What Lies Within

After Sophie and Draco had their breakdown, Narcissa calmed them down enough to get them upstairs and into their old bedroom, the room they haven't stepped a foot in since the morning of their wedding, which felt like an eternity ago now. Narcissa said she would see them in the morning and that they should get some sleep before she left them alone.

"What now?" Sophie whispers as the two of them sit on the edge of their bed. Neither of them could really speak or move. Sophie was in shock. Dumbledore was dead, The Dark Lord wasn't going to be happy with her and she was terrified. Before this night, the wrath of The Dark Lord was just an impending horror, but now on the other side of the night, it was here and felt more real.

"I don't know." Draco wanted to speak words of comfort, he wanted to assure his wife that everything was going to be okay but he truly didn't think he believed that. As her husband he should be able to protect her, keep her safe but when it came to the Dark Lord was that even possible? Probably not.

Sophie looks over at her husband, he slowly turns to look at her. His grey eyes bore into hers for a second before she leans forward, pressing her lips to his hungerly. She brings her hand up, tangling her fingers in his long blond hair. He wraps his arms around her hips, pulling her over and onto his lap. He wraps his arms tight around her waist, holding her close. They kissed at the other's mouth with a feverish need for the other.

Neither of them knew what tomorrow was going to bring but they did know that right here, right now, they still had each other and wanted nothing more than to get lost in each other. So that's what they did. For the first time in months, they connected as one, tangled in the sheets of their bed.

"I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow," Sophie says later as she curls against her husbands bare chest. He has one arm wrapped around her, his free hand is playing with her fingers lazily on his abdomen. "But I know that whatever happens, as long as you're with me, I can get through it." Draco smiles softly and presses a soft kiss to the top of her head.

"Well fortunately for you, I'm not going anywhere that you aren't going as well." Sophie smiles and curls tighter against her husbands side. She honestly didn't think she would be sleeping tonight but the nights events and her and her husbands recent activities took it out of her and she found herself slipping into slumber.

When she awoke the next morning, she laid in bed for awhile, afraid of what the day was going to bring for her. Her husband still slept beside her. She thought about waking him but why should she? This way he stayed oblivious to the world for just a little longer and didn't need to face whatever the day brought for them.

After twenty minutes of laying in bed though, Sophie decided she needed to get out of bed so she slid from the warm blankets and headed into the bathroom for a shower. When she stepped back into the bedroom to get dressed, Draco was sitting up, stretching. He had obviously just woken up.

"Morning." He says through a yawn. Sophie smiled and walks over to him, pressing a wet kiss to his lips. "You should have woken me, we could have showered together." He pulls her back in for a kiss but before he could finish reaching up to pull the towel from her body, the bedroom door opened and in walked his mother, instantly ruining the mood. Sophie jumped back from her husband, gripping at her towel to stay covered. She blushed bright red and looked down, too embarrassed to meet her mother in law's eyes.

"You are needed downstairs in the study." She tells them, a slight smile on her face. "Whenever you are ready, no need to hurry." She gives her son a knowing smile, making him turn bright red and look away, before she leaves the room.

"Well that was a mood killer." Sophie mumbles, heading for her clothes.

"What's worse is that she gave us permission. I feel the need to go downstairs right now just so she doesn't think we actually are having sex, it's just awkward." He visibly shudders as he stands from the bed. After last night, he was still naked, making her smirk. "Hey, eyes up here, love."

"Sorry," She grins, not meaning it whatsoever. "I can't resist." She smirks. He smirks back and walks over to her, pulling her into a kiss but she pulls away quickly. "Go shower so we can head downstairs and see what's going on." He sighs and nods, heading into the bathroom to shower.

After Sophie was dressed and ready to go, she sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for Draco to finish. She was thinking about everything that was going on, and what could possibly happen once her and Draco got downstairs. They were able to escape the horror of whatever faced them last night but now it was back on and she could only guess what was waiting for them downstairs.

"Ready?" He asks when he was finally done getting ready. Neither of them had spoken while he got ready. It seemed he was having the same thoughts she was. She says nothing and nods, holding her hand out to him. He takes it and together they leave their room and head downstairs and to the study. When the enter, they see Narcissa, Lucius, Sophie's mother Irene, Snape, Bellatrix, a few other Death Eaters and none other than The Dark Lord stood around the room. Sophie and Draco came to a stop in the doorway. Draco wraps his arm protectively around Sophie, even pushing her a little behind him to guard her.

