I can't believe I just got the Dark Mark. My hands are shaking, my whole body is sore.
"May I be excused? I have to unpack my things from Hogwarts." I say quietly.
"Course you can dear." Aunt Narcissa says softly.
I bow to the Dark Lord again and I maneuver myself out of the middle of the room and go upstairs. Norby has already brought my trunk and things into my room. Fergus is screaming at me from his carrier. I go over and unlatch the front of the carrier so Fergus can roam the house freely.
I don't notice that Draco is sitting at my desk till he moves. "Merlins beard Draco!" I whisper shout.
I go over to my bedroom door and close it, I then seal it with a soundproofing charm that I've learned in my spare time. I turn back around and look at Draco. "What happened? I heard them clapping." Draco asks me.
I try to stop myself from crying but it doesn't work, tears start to stream down my face. Draco practically flies from one side of my room to the other and pulls me into a hug. He hits the freshly placed dark mark and I wince. "Sorry." He lets go of me immediately.
"It's not how I thought it would be," I whisper.
"What do you mean?"
I pull my sleeve back up and show Draco. Draco looks at it then looks into my eyes. I can tell he wants to say something but he doesn't know how to. "It hurts a lot more than I thought it would. The Dark Lord shoves his wand into your skin and twists it around a bit. Then it burns, all the way up your arm and into your chest." I whisper. I feel ashamed like I shouldn't look Draco in the eyes anymore.
"Did they... give you a choice?"
I laugh and wipe the tears off my cheeks, "If they did do you really think I would have gotten this thing?"
I move past Draco carefully and I sit on the edge of my bed. "I shouldn't have come home," I say to him. Draco sits beside me and looks at me with a sort of hurt in his eyes. "I wasn't going to come home. I was going to go to the Burrow with George, spend the summer there... But I came home anyway and look what happened."
"It's not too late Violet. You can go." Draco says softly, "I'll be alright."
I look at Draco. His posture is nearly perfect, his hair is parted right down the middle. He looks poised, professional. But I know him. I know that his eyes are full of fear and sadness. If I left it would destroy him.
"I'm not going anywhere without you. And I may be legal now and able to go anywhere I please but you're not and taking you now would be considered kidnapping or something crazy."
Draco stands up from the bed and looks at me, "That's the stupidest thing you've ever said to me before in my entire life? You're going to have your life destroyed! All for what? To keep me safe?" He shouts. Thank god for that sound sealing charm.
"You are the most important thing right now Draco. Not school. Not the Dark Lord. You! Keeping you safe, making sure that you end up being a good person, a talented wizard, that's my top priority!" I shout back at him.
Draco paces around my room like a caged tiger, "You're not my mother!"
"Well someone has to be! You really think that Narcissa had any part in making you the person you are today? She just stands by and lets Lucius do whatever he pleases! I protected you my whole life from what your parents are really like Draco! I was the one they treated like crap so that they wouldn't treat you that way!" I stand from the bed too, facing him. "If I wasn't here right now. You would have been the one to get the Mark tonight. You would be sitting in your room alone crying!"
Draco throws my desk chair to the ground and yells in anger, "Well maybe I want the Mark!" He shouts.
I shake my head, tears start forming in my eyes again, "Don't say that Draco. You don't mean that."
Draco's now got tears flowing down his face too, "I want it. You all have it."
"Your mother doesn't."
"Cause she's a coward."
I rub my temples with my fingertips, "You don't have to follow your father blindly. You're your own person."
"I know that." Draco spits.
"Then why don't you act like it?" I spit right back at him.
Draco storms over to my door, "Let me out." He says coldly.
"Draco."
"I said, let me out."
I pull my wand out and mutter the counter charm under my breath. Draco swings the door open and shuts it behind him. Instantly I break down into tears. I start to unpack my things, putting everything into my drawers. I pull out my Yule Ball dress and stare at it for a minute before I tuck it away into the back of my closet. Once all of my clothes are put away I start slowly putting my quills and things back into my desk. I pause. Take a breath. Pick up the chair that Draco threw, and sit down.
I write the same letter nine times over
It's Violet,
They made me get it as soon as I got home. You?
I put them into little envelopes and seal them with wax and my family's crest. I then write names on each envelope.
Clarissa Blythe.
Emma Fay.
Miriam Boyarsky.
Henrietta Taylor.
Walter Clarence.
Adrian Pucey.
Cassius Warrington.
Miles Bletchley.
Graham Montague.
I open my window and whistle for my owl who comes soaring in from a nearby tree. "I have a lot of letters that need to be delivered as soon as possible so I need you to fly fast. Take this one to Emma Fay." I tie the letter around Otis' leg and kiss him on the head. Then I send him out the window again.
I turn back around and look at my desk. I stare for a moment before I pick up the quill that George bewitched for me years ago. I put it back down again and sit back at my desk. I hesitate. Pick the quill back up, dip it in some ink and write on my arm that doesn't have the Dark Mark on it.
I SHOULD HAVE GONE HOME WITH YOU
Is all I write to him. I get a response almost instantly.
ARE YOU ALRIGHT?
Every fibre in my body is telling me not to tell him, to pretend everything is alright. Then I think of how much I should actually tell him.
SAW THE DARK LORD. HE GAVE ME THE DARK MARK.