Chapter 3
The day she was given the book probably the best day that Lavina had in years. After weeks of mental and physical pain and torture, she was provided respite by ways of a little book Draco had gifted her. She had read it four times that week, having quite literally nothing else to do in her room. Not an hour went by that she didn't cling to the book like it was a life raft. The next week, Draco had to pull it from her hands so that he could continue the Leglimency session.
"Give it here, Lavina. If you behave, I've got another one for you." Draco muttered, tugging slightly on the paperback in Lavina's hands.
"Which one?" she asked meekly. "Which one are you going to bring next? Are you going to let me keep this one too?" Her eyes searched his expression for any hint of an answer and found nothing. His icy glare drifted across her features for a beat before his lips parted with an answer.
"Yeah, whatever." he let go of the book and waved his hand dismissively. "You can keep the bloody book." he muttered. Lavina's pout eased as her shoulders relaxed in response to his answer. This gave her the courage to set the book beside her on the windowsill she was sitting on. The witch swallowed thickly as she prepared for the leglimency session. Her eyes fluttered shut as she gripped the lip of the stone ledge, her knuckles turning white from the sheer force. After a few moments of nothing happening, she opened her eyes, revealing an unreadable expression on Draco's face. Lavina blinked up at him, her brows furrowing slightly in confusion. Draco studied her expression for a moment, coming to the conclusion that her face resembled that of a lamb. He brought his hand up to gingerly brush a stray piece of hair from her temple. His eyes drifted down from her eyes to her lips for a moment before his expression hardened again, the tip of his wand to the other side of her head.
Suddenly Lavina was in her childhood home, Draco standing behind her. She watched a memory she didn't particularly remember, but it wasn't entirely unfamiliar.
Lavina's younger self hid behind the corner of a hallway as her father moved about the house slamming doors and kicking walls. "You little bitch, where's your mother?" Yelled the man. "Fiende!" he called for the house elf who appeared instantly. "Find the bitch and tell her she has ten minutes to get here or I'll start burning her beloved library." he instructed the elf, who nodded and disappeared without a word. "I'll have no more mudblood filth in my house!" Lavina's father launched a book at a picture of their family before pointing his wand at the book and incinerating it. The family portrait straightened out, the glass shards pulling themselves from the carpet to close the cracks.
Lavina's heart squeezed as she watched her younger self mutter incantations and repairing spells from her hiding spot, ducking just out of sight as her father's attention turned to the hallway. The child exclaimed before scurrying up the stairs to shut herself in her room, clutching a book to her chest. As Lavina's father approached the two figures angrily, both Draco and Lavina dissipated into a mist, appearing back into her small room in Malfoy's Manor.
Draco released his grasp from Lavina, stepping back as she slumped against the wall, visibly exhausted. "Was that you?" Draco muttered after studying her for a moment. "The child with dark hair. That had to have been you." he tilted his head to the side, his fingers reaching to graze a few strands of her platinum locks.
Lavina, too drained to protest, watched her hair drop from the palm of his hand and nodded. "I charmed it." she muttered, shrugging dismissively. "My first year in Hogwarts... I think? Alot of us girls did it. It just... stuck with me I guess. " she added, her voice quiet.
Draco pursed his lips slightly, eyeing her pensively, as if he was recalling something. "I actually think I do recall you having really dark hair." He furrowed his brows.
Lavina stared back at him, visibly struggling to remember the same memory he seemed to have. Instead, she shut her eyes, succumbing to the exhaustion. She felt herself go limp before she was lifted from the windowsill. Confused, she stirred, unable to open her eyes or speak. Her cheek pressed against the fabric of Draco's shirt, her nostrils filling with a musky cedar wood and lavender. She groaned, stirring as she fought sleep to cling to Draco. Only managing to lift her head, she blinked open for a moment as he set her down onto her bed, not hesitating a single moment to leave the room. Her vision went black again as the door shut behind him.
Draco was entering her room when she woke up.
"Took you bloody long enough to wake up," he muttered. "You were out so long I tried to pick your brain while you slept. I got nothing but weird dreams and definitely nothing to make sense of. You have a lot of those, by the way. Weird dreams." he stepped closer to the bed, tossing her a large cloak. "Get up, pet. It's time for your enrichment hour."
