Destined for Darkness (A Draco Malfoy Fic)

The Darkest Day

My breath fogged the window as I looked out at the grey sky. Raindrops drummed a steady rhythm on the glass, only changing cadence when the wind shifted.

I sat with my knees folded up to my chest on a window seat tucked between two bookcases on the upper level of the Malfoy library. The warm wood at my back contrasted the cold that radiated from the glass and spread across my cheek.

The quiet tapping of dragon hide soles coming up the spiral staircase let me know I was no longer alone, but I couldn't pull my eyes away from the streams of water even when the footsteps stopped a few feet away from me.

"Tell me," I said roughly after a few beats of silence, my voice hoarse from screaming and crying through the night.

Draco let out a resigned sigh and sat down on the other end of the window seat from me. He leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees as he raked his hands through his hair.

The pattering of the rain was the only thing that could be heard for a few long moments until Draco sat up, his back stiff as a board, and stared straight ahead.

"She was a Muggle-born witch from Kent. The Ministry is beginning to record and track all Muggle-born witches and wizards, and Katherine and Bellatrix chose her name randomly from the current list. The other four were her Muggle family. Bellatrix used the Imperius Curse to force the woman to attack the others to provoke you into killing her," his tone was so clinical that I didn't even have to look at him to know he had put his wall up to deliver the information he had spent all morning collecting.

"They used Tippy to gather the hair for the Polyjuice, though I'm assuming Katherine obtained your mother's, likely on the night she killed your parents."

I didn't react to his callousness, knowing he didn't mean it, but also because I didn't want him to stop talking. I needed to hear this. I had to know everything.

There was another long pause, and I slid my gaze to Draco for a moment. His fists were clenched atop his knees—the only sign his shield was faltering—and I watched his throat bob before he continued. "When father and I arrived back at the manor, I panicked when I couldn't find you. I raced to my parents' wing to tell them, then summoned Tippy and had her take me to the cellar immediately when she told me you were down there with Katherine and Bellatrix."

Draco let out a long breath, and his shoulders dropped along with his mental shield, indicating he had nothing more to tell. He leaned back against the window, his head resting on the glass and his eyes drooping shut as he massaged his brow and temples.

I felt like I should be screaming and crying and breaking something after hearing all that, but after last night, the well was dry, and I was exhausted, so I just stared back out the window, leaning a little closer until my forehead pressed against the glass and the cold bit into my skin as the new information started filling in the blanks in my head.

We had already figured out that Tippy had been forced to slip a hallucinogen into my food at dinner to trick me into believing I was dreaming when I woke up in the cellar.

The woman I killed had undoubtedly been chosen by Katherine and Bellatrix due to her blood status. They probably would have just used another NoMaj like Katherine had done so many times while we were in New York, but they had needed someone with magic to play the part of my mother.

The thought that almost found some untapped source of tears was that the woman had been forced to torture and kill her family members as they died one by one next to each other. I hadn't been hallucinating their soul-destroying screams and cries because they were genuine as they helplessly watched their loved ones perish. And though I had only killed the witch, all of their blood was on my hands.