TW!! - Physical and sexual abuse inferred. Gore.
As always, all rights of characters and worlds are reserved to J.K. Rowling
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Fenrir Greyback is here.
He can hear his horrendously loud howl of a laugh from the entryway as he steps out of the floo into the Greengrass manor the Dark Lord was using as a base.
Walking quickly, he heads in its direction without really thinking, the opposite way of where he needs to go to hand in the paperwork and also go through the memory extraction process. He doesn't care. He has to know.
If he is wearing the bloody scarf....
He stops in the hallway. What would he do if he was? Honestly, what could he do if he was?
Burn this whole fucking world to the ground with me in it...
No he couldn't do that. Not now. Not yet at least. He had to be smart about this. He had to have a plan.
A plan with a foundation built by emotions, not driven by them.
He closes his eyes and starts to build the walls needed to think clearly, efficiently, strategically. If he was wearing the scarf, would it be better or worse? Would it be better to know? Or was it better to be in the dark with the small chance...
Come on, there is no one else in here at the moment, at least be honest with yourself, you haven't held any weight to that small chance in over a month.
No, that isn't true.
Isn't it?
No it's not.
Then why have you stopped looking for her? Why are you focusing solely on finding pieces of her instead?
The thoughts make his stomach turn. He was right. He had stopped believing she was alive over a month ago. Around the same time all the rumors and gossip switched from talk about where she was, to finding out what happened to her. His mind had agreed that the likelihood of the Dark Lord keeping her as some trophy this long was irrational. Potter and the Weasel had never even retaliated, or tried to save her for all he knew.
The Order had been silent for the most part after the Battle of Hogwarts 6 months ago. The largest pain in the arse they were causing the Dark Lord, was a whispered creation of a secret system for saving muggles and muggle-born wizards from the areas where genocide was taking place. That system undeniably involved hidden safe houses. Hence his assignment the last 6 months.
It was a fluff of a mission compared to the ones the higher seated Death Eaters were willing or being forced to take part in.
After his punishment for his performance at the Battle of Hogwarts, he enlisted himself, Theo, Blaise, Daphne, and Pansy to a unit to focus on this increasing headache.
They all agreed it was one of the only assignments they could stomach, or at least they thought they could. That changed when one of their leads had been accurate and they were forced to take part in a night none of them would ever forget.
After the massacre, looking down at his hands, the hands that had just killed Luna Lovegood, he knew Granger was gone. Probably gone a long time ago. And so was he.
He opens his eyes again as the walls become unbreakable. He cracks his shoulders and begins to walk purposefully towards the voices.
It is time to know. I'm so tired... It's time for this to be over.
He rounds the corner into a large dining room three people sit in. Dolohov is seated closest to him smoking a cigarette, and playing with a small item in his hand. His father is sitting next to him shooting back a glass of some type of liquor. His eyes aren't in the room. His father has been gone a long time... They are both looking at the man across from them who is still making that chalk scraping sound of a laugh.
Greyback.
Draco hesitates for a moment before looking up at the man. The werewolf, currently a man, is looking back at him with a sneer on his face. He is disgusting. Covered in dirt and grime that Draco can smell from where he stands. His clothes are in tatters like normal except for the pristine Death Eater robes he wears for the bi-monthly meetings of the head Death Eaters.
Draco is not invited to those anymore. He looks from Fenrir's bare neck, back over to where his robes lay unceremoniously on the floor.
No scarf...
"Look who has graced us with his presence Lucius." Dolohov snorts sarcastically as Draco walks further into the room, trying to ensure nothing wildly curly with the color of sweet milk chocolate is piled underneath Fenrir's robes. Lucius looks up at Draco, but sees right through him. They both give each other a slight nod, and that is the end of their interaction with one another.
"Heard the mission was another bust. What is that three in a row?" Dolohov says, pouring himself a glass of firewhiskey.
"Been following what I've been up to Dolohov? You sound a bit obsessed. Which," he makes a show of looking down at his body. "I don't blame you for, but you know asking me to dinner would be easier. The answer would be a resounding hell no, but still easier."
Dolohov isn't entertained by Draco's charm, "You wouldn't survive the things I like to do lil' Malfoy, so be grateful that I like them female."
Draco isn't paying attention to the sociopath in front of him. He watches as Fenrir stands and picks up the robes from the ground.
Nothing.
A pressure in his chest lightens.
"We have to go. Don't want to be late for the show tonight."
