OBSIDIAN HEART 2 (Draco Malfoy)

N I N E

"You are not human, Nia," Draco said so suddenly that Lavinia startled and they walked into her. "You are not human and I have never loved you. How could I ever love you? When we get to this Cauldron, it is just going to prove that you aren't and I will leave you. You'll never see me again and I'll be glad for it,"

"Lavinia," Ezekiel broke off of his singing. "He's right, he's telling the truth. I only bonded with you because you're so powerful, I don't care about you and I never have,"

"How could anybody ever love you? You do not even have feelings," Draco chimed back in. 

"We have one another, we don't need you and we never did," Ezekiel retorted and Lavinia felt her muscles seize... It was then that her intelligent mind caught back up with her through the shock. The three of them had fallen into the same situation. They were caught in a huddle in the middle of the room, listening to the whispers of one another-- thinking that they were talking to one another when truly it was just the echoes. Lavinia cursed herself for her own stupidity and focused on the song the two had been singing before they got distracted. 

"Move your body like a hairy troll, learn to rock and roll," she started again and they both jolted from whatever torment they were drowning in. Lavinia was already moving, humming the tune because she could not remember the words. Thankfully, the two of them continued the singing for her and she dragged them along for a long while longer. Draco and Ezekiel sang the song five times over before they finally were far enough away from the whispers. There was no way of calculating how long they had been working their way through the various chambers. But still, they had made it. They'd survived. 

"I am going to take my blindfold off now but leave yours on for a moment," she warned them and tugged it off before they could protest. Glancing around, she was glad to see that they had exited the chamber and wound their way down the tunnels a long while further. "It is safe," and they pulled theirs off too. The both of them were looking pale as though just coming around from a bought of flu and she was sure that she could not have looked much better. "The whispers got the better of us for a moment," she squeezed their hands. "But I want you to know that none of that was real. Whatever you heard, do not pay it any heed,"

"You either, Nia, it was all just a lie," Draco promised, kissing her on the forehead and carefully undoing all of their hands from one another's. "Your parents truly do know how to set a trap," he sighed to himself and Lavinia smiled softly, sadly. Of course, her parents had sent her to find the cauldron, all while knowing the horrors she'd face along the way. She was not sure why their lack of care for her even shocked her anymore.  

"They do indeed," Lavinia sighed and slowly led them further along. She had no idea what they would face next but she was forever hopeful that they had surpassed the last obstacle. She did not know how much longer they could physically or mentally survive this torment. The Cauldron pulsed so nearby that she could feel her magic pull toward it, her limbs feeling hollow as her magic concentrated in her chest, tugging her toward it. They were so very near and she almost could not stop herself from sprinting off to find it. She did not know yet what lay between.

They rounded one more corner and she froze. This was it. She knew it, somehow, deep in her bones that they had finally found what she had been searching for. They'd found it and she was moments away from getting answers. Why did that terrify her so much? Tugging Draco and Ezekiel they entered the final chamber and Lavinia's soul felt as if it had fallen through her feet. The instant she saw it-- she knew the answer.

The room was vast and wide, a pretty pink stone cavern embedded with chips of rose quartz but it was what stood strongly at its centre that had her full undivided attention. That was not a cauldron at all. Lavinia had no idea why she had been expecting it to be at this point, Elentiya had good as told her that her entire life was a lie, to expect the unexpected... This was certainly unexpected.