*TW, mentions r4pe*
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𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆 𝑪𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒆
"How are you feeling?" A soft hand stroked my warm cheek. My vision blurred in and out as I viewed my friends standing around my bed, a fresh bandage wrapped around each of their forearms.
"I'm okay," I whispered, shutting my eyes as I slowly sat up, a hand placed behind my back helping me sit up straight.
"Draco?"
"Hi, love," he smiled, "I'm right here."
"The rest of us have the dark mark already. The Dark Lord gave them to us while you were sleeping. Bellatrix got you a deal, you should be grateful," Theo exclaimed, leaning against the bedroom wall.
I knew I wouldn't have been able to handle the screams of my friends as the dark mark was burned onto their skin.
"It took a bit of convincing. I wish I could give you more time but I must give it to you now," Bella exclaimed, shuffling my friends out the door. Draco stayed put by my side.
I knew it would be painful when he began to place rags under where my arm sat on the covers.
"This is going to sting terribly, try to keep quiet," Bella exclaimed, pointing her wand at my forearm.
"I'm right here, you're gonna be okay," Draco placed his hand in my free one.
"Morsmordre."
The black ink began to bubble into my veins, squelching as it burned the skull and snake under the layers of my skin.
Draco's hand covered my mouth in an effort to muffle my screams, but it was of no use. Tears began to stream down my face as he consoled me.
"Draco, it hurts," I sobbed, blood trickling from my forearm onto the dry rags, soaking them red.
"I know, I'm sorry."
Draco tried to keep his expression strong in front of Bella, but I could see how much he was breaking through my tear blurred eyes, biting down on his lip so to stop it from trembling.
By the time it was over I'd broken two of his fingers.
My recovery was far worse.
Sweating profusely, dehydration. Nausea, vomiting. I ran a fever of 103 for five hours, unescapable night terrors filling my vision as I drifted in and out of consciousness on his bed.
I awoke to Draco sitting on a chair beside the bed, wrapping a soft white bandage around my forearm, a cool, damp towel resting on my forehead.
"Is it over?" I whispered.
"You should feel well in a few, the others said they felt better after 24 hours. Mine was around the same," he smiled sadly, wrapping less tightly on the side of the harshly inked skin.
Draco stood as a knock emerged from the door.
"I made you tea," Naevah smiled, entering with a steaming mug. "It's Neville's own blend. Lemon, chamomile from western Asia and hibiscus petals."
"Which has a better ring to it? Neville the tea brewer or Neville the plug?" Pansy snorted, entering after her, earning a small slap on the arm from Naevah.
"Leave poor Neville alone," she smiled, placing the warm mug in my slightly shaky hands, Draco placing a small clean towel over my lap in case of any spills.
"It seems to me you have a little crush Navs, you've liked the kid since first year," she answered.
"Oh shut up," Naevah followed Pansy out, trying to hit her as they ran, their footsteps thumping throughout the Manor as they chased after one another, eventually fading.
"I appreciate all the help but I think I'd like a little quiet, I've got quite the headache," I smiled, my eyes half shut as Theodore, Blaise and Daph left the room.
"Where'd you sleep last night?" I asked in confusion. I hadn't felt the bed sink in; I'd slept alone.
"I didn't."
I recalled being half awake in the middle of the night as his calloused fingertips traced the palm of my hand on the arm of which the dark mark had been placed, trying to massage away any tenderness or pain that remained in my muscles, softly rubbing lavender oil onto my temples.
"Draco, you didn't have to," I sighed, taking a warm sip of tea, coughing slightly as it tickled the back of my throat, burning my tongue.
"I had to make sure Bellatrix casted the enchantments. I didn't want your Dad finding his way up here."
I'd forgotten my Dad was here as a whole.
Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, the night after would be Christmas, then only eleven days until I could return to Hogwarts.
Staying as far away from my Father as possible would be my top priority.
Draco stayed by my side the entirety of the day. I was still too weak to move, so I just lay there still, soft music emitting from the record player sitting in the corner of his room.
He was even overprotective in his sleep.
His tiredness had overtaken his consciousness, slipping into an accidental nap as he lay next to me, his arms wrapped strongly around my waist and back, one hand coddling my head to his chest. Every time I tried to wiggle away he would only hold me tighter.
As if someone other than me was trying to peel me away from him.
My Father.
If anyone had a right to be terrified of my Father other than myself it was Draco. I may have experienced it first hand, but he witnessed it, and was too young to comprehend and or do anything about it in the first place.
I remember the first time he'd done it.
It didn't happen often.
Only when Mother wasn't home.
He didn't enjoy it as much with me. I wasn't "developed" enough for him at the time.
He was pissed off and I just happened to be there.
It was more of an act of anger than an act of rape. It felt just as terrible.
I thought it was normal. He'd first done it when I was four years old, when Mother had gone out to a dinner party.
I was too young to understand why it was wrong.
At first I blamed myself for feeling invalidated at such a young age. Keeping quiet about the prostitutes he would bring home wasn't the only thing he'd paid me to shut up about.
My friends know what he did.
But not the lengths to which he went.
The rape went on for five years until he'd been locked away. I was finally free of his presence, until The Dark Lord had freed him.
The Dark Lord wasn't well known for being a compliant being. I very fortunately was of the few exceptions. He never did like my Father; and instead of being forced to redeem my Father's actions, he'd allow me to sit out. Draco wasn't so lucky; he had to pay for his Father's breaking of the prophecy.
Even Voldemort himself, a blood supremacist, mass murderer, and sadistic sociopath, knew raping your own daughter was crossing a very sharp line. The line wasn't blurry. It was clear.
We were too little to remember completely of course, but Draco and I both know what happened.
We forbade each other to speak of it. Nobody else knew, and they would never know.
Perhaps that was why we'd grown so far apart; Draco and I rarely spoke after the age of nine years old. We could barely look at each other. The both of us felt ashamed.
Thinking about the fuzzy memory sent a cold drop to my stomach.
It had happened when we were nine.
My Father had raped me; I may have been used to it at that point but the tears never ceased to flow whenever it happened.
Lucius made Draco watch. I still could remember his voice in my head.
"That, my son, is how we treat women,"
That was the first night Lucius had slapped him. After crying out, trying to help me. That slap had silenced Draco for years.
I'll leave it at that.
My breathing slowed in my throat as I felt Draco's hands wrap tighter around my waist; as if he could sense my fear. I hadn't even realized I was on the brink of hyperventilating. His soft touch countered that.
I was lucky enough to have Bellatrix cast protective enchantments around his room.
My Mother most likely wasn't so lucky.
She couldn't look me in the eye most mornings. I assume he was already back to using her as some fuck-toy as he'd done to me.
I could tell whenever he did it. She turned an almost ash gray color, color draining from her face for days at a time as she tried to continue living.
If I were her I would've offed myself a while ago.
Maybe she's stronger than I thought. We all have our own ways of coping. She relied on those around her to survive, even if it means obeying her husband.
I don't like relying on people.
But I'd felt as though a piece of me was missing until Draco had reentered my life. With everything that happened, we chose to push each other away instead of allow us to bring us closer together.
But who could blame us?
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𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒅𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 <3
~ 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝, 𝚒𝚕𝚢