"What show?" Draco knows he should keep his mouth shut. Asking questions always got him into more trouble than it was worth. Finding out the answers without asking was more his style. But the three men in front of him are highly inebriated, and Fenrir was known for running his mouth, so he thought he might be able to get away with it.
"The Dark Lord has a special surprise snack tonight for Nagini, a nice lil weasel straight from the Order." Fenrir jokes as he pulls the robe over his body.
"A Weasley? Which one?"
"Does it matter? There are too many of that filth of a family in this world. Heard he was captured during one of the rare successful missions led by the unit you are in. That Flint will take your favored spot before you know it."
It is supposed to be a dig, but Draco has never had the desire to be favored by the Dark Lord. He just needs information, and unknowingly, Fenrir just gave him a bit more.
So it is either George, Charlie, Bill, Percy, or Arthur. There is no way it's the Weasel, that would be made into a public show at the least. Let it be that prick Percy...
"Interesting." Is all he says before nodding quickly at his father and leaving the room to turn in the paperwork and memory.
"Oh it's very interesting, apparently the little git was obliviated just like that mudblood was right before being captured. And way more of his mind was. I'm telling you, that group is hiding something big, and my guess is..."
"Fenrir shut up."
Draco tries to ensure his footsteps don't falter, but he knows they do at the mention of the mudblood. There was only one person Death Eaters consistently referred to as the mudblood. The famous one.
Mine.
He focuses on his steps as he walks further down the corridor, until he hears the pop of the Floo. He slows down to process Fenrir's word vomit.
He had heard the rumors that she was missing memories when she was brought before the Dark Lord. He had heard it so many times he had categorized it into the section of talk he believed to be true. But The Order had done it again to another captured member? That was valuable information. He tucks it behind a wall, and makes his way to the liaison office. The female Carrow is behind the desk today.
"Mr. Malfoy room 3."
Turning the handle, he enters the fluorescent lit room that has a stranger in the corner holding a vial up to him. He takes his wand and pulls down the specific walls needed to extract the memory and watches as the bluish tint of vapor slides into the vial. He sits down in the chair and watches as the man tilts the vial into the Pensieve each one of these rooms holds, and dips his head in. A few moments pass by before he raises his head back up, and places the memory in the vial once more. Draco, knowing the routine, hands over the paperwork verifying the memory.
The man reads it over quickly, "Good, Thank you Mr. Malfoy, you may go."
He doesn't even nod as he leaves the room. He just wants to get back to Nott Manor and place this Fenrir rumor in the trash bin of his mind. They didn't have any other leads or gossip to follow or look into at the moment. They were becoming more and more scarce.
They had looked into the Bellatrix rumor months ago, as one of Draco's first guesses to where she was being hidden, but came up empty every single time they searched. Rationally, Bellatrix wasn't a good person to leave her with anyways, especially if the Dark Lord wanted her alive. And Draco knew that if she had her, Bellatrix would be using her against him at every chance she got, now that she knew. No she wasn't given to Bellatrix.
She wasn't in his family manor either, or hidden in the ministry, or Hogwarts, or Azkaban. He and Theo had been looking everywhere for her for the past 6 months, and they found nothing. No trace, no clue, it was like she vanished.
He knew she hadn't escaped back to The Order either due to the Weasel's daily requests for any information about his lost love that played on Potterwatch.
This is all your fault...
I know...
"Draco..."
Shit, she is calling him Draco now, never good. He looks up and sees the female Carrow walk around her desk, blocking his exit.
"Yes?" He doesn't try to hide his irritation.
"You know, I could do you a favor... In exchange for a favor if you like."
For Merlin's sake... I hate my life.
"No."
He tries to step around her, but she places her suggestively arching body towards him once again.
Carrow, I am not above hitting a woman.
"You haven't even heard what I am proposing," she says, taking another step closer to him and reaching out to grab the front of his robes with one of her hands. He takes a step back to keep her hand from reaching him.
"The answer is still and will always be no."
Her arm falls down to her side, but she keeps stepping forward.
"Not even if I can get you back in the Dark Lord's good graces?"
He almost laughs out loud at her response. She has no idea how ridiculously inaccurate her assumptions of him are.
Good.
"Listening."
He stares her down, making her flimsy mask of control falter, placing him in control where he belongs.
"Oh well... I happen to know of a mission that's success rate is almost undeniable. If you would like, I could have you placed as head of the unit. And also praise your name after its success to the Dark Lord."
"What is the mission?"
"Does it matter?"
"Of course. A successful mission doesn't mean I technically come back successfully."
She rolls her eyes at him. He hates that.
