Stronger Chapter Three

Stronger

By: Provocative Envy

OOO

CHAPTER THREE

“…and my father told him that by Christmas I wouldn’t even be bothering with school!” I finished, smiling in contentment as my two companions chortled unintelligently.

“So you’re getting it at Christmas, Draco?” Vincent Crabbe asked me in a stage whisper, glancing around as if he had just divulged a secret of catastrophic proportions.

“Well, yes. That’s what Father said. Personally, I think I could have handled it years ago,” I answered, inspecting my fingernails and rolling my eyes. “But you know Father. Always so irritatingly protective.”

Crabbe and Goyle nodded dumbly, awed by my command of the conversation.

It was so clichéd: their constant inability to do anything but follow my example. It all really went back to my reputation of antagonism; what kind of villain would I be without my faithful and rudely moronic sidekicks?

I never pretended to be a good person. I knew what morals were, even if I personally didn’t possess them. Those with sentimental streaks could insist I was a product of my environment as much as they liked, but I suppose I would have turned out to be petty and inexcusably bitter no matter the circumstances. I’d grown up with unpopular ideals, my opinions and those of my family being considered contraband in a gradually weakening world.

I held those beliefs staunchly, thinking it my only strength in a torrent of wretched failure. I was base and inconsiderate and terribly jealous by nature. But in the midst of all that, I had something that few could attest to: I deeply and truly had a cause that I would stand by, would fight for. Yes, I had to hide behind a flimsy façade of indifference while still in school, but once we won, once we’d gotten rid of those with unacceptable lineage, I’d be free of the self-imposed cowardice.

And the symbol of equality for me, of freedom, of power, was the two square inches of pale flesh I’d give up. Once I was branded the supposed traitor of mankind, there was no turning back.

I loved the finality of it, the concept of complete fidelity and eventual fatality. I couldn’t make any more mistakes once I’d surrendered my soul, I couldn’t ever be thought of as a chink in the great Malfoy chain. I would have Pansy and my vendetta against Potter; I would have everything and nothing, all my dreams and my nightmares coming to life in a single promise of allegiance.

Frowning slightly, I bade my farewells to Crabbe and Goyle, heading out to the quidditch pitch for another dosage of my pretty poison: as usual, I was hoping that tonight she’d relinquish that overused and overrated saying.

As usual, I didn’t even care if she meant it.

OOO

Pansy and I were walking back to the dungeons when we passed the hospital wing. I stopped walking very suddenly, causing her to run into me and mutter a curse under her breath. Impatiently opening her mouth to demand I continue, she froze as she noticed what I was staring at.

Granger, ghostly pale and scarily still, was lying on her back, her hands at her side and the sheets pulled up to her waist. Her hair, that annoyingly lackluster shade of brown, was framing her face and accentuating her pasty complexion. Her lips, open and an unusual shade of rosy pink, were dry and cracking. Her eyelids were dark and her cheeks were smoothly sunken in; her collarbone was clearly visible through the small opening of her nightgown and her shoulders looked thin and unnaturally angular.

In a second, I realized why her appearance had struck me so harshly: she was, in that minute fragment of time, the embodiment of my defections. The corpse she’d been reduced to was stagnantly articulate in all its unhealthy grandeur. I felt the faintest glimmer of a smile touch my mouth, my palm flat against the frame of the open doorway.

“Draco?” Pansy said, gently reaching out to touch my back.

“Look at her,” I replied in amazement. “Look at how utterly defenseless she is. I’ve never seen her like that. I’ve never seen anyone like that.”

She didn’t bother responding, her sigh an illustration of her annoyance. Dutifully, she leaned against a wall and waited for me to return to the land of the lucid.

“Just think how absolutely vulnerable she is. Unmoving and silent and incapable of fighting back. It’s so…” I trailed off, my expression unreadable.

“So what, Draco? So what?” she urged me to go on, her voice tinged with surprise.

“So…perfect,” I whispered, finally tearing my gaze from Granger and blinking.

Pansy was inscrutably studying me, her eyebrows furrowed.

“I mean, Pansy, I did that. I did that,” I repeated, begging her to understand.

Wordlessly, she turned away from me and began quickly walking in the direction of the dungeons.

Technically, the evening had ended much like every other one had. The only difference was that I didn’t follow her that time.

I didn’t think I ever would again.

OOO

“So, Potter, where’s your filthy little mudblood friend?” I heard Crabbe and Goyle chortle idiotically at my innocent inquiry, my satisfaction increasing as I noticed a muscle twitch in Potter’s jaw.

“None of your business, Malfoy, that’s where,” Weasley interjected heatedly, balling his hands into fists and regarding me furiously.

“Weasley, as clever as your muggle-loving retorts are, I really wasn’t asking you,” I shot back coolly, my eyes glued to Potter’s.

“I think you already know where she is,” he said tightly.

“Well in that case let’s just pretend I’m as stupid as you and the Weasel and hear you say it out loud.”

“Sod off, Malfoy! If you come anywhere near her once she gets out--” Weasley yelled, his ears a bright red.

“Gets out of where, Weasley?” I returned mildly, smirking.

But the two were already stalking away from me.

“Oh, and Potter?” I called out jovially. He didn’t stop and didn’t turn. “Give my regards to Pomfrey, will you?”

His stride broke slightly as my comment sailed through the air.

I laughed and thought of Granger, lying in the hospital wing, Potter and Weasley so easy to rile up without her and her rationale.

I had the wild notion that maybe, just maybe, she could stay there: incarcerated and at my mercy.

OOO