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—TWs for gaslighting, toxicity & violence.
A SECRET WORTH SEEKING, is a secret worth keeping. Seven wondered if that truth applied to her own secrets — if she even had any. Her life seemed to be much like an open book, that everyone else had already been able to read cover to cover, picking apart the fine mistakes and folding well-worn creases in the parchment. But when Seven herself had opened the book, only off-white pages stared back at her. Blank and Empty.
"What the hell was that back there?" She hissed. Draco didn't answer.
The streets were no longer silent. Life screamed, cried, and fought about the cobbled streets. Venders shouting for attention amidst the general babble and the constant clanging of factory machinery.
In some sick way Seven had missed the Sloth District, even despite its crippling poverty. To her, it was the only district that had ever really felt like home.
Since she could remember — since the war, she had travelled across five of the seven districts. All except Envy and Wrath; the two districts that being a visitor meant you were either a Crawler, a Death-Eater, a Sin or a deadman walking. People like Seven did not ever return from those districts.
"Draco?" She said, as if testing out the way his name tasted on her tongue; bittersweet and full of rue. He didn't react, either unable or unwilling to look at her. "Draco, stop." She said again, louder this time and reaching out her hand to grab him. The moment her skin met his he reacted, jerking away as if the notion had scalded him.
"Don't touch me." He hissed.
Seven struggled to keep pace with him, suddenly frustrated, "What's wrong with you?"
If anything, she should be the angry one, she thought.
"Not now, Seven." — And there it was again, that snide tone of voice he did that made her furious.
"Not now?" She echoed in disbelief, struggling to subdue a humourless laugh, " — That's all you ever say! Not now — don't worry about it, you're hiding something, Draco!"
A few heads had began to turn on the street as they passed, though most paid them no mind above the general noise. Draco noticed, lowering his voice to a gruff growl, "I said, we'll talk about this later."
"Just tell me! What are you so afraid of?"
He stopped dead, turning around to face her with eyes she had never seen before. He looked entirely unlike himself, fuelled by rage and foreign in the face. It awakened something hidden deep within Seven, though she couldn't tell if it was the flicker of a memory or something far more sinister.
He grabbed her wrist, callused fingers clamping around her like a vise; painfully so. And then he began to drag her, so fast that she had to run to avoid falling.
"Get off me!" She snarled, reaching for her wand with her free hand only to be jerked painfully to the side, knocking her off balance as she was pulled into the mouth of an alley way. "Draco — you're hurting me!"
When they were far enough into the maze that they couldn't be heard from the street Draco finally stopped, practically slamming her back into the brick wall before rounding on her.
"What the fuck is your problem!" Seven shouted, and he towered over her, like a storm cloud about to thunder and strike out with a force strong enough to shake the heavens.
"My problem?!" Draco leered, " — What's yours Seven?"
Before then, Seven had never once feared the pale-haired stranger. She'd become so accustomed to his company that somehow she'd even managed to come under the illusion that she somewhat knew the strange man; maybe even trusted him.
But what if? — What if it was all an act to gain her trust. Was this outburst just a glimpse at the real Draco? "Why are you being like this?!"
"Have you forgotten where you are? — There are Crawlers fucking everywhere!" He was the perfect portrait of a man unhinged, scarcely clinging to sanity. This, she thought, this was the real Draco. " — Or are you trying to get us both killed!"
"Don't you dare try and turn this back on me!" She hissed, feeling a hateful warmth begin to bubble up inside of her.
" — Or what, Seven?" He was on her again, only inches separating them. His breath hot as it fanned against her throat. She hated the way he made her feel. Even the scent of him seemed dangerous, like smoke, and there was no smoke without fire. "What will you do?"
She clenched her jaw, biting back a horrid response and swallowing her bitterness down; remaining silent, visually passive. There were a million things she wanted to do to him in this moment, and not a single one of them saintly.
He leaned in closer. So close that he stole the air from her lungs and Seven swore she couldn't breathe, whispering in her face before finally shoving away. "That's what I fucking thought."
A flicker of something distinctly violent ignited within her at that moment, only fuelled by the way he then turned his back on her and began walking away. It made her feel hot — too hot, and she wanted to hit him. She wanted to make him hurt.
Something horrid overcame her, fingers encircling around her wand and in one fluid moment it was pulled from her pocket and pointed square at his back.
The curse that came from it was crimson and unnamed, Seven hadn't sent any particular one, instead the thin beam of light was more of an accumulation of all of her hatred for this pale-haired man.
He moved so fast she almost missed it. Even with his back to her somehow he knew, for he turned, causing the scarlet burst to spiral past him, and in that same moment, send the same curse flying straight back at her.
Unlike Draco however, Seven had no time to react.
It struck her square and solid. Landing upon her like a ton of bricks, and breaking a guttural scream from her lips as she was sent sprawling against the cobbles.
The curse did not leave instantly, it stayed in her blood, coursing through her veins like fire, causing her to thrash and twist in agony.
The Cruciatus curse.
In an instant he was back, standing over her again, his face a strange mix of so many different emotions that Seven had only previously known separated, but together made for a terrifying mix. He felt no guilt. He had no regret. Maybe deep down part of him even enjoyed hurting her, in the same way she wanted to hurt him.
"Don't test me, Seven." He did not should. He didn't need to. Somehow his quiet was far more terrifying, like the silence that came right before a storm. "Because I'll pass. Every fucking time."
Then a snarl curled at the edges of his lip, " You look pathetic, get up — now."
Seven's head felt a mess, thoughts unable to walk in straight lines or hold one another's hand coherently, they kept running off and away. But she managed one thing as she dragged herself to her knees before him. She tasted blood, so she spat it at his feet. "Fuck you."
And then she braced herself, expecting another strike, and for a moment, he looked as if he'd do just that; looking nothing far from murderous. But nothing came. Instead Draco cocked his head, narrowing his eyes at her, "Just name a time and a place."
***
QOTD-What do you think Draco's hiding? -TFOA