Only one woman has the permission to do that at me.
"One where your demise is not a part of the plan I assure you."
He scoffs at her and looks above her head as he swears he sees a small shadow appear to move down the corridor.
Half of the Dark Lord's personally given missions to Draco had been suicide missions.
"Then tell me."
"Not until you fulfill your half of the deal."
His eyes go back up over her shoulder as the shadow moves again. It is too small to be a human. Too large to be one of the kneazels the Greengrasses have wandering about their estate.
"And what would you want in return Carrow?"
"Would you like it bluntly or inferred?"
"Surprise me."
"Sex. When I want, until you are placed in an arranged marriage. We will keep it discreet of course. Oh and I would want an Unbreakable Vow done to ensure you continue with the agreement after the mission."
He blinks, she has surprised him. His eyes glare back down at her. She is serious.
"You realize I'm 19 right?" He looks her body up and down in an obvious way. Not actually taking any of it in, but hopefully between this and his next words he would be able to get the point across. "You're old enough to be my mother."
"Your mother is dead." She cruelly whispers at his face with a slight sneer. He feels his fists press against the sides of his pants.
"Your sweet nothings could use some work."
She laughs at this and takes a step closer to him, only a few more and she would be able to touch him. He catches a movement again from behind her shoulder towards the bottom of the open doorway.
I know that house elf.
What the hell is Fritzy doing here?
Carrow reaches out with her hand, but Draco lunges up and roughly grabs her wrists and sinks his thumb into the sensitive area right below the joint. She lets out a small yelp of pain and drags her body down to try to alleviate the pressure.
"No deal."
He yanks her wrist down to his right, pulling her entire body down to the ground, and steps quickly around her towards the open doorway where the house elf is hiding in the shadows.
"You prick! You have no idea what you..." He shuts the door behind him.
Where did that bloody house elf go?
"Fritzy I saw you."
The small house elf in question scurries out from behind one of the large monuments of a Greengrass relative placed in the hallway.
"Sorry to interrupt sir, but master told me to come find you right away. Yes right away, and to you only sir."
The house elf hunches his shoulders and quickly looks around to see if they are alone. Draco knows this house elf belongs to Nott Manor, and that one of his masters is Theo, but the other master the house elf could be here for was Theo's father.
"Which master?"
"Oh the young one sir, stupid Fritzy should have clarified sir. Fritzy apologizes sir." The house elf starts bashing his head into the large monument to his right. Draco doesn't have time for this.
"Why were you sent?"
The house elf stops as a small trail of blood comes down to rest in his temple.
"Master Theo said to tell you periwinkle sir."
His mind freezes. Draco's chest is caving in. His whole body twitches unintentionally twice before he kneels down and looks the house elf in the eyes.
"What did you just say?" His voice promises death as he stares at the terrified little creature.
"Periwinkle sir."
He takes off for the floo.
He said periwinkle. Theo told him to say periwinkle. He has something. He knows something.
He grabs a handful of floo powder in shaky hands and his voice cracks as he basically yells Nott Manor Theo's room, into the fireplace.
He has something.
Something big.
Theo would never send his bloody house elf after you with that message unless it was big.
Maybe there was a sighting,
Maybe The Order had her,
Maybe her body was found,
Maybe she wouldn't be surrounded with maybes in his mind anymore,
Maybe...
The smoke of the floo dissipates and the familiar gaudy style of Theo's room comes into view as he bursts out of the fireplace.
"Granger, don't smile at me like that, just a few more seconds I swear..."
Draco's eyes and ears adjust to the chaotic floo experience slower than normal. He sees Theo kneeling on the floor of his room in front of a pile of bloody blankets. He is speaking loudly and quickly down at them.
What the hell?
At the sound of his entrance Theo turns around. His face and front are covered in smears of blood, and his eyes are panicked. His mate is freaking out.
He must have had a run in with his father again.
"Thank Merlin! Grab the murtlap and dittany out of my bag now! And my wand I can't bloody find it anywhere, and shit try to..."
"Theo what's going on, why in the bloody hell did you send a house elf to..." As he takes a few steps out of the fireplace, he sees that the pile of blankets isn't just a pile of blankets; they hold a body in them.
Almost a body.
A brutalized body.
A red body that should be gold.
A body with wild curls and sweet milk chocolate hair.
His body.
Her body.
Her dead body.
Granger.
His legs give out underneath him. His hands smash down as he catches his face from making contact with the floor. He can't breathe. A ringing noise is all he can hear as he looks up at the body again.
