YOU CAN'T PUT YOUR ARMS AROUND A MEMORY
Draco
✩
I cried out in agony, pain pulsating through my entire body. My head felt like it was set ablaze while simultaneously being impaled by dagger after dagger. My lungs felt like they were on fire, each intake of breath causing sharp, stabbing pain. My body was slick with sweat that clung to my skin, my breaths heaving.
When I fluttered my eyelids open, the room swam before my eyes. My eyeballs felt like they had been ripped from my eye sockets, the pain pressurizing and clear.
My mind felt as though it had been flayed, my consciousness peeled back inch by inch.
"Draco-Draco, are you okay?" Hermione rushed around the chair, muttered a small spell so the claws would pop right off her fingers. She bent down in front of me, running a hand through my sweat-dampened hair to push it away from my forehead.
I heaved heavy breaths, slinking forward in the chair.
My brain feels like it's on fire.
I lifted my gaze, meeting her warm and concerned eyes.
"That was-hell."
Hermione pulled out her wand, muttering some healing incantations. Moments later, the pain started to dull. I touched the back of my neck, feeling the wounds where the claws pierced my skin having being closed and healed.
"Did you get anything-at all?" Fred stared at me impatiently. "You lot were gone a whole hour."
"An hour?" I wheezed out, still not having caught my breath. "Really?"
"It didn't feel that long?" Pansy tossed me a towel to wipe away my sweat.
I shrugged wearily as I dapped away the sweat on my forehead. "No. The memories-they were just whizzing by so quick, I could hardly make out some of them. It was like-being pulled through time or something."
"So-that means it worked." Blaise breathed out a laugh in relief. "You saw stuff. It worked."
I leaned back in the chair. I still breathed heavily, my lungs burning as I tried to intake enough oxygen to fill them. "I saw stuff, alright."
"Well," Fred urged. "What did you see?"
I clicked my tongue, cocking my head to the side and peering at a wall as if I were in deep thought, pondering. "I saw Blaise telling her she had the eyes of Forget-Me-Not flowers."
Blaise's face flushed, his eyes growing wide.
"I also saw a certain Weasley asking her if she thought stars had feelings."
A laugh bubbled out of Fred's mouth. "That would have been me."
Hermione stood up, dropping the claws back into the glass jar.
Ron raised his eyebrows, impatient. "Malfoy-did you find anything that could actually help us?"
"O.W.S."
"What?" George and Fred shared confused looks, speaking simultaneously.
I rolled my eyes tiredly-which resulted in a stabbing pain in my skull. "Orphan Wisdom School. It was an old school for orphans, decades ago in the countryside."
"I've heard of it," Hermione paced slightly, her thinking face on. "It was a muggle school-not many students, less than twenty maybe. It closed down a long time ago."
"That's where she is."
Pansy blinked frantically, bewildered. "Elysia is being held in an old orphanage?"
"It's a house," I ran a hand down my face, wincing at the new images that were engraved into my mind. "Completely secluded, in the middle of nowhere. Frankly, the location is wise and would be easy to ward. She's being held in-" I trailed off, staring down at my hands.
"Go on, Malfoy." Potter snapped impatiently.
I couldn't be bothered to glare at him. I was too exhausted. My chest ached as I recalled the memories of hers I had seen. "In the basement. Concrete, cold, dark."
"You-you saw that?" Pansy's face fell, her breath hitching. For a moment, she looked like she forgot how to breathe.
I nodded slowly, averting my gaze elsewhere. The horror on their faces was nothing compared to the twisting coolness running through my veins. My stomach churned-the freshly placed images from Elysia's memories sitting in my head with such ease.
"I saw-a few things."
"Like-like what?" Pansy was hesitant as she asked.
I stayed silent for a long moment. "He's torturing her," my voice cracked. "He's-he's hurting her."
The words tasted like poison.
I'll kill him.
"I didn't see much-or some things were moving too fast for me to see properly but he's-slicing her as if she's a-a meal. Keeping her chained up in a cold, dark room. Alone. She has-she has nothing."
I might actually throw up. I feel like I'm about to.
We had spent nearly three weeks scavenging for any method that could tell us her location. Sure, we had been trying, we were looking for her, we were doing all we possibly could but-
That whole time, she was there.
