Origami // Draco Malfoy

Chapter 12: The Quidditch World Cup (part 2)

"You see, Danielle? They don't mean any harm," my mother said softly as she stretched out her arm towards a flutter of fairies that was flying above our heads. A pastel pink-winged Fairy rested in the palm of her hand, looked up, and gave us a warm smile, "You just have to let them know that you don't want to hurt them. Go on. Now you try it, darling."

I followed her instructions and stretched out my fingers. A small Fairy, now one with sparkly blue wings, landed down in my hand where it started dancing. I couldn't stop myself from giggling as the creature's tiny toes tickled the tops of my fingers. I was in complete awe of the being's existence, all careless and free. My mother joined me in my laughter, and I could see her big smile beaming through the loose wavy strands of brown hair that were covering her face. If I could live the rest of my life together with her in that forest, I would be satisfied, I thought.

All of a sudden, the Fairy I was holding started to twitch and crumpled into a ball like a piece of paper, even though I wasn't doing anything. I looked over at my mother, expecting her to know how to help the poor thing but instead, she was pointing her wand at my hand. Red sparks were flooding out of its end, hitting the Fairy, which made it cry out in pain.

               "Mum! Stop it!" I begged, not understanding why she was hurting the tiny creature, but she wouldn't listen. Instead, she repeated the Cruciatus Curse, pointing her wand even more vigorously into the Fairy's direction. The creature was now crying and screeching from the pain, but I couldn't do anything to stop it.

               "Why are you doing this?!" I screamed out; my eyes were filled with tears.

I looked back up at my mother. She had turned into a person I couldn't recognise anymore. Her eyes were as dark as the night's sky, almost as though she had been possessed. When I looked past her, I suddenly noticed a pair of thin skeleton-like hands clutching onto her shoulders tightly. I slowly moved my eyes further upwards, terrified of what I was about to encounter. Behind her stood a Dementor, guiding her movements as though she was a puppet. I covered the Fairy's body with my other hand in an attempt to protect it while I tried to get away.

               "Let her go!" I scream out at the caped monster while crawling backwards, "Give me back my mother! Give her back!"

"Give her back!" I screamed once again, but my mother was gone. So was the Fairy, the Dementor, and the forest. Instead, I was staring up at the discoloured ceiling of my room in Surrey. I was completely covered in sweat and tears. I tried to reassure myself that it was just a dream, but I couldn't seem to maintain my breathing. My chest moved rapidly up and down as I was trying to catch my breath. I clutched my hands so hard that my nails were digging into the skin of my palms until it started bleeding. I jumped out of bed and paced around the room as the image of my mother torturing the Fairy flashed before my eyes. Not again. It had been a while since I've had nightmares. A whole month to be exact. I was starting to think they had left for good. Before this night.

               "Dani! Your friend's here!" Madam Petitt knocked on my door; her yelling quickly snapped me out of my terrified daze. I held my breath, trying hard not to reveal my total state of panic to her.

               "I'll be right down!" I responded weakly. The anxiety attack had strained my voice quite a bit. I sat back down on my bed, slowly trying to get my breathing back to normal.

Wait. My friend's here!

I tried to get myself to look presentable as fast as possible though that wasn't the easiest job. I was used to wearing a uniform at Hogwarts, so figuring out what to wear outside of school was a real hassle. Luckily, I didn't have many options anyway and settled for some grey plaid trousers, a black turtleneck, and a forest green cardigan. I quickly tied the laces of my brown combat boots and ran downstairs. When I opened the door to the living room, I found a thin blond-haired girl sitting on an old floral sofa, drinking a cup of tea, and talking to Madam Petitt.