It blinks.
She's alive.
My girl blinked.
"Shit Draco get up I need your help! I can't bloody well save both of your lives at the moment. Come on, she needs you!"
She needs me.
Draco pulls himself up to his feet, but his body continues to shake uncontrollably as he looks her over again.
How is she alive?
She should be dead. Her body... He can't finish the thought as his eyes begin to water and his shaking increases. He tries to take a step, but he can't. He can't move.
She blinks again.
Still alive.
Suddenly Theo's face breaks his eye contact with Granger's broken body. He feels weight pressing into both of his shoulders as Theo pulls him closer.
"Draco occlude now!" He just stares at his brother.
Her body... what did they do to you... who...
"Draco, you son of a bitch occlude now!!" Theo is yelling at him, spit is splattering all over his face from Theo's fear and it makes him blink, coming back to the world in front of him. "We did not go through all this hell for you to shit a brick the moment it matters you hear me! She needs you mate! I need you! So occlude now!"
She needs me.
Theo needs a plan built on the foundation of emotions, not driven by them.
Granger needs him.
He makes eye contact with his friend and gives him a nod. He closes his eyes and rolls his shoulders, building fortresses, cities, manors, kingdoms around her. To protect her. Always to protect her. Everything to protect her. The walls reach a height above the clouds and he feels his limbs stop shaking and his heart rate drop. She's behind the walls. She is safe.
He opens his eyes and looks down at the scene again. She is staring at him, or through him is more like it.
"Draco the bag and wand now!"
Draco sees the large bag closer to the bed and runs and grabs it. He finds his wand underneath the bed and quickly places the items next to Theo.
"Dittany now. Tear it up into varying sizes."
Draco makes to kneel next to Granger and Theo as he reaches to pull the dittany out of the bag.
"No not Malfoy no no no! Please Malfoy no, get away please no no no!"
He looks up at her and sees the unadulterated fear in her eyes as she screams at him. Her destroyed body starts to shake and she tries to push herself farther away from him. He feels like he is going to throw up. She is scared of him. Why is she scared of him? He wants to reach out and push her dirty and matted hair out of her bloody face, but she is scared of him.
A lot of people should be scared of me Granger, but you are not one of them.
Theo places a hand on the side of her face and urgently yet gently turns her to look at him. "He is who I called Granger. He is here to help me heal you. He wants to save you okay?"
That is all I want, Granger.
"You can trust him, okay? Granger, I need you to calm down please. I promise neither of us are going to touch you beyond what is needed to heal all of this. I promise, look at me, not at him, look at me, I promise. On my life, on my artifacts, on my first edition of Hogwarts a History. You know how valuable that is don't you Granger?"
She nods up at him, and Draco watches as the shaking in her body turns into slight tremors.
"Okay, Okay, Shit where was I... oh right okay. Draco I need you to cut that dittany and get another bottle of murtlap out."
Granger goes back to staring up at the ceiling, not looking at him again. He takes a tentative step forward and kneels next to Theo who is doing a diagnostic check on the right side of her body. He starts magically tearing the dittany leaves into different sizes, never taking his eyes off of her.
Never again, you hear me Granger. I am never taking my eyes off of you again.
She closes her eyes as the two of them continue to work. Draco sees the blood. There isn't an inch of her that isn't covered with red. Large gashes and swelling areas cover all of the exposed skin he can see that isn't hidden underneath the throw blanket. Both eyes are black, her nose is somehow sunken into her face, and her lips are huge and chapped. If it wasn't for the hair, he may not have recognized her.
"Okay, okay good it worked. Her rib punctured her right lung. But it's working now. It's working. Okay okay. Her hip, yeah her hip next."
Draco's throat isn't working. He is still in shock no doubt.
You are cutting up dittany for Granger right now, and she is still alive. She isn't a scarf, or hanging from the drawing room, or losing her mind in Azkaban, or torn apart in the woods somewhere, or starving down in a dungeon forgotten about, or being tortured by the Dark Lord. She is here in front of you right now. And you haven't said a bloody word to her you raging idiot.
"Granger," it is barely a whisper, he is sure there is no way she heard him, but to his surprise she turns her head slightly, and opens her eyes as much as she can.
The gold is gone.
Who took the gold from your eyes Granger?
"Malfoy," she says it just as weakly as he did. The gold isn't there anymore but the depth of those brown eyes are all the same. It is her. It is her in front of him, and she just said his name.
"Glad you are still alive."
What the actual hell...
He can't be sure, but he thinks she tries to roll her eyes at him.