"There's my gorgeous daughter!" Sophie's mother moves forward, her arms open but Draco steps in front of his wife, blocking her mothers way. Her mother stops and frowns. Sophie bury's her face in Draco's shoulder, not wanting to look at the woman that still claimed to be her mother. Sophie didn't have a mother anymore, Draco and Narcissa were the only family she had in her eyes, and that was fine with her.

"Step aside, I need to have a word with our young couple." The Dark Lord seethes from behind Irene who gives her daughter one last look before she nods and falls to the side beside the others. "Now, to talk about last night."

"I did as you asked." Draco mutters, looking anywhere but at Voldemort who narrowed his slit like eyes at the young blonde before his eyes slid over to the red head who was gripping at Draco's arm tightly, focusing very intently on the ground.

"You have not." Sophie looks up for a second, meeting the cold eyes briefly before glancing back down.

"All I know is that Harry and Dumbledore had come up with a way to kill you, or so they thought." Sophie explains, continuing on quickly. "Harry didn't tell me much. He didn't agree with my... life choices ..." Sophie glances at Draco. "He didn't trust me after I married Draco so he didn't tell me anything all term." And that was true. Harry spent the entire last year hating on Sophie and her husband, he wasn't going to trust her with anything important. It was then that Sophie realized The Dark Lord already knew that, he was setting Sophie up to fail from the beginning.

"Well then you aren't really much use then, are you?" Draco moves more in front of Sophie, blocking her completely from view.

"You told me if I succeeded in my tasks that Sophie would be safe, that you wouldn't harm her." He insists. Voldemort stands from the chair he had been seated in and took two steps towards the couple. Draco stumbled back a little, gripping behind him at his wife who was beginning to shake as she buried her face in his shoulder, trying to keep the tears away. "I did as you asked."

"I told you to kill Dumbledore."

"And Dumbledore is dead." Draco insists but Voldemort narrows his eyes and Draco realizes what he was talking about. "But by Snape's hand, not mine." He mutters, seeing the satisfied look on Voldemort's face.

"I'm feeling gracious today though and just may let you off because after all, Dumbledore is in fact dead and you did manage to get our friends inside the castle." Voldemort waves his hand across the room, indicating the death eaters standing about.

"I don't care about me, I care about Sophie. I want her safe, that's all that I care about." Draco insists, ignoring the soft punch Sophie lands on his back.

"I gave her a task, young Mister Malfoy, and she did not do it."

"It's okay, Draco." Sophie finally speaks, moving around Draco even though he continues trying to push her behind him but she stands firm. "I tried, I stayed friends with Harry, I still spent time with him but I couldn't get information from him but then... you never intended for me to, did you?" She meets the cold and cruel eyes of the monster in front of her. She glances over at her mother. "You were punishing me for my parents mistakes and I accept that. There was nothing I can do anyway, you've made up your mind on what you're going to do."

"Punishing you for your parents mistakes, you say?" Sophie stands strong and nods, looking up into the eyes of a murderer. Draco grasps as her hand beside her, ready to jump in front of her again if Voldemort so much as raised his wand in her direction. "You're right, your parents have made many mistakes." Voldemort turns towards Irene who all of a sudden looked terrified. Sophie sees her visibly begin to shake. A part of her hurts for her mother, but the bigger part remembers everything her mother has done to her and it gave her slight satisfaction to see her mother so scared. "And until now I haven't had the ability to take it out on your parents."

"You already did take it out on my father." Sophie reminds him. Draco shoots her a glare, silently telling her to shut up but Sophie wasn't going to stand down. She was tired of letting him walk all over her because her parents chose this life. She didn't choose to live like this, so she wasn't going to. She was going to live how she wanted to. If he decided to kill her, it wasn't going to be while she cowered in the corner and cried.

"I'm tired of you." Before Sophie or Draco knew what was happening, Voldemort waved his wand lazily in her direction. Sophie released Draco as her entire body was riddled with blinding white hot pain. She screams and folds in on herself as she falls to the ground.

"Sophie!" Draco pulls his wife against his body as she lets out loud cries, the pain beginning to subside. "It's alright, love, I've got you." Draco hugs her tight in his arms, glaring up at Voldemort who was already turned away and was focusing on Irene again. "Are you alright?" Draco whispers to his wife who just shakes her head, resting her head against his chest as she tried to calm the tears a bit.

