probably due to my lack of experience - I never found this strange.

So, eight months and a marriage proposal into our relationship later, we finally acquired our own London flat which we bought as a joint purchase.

It was at that time that I finally realised what it meant to be in a physical relationship with Percy Weasley.

But by then, I felt too trapped in our relationship to be able to walk away.

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It was like living with Jekyll and Hyde.

Two very different people. One - kind, compassionate and harmless. The other - evil, nasty and dangerous.

The thing is, it wasn't his fault. Witnessing his brother's death during the battle of Hogwarts had done something to Percy's mental state. And when the lights went out at night; something evil seemed to switch inside his brain.

I knew this because it was one of the things he would shout out.

"Call me Fred, you bitch! Call me FRED!"

I'd sob into the pillow, praying for it to be over.

It's not his fault, I'd tell myself. It's not his fault.

I never talked about it to anyone, because how could I? The idea of ever saying out loud that my fiancé forces me to call him by his dead brother's name whilst he violently wrests me into painful and humiliating sexually degrading positions mortified me beyond belief.

I didn't know what to do. I tried bringing it up with Percy in the daytime whenever I felt like we were in a safe space - usually at work in the privacy of his office, but he would immediately shut me down, acting as though I was blowing everything out of proportion.

And I started to wonder if I was. I'd read somewhere that people participated in violent sex as a kind of sport. Was I just being a prude? I mean, I hadn't been exactly experienced in sex before Percy.

The idea of leaving him had crossed my mind, but I couldn't bear the thought of letting down the Weasleys. They were like a family to me. And Ginny, my best friend; how would I ever be able to look her in the face again?

And then there were my parents; my mother who scrubbed her hands a thousand times a day because she was terrified of the thought of being seen as anything but respectable. And my father, who was so insistent on keeping reputation in the family name that he was happy for me to marry someone who he had previously regarded as a blood traitor simply because he was now known as a war hero.

Pansy, I never saw anymore. Her new lifestyle took her travelling across the world pretty much twenty four seven.

I'd never admit it to her face, but I missed her.

So I stayed. And I endured; praying that one day, maybe, I would get used to it; or even better - he would simply stop.

But he never did.

I was his Poison Ivy. And I didn't see how I'd ever escape.

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