She couldn't move fast enough to catch the cloak before it draped over her sitting body. She groaned, pulling the heavy fabric from her head and shoulders. Her muscles ached as she slowly got out of bed. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she stumbled over to the mirror to fix the cloak. Her cold fingers were too numb to fasten the clasp on the cloak, causing her to repeatedly drop it from her shoulders. Her soft groan was overshadowed by Draco's louder, exasperated sigh. "You're actually useless." He muttered, picking up the cloak from her feet and fastening it for her. His warm fingers grazed the skin on her neck, causing her breathing to hitch. She hoped he didn't notice. If he did, he didn't make it obvious as he stepped back.
"Thanks," she mumbled, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"Yeah, whatever, just get outside. I don't have all day. I've sent the house elves on errands today so I've got prisoner duty." he informed as he roughly shoved her towards the door. She grunted, stumbling out into the bright, frigid morning.
After her eyes adjusted, she turned to face Draco who had taken up a seat at one of the little tables. He somehow procured a teapot and two teacups. He was leaned back on the chair, crossing his arms lazily as he drawled, "It's colder than the Slytherin dungeons out here," he smirked when her eyes fell to the steaming tea set. "Tell you what, pet. I've got a proposition for you. I'll let you have a nice hot cup of tea to warm your hands if you promise me you'll read the leaves afterwards." he tilted his head. "Sound like a deal?"
Lavina turned to gaze out at the garden. Although it was bright out, the morning air was still very crisp. The pristine lawn glistened with ice, still frozen from the hours before. She turned back to Draco sitting at the table and swallowed thickly at the thought of performing divination. "Just a tea leaf reading," she told herself, "Not like I'm conjuring a vision or anything." She reassured herself before nodding and taking a seat across from Draco. He just watched her prepare the tea, not speaking a word. She couldn't bring herself to meet his icy stare until she handed him a cup before pouring herself one.
"Just like in Divination class." she instructed softly.
"I never took that class. Trelawney was a nutcase." Draco replied with a curl of his lip.
She scoffed and shook her head before replying, "Just drink until the dregs remain."
Draco took the cup from her grasp and sipped it rather quickly before handing it back to her. She took the cup in her left hand and swirled the dregs three times from left to right three times before turning it over a saucer and lifting the cup to inspect the leaves.
"Well? What does it say?" Draco asked impatiently.
"A club. Which means an attack." She continued to study the leaves. "I see a church. Are you going to a church anytime soon?" she looked up and furrowed her eyebrows.
Draco stood up without answering her question. "Get back inside. Playtime's over. I have somewhere to be." he pulled her from her seat by her arm, shoving her back into the room. He muttered a ward before slamming the door shut behind him.
Just like that, she was alone again. That day, no food appeared in her room. When she realized she was alone again the next morning, she tried the bedroom door and discovered she could open it. Gingerly, she tested the boundaries of the ward and discovered that it, too was open for her to pass through the threshold. Slowly she stepped out into the cold, dark hallway. Lavina wandered about, trying all the doors. Some were locked and some were charmed, keeping her confined to one section of the house. She managed to find some fruit in a bowl that she guessed was for decoration but since it was real fruit she decided to enjoy it. She couldn't remember the last time she had an orange so sweet. So she had another. And then she ate some grapes before gorging herself on the juiciest pear she'd ever had in her whole life. She tilted her head back as a low moan escaped her lips. A rumbling chuckle pulled her from the fruit induced ecstasy. Startled, she sat up, almost dropping the pear and wiping the juices that had dripped down her chin.
"I take it you really like pair?" Said a deep voice from the entrance of the hallway. From the shadows emerged a head full of curly locks that Lavina recognized as Theodore Nott. Lavina's cheeks burned red as he walked up to her, taking the pear from her smaller hand and taking a bite. The scent of tobacco and teakwood lingered in the air between them. She couldn't look away as he held her gaze. "Mmmm," he hummed, finally swallowing the bite he took after what seemed like ages. "It is quite good. But not as good as watching you enjoy it." he held the fruit back up to her lips so she could take another bite but she refused to put her mouth where his has been.
