E L I Z A
It's strange waking up when you close your eyes, thinking it would be your last time. It's peculiar to open your eyes when death was supposed to take hold of you. So when my consciousness returned to me, it greeted me with a steady beeping sound and a bright room. I thought I was dead, but instead, my lips parted and I was breathing in the oxygen around me.
My head was slumped to one side, my jaw almost touching my shoulder. I didn't attempt to move. Not yet, I just needed to think for a moment and remain in silence for a little while longer.
I had thought— I had thought that dying would have been peaceful. When I was lying there, feeling like I was drowning in a puddle of my own blood, I thought I was dying. And it didn't scare me. A small part of me felt strangely disappointed that my eyes were now open.
I thought Noah had killed me, but his words echoed in my mind as my consciousness found me, "you will be fine."
I left the silence and moved my head, realizing someone was holding it loosely. I turned my head to the other side of me and saw Draco asleep in an armchair. I was in a hospital room. So many questions swimming around in my head.
"Draco?" I spoke, my voice was croaky and broken.
He was too deep in sleep to hear my weak voice. How long had he been sleeping?
I peered around the hospital room, feeling like Noah would appear out from the curtains and attack me. Is this how I will spend the rest of my life, terrified of shadows and sudden noises?
"Draco?" I said again, my voice a little stronger, "Wake up."
I pulled my hand out from under his and placed my hand on top of his instead. Gently, I rubbed my thumb back and forth against the tip of his hand. I hated how tired and pale he looked. Like he hadn't slept or eaten in days. I felt bad waking him.
I was about to quit my attempt at waking him but then he jolted awake. His eyes were wide and then furrowed into narrow slits as he took his hands and wiped a hand over his face. I watched him, a little smile on my face. A smile which was hiding so many demons.
His face turned to mine and seemed to widen and then soften.
"Eliza—" he whispered, "you're awake? Oh— you have no idea how happy I am to see your eyes open."
I let out a little laugh, "I am okay, Draco. I'm okay."
"You aren't hurt anywhere?" I asked, eyes looking down my body, checking for any sign of pain or discomfort, "I can get a healer if you—"
"I'm okay," I assured him.
He nodded his head, eyes watering a little and all I saw was pain and fear. His hand gripped mine, he held onto my hand so tight and then brought it to his lips and kissed me gently.
"You scared me," he whispered for only me and the shadows to hear.
"I'm sorry," I whispered back, wishing I could sink far into the bed I laid on.
"It's not your fault," he assured me, "It's. . . his," he paused like he couldn't say his name.
"What happened?" I asked, "After?"
He swallowed, and then his eyes seemed to disappear like he was reliving it all over again, "utter Hell," he told me and my stomach sank, "All the guests fled, and I went to you— I thought you were dead. I saw you lying there— and I just— I couldn't—"
He looked away, shaking back tears.
"Your parents were there, mine too," he said and I listened carefully, ignoring the tense fear I felt in my core, "the healers came, they took you and your parents with them back here. St. Mungos."
I looked around, I was in St. Mungo's hospital. I felt a little more relieved.
"How long have I been here?" I asked him.
"Two days," he told me and I breathed in a heavy sigh. Then, curiously I pulled up the oversized hospital shirt I was wearing and saw a dark scar, just above my hip. It was healed. I guess I am lucky to be in a Hospital for witches and wizards.
"The healers said by a miracle he missed all your vital organs," Draco said, his eyes looking down at the scar too.
Chills tickled down my entire body, it was not a miracle, Noah purposely missed. He aimed perfectly when stabbing me. "You will be fine," he promised me. Like he only wanted to scare me or send some sort of message. I'm not sure what his motives were but either way, he is a monster. Even if he apologized before. Even if he missed all my important parts.
"Who else is here?" I asked.
"Your mum," Draco began, "your dad was here but he left for work. The ministry has been going crazy about this. About the Avarias' making a return."
"Do you know anything about them?" I asked him.