Trapped and chained in that basement, bleeding out, being tortured and Merlin knows what else Samael has done to her.
It was sickening.
It made me feel sick to my stomach. The feeling I felt-as if I were watching the world slowly wither away. Trees dying, slowly losing all their leaves. The birds falling to the ground, right out of the sky from midair. Everything was shrivelling away until there was nothing but greyness left.
This is so fucking wrong. This shouldn't have happened. Why the fuck did this happen? Why her? God, please let her be okay. She has to be.
Pansy's knees buckled. She nearly fell but Ginny had caught her before she could.
We all could imagine as much. Samael was-evil, merciless. It didn't come as a surprise that he was torturing her, keeping her chained up like an animal. All at the same time, having it confirmed felt like all the air was being sucked out from your body.
"We can't think like this," Luna spoke in a quiet voice. "We cannot focus on what's happening to her because right now, she needs us to rescue her from exactly that. We mustn't waste any more time."
"Luna's right." Hermione cleared her throat, blinking away the pooled-up tears in her eyes. "We know where she is but we still need a plan. We can't go in there blindly otherwise we're all end up dead."
"It looks like it's going to be a long night."
-
Everything felt colder, darker. The atmosphere was suffocating, airless.
Since the day she was gone, each day felt unbearably long, nights were too quiet, the floor felt so cold on my skin-but despite how dreadful it was just to get through each day, we had to hold onto the tiniest glimmer of hope we could find, kick our feet up and go about our days.
There was a new set of memories sitting in my head that I couldn't shake away-memories that weren't even mine. Memories of her. Chained. Trapped. Bleeding out. Screaming in agony.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw those images in my head.
It shook me to the core.
It was painful; the pain grew in every cell of my body, like a disease eating me from inside out. It had been nearly a month since she had been gone-and now, it felt like there was nothing more left of me but a shell, nothing on the inside because the pain had eaten it all away. No heart, no thinking, no emotions. Just skin that walks around all day hurting.
"Draco?" A soft voice sounded through the astronomy tower where I stood, staring at the darkness. "What are you doing up here?"
I didn't turn around.
Luna slowly approached me, coming to stand beside me.
"Well, what are you doing here?" I could hardly recognize my own voice. Every part of me was tired. Exhausted.
She tilted her head to the side, looking out at the sky. "I needed to clear my head."
A faint laugh escaped my lips. "That's become an impossible task for me."
Luna stayed silent for a long moment. "Why do you look so sad, Draco?"
I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, quirking an eyebrow. "Is that a question you even need to ask?"
Luna gave me a flat look. "I know we're all worried sick but it's okay now. I mean, we've found her. We know where she is. We are going to get her back-that's good news, Draco. After a month, we finally have good news."
I inhaled sharply, looking at the sky again.
There wasn't a star in sight.
Or maybe there was but I couldn't see anything past the darkness.
"She's been imprisoned in there for-" I tugged at my hair, frustrated. "We don't know what she's going through in there. We should have done better-we should have found her sooner. We should have-"
"Draco," Luna shook her head softly, placing a hand on my forearm. "You can't let the bad overpower the good that has finally come. You can't let that darkness consume you. We need to be strong, for her, for ourselves."
I sighed faintly.
"Hold on, Draco." She said warmly. "We'll save her."
-
Another week had gone by and we were still at Hogwarts instead of storming into the stupid little fucking house to get Elysia out of there.
"What the fuck is wrong with you lot?" I charged into the Room of Requirement, fuming. The whole lot of them, including Pansy and Blaise, were all training.
Training? Are you fucking kidding me? They want to waste more time while Elysia is stuck in that-
My head felt like it could explode.
"Draco-"
"Shut up, Weasel. You idiots are standing around here, flicking your wands in the air when we should be apparating to the old orphan school to save Elysia."
Hermione lowered her wand, sighing as she approached me. "We don't know what we're up against, Draco. We cannot walk into that blindly, we need to be prepared."
"How much longer do you want to dance around in here to prepare yourselves?" My fists clenched and unclenched. "For all we know, he could have killed her by now. Every minute we aren't there is another minute wasted, another minute she's being harmed."