Her expression must have shown complete and utter confusion because Theo tossed the pear aside and nodded his head to the side. "Draco asked me to come let his pet out for an hour," he led Lavina out to the garden, clearly looking bored. "So I'm just supposed to watch you. To make sure you don't try to escape. Which you cant. Because the whole place is warded. So don't try anything."
She had to keep from rolling her eyes. These lot were all the same. All of Draco's friends were exactly the same as they had been at Hogwarts. Spoiled and stupid. Theo followed a few feet behind her as she strolled lazily through the garden.
"I'm bored. This is boring. You're boring." Theo sighed, picking apart some leaves from a rose stem. "Do you want to play a game?" he tossed the rose aside and smirked. "Draco gave me a gift to give to you today. See, I don't think prisoners should get gifts but I'll make an exception this one time if you play my game."
"What, like chess?" she asked with a furrow of her brow.
"No, you Dung-for-Brains. You hide. I seek. Like we used to play at those parties as children."
Before Lavina could protest, Theo raised his want and cast Nebulus, causing a thick fog to roll into the garden.
"And to make it more fun for me," he pointed his wand to the ground before Lavina, "Serpensortia!" which summoned three long snakes. Lavina screamed and ran into the fog to escape the slithering snakes. Her heavy cloak snagged branch after branch as she ran through the hedges. She ran for minutes. Or hours. She couldn't tell how much time had passed, the fog too thick to see the sun. Tears streamed down her face as she approached a bench but before she could sit, a snake could be heard slithering through the fog ahead. She stopped and ran the other way. Another snake appeared before her. She held back a scream before pushing her way through a hedge, catching leaves and twigs in her hair and clothes. She fell out of the other side at the feet of a figure standing in the fog. On all fours she crawled towards the figure, pulling herself up by the fabric of his clothes.
"Please, Theo make it stop!" she sobbed as the figure helped her stand. But it didn't smell like Theo. She closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of cedarwood and lavender. Her nerves calmed as she took another sniff, her grip tightening over Draco's shirt.
"What is all this?" Draco held her arms but pulled her away from him as he inspected the sight of her. "What on earth are you still doing out here? Do you know what time it is? Do you know how long I've been out here looking for you? I gave you an inch and you took a damn mile." he said through gritted teeth, pulling her towards the manor. "I should have known better than to leave you alone." he rambled angrily.
"Theo-" she tried to explain. "the snakes-"
"I don't want to hear you speak!" he shoved her into her room. "You seriously couldn't handle being alone? I thought you were more capable than this. I left-"
Lavina's anger bubbled up and exploded. "Why aren't you listening to me!" she yelled. Draco paused, he'd never seen her show this much emotion.
"You shut your mouth!" Draco yelled back. "I'm fucking talking, and when I speak, you fucking listen, do you understand?" he stepped closer, towering over her. "The moment I catch you out past your curfew again, I'll lock you away in this room and never let you out!"
"You're practically doing that already!" she replied, glaring up at him through teary eyes. Draco's glare sharpened but he did not deny her claim.
His voice was icy as he responded through gritted teeth. "I wouldn't have to if you'd learn to follow instruction."
"Please just make this all stop, Draco. Obliviate me, put my memories and my knowledge into a Pensieve, anything, kill me. Please. This is all so maddening. Make this all stop-" She begged. Draco let out a bitter laugh, clenching his jaw as he scoffed.
"Trust me, sweetheart, I've been tempted." his voice full of venom. "I'd love to wipe away what little brain of yours and maybe push you off a cliff. Or drop you into the ocean. Anything to be rid of the never ending burden that is Lavina Rickwood." He spat his words out maliciously.
"I'll force myself to go mad out of spite and everything you've been working towards will be gone!" she screamed in his face and stormed away into the bathroom, slamming the door in Draco's face. She quickly began to run a bath. She desperately needed to calm herself down.
Draco saw red, he stalked right behind her, banging his fist on the door, clenching his other fist. "Open the door this instant, we're not finished speaking!"
"I am finished. And I'm taking a bath so do not come in here whatsoever-" she feverishly peeled the muddy clothes off and dumped in some bubble bath liquid as if she was trying to put out a fire.
Draco growled deep in his throat. "You open the door right this instant or I will break it down."