"Please, please don't do this." Sophie looks up to see her mother cowering in front of Voldemort. Irene didn't look the least bit concerned that her daughter had just had the cruciatus curse used on her, she seemed to only care for what was coming for herself. Nothing had changed then, obviously.

Sophie felt a warm hand on her arm and looked up to see Narcissa as she kneeled beside the two of them, giving them both a sad look. She ran her hand comfortingly down Sophie's hair before they all turned back to the scene before them.

"You aren't really of any use to me anymore, are you?" Irene cowers, looking away from the Dark Lord as he moves back and forth in front of her, contemplating his next move.

"Please, I'll do anything, anything that you want." She begs him. He says nothing and just stares at her. Sophie was still shaking in her husbands arms, her mother in law comforting her from the other side. She watched her mother beg for her life. She was hoping to get more satisfaction from this but it was still her mother, whether she ever acted like it or not, this is still the woman that raised Sophie and deep down Sophie loved her, maybe not very much but still loved her.

"We don't need to watch this, Sophie." Draco mutters to his wife, looking down at her. She looks up at him and his heart broke. His usual strong girl was broken in his arms. Her eyes were still full of tears and she was obviously terrified. Her lip trembled but she still shook her head and looked back at her mother.

"Enough!" Voldemort suddenly yelled and there was a bright green flash. Sophie buried her face in Draco's chest and didn't want to look as she heard the heavy thump of a body falling to the ground. She let out a harsh sob into his shirt as she didn't have to look to know that it was her mother. "Leave me, now." Draco didn't need to be told twice as he stood, lifting Sophie up with him along with the help of his mother. Together the two led her from the room, blocking her view of her dead mother on the ground and lead her down the hall.

"The two of you need to leave." Narcissa told them when they were by the front door. She turns towards them as Draco all but keeps his crying wife upright and standing. "Go to your cabin. I am the only one who knows where it is as I am secret keeper, you will be safe there."

"Mother, I can't leave you." Draco insists but Narcissa shakes her head and gives him a soft smile.

"Your father and I are fine here. Just go, okay? I will send your things along later." She leans forward and kisses her sons cheek. "To keep her safe, you need to leave, do you understand me?" Narcissa knew Draco would understand that and do anything he had to do to keep Sophie safe. "I will come see you soon. Just until things calm down around here, it's better that you go somewhere else."

"Thank you." Sophie whispers to her mother in law who gives her a soft smile and opens her arms to her. Sophie falls into the only motherly arms she's ever known and allows herself to be hugged tightly.

"Go now, both of you." Draco took his wife back in his arms and after sharing one last look with his mother, he turned on the spot and disapparated right into the bedroom of their cabin. Sophie pulled away from him and went to sit on the chair in the corner. Draco sighed and went to sit beside her.

"I would ask if you were alright but... I think I know the answer." He reaches out and rests one arm around her, pulling her against him.

"I've wanted my mother dead for so long." Sophie finally mutters after sitting in her husbands arms in silence for a few minutes. "And now that it's actually happened... I don't know what to feel."

"And that's perfectly alright, love. Your mother wasn't a good person but you aren't the kind of person to ever feel satisfaction in someone's death. If you were happy about this.. well then I would be pretty worried about your sanity." Sophie gives a small laugh and shakes her head, wiping at her wet cheeks.

"So what do we do now?" She asks him after taking a deep breath. She looks up at him as he sighs and brushes her hair from her face.

"We just lay low here until my mother comes for us." Sophie does nothing but sigh before she falls back into Draco's arms.

"Can we take a nap?" She asks, feeling suddenly drained and void of energy even though she's actually only been out of bed for about an hour and a half or so. She felt like she hadn't slept for days.

"Of course we can, love." Draco stands and tugs her hand, pulling her up from the chair and over to their big large bed. "Oh, it's so nice to be back here." He sighs as they fall under the blankets. The two of them had spent quite a lot of time in here through the room of requirement the last school year but nothing beat being in the actual place, in their actual bed.

"Let's just stay here forever." Sophie sighs as she curls up in Draco's arms, feeling herself drifting off to sleep already. She was so ready to block everything out and forgot this morning, or even the last 8 months, even happened.