Slytherin Boys

66

That putrid metallic smell filled the room and no matter how hard I gasped and huffed for clean oxygen; it filled my senses. I blinked and cleared my vision. Slowly, so slowly it sunk in. I had done this I had done what I had set out to do. The dark Lord was dead. I killed him.

I blinked and slowly took in the room around me all of my friends, my father, Mattheo; They stared back but, my body did not feel like my own. It was heavy and it felt like I was wading through dirt and mud when I tried to move.

There was a fog that had settled over my senses even though the black cloud had dissipated once the dark Lord soul had become deaths. The power that was once inside me was returned to its rightful owner along with all of the malicious intent that the dark Lord was.

But although, my issues had officially been resolved there was a new weight to me now. In an attempt to free myself and the ones that I loved I had tainted and marred my own soul. My hands shook when I looked down still embedded in the dark Lord's throat, stained with that deep crimson red. I shuddered involuntarily and gasped as I released the dark Lord's head. Tom riddle's corpse clotted to the floor and stained the once still black marble.

I'd never had a problem with blood before but felt faint and lightheaded as the remainder of it poured and poured from mateo's father's body. I needed to retreat I needed to get out of here. But as I took shaky steps backwards I slipped and I landed on my arse in a puddle of deep deep red. It was still warm.

I know what I needed it was a distraction but there was so much nothing in this room. Nothing but that metallic smell and the twisted and contorted faces of my loved ones. I had done this for myself and they had done this for me.

There was movement that I caught out of the corner of my eye, Theodore. He was still covered in jagged cuts and was crawling backwards to get out of the expanding puddle leaving the dark Lords body. Now that my mind was clear and my soul was my own although tainted, I no longer wish him harm.

The dark Lord has always been exceptionally good at converting young witches and Wizards to his cause. Theodore had never been particularly bright and under his parents influence he would have thought it was for the best. That he could become the best.

On the wrong side of history, that's what this was Malfoy Manor and all the people inside we're on the wrong side of history. History I had made myself for myself. My father was the first person to approach me.

As I sat in what remained of the dark Lord he brushed a hand against my cheek, "Bunny, it's okay. It's over now. You're okay."

He held me, although I stained his clothes that deep shade of red he held me. "It's okay, you're okay." He repeated.

I felt a part of me tense at his words. It's what I had needed to hear since the beginning of this ordeal when I had found out at that wretched ball my mother insists on having every year. How often does a young girl just need to be told that it's okay.

Nobody else moved, except for Mattheo. It wasn't for me like I thought he would like I thought he would hold me and tell me that everything would be okay. It was to ensure that his father truly was dead. He lifted his father's right shoulder out of the puddle of blood, and held two fingers to the pulse point in his neck.

The power that roared through me all those minutes ago had told me that I had removed his soul so I didn't need to check. It was unnerving to watch Mattheo touch his father's corpse but the worst part was the feline esque smile that spread itself across his face and he looked at me.

"I am so proud of you, Princess." he whispered in that sweet tone. My father held me even as Mattheo approached me, refusing to let me go. "You did it! Merlin, we're free. I'm free."

"Is everyone okay? It was all I could think about, if I had used that explosive power and hurt someone I'd set out to protect I'd never forgive myself. Even though my body was forever changed, just like my soul, I'd still set out to protect them originally. I'd set out to give myself a choice.

Isn't that what I'd originally wanted?

My choice. Why did it feel like I'd failed?

I turned to look at Theodore sprawled over the black marble step. He was just a boy in the same way that I was just a girl when my choice was stripped from me. When the people who were supposed to protect me, and show me right from wrong, had failed.

Theodore had trusted in his parents, in the Dark Lord, and failed. For a second I considered forgiving him until the look of sadistic satisfaction that Theodore held as he revealed he'd been double crossing us flashed in my memory. It was hard to discern exactly how much and for how long Theodore had been playing us. Playing me.

I couldn't forgive him. I wouldn't.

So instead, I sobbed. My father held me as my shoulders hunched in on themselves and the breath left my body and I sobbed. It felt so insanely human to be able to cry. I cried for the muggle born woman I'd been forced to kill. I cried for Blaise's cousin. I cried for Pansys first love. I cried for myself. I even cried for the soul of that pure sweet Unicorn that I was forced to bleed for the entertainment of Death Eaters. I cried in relief.

It was over. I'd done it.