"You better not!" Lavina screeched from the other side of the door, stepping into the hot water of the bath.
"You have five seconds to open this door or I'll break it down, and I don't care if you're naked,"
"You wouldn't," the fight in her voice had begun to dissipate. He didn't seem to notice, curling his lip into a sneer, he lifted and slammed his foot into the door. Lavina shrieked as the frame splintered, the lock cracking under the force he used. He lifted his foot and slammed it again and again. "Open. The. Door." He snarled. She scrambled to hide in the tub as Draco continued to slam his foot against the door until the wood was completely splintered open. He forced himself to stop and calm his labored breathing. When he finally stepped into the bathroom he froze, spotting Lavina trembling in the bathtub. She'd curled herself into the soapy water, hiding her face in her knees and covering her ears. Whatever was left of his anger had drained from him, being replaced with a mixture of shock and guilt. He couldn't help but picture the small girl from their last leglimency session. Slowly, Draco stepped over the splintered wood and into the bathroom, wincing at the tile littered with debris from his rage induced destruction. Slowly approaching the tub, he made sure to keep his movements slow and deliberate, hating himself for losing control. And why couldn't he have just used Alohamora?
"Lavina," his voice was softer than he intended. He sighed when she didn't respond, choosing to keep her face hidden as she muttered repairing incantations that did nothing due to her blocked magic. Draco knelt next to the tub, his voice the softest Lavina had ever heard it. "What was I supposed to do? Stand there and wait for you to listen?" He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. "I tried to give you a chance, sweetheart."
"Don't." She gripped the hair on the sides of her head, "Don't do that," She whimpered.
"Don't do what, Lavina?" He murmured gently, his tone apologetic as he neared the tub, finally noticing the runes inked over her skin. He wondered when she got them, as he didn't remember her having them in school. "Lavina," he muttered again, reaching to push back a curtain of wet hair from her face. "Don't do what?" Lavina flinched but didn't pull away from him, still trying to keep covered as much as she could in the soapy water.
"That," she scoffed, "You're so confusing," She sighed. "I don't understand how you can be so..." she hid her face in her knees again, her hands gripping the wet hair on the back of her head.
"Lavina," he warned. "Talk to me. Finish your sentence." He felt frustration at the fact that he was bothered by the sight of her in distress.
"This!" she lifted her head up. "You push me around, you dehumanize me, but then the next moment you're... gentle. It's so confusing. And I can't stand the way you say my name." she glared. "I hate the way you say my name." she repeated, pushing the heel of her palm into her eyes. "You didn't even let me explain what happened today, you just assumed it was my fault, but you don't know what he did to me," she whined. He sighed, leaning his forearms on the edge of the large tub.
"Get out of the tub and we can talk. Calmly." He reached in and pushed around some bubbles in the tub, his hand coming dangerously close to her skin but he didn't notice, pulling his hand out of the hot water. "Why is that so hot?" He asked, wiping his hand on his suit.
Lavina shut her eyes and tried to calm her nerves, focusing on the hot water nearly burning her skin. "Feels good," she murmured.
"That cannot feel good," He scoffed, noticing her skin changing its hue from the intense heat of the water. "Get out now, you're burning up in there." Draco reached in again to pull her up from her arm.
"Don't!" she used her other arm to cover her chest as much as she could, though it didn't cover much. Draco swallowed thickly as he averted his eyes from her chest. He used a bit more strength than he intended to pull her up from the hot water, his eyes reluctantly pulled themselves away from the suds dripping down her skin. "Don't look at me!" she yelled, pulling her arm from his grasp, using her hand to cover between her legs. Draco's eyes roved over the inked runes over her legs, following them up to her torso and finally back up where they stopped at her chest. He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts that had started swirling in his mind and reached for a towel to give to her. Lavina took the towel from his hand, quickly pulling it around herself. The moment she stepped out of the tub, her pink, angry skin started to form goosebumps from the cold air. He noticed but didn't say anything. Instinctively, he reached for her elbow to help her balance. She slipped on the cold tile, gripping onto the fabric of his suit. Draco led her back into the main bedroom, watching her more intently than ever. Was it always this cold in her room? Lavina pulled on some oversized clothing and quickly crawled under the covers for warmth. Her breath was visible in the cold room.
