Ultraviolence

Chapter 18: Dangerous Girl

Song: Terrible Thing - AG

Draco

I had been home for merely a day before I wished to be sent back. The empty dark corridors grew tiresome and the portraits of Malfoys and Blacks alike left me feeling more alone than ever.

Apart from my mother, not much else kept me here. How funny, I say that as if I could leave, which of course, I cannot. My father, on the other hand, sucked the soul out of this place, leaving nothing but lifeless walls and corridors behind. Something about him had changed this year. He felt... different, colder, meaner. I had naturally assumed the Ministry was behind his unbearable mood, but perhaps something else occupied his mind... Could the rumours be true? Has... you know who... returned? My heart sped at the thought alone, breathing suddenly became more difficult. No. They couldn't be true...they were surely lies.

At least Bellatrix had been sent on a fools errand, terrifying as she was. My guess is that father didn't want her around by the time his guests arrived. The house, dare I even call it that, would've seemed more daunting had she not left.

"Draco," the sound of my mother's voice was soothing and tender, "you haven't touched your meal."

The stylised silver fork against the plate distracted me for a moment before I answered.

"I'm not hungry." I grew to regret my harsh tone when she sunk her face into her hands and sighed. My mother worried far too much about me. At times her constant concern bothered me, but it mostly left me feeling wretchedly guilty. I was undeserving of her love and affection.

My sulkiness would have fazed my father had he been here. Thankfully, he was locked in his office upstairs which I had not been to since I was a child, since I was punished for being curious about in the first place.

"You never quite finished telling me about your lessons this year. Have you chosen-"

"They're useless." I murmured in a low voice. Her expression remained unchanged and her eyes were eager, determined to have a normal conversation with her son. But, we were far from normal.

"I raised you better than to speak to your own mother that way." A low deep voice emerged from the darkness. I anxiously tapped the long polished table with my index finger and my mother looked fixedly at her lap, tensed as ever.

He grasped my left shoulder, his touch cold and affectionless causing me to cringe slightly.

"I expect you to behave when the Y/L/N's arrive, unless you want to spend the night in the dungeon with the house-elf."

I stopped breathing. My heart sank to my gut and every muscle in my body tensed upon hearing his words, they rendered me utterly speechless. For a moment.

"I-I'm sorry, who is coming?" The nervousness slipped from out of my shaky voice. Not possible. He misspoke or maybe I heard him wrong. Anything but what I had already begun to suspect...

"Surely you have at least heard of them, Draco. The youngest daughter attends Hogwarts, and I believe the other two work for the department of mysteries at the Ministry. We did tell you abo-"

"May I please be excused." I interrupted, much to my fathers dislike. His grip on my shoulder tightened. Fortunately, my mother spoke before he had the chance to.

"Lucius, please." She nodded my way and attempted to calm him. Always protecting me, regardless of any wrongdoing on my part. Like I said, I didn't deserve her.

I left the dining room abruptly and didn't turn back, eager to find an escape. I rushed to the exquisite grand piano my father hid on the highest floor of the mansion. After removing the dirty white sheet that covered the old instrument, I ran my fingers gently up the scales, testing the pitch. The tuning was still perfect. As I began to play, I hoped the dreamy melody would drown the memories of Y/N that were now circulating my mind, like poison.