𝐄𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐚𝐢𝐭

The moon soon disappeared and a new day started. Draco woke up to the fluttering of curtains and warm sunlight on his face.

Madam Pomfrey walked to him with a brand new uniform and with her eyes checking for any discomfort on his body and said, "You are already healed and can attend your classes, Mr. Malfoy. But remember to not tire yourself and take care of your health. In addition, take this once a day before sleep to regain the lost energy."

Saying this, she kept the neatly folded uniform down and walked away to soon return with a bottle of red pills. There were hardly 10 pills inside. Keeping the bottle beside his clothes, she continued, "By the time you empty his bottle, your body will fully recover from the physical injuries and magical deficiency. Now, hurry up. Breakfast will be served within the next hour."

Draco hurriedly changes his clothes behind his bed curtains and left the infirmary. He walked towards the Slytherin dormitory. His mind wandered to the events of last night. He was still not clear if it was reality. The bruises on his arms were throbbing but he did not know if it was just the residual psychic sensation from a weird dream or actual pain.

There was a reason why Draco never asked for help, why he never pursued friendship with people not connected to Voldemort, why he made an enemy of Harry even after growing out of his immaturity. And he was not going to change that anytime soon. Draco was bound in one way or another to all of this that was happening. And he knew that if he kept going the same, he was going to end up in tragedy, if he wanted or not, possibly even lose everything. The only way to be safe was to somehow cut all the connections he had with Voldemort. It seemed almost impossible but he was going to try. He wasn't going to give up just like that.

Last summer he searched through the whole library in Malfoy mansion, wanting to know anything and everything that could help. The pro was that everyone thought that he was doing it to spend the summer away and no one suspected anything. Con was that it took too much time.

The first thing he has to do was to find a way to get rid of the dark mark. The library back at the mansion barely had anything. With this option gone , the other option he had was the school library. The book Draco needed was probably in the restricted section but to get there he needed the permission from a professor, which was nearly impossible. He cannot go to his godfather even if he knew that Snape would never do anything to harm him, still the risk was too great. So, the only other way was to make another professor give him permission.

Draco's head was running miles per second thinking about this when he realized that he had reached the dormitory. He swiftly made his way into his room to change his clothes and groom himself to perfection. Grabbing his books, he made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast, taking his seat at the Slytherin table beside Blaise. His head was still running in a thousand directions while he piled his plate and made the usual greetings.

No one asked him about his stay at the infirmary. It was an unspoken rule between the Slytherins that privacy is above all. Being in Slytherin was automatically swearing loyalty to your group and peers. If one goes down, all go down with him. If one rises up, he pulls the rest with him.

Draco knows that they care and worry and he also wants to tell them but this might unknowingly pull someone totally away from it into the mess, if it spreads. So he keeps his mouth shut as his friends keep giving him glances and stares but do not utter a word.

The breakfast ends and 'the silver trio', as they like to call themselves, make their way to their first class. With Blaise on his left and Pansy on his right, Draco walked the corridor as if it was a ramp. His lithe body moving like how a leopard had its leisure walks.

Draco felt a sharp gaze on his neck which sent a cold shiver down his back. The feeling of being watched was so intense that it made him scared. He turned around and happened to catch Harry's eyes who turned to Ron and pretended as nothing happened. Seeing Harry, Draco's brain short-circuited and every memory that he forgot for last night came rushing back. His mouth fell open and in his head was running a marathon of "no no no no no no no no no no no NO !!!". He struggled with giving his usual scowl to Harry when he again caught his eyes and this time the dangerous feeling was so strong that he was paralyzed.

Did he really cry on Harry? Was yesterday really not an absurd dream? Before Draco was sure that it was a dream, but now met with such a gaze, he wavered and doubted himself. At this moment Draco really wanted to crack Harry's brain open and see what's inside. Maybe even slip poison in his food to ensure the matter hushed once and for all. His doubtful gaze looked at Harry squinting like a cat. He searched for any abnormal signs but found none. Seeing this Draco relaxed slightly , thinking that his pureblood young master, the Malfoy heir and the perfect Slytherin pride was still intact and he did not cry like a princess in the hero's arms in reality. Just thinking that he dreamt this was shameful enough that he could feel his ears burn, the horror of it being reality was too much for Draco to handle, so much so that he would leave the nose-less devil to rot and find ways to strangle Harry and bury his body.

Harry had always thought Draco as someone vile and crafty, someone who will grovel at the feet of Voldemort just for power, someone without morals. But what he saw that night had inevitably planted a seed of doubt. He speculated what made Draco do all this. What forced him? His own life? His family? Surely, it might be his mother. Draco was not a self sacrificing person. Harry could not tell what it ultimately was. So he decided to observe Draco for now. See if his speculations were true or not.

