The knight
"Get your shit together and consummate this marriage, Draco. Before you curse everyone in the wizarding world and end up in Azkaban. You're running out of time.”
"For Merlin's sake, Pansy, why do you always have to be so dramatic? I have time."
"You have a month, Draco. " Pansy started pacing in anger. "Just consummate the damn marriage. Everyone else has sacrificed something. Blaise and Padma are literally separated because of this sham. Theo’s about to have a child. A child! to resolve this mess. Of all the curses we face, yours is the worst."
Draco sighed into his hand, feeling the weight of responsibility like fiendfyre in his veins. "Merlin, Pans. It’s not like you and Potter consummated," he retorted.
"I'll have you know we very much did. I’m not going to Azkaban because our fathers decided to curse us from beyond the grave." She raised an eyebrow in challenge. Draco knew he was no match for Pansy; she was as unbreakable. Yet, he wished she could feel even a fraction of the torment coursing through him. The pain of being torn between protecting his son, the world, and Granger.
"You wouldn't understand what it's like to protect your loved ones," Draco bit out. It was a low blow, and he knew it. He wanted to hurt Pansy, to make her feel an inkling of the pain that clawed at him with every heartbeat. But, he instantly regret his words.
"Fuck… I… I’m sorry, Pans..." Draco mumbled. His tongue was a sword, always wielded at the wrong people. He deserved the pain he caused, deserved the bridges he kept burning with those who tried to reach out to him.
"Don’t." Pansy raised her hand, too used to his cruel outbursts. She walked toward the Floo, her steps steady. "I know you’re a fucking asshole Draco, but Granger doesn’t. Don’t ruin this with your stupid commentary." With that, she disappeared through the floo in a flash of green, too accustomed to Draco lashing out when cornered.
Draco slumped back into his chair. His blood boiled, everything around him feeling momentarily trivial compared to the cruelty he spewed at those he loved.
Pansy had never known love, real love. That of family, of blood. The closest she had were her friends. Blaise, Theo, Daphne, and him. Him. He was an absolute fool. A selfish idiot.
Pansy was unfortunate. Her parents were cruel, vile beasts. Her father lived to sell her to the highest bidder, while her mother paraded her as society's most pristine doll. Society was all a charade for pansy, but home was the place with the least refuge. Her father exploited and abused her in every imaginable way, while her mother healed those wounds he inflicted, inorder to exhibit their doll once more.
Pansy prayed for marriage as an escape, but the war tore all those plans apart. Draco promised to marry pansy to protect her, but that dream crumbled when he was promised to Astoria.
When Pansy came of age, her mother died. Leaving her at the mercy of her father. However, Pansy found relief following her mother's death. For once her mother's manipulations were laid to rest, Pansy could breathe; and Pansy was left to tackle only one monster. She was never a doll, porcelain and breakable. For every time they thought they broke her, their flames forged her stronger.
Just two days after her mother's funeral, pansy killed him. Pansy finally killed her father. She clipped his claws and bled him to death, over five long days. She wished she could have more days to torture him. Make him feel the scars she felt. But in the end even monsters couldn't reign too long in the presence of Pansy Parkinson.
Draco knew the story well,he knew her pain and yet, he still lashed out. He was unworthy of her friendship. Unworthy of all of them. Of all his friends.
Draco was the luckiest of his friends in many ways. His mother adored him, and his father, while harsh, never laid a hand on him. He grew up loved, until Voldemort entered their lives and shattered the world he once knew.
Theo’s father was much like Pansy’s. A tyrant who ruled with a fist, punishing and cruel. Theo had witnessed his mother