CURSED: FROM THE BEGINNING [D.M]

-(38) like he has never known

"What do you mean?", her voice is small again, unsure.

Snape just tells them to follow him and walks out. Draco gets out of bed and walks, with her support on him and his support on her. No one could be able to tell who was clinging onto whom.

The wounds stretch out as he strains his body, causing him pain, and he is having a hard time blocking it all out. He hasn't got a clue of what is happening. But he can see how disheveled Zilliah's spirits look. And that's all he needs to push on, holding onto her.

They make their way to their DADA classroom, now empty of all desks and chairs but just two pairs, one at the front and one at the back.

Dumbledore stands at the front, slanting against the table, holding a beige sun hat in his hands, wearing a grim look upon his face. Snape joins his side.

"What is happening here?", Draco asks, peering around for something- anything- to make sense of. Hopeless, he adverts his glance back upon Zilliah only to find her utterly still again, but this time as if she has been petrified, her eyes locked on the hat.

That's when he focuses upon it and sees the blood tainting one side of it.

"No", she mumbles, her voice hoarse as she lets go of his hand to clasp her mouth, a tear running down her face.

Dumbledore takes a step towards her. "She was found-"

"No."

"-dead in one of the pubs in Diagon Alley."

"NO."

Draco sees the rage and despair grabbing hold of her.

Her mother is dead? But isn't her mother Fianna Emerson? Snape said that the matter didn't deal with Fianna. So-

It's a blinding red that erupts out of Zilliah. All three men in the room are thrown back at it.

"The white!", Draco hears Snape shout as he winces through the pain. "Albus, focus on the white!"

Straining his eyes into focus, he takes in Zilliah, hunched over on her knees, shaking, wailing, magical lights of red, black and white surrounding her, emerging from her. "What the hell is this-"

He doesn't get to finish his sentence. As he turns to Dumbledore, he is struck by the white of her magic, channeled over to him by Dumbledore himself, his wand stretched out. "Invadere", the old man says as a splitting pain erupts through Draco's body.

He falls to his knees, hunching over, the same as Zilliah. His mind stretches out on all ends, his bones ignite. All his walls shatter and raw pain is what finds him on the other side.

It's a starless night sky inside him. A torturous starless night sky.

Through this sheer agony, his mind pulls up images, memories, Zilliah.

The first time he ever laid eyes on her at the Great Hall. The first time he ever spoke of her. The first time he ever spoke to her.

The scene dissolves into another. She is sitting on one of the couches in the common room, her leg propped upon the table, a book in her lap. She has tied her hair high up into a ponytail. He finds it beautiful. But then he imagines her hair let loose. He finds it beautiful too. And he can't look away.

A memory more recent brews up as the other fades. He is in her arms, shaking like a baby leaf in a viscous wind. She doesn't once let go of him.

They're eating- they're sleeping- they're laughing. It all plays out one by one in his mind. It's torment.

"Focus on words", he hears someone shout. It sounds like it's from another realm. Somewhere peaceful. Somewhere calm. But all he feels here is his every last nerve on fire. And Zilliah. It's all Zilliah.

Zilliah like he has never known. Zilliah like he has never seen.

Zilliah, dark and powerful.

"You sure it's nothing? -"

"I like your scent, Malfoy-"

"Would you like to dance, Emerson? -"

"Hate is too strong a word-"

"You believe in love? -"

"You're the most gorgeous thing-"

"I do not want to lose you-"

"You make me mad-"

"You're equally as mad as I am-"

"Forgive me for I'm too selfish-"

"Stop it!", he hears a scream and instantly knows it hers. No matter the land, the world or the realm he is trapped in, he will always recognise her. "You're hurting him. Stop it!"

"Look for darkness-"

"I said stop it!"

"I'm trying, Sev-"

"Can you not hear me? Stop it!"

"Honey, calm down."

"I'm warning you. Stop this right now or I'll bring this whole place to the fucking ground."

And it stops.

He falls.