My Wings Are Black

Odette awoke in the middle of the night, her hands clutching at the white sheets she lay upon. She gasped into the dark, gasping the name that always fell upon her lips when sound rose from her throat, Fred. Her green eyes were wide, and her mouth gaped for a moment and her nostrils flared. She forgot for a moment what had woken her, and she lay there in a puddle of sweat, large pyjamas covering her body, her legs tangled within each other. She was paler than a ghost, her hair was lank and she looked unhealthy. Her mark on her neck burned with a fierce pain, as it had for months since she had left the Malfoy Manor under his permission. She had begged and pleaded with her master, begging to be able to find her own small apartment in the middle of London’s roughest area where no-body could find her. She claimed she needed peace, she needed tranquillity. She would visit him as soon as he ever called her. But she needed away.

And the dark lord, who had never once showed any love or affection towards anyone. Who killed with a casual flick of his wand, stared down at a young girl who had become an important member of his team. A girl, a young woman that stirred desires within him he had never felt before. He loved the way her eyes flashed into him with no mercy, she could silence him with a look of lust in a way Bellatrix wished she could. He loved the way Odette could emanate evil from within her body. He never knew, or fathomed that she could be living a lie, that the evil bred inside her had died the minute she had starting to feel for a blood traitor. He had no way of ever knowing that the day he had thought her dead, felled by the Order of the Phoenix in the sky, she had been entangled in someone else’s limbs and she had moaned in her lovemaking. He would never believe his favourite was his biggest traitor of them all. And so, for once, the Dark Lord had given in to her female demands, allowed her to leave...given her the freedom she wanted. And she did come back, swamped in her trademark black, walking effortlessly towards him...gliding, making him feel.

And so Odette now lay alone in a grimy apartment, in the middle of one of the rougher parts of Muggle London. She had declined to fix the place with magic, wanting the gloom, the darkness...the reminder of what her life had become...a reminder it was going to get better, and that she would leave it all behind.

Odette gasped again as pain ripped her apart, and she almost yelled out in shock. She was used to pain from torture curses but not this kind of pain that seemed to be coming from within her own body. She crawled from the bed, and gripped onto the dresser as a few moments later, the pain came again. She closed her eyes; she had known this was going to happen. She grabbed her wand, thought of Fred and a moment later her silver swan patronus lit up the whole room. She flicked it and it disappeared towards Draco’s bedroom across the country in the Malfoy manor. It would only reach him. No-one else in the manor would hear her patronus; hear her pain filled voice as she pleaded with Draco to come to her aid. That it was happening.

Within moments, Draco appeared at the door and he knocked frantically, not being able to apparate directly into her apartment. She half ran, half stumbled towards the door, and when she opened it, she fell into his arms, and he half carried, half dragged her heavy form back towards the bed where he sat her down, she hadn’t been taking care of herself, alone in this place. Her face was drawn, her collarbones stuck out a mile...she had no strength to do this. She cried out as another pain racked her body and Draco gripped her hand.

“Get Fred for me Draco,” she pleaded in a breathless voice, her energy had disappeared quickly. She was ill; she needed St. Mungo’s to get through this tonight. Draco nodded and quickly sent his patronus to Fred, a silver sparrow hawk.

“Come on,” he murmured, helping her stand, “we’ve to get to St. Mungo’s.”

“No, no, no,” Odette almost yelled, “I’ve already said, a muggle hospital, no magic...no-body who can recognise me must know. I can’t go to St. Mungo’s. For all our safety.”

Draco grasped her shoulders and looked into her terrified eyes, “Odette, look at yourself, you’re weak, you’re ill..I’m surprised you’ve made it this far. You need the healers; you need potions only they have. Otherwise, you might not survive.”

Odette snorted with contempt, almost looking like her old self again, “story of my life Draco, now let’s go...please.”

Draco sighed, and led her outside so he could turn on the spot, gripping her arm and landing outside the closest hospital he knew of. He ushered her in, and the nurses took care of her. The nurses smiled reassuringly at Draco but with a curt shake of his head, he signalled he was not the man that should really be there.

In the ward surrounded by strange beeping machines and other moaning patients, Draco was nervous, he tapped his foot impatiently, clutching Odette’s hand and nervously looking over her sweaty, tired face every few moments. He could see her fading away before his very eyes. Where was Fred?

And then he was there, skidding into the ward, looking at the nurses walking around with needles, pushing machines with fear. He didn’t recognise any of these strange sights. For all he knew they were killing her. He found Odette straight away and his heart leapt and plummeted in fear, she looked awful. Like a strange dark shadow in the middle of whiter than white starched sheets. Her eyes flickered open, and her green eyes stared at him in a daze, he had never seen them dull like this before and for the first time, the real fear of losing her enveloped him.

Draco sat to allow Fred into the seat by Odette’s bedside and he muttered something about waiting outside. Fred clutched Odette’s hand where she continued looking at him, as if confused, she couldn’t really see him. Everything was starting to blur. The silver of their matching rings gleamed in the fluorescent lighting and Fred watched the light shimmer on their surfaces before looking back at her. The nurses stared at him, he looked odd in here, with his emerald green cloak and dragon scale boots. Inside he laughed a bit, seeing their confused expressions. Looking from the beautiful girl on the bed to the eccentric yet handsome man on the chair beside her, wondering how that had happened.

And Odette screamed, a long banshee like wail that startled Fred and made him realise the reality of their situation. He was pushed quickly out of the way as nurses surrounded the girl, hooking her up to all kinds of strange contraptions, monitoring her heartbeat, different spikes appearing on the scanner. The nurses muttered about complications, talked to the man they called ‘doctor.’ He looked at Fred, and talked to him for a few moments, clutching the man’s shoulder as he trembled in fear for Odette’s life.

The doctor went about his job as a scalpel was produced, teh gloves were put on and Fred watched everything with a strange sense of numbness...and then the words, ‘we’re losing her,’ and Fred couldn’t help himself. He barged a woman out of the way to stand over Odette’s face as she blinked slowly, as if seeing things for the last time, darkness was closing in. She saw his face, and then she heard something...a cry she had been waiting for and she smiled. She squeezed his hand, looked at the face she had been waiting to see, and then she closed her eyes, barely aware of Fred screaming for her, for her to stay with him, that she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, she had promised to stay. And finally, a hot, potion like substance been forced down her throat, a sense of peace. Darkness.