Harry kept looking at Draco as he stared at him in a daze. At some point a slight, almost unnoticeable, pink bloomed on his neck and up to his cheeks and ears and at the same time a pair of pale red lips shaped into a full blown scowl directed at Harry with such intensity as if plotting his murder, which Draco was.

In Harry's brain wheels turned after seeing the scowl. With a slight smirk and bright eyes, Harry relaxed thinking ,' Indeed it was me that made puffy, scowling kitty blush'. The thought satisfied him to an extent that even he was unaware of.

On the other hand, with the slight upturn of lips, the bright eyes and an impossibly smug face looked like when a husband who had won a fight against his wife and wore it on his face with- 'Look I'm better than you ' literally written on his forehead. Harry made a weird sight for his friends and students around him and it was even weirder when they noticed that this gaze was directed towards Draco who was scowling back like he is gonna chew him whole. The students around looked from Harry to Draco and then again to Harry. They kept looking back and forth as if watching a tennis match .

Student 1 : "Is it just me or is the pink fog real?"

Student 2 : "No, I think I see it too!"

Student 3 : "Definitely real. Just the flower rain is missing and it will be a perfect fairy tale."

Student 1 : "What? Why should there be flowers?"

Student 3 : *gives her a look*

Student 1 : "OHhhhhhh~" *eyes wide *

Student 2 : *patting her back* "You have a long way to go."

And this sight of obvious sparks flying at once made the unprecedented ability of imagination in Hogwarts students awaken and take up the task. And knowing the grand ability of these students, the results are sure going to be top notch.

Draco saw the self satisfied smirk on Harry and finally felt a very bad premonition in his heart. It felt as if he was slowly, unknowingly leered into a trap to be eaten whole. It was better to keep his distance from Harry. He's not as simple as before. Draco's instincts were on full edge and more so was his magic. Everything in his body was telling him to run. So, he grabbed a confused Blaise and dazed Pansy and walked as fast and as calmly as was required for a pureblood young master while dragging his dumb struck friends with both hands. But He could feel the gaze all the way through.

Night soon fell. Draco sat in his bed ready for a deep slumber but unexpectedly, thinking. He remembered standing before the dark lord who was demanding him to kill, portraying it like an honor. Commanding him to curse an innocent girl, to kill Dumbledore. Draco never wanted to do this. But he had no choice but to stay silent and let nature take its course. He had no choice but to shove the guilt at the back of his mind and keep going because if he dwelled in this then his mother and sworn slytherin siblings will be the same . If Katie Bell was cursed then several people will be trying to save her, they will give their best for her. She will have a chance. Dumbledore was the greatest wizard of their time, as powerful as the dark lord, he can surely save himself if he wants so. But what about him? What about his people? They will be killed without a second thought. No one will try their best to save him. If they die then they weren't strong enough, weren't loyal enough. But if Katie or Dumbledore die then it was a tragedy, a reason to harass and kill every Slytherin around.

Draco admits that he feels guilty but not to an extent to make him cry or mourn because he had always known that Dumbledore was never as simple as he made himself look. Dumbledore had knowingly let people suffer but did nothing to stop them even when he could and sometimes even send them right in the beast's belly. He was as disgusting as the death eaters. Never to be trusted. Draco could help and trust but what guarantee did he have that he would not be made into a virgin offering to the devil in the name of being a righteous sacrifice. What guarantee did he have that another Dumbledore would not come around. No, he could not put their life on line.

Currently, most of the upper pureblood circle has lost their minds. In addition, most of the Slytherins students in the Hogward's do not even want all this. They are being forced by their parents just like him. Sooner or later, if he does not find a leeway, the ministry won't let anyone go. They will be made to bear the burn of the mistakes that were not even theirs to appease the hearts of the hypocritical wizarding crowd. And no proof will be enough to prove their innocence with this cursed mark on their arms. No one will help. No one will believe.

Maybe it is better that Dumbledore die. At least no one will actively push them in the pit. With Dumbledore gone, they will be more or less one step closer to safety and one step further from danger. But with this kind of risk, if was more of a harm than benefit.

If one thing that Draco is sure of is that the dark mark is not as simple as it seems. He saw with his own eyes how his once reasonable father gradually started to get sick in the mind. How his craze got up to the point where he wouldn't even care if his family died for the cause of victory of Voldemort. He would happily accept that they died as martyrs. The same goes for other followers of Voldemort. They don't care if their children lived or died . They all were already crazy , making their children more or less orphans. Only some of them still have their senses like his mother and Snape , but even they are not completely unaffected. The longer the mark stays, the more they go crazy. Therefore, the filthy mark on his arm has to go. So that he can get my mother and the Slytherins in Hogward's out of here because these are the last people he considers family. With these thoughts, the pair of silver eyes shone even brighter in the same silver rays with a decisiveness clear in them. Draco gently lay on his bed and pulled up the covers, silently waiting for everyone to drift into their dream worlds so that he could easily make his way to his destination.