"Is there no warming charm in this room?" he wondered out loud.
"Why would there be a warming charm on my room, Draco. I'm a prisoner. I thought it was intentional." she furrowed her brows.
"What, you're telling me that this entire time you've been freezing? Why on earth wouldn't there be warming charms in here?" He asked in disbelief. He felt his anger rising again.
"I can't put one up, on account of my magic being blocked." she looked at him in equal disbelief. "You know, since I'm a prisoner of war." she raised her eyebrows. Draco's shoulders tensed at her comment, his jaw clenched tightly as he remembered. He let out a en exhale full of frustration, running his hand through his hair roughly.
"Why didn't you ever mention this?" his voice still tight with remnants of his previous anger, "I could have fixed it sooner."
"I had thought it was intentional," she repeated, her eyes searching his unreadable expression. Draco let out a bitter laugh.
"Did you truly think I'm so cruel that I wouldn't allow you to have a warming charm in this room?" The look on Lavina's face answered his question, resulting in him pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "You still should have said something if you were cold. Warming charms, a blanket, perhaps a fireplace," he listed off. She just watched him, wondering why he was so upset that she was cold. He let out a sharp scoff, angry at himself. If she didn't have a warming charm on this room of course she would be cold. Why didn't he think of that sooner?
Lavina couldn't help the smile that grew on her lips. Draco's expression softened at her smile but quickly regained its edge. "Wipe that smile off your face." he grumbled. He didn't like that smile. Actually, he didn't like the fact that he liked that smile. "What's that stupid smile for? it makes you look stupid." he regretted the venom in his words as soon as her smile faded.
"I... just really don't like being cold." she murmured, averting her eyes. Draco scoffed and shook his head, frustration at his newfound emotions pulling his attention away from the countless responsibilities he had recently inherited. On top of spending all week figuring out what book to get her, he was now going to obsess over the blanket situation. And the fireplace he was going to have the elves clean out and find wood for. And he couldn't forget the warming charms on her bedroom. He could forget about the Death Eater duties for a few hours, he decided as he approached Lavina's huddled form and sat on the edge of the mattress.
"You were so quiet in school I've never seen you yell like that," he stated, turning his head to face her. She buried her face in the blanket draped over her knees.
"I was really scared today," she murmured, her voice muffled by the fabric of he blanket.
"What happened, Lavina?" he asked.
"Theo," she began. "He took me outside. And then he said he wanted to play a game. He made the garden foggy and I got lost. And the snakes. There were snakes and they hunted me," her knuckles turned white from the grip she had on the blanket. "I-I think I broke the hedge I climbed through when you found me-" she choked back tears at the thought of ruining his mother's garden. "I'm sorry,"
Draco shook his head and scoffed. "I honestly couldn't care less about a fucking bush, Lavina."
"But-"
"So that's why you were gone for hours?" he asked. "Theo?"
"Draco, please believe me,"
"I believe you. I've known Theo for years. I know that's exactly the type of thing he'd do." Draco rested his elbows on his thighs and let out a sigh. "I guess I wont have him babysit you again." he paused. "Speaking of which, did you get around okay? I modified the wards to allow you to wander this wing of the house. And I checked, the kitchen is exactly how I left it, did you eat anything?"
"I didn't find out I could leave the room until midday today." she admitted. "I got as far as the fruit bowl in the hallway,"
"Lavina. I did tell you, didn't I?"
"No. You left in a hurry after the tea reading."
"And the book I sent with Theo?" Draco asked.
"What book?" Lavina answered, resulting in an eye-roll from Draco.
"Its almost like I've got to do everything myself," Draco muttered as he stood up from the bed. "Just go to bed. I'll bring it tomorrow."
Lavina slunk back under the covers, bringing them up to her chin. Her feet found the warm spot were Draco had been sitting, bringing a smile to her lips. He pretended he didn't see it through the mirror as he had his back turned to her. He said nothing as he shut the door behind him. The events of the previous few hours made his mind spin. His screaming, her tears, the bath, her tattoos. Draco's shoulders dropped as he accepted the fact that he was not going to get any sleep tonight.