Poison Ivy || Draco Malfoy

60 - A Sudden Gush of Water

A loud clanging sound made Draco snap his head up.

He was glad of the momentary distraction, the noise pulling him out of his thoughts; thoughts that were causing him to drown in despair as horrors of the past replayed over and over again in his head.

Receiving the Dark Mark; the terror of trying to fix that fucking cabinet; being forced to perform the Cruciatus Curse on fellow students... Ivy.

Ivy being raped over and over again.

His fist flew to his mouth as he stifled his cries. The pain that ripped through his stomach was so real that he couldn't believe he wasn't suffering from something physical.

He rocked back and forth on the floor of the dank, dark cell where he was crouched, biting into his hand, piercing the skin with his teeth in his attempt at trying to stop the gnawing pain that threatened to engulf him.

Fuck, he missed her; he missed her so much. It killed him that he couldn't be there for her; for her and the baby. And he'd had a chance. He didn't know what kind of loophole Potter had found, but it had been there. And Draco had screwed it up, as usual.

Although he'd never regret what he did to that monster. He could only pray that he had beaten the actual fucking life out of him for good. Then this would have been worth it; worth it to know that Ivy was safe.

There was that clanging sound again. Draco couldn't help but pray that this meant that his time had come to finally receive the Kiss. He understood that losing his soul would be bad, but the waiting was torturing him just as much as the misery and depression he was enduring, and nobody was telling him anything.

The cell door suddenly swung open, and Draco looked up to see Potter entering, armed with his glowing stag. The presence of the patronus caused the heavy dark feeling to lift off of Draco almost immediately.

"What's going on?" Draco rasped, his voice hoarse from lack of use. "Is it time?"

But what Potter said next completely threw him.

"I'm here to tell you that you're free to go,"

Draco blinked, feeling utterly perplexed. He briefly wondered if it was just the effect of Potter's patronus causing him to mishear words.

"What?" He spluttered stupidly, shakily getting to his feet.

"Percy has confessed to raping Ivy." Potter explained stiffly, not quite meeting his eye. "The public have called for your release, and Kingsley has ordered me to let you go with a pardon."

"I'm- I'm free?" Draco repeated, trying to get his head around it. All this darkness and misery had been making it hard for him to think straight. "I can go home?"

Potter nodded, looking hellishly uneasy, Draco noted.

"Ivy? How's Ivy?" Draco asked, needing to know at once.

"She's been busy," Potter bristled, a flicker of irritation crossing his features, "she hasn't stopped campaigning for your release from the moment she found out about your arrest."

Draco felt a sudden whooshing sensation in his heart, and he found that he had suddenly never been prouder or more in love with Ivy than before this moment.

And right now he needed to know, needed some kind of hope to cling onto.

"The loophole- Potter," he rasped, "you said you found something? Does it still stand?"

"If the kid is yours, Malfoy," Potter nodded, "then yes, you can stay in Ivy's life."

Draco's heart fluttered; there was hope, even if so much was riding on the parentage of the baby; there was still hope.

And that was all he needed.

*****

On the first day of September in the year two thousand and four, I was woken up at five o'clock in the morning to the loud trill of the doorbell.

In my confused and sleepy state, it took me a while to realise it was in fact my twenty fourth birthday.

But I couldn't work out who on earth would be visiting Pansy's mansion at this time.

As I grabbed a dressing gown, I heard footsteps on the landing scurrying past my room, accompanied by the sound of Pansy's pissed off mutterings.

Leaving my room, I slowly shuffled towards the stairs, the combination of the size and weight of my eight month pregnant belly slowing me down.

Urgent whisperings drifted up from down in the hallway, and I wondered what on earth could possibly be going on as I hobbled on down.

When I finally reached the bottom of the stairs, I could see now that our early morning visitor was a beaming Blaise, who was speaking animatedly to my sister.

Before I could enquire as to why he was here, Pansy span around to face me, her face flustered and full of complete shock.

"He's free," she squealed. "Ivy, we did it; Draco's back home."

"What?" I breathed, my heart racing in elation, "How? Why? I thought Harry was adamant-?"

"The bastard woke up, Ivy," Blaise cut in, his eyes dancing up at me in exhilaration, "he confessed to everything. He confessed to raping you."

The world suddenly shifted beneath me, and I felt dizzy with shock.

Then, just as I opened my mouth to respond, something happened that made me freeze.

For a sudden gush of water evacuated my body; sloshing down noisily onto the marbled floor and soaking my feet.

Pansy, Blaise and I exchanged horrified expressions.

My waters had just broken.

*****