That's my girl.
"Really? Glad you're alive? How in the world did you ever get laid Draco?"
Theo keeps his eyes on his diagnostic chart in front of him as he insults his best friend, but a small smile forms at the side of his mouth, identical to the one forming on Draco's. Suddenly a bloody hand is pulling his wand arm towards her.
"Do it, do it now! Please!"
Granger places the hand holding his wand over her stomach and begins shaking again.
"What?"
"I need you to cast a contraceptive charm on me now! The later the less effective it becomes, please Malfoy!"
Draco looks down at her puzzled, "A contracep..." his mind freezes again.
no. No. No. NO. NO!
Your fault. Your fault. Your fault.
"Draco..." Theo's hesitant voice brings him back from the white rage filling his entire body.
"Who."
"Please Malfoy, please now please!"
Tears are streaming down her broken face and he feels one leave the side of his eye as well, but it's not from sadness. No, it is from a fury he has never felt before. Someone had... Someone had done... No one had the right to...
He gently moves her hand out of the way and raises his wand and casts the charm.
Murder isn't a sufficient word to describe what I am going to do to the fucker who touched you Granger.
"Now a diagnostic!"
Draco just stares into her eyes, knowing Theo will oblige her request. He can't look at it. Something in him shifts, and he finds himself reaching out and gently holding the broken hand in his, she doesn't pull away. The tremors haven't stopped whether it's from fear, or pain or both. Probably both.
She isn't, she isn't. She can't be.
He watches as her eyes scan the diagnostic and process the information. After a moment, she starts to cry and places her head back onto the floor and closes her eyes.
No...
"Thank Merlin," he hears Theo whisper, and Draco lets out the breath he was holding. At his words, Granger yanks her hand out of his gentle hold.
"Okay Granger listen, I know you probably feel a lot better than you were feeling, but that is because you are not trying to actively die on me anymore okay? And just because you aren't dying doesn't mean you are better."
Theo moves back into her line of vision. His face is gentle and sincere, even though his eyes still chaotically look in panic.
"I'm just going to be blunt Granger because from what I have been told about you, and it's a lot by the way, I think you would appreciate that; you're a mess, and this is going to take a shit ton of time, and is going to continue to be bloody painful, but I could use your help. Can you tell me what hurts the worst right now?"
She blinks at him. The blink lasts a long time.
"Knock me out."
"Excuse me?"
"Knock me out Theo, do whatever you want to do, just please knock me out."
Draco was not a fan of her choice of wording.
Did she think they?.. Why in Merlin's name would she think that?
"Are you sure that's what you want? This would be a hell of a lot easier with your help but..."
"Yes, please, please."
Granger doesn't beg. Ever. What the hell happened to her?
"Okay."
"Absolutely fucking not." The words leave Draco before he can stop them, not that he wants to stop them. "We're not going to rape you Granger. We're healing you."
She is crying again.
Way to go arsehole, making your girl cry.
"Draco!" Theo is pissed. He probably deserves it. Gentleness has never been a strong suite of his. "What the hell mate?"
"Sorry."
Through her tears strange gargling whimpers start coming and her body starts to shake again, "Please, please, please."
Theo grabs the side of her face again, "Okay, okay, okay Granger. I'll knock you out okay? I'll wake you up as soon as we have you healed as much as we can. You are going to wake up feeling a hell of a lot better I promise you. And then I'll let you check out my library, you'd like that? As long as you promise not to snap the spines you can read any book you want. And we will get you some food and tea with honey and milk. That's how you like it right? That's what Draco has told me."
Her eyes widen in horror as Theo mentions snapped spines of books, and he smiles down at her, "The snapped spines was a joke. I know you're no heathen Granger, not like the rest of my sorry lot."
Why is Theo saying these things to her? Why not you? Why can't you make her interact with the world, and make her body stop trembling, and touch her face without her recoiling, and make her eyes open...
No, you make her eyes cry.
Bastard.
She nods slightly and Theo places her head back down on the ground. He raises his wand and casts the spell, and her eyes slowly shut. Draco looks away.
She looks dead again.
She isn't dead.
I know, but it is too convincing.
Like he knows his thoughts, Theo reaches and turns her head away from him, so he can't see her closed eyes anymore. Draco takes a couple steady breaths and works to keep his walls up.
She is alive, she is here, she is safe.
Now you need to keep her safe.
"Well..."
Theo lets out an exhausted huff of air, falls back to sit on the floor and runs a bloody hand through his hair.
"I found Granger."