I can't breathe without her.
"Draco, Hermione is right." Pansy winced light as she walked towards me. "If we want to get her out of there safely and alive, we need to practice defence against the dark arts."
I squeezed my eyes shut, exhaling slowly.
I know they were right. I didn't blame them. We had no idea what was waiting for us when we got there, what we'd be up against so we did need to be prepared.
I was terrified of what would go down but that fear was drowned out by my need to get Elysia back.
I can't breathe without her.
"Draco is also right," Fred spoke up, grimacing. "We can't put it off for much longer. We need to get her out of there."
Hermione paused for a moment. "Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" My eyebrows raised.
Hermione nodded wearily. "We need to go in daylight-it'll only make it harder if we go in at night."
Fred nodded slowly, letting it register. "Do we-have a plan?"
Hermione sighed as she sat down on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest. "I'm assuming when we get there and use the shield penetration spell, it will inform Samael he has company."
"Informing him we're there isn't exactly smart." Potter shook his head. "We'll be sitting ducks, doing no more than waiting for him to show up with his army."
"But it'll take him by surprise," Pansy piped quickly, glaring at Potter. "He's not going to be expecting us."
"We don't know how many people are in that house, nor do we know how many people Samael will send." Potter pulled off his glasses, running a hand down his face. "We're in for a fight-one we are not ready for."
My fists balled up.
It was becoming increasingly tempting to punch him square in the face.
"If you're scared, Potter, nobody will miss you if you sit out." I grit the words out.
Potter's jaw clenched, his gaze throwing daggers at me. "I was just saying-we need to think it through. We need to know what we're doing when we get there."
Hermione lifted her head. "Stop fighting, you puerile gits." She squeezed her eyes shut, craning her neck back.
If we really were walking in blindly, how could we possibly come up with a game plan?
"Let's think it through," Cedric spoke up, starting to pace back and forth in the room. "We get there, use the shield penetration spell, Samael will throw an army of people our way."
"So we fight," Pansy's eyebrows pulled together as she looked between everyone. She spoke as if it were the most obvious answer, confused about what everyone else seemed to be missing. "We fight. Someone goes in to get Elysia while the rest of us fight off everyone else."
"This is how it will go down-" Hermione brought herself to her feet, brushing off her pants. "Cedric, Luna, Neville-you lot picket the area. Watch for more oncoming company."
They simply nodded.
"The rest of us, fight off the army coming towards us. Harry and Ron-you're the first ones going into the house."
"You're going to send those two fools into the house-"
"Shut up, Draco!" Hermione snapped her head towards me, cutting me off harshly. "We're taking Samael by surprise. Most likely, they'll be more people outside fighting us rather than inside the house. Harry and Ron go into the house, make sure it's clear and-"
"What if there are a dozen death eaters waiting inside the house?" Ginny asked quietly.
I shook my head, sighing faintly. "She's chained in the basement with restraints that are spelled to compress her magic. Even if she wanted to try, she's far too beaten to attempt an escape. In her memories, the ones I saw, the only two people who stepped downstairs were Samael himself and one other disciple who would bring her a scrap of bread."
"I doubt Samael sits around that house all day long." Hermione gnawed on her lip in thought. "Harry and Ron clear the house-if they need backup Jordan, Macmillan, and the Creevey's, you lot are their backup. Keep your eyes peeled."
The past week, a few other Hogwarts students from all the houses knew something was going on and wanted to help. We needed to keep things as quiet as possible so the professors and Marauders wouldn't find out what we were up to.
Frankly, any help could be used.
If we were in for a fight against one of the Darkest Wizards in the Wizarding World-the more hands we had fighting with us gave us all the better odds.
Hopefully.
Hopefully, it would be enough.
Hermione turned her body to face me. "That's where you come in, Draco."
I nodded slowly.
"You use the Disillusionment charm to get into the house after Harry and Ron. Nobody will be able to see you. You get to the basement and get her out."
My blood ran cold.
It was on me.
I had to get her out.
"Can you handle that, Draco? The only thing you need to focus on is getting her out." Hermione watched me carefully, expectingly.
I nodded firmly. "I'll get her out, Granger. I'll make sure of it."
I will bring her home.