One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Fallon could‘ve died the moment Revel showed his face. She was shivering from the cold, or was it fear? Fallon instinctively moved behind Draco, only to have her heart beat rapidly when she realized whose presence she was in.

“It‘s alright Fallon, you may stay there,” Voldemort chuckled, quite amused by her actions. Fallon gripped Draco‘s shirt tightly which earned a quick reassuring peck when Voldemort pulled Revel off to the side to speak with him.

“Draco this is awful. Why would he want to talk with me of all people?” she asked, on the verge of tears.

“Shhh,” Draco hushed, looking towards the conversing father and son. “It‘ll be over soon I promise,” he comforted kissing her forehead. Fallon bit her lip to suppress the overwhelming urge to sob loudly.

“Fallon, do you happen to have, what’s the word, episodes?” Voldemort turned his attention away from his son. Fallon thought for a moment.

“What do you mean, sir?” Fallon asked quietly.

“Do you happen to have, oh I don’t know, seizures or hallucinations?” Fallon tensed. Both Voldemort and Revel had smirks of satisfaction, that’s when Fallon’s nail began to penetrate the fleshy meat of her palm.

“Answer the question please,” Voldemort stated calmly. Fallon breathed long and hard, and Draco stood still.

“Yes,” she answered simply before clearing her throat of any phlegm that built up from the captive sobs.

Voldemort laughed jubilantly and patted his son lovingly on the back. “Very well done, my son. You’re much smarter than I expected,” Voldemort complimented his son before walking over to Fallon and petting her hair.

“I was afraid that you were distracting Draco too much. Therefore, I thought that if I got Revel to do something about that, Draco would get along with his task well. It’s almost time, it’s almost time,” he whispered excitedly.

If Fallon’s eyes weren’t stinging before, they definitely were now. “It was him, it was him all along,” she murmured in disbelief. She lifted her eyes from the ground and over to Revel. He smiled malignantly, causing Fallon to creep further behind Draco.

Fallon looked up at Draco’s neck, and noticed the fair bit of sweat coating his neck and damping his hair.

“You may leave, Draco. You as well, Fallon.” The two of them left promptly. As soon as the heavy doors shut themselves behind them Draco grabbed Fallon’s hand and broke into a full on sprint back to Draco’s room.

When they reached their destination and they were behind closed doors, Fallon began to cry. She collapsed onto Draco’s bed and buried her tear-stained face into the cloud-like pillows. Draco crawled up beside her and rubbed her back.

“That was so so scary,” she mumbled in between her fits of crying. Draco hushed her and covered her with a protecting arm. He kissed away all the tears while he curled his body around hers.

“You’ll never have to do that again,” Draco assured her, kissing her hair and pulling her tighter into his body.

“Promise?” Draco stayed silent and Fallon’s heart dropped a few centimetres.

Instead of promising her he said, “Revel is a freak. Though I would’ve never have guessed that he was the one to do that to you.”

“It’s all your fault,” she blamed pushing him away. She was a tragic mess. All the words that came flowing from Draco’s mouth only made it that much worse. She knew he had the best intentions with them, but they only hurt her more.

“You better be close to fixing that goddamn cabinet, I swear to god.” Fallon was now rocking back and forth on her tailbone with her knees tucked into her chest.

“It’s finished. The Dark Lord just needs to pick a day,” Draco explained. He reached for her and Fallon moved back. Draco sighed and rubbed his hands on his face.

“It’s fine I get it. I’m a monster,” he said sadly, feeling defeated and rejected. He got up, walked over to the bathroom, and had a shower, trying to scrub away the evil mark bestowed upon his arm. Ridding himself of all the things he wished he didn’t have to be.

Fallon stared after him. An hour later and Draco emerged shirtless. Fallon‘s eyes immediately flickered down in arm and was thoroughly confused when not a single speck of any thing remained on his arm.

“Draco where‘s-” Fallon was silenced by Draco‘s heavenly lips on hers.

“It‘s gone.” Fallon‘s eyes flashed with a bolt of happiness. “Temporarily.”

Fallon frowned and looked down at her twiddling thumbs. “I knew it was too good to be true,” she whispered before getting up and walking to the door.

“Wait,” Draco called after her. “Is there anything you want to do with me while I‘m free of loose ends?” Fallon stared at him, void of all emotion.

“I‘m free of loose ends,” he repeated desperately. Fallon walked over to him slowly and straddled his lap.

“Just being with you would suffice now that we both don‘t have a constant reminder every time we look at your arm,” she said, hugging as much of him as she could.

“You‘re the best,” he mumbled into the fiery masses of her hair.

The two sat in a comfortable silence. Until Fallon asked Draco a question out of the blue.

“Do you really go out and kill people?” she asked lowly. Draco stiffened and Fallon could feel Draco chest beginning to frequently meet with hers.

“No, but please don‘t tell anyone. I‘m supposed to and if he finds out, we‘re all dead,” Draco said frantically. Fallon laid down on the bed and pulled Draco down on top of her, resting his head on her chest. She ran her fingers through his perfectly ruffled hair causing his eyes to fall shut and lean into her touch. Draco began to whimper like a dog.

“Draco, what are you doing?” Fallon asked quizzically. Draco moved so he was fully on top of her, slightly constricting her breathing and movement.

“Maybe if we weren‘t wizards…” he thought. Fallon laughed.

“Too bad you‘d never actually want that to happen. You‘d be whining even more,” she said pulling his head up.

“Yeah,” he agreed easily and rested his head back down.

“But it would be a hell of a lot easier on the majority of us,” she carried on further, because she knew it would make Draco so much more happier. He was going through a rough time, and the last thing Fallon wanted him to think was that he was going through it alone.