"Only that they are incredibly powerful and only Noah and his father remain," Draco said, "that's what my father said."
I nodded my head again and thought back to what Noah told me. About the purebloods massacring them. Was it because of their power? Did all this fall down to jealousy or was there more?
"What are you thinking about?" Draco asked me.
"Noah told me our ancestors massacred his ancestors," I said, "including children," I physically cringed.
Draco thought for a moment and then shook his head, "he is probably lying."
"I'm not sure," I admitted, "he said that it was my great grandfather who organized it and for some reason. . ." I hesitated, "I'm important."
"He said that?" Draco asked.
I nodded.
He looked away, seeming troubled with his thoughts.
"What are we going to do?" I spoke out loud into the shadows of my fear.
"I don't know," Draco buried his head in his hands. After a few moments he looked up at me and met my eyes, "but if I ever see him again I'm going to kill him."
My eyes darted to his and found someone else looking at me entirely. His darker side. Something from hell. I was scared. I was scared because he meant his words. It was the same look he had in his eyes when Cedric and his friends were flirting with me and he almost beat them all up. All three of them.
"Don't say that," I muttered, my voice a fragile whisper.
"He hurt you," he seethed, "he almost killed you."
"You won't be able to kill him alone," I argued.
"Watch me."
I shook my head in disbelief, "Okay, and if you do, you will be a murderer and sent to Askaban."
"It will be worth it," he argued right back.
I shook my head again. I get that he is angry, I get that Noah needs to be stopped but he can't kill him. Not because he doesn't deserve it but because he can't kill Noah. It will be impossible. Noah is a hundred times more powerful. He exploded a room with his mind.
I spoke before I could think. Before I could regret my next words, "You will be just as bad as him if you do."
Draco looked at me, that mask of wrath slipping into something hurtful.
I hurt him.
I felt like I had been stabbed all over again as I watched his features thrown into sadness. He stood up and looked away from me, "your mum is outside. I should tell her you're awake."
He turned his back to me and headed to the door.
"Draco—Wait—I didn't mean—"
He closed the door behind him.
~
That evening I was sent home with my mum and I didn't see Draco again. I asked her where he had gone and she said he went home to sleep. She seemed confused like I would have known that, especially because she now knows he is my boyfriend. After she hugged me and cried and told me how scared she and my father were, which I doubted my father had been scared, she asked me about Draco.
I didn't lie to her and I told her we had been together since the start of the year. She didn't seem to disapprove but she also didn't seem as happy as she should be. She told me, "As long as you are happy, that's all that matters." I told her I am happy, but the words felt foreign leaving my lips.
We apparated into the fireplace of my home and were greeted with the ghosts of the tragic memories that haunted my house. My mother stepped out first and called for my father. He came down the corridor looking disheveled. He looked tired and so unlike my father.
"Eliza," he stopped in his walk, "you're here."
"I'm here," I smiled, but then it dropped, not liking the way he was looking at me. He looked at me like he cared.
He turned to my mother and she said, "She is back to health. She has been given elixirs for pain and to continue the healing process. But she is okay."
My father walked up to me and I almost wanted to retreat back but I was brave and I remained still. I prepared for the worst but instead of a shove or a yank or a long talk about how foolish I was and how it was my fault, his arms wrapped around my body.
I almost wanted to cry. I can't remember the last time my father held me. Touched me with fatherly love.
I hugged him back, resting my head on his chest. Why did I feel safe?
"I'm sorry for how shit of a father I have been," he whispered, "I promise to try and be better."
I saw my mother watching wearily. Even though she seemed confused, her features seemed happy but worried all at the same time.
So I only had to almost die to receive love from my dad?
He released his arms and held my shoulders and then kissed my forehead.
"Go upstairs and get a good night's sleep," he ordered me but with care in his voice.
I nodded and then turned away. Walking up the stairs feeling a little numb. Confused. Sad. I'm not sure how I was feeling. But when I settled into bed and was alone in the darkness, I fell asleep with tears soaking my pillow and Noah haunting my nightmares.
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