Belong (D.M)

Part thirtythree

Family, it can be a marvelous fairytale of love and caring with nurturing hands and warm smiles or it can be a deception filled with wishful thinking and pressure. A fool's paradise really. He loved his mother and father dearly, and praised them for providing him with everything he not only needed but wanted as he was growing up. Behind the harsh words and strict manners he always found love. Never did he see what immense pressure and false hope could do to a family until now, never did he see how a question of morals could cause such destruction. Never did he believe that he would have what family life he had always known teared apart. Never did he wish for any of it, never in a lifetime.

The nightmares kept coming, no matter how hard he hugged his blanket that she had knitted for him. Some nights he dreamed of the sky falling down, some nights he saw his own death and other nights he pictured everything he had ever know bursting into flames.

"Try harder Draco, you mustn't fail him"

"I won't" he spat at his aunt with the crazy black hair as she taunted him with her malicious smile. He tried his hardest, he really did. However he found it hard to execute her orders, seeing as learning the Unforgiveable Curses was nothing he had ever been interested in.

"You have to mean it Draco, say it like you mean it"

"Imperio" he mumbled, his bottom lip quivering.

"That won't get you to even control a fly boy, try again"

"Imperio" he screamed, growing frustrated.

Bellatrix walked in circles around him, poking his back with her crooked wand. Her wicked laugh rang in his ears, making his head spin.

"And the others" she spoke, eyeing him with her wide eyes "tell me the others"

"Crucio and a..." he trailed, unable to finish his sentence.

"Avada Kedavra boy" she spat at him with a venomous smile "the killing curse"

The torturing spell and the controlling spell came to him over the summer, considering how intelligent he was when it came to spells. He often got spells down during his first few attempts.
However, he found the cruelest and most unforgivable curse of them all far more strenuous.

"Come on Draco, don't be weak!"

He tossed and turned in his bed as memories of his exasperating summer came to him in his sleep. His chest heaved up and down, trying to get enough oxygen in with every shallow tormented breath he drew. 

"I am not weak!" he screamed, pointing his wand at the target his aunt had sat up "he chose me, he knows that I won't be weak!"

Sweat coated his forehead, and the air in his dormitory has becoming harder and harder to breathe. The February cold did not strike him as it usually does, he felt like he was burning up.

"You have to learn them Draco, the unforgiveable curses, you have to master all of them"

At four in the morning he shook awake, trying to calm himself down as tears began to stream down his sweaty face. He felt like he would be haunted by his worst memories for an eternity, and he didn't know how to put an end to it.

....

February 14th, a Friday. The school filled with lovers holding hands and sharing kisses, and boxes of chocolate shaped into hearts and pink cards were exchanged by students throughout the stone corridors. Ron was taking Lavender out, and Hermione was miserable. She had overheard Hermione talking to Harry about her feelings for Ron, and Harry actually admitted to wanting to take Ginny out for Valentine's day. As they sat and moped around the common room, she decided to go to the library.

"Where are you off to Ellie?" Hermione asked her as she headed towards the painting of the fat lady "going out for a Valentine's date?"

"Me? No of course not, you know that no boys are interested in me Hermione, I'm going to the library"

Hermione nodded her head as she headed out of the Gryffindor common room, walking the cold stone corridors towards the large school library. She felt ready for a evening in the back of the library, away from everyone who was happily celebrating love. Love for her had turned out to be complicated, more than complicated... puzzling, troublesome and a complete and utter mess of emotions entangled with problems.

She turned a corner, flinging her book bag further up on her right shoulder as she walked, her steps fast and assertive. Her eyes wandered towards the tall frosted glass windows. The snow still coated the school grounds, but it was slowly getting warmer and she believed that it would not be long now until the spring flowers would began to spurt out of the ground.

"Were you my valentine?"

"What?" she asked confused as she turned around, seeing the blonde Slytherin boy at the end of the corridor. He slowly walked over to her, his hands resting in the pockets of his black coat and a curious look upon his pale face.

Here he was, the epitome of puzzling, troublesome and a complete and utter mess of emotions entangled with problems, the one she had fallen for, standing before her.