DARK MARK ( A Draco Fan Fiction)

i | promise

Draco? Promise me? Promise me you won't forget me?

Draco Malfoy awoke with a start.

He was shivering and only then did he realize that it was raining so hard outside... and the windows were open. He pushed himself out of bed, the memory of his dream already fading from his mind. What had he dreamed about? Why did he feel like he had forgotten something he was not supposed to?

Shutting the windows closed and throwing down a piece of cloth on the puddled floor of his bedroom, he rubbed at his eyes. As if that could help him remember whatever it was that he had forgotten.

He knew sleep would be impossible now so he donned on his robe and made his way out of the room. The halls of their manor were dimly lit but Draco did not like staying in an area of their house for too long. He sometimes imagined the walls whispering and calling out to him. Daring him to look at it. To look at this house stained by so much evil... so much shame.

When he finally made it to the kitchens, the sight of his mother did not surprise him. She was bent over the table, hands spread in front of her and clasped together like she was in prayer... desperately so. Draco would find her like this often.

All the strength his mother had possessed seemed to have drained out of her during his father's trial. Her graying blonde hair was a mess around her head. She, like Draco, found it impossible to have a good night's sleep. It was always full of nightmares.

Draco walked up to his mother, and careful not to startle her, placed an arm over her shoulder. He wanted nothing more than to hug his mother, but he knew such an act would only result in her crying. He didn't want that. He could not handle that.

Slowly, Narcissa unclasped her hand and snaked it up and around her son's hand. A firm grip before letting out a heavy sigh. She would not let her son see just how much crying she had done. Slowly, she sat up, turning around to find Draco looking at her with an expression she could not quite decipher.

"Did the rain wake you?" Instinctively, she pulled him close to her, allowing that brief contact. Allowing him, her son, to lean on to her. She knew that Draco was now far from being her baby boy but still, she held him like he was. Like she was afraid if she did not, Draco would get swallowed up by the darkness that haunted her still. The walls whispered in this manor, and it filled her ears with regret. Resentment. Disgust. How could she have allowed her son to be a victim of such cruelty?

Draco watched his mother. He knew she was in one of her battles again. The one in her mind. The one he had desperately tried to rid her of. He knew she blamed herself for what happened. What happened to him. The mark that had left him scarred beyond measure. The one he could still feel burning on his skin even though the one who had placed it there was long gone.

Draco never wore anything that would show off this mark. He wanted to peel it off his skin, cover it with a tattoo as the muggles would call it. Yet no matter what he did, he knew this mark was engraved on his skin forever. A reminder of his weakness, his mother's regret and his father's undoing. He had the strong urge to pull down his sleeves.

His mother watched him, her eyes almost empty of color yet when she looked at him, he could still see traces of her past self. The one who always held her head high. The one who kept this family from being killed by the darkest wizard to ever walk their world.

"The window was open again," he said, catching the wince his mother tried to hide. He ignored it. "The water got in." He knew better than to tell her about it, but he was still convinced that one day his mother would let it slip and Draco would finally know why he always woke up to open windows.