Winning Over Slytherin | Draco Malfoy

Chapter 51: Death Eaters

D E A T H   E A T E R S

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I didn't know how much I needed you until I realized how long you had been there, and suddenly, you weren't there anymore.
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Draco's POV

I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. But I have to. I'm sorry Professor.

I walked slowly up the spiral staircase, wand in hand, holding onto the railing with the other to avoid turning back and running away, running back to her. That's the only safe place. That's my only home.

I immediately raised my wand at the professor as soon as I saw him. I have a job to do. I was chosen. Goddammit why did I have to be chosen?! My hand shook a little at the sight of the professor's glossy eyes and shocked look on his face.

"Good evening Draco." Why do you have to be so polite? Can't you see? I was sent here to... to... to get the job done. "What brings you here on this fine evening?"

"Who else is here?! I heard you talking." I demanded.

"I often talk aloud to myself. I find it extraordinarily useful." Lunatic. But just because you're a lunatic doesn't mean you deserve to... well, you know. "Have you been whispering to yourself Draco?" Yes. Way too much. "Draco... you are no assassin." There it is. He said it. He knows what I was chosen to do.

"You don't know what I am!" I replied quickly, knowing that my voice was shaking and I worked hard to bite back the tears threatening to form. "I've done things that would shock you." And that would disappoint Kat.

"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping she would, in turn, bear a cursed necklace to me? Like replacing a bottle of mead with one laced with poison." Of course the old man knew. He knows everything. "Forgive me, Draco, but these are attempts so feeble I cannot help but question if your heart has been really in them. I'm curious. When Voldemort gave you this task, when he asked you to kill me, was it in a whisper?" Damn it. He knows I can't do it. I don't want to do it. But I must. For my father. I must.

"He trusts me! I was chosen!" I thrust out my arm, pulled up my sleeve and showed him a secret that only my family and Kat know. Kat. How am I going to tell Kat? I hate my family. I didn't ask for this. I didn't want this. I didn't want to be chosen.

"Then I shall make it easy for you." Dumbledore raised his wand and I immediately mirrored the action.

"Expelliarmus!" I watched as his wand flew free, landing on the ground. I did that. I could do that. But I don't want to do that.

"Well done Draco." Well done? Seriously? "But I warn you. Killing is not nearly as easy." That was easy to you? No part of that was easy. Sure the spell was a basic one I'd learned years ago. But using it on you? Not easy. I looked up at the sky, the dark clouds were twisting and gathering and the dark mark began forming. Any minute now."You're not alone, are you? There are others. How?" I smiled at this.

"The Vanishing Cabinet in the Room Of Requirement." Father would be proud of me for all this. He finally would. I actually saw shock across the old man's face.

"That cabinet's been broken for years."

"I've been mending it."

"Ingenious. Let me guess, it has a sister, a twin."

"In Borgin & Burkes. They form—"

"A passage." He paused, "I once knew a boy years ago who made all the wrong choices. Let me help you, Draco." Help me? You can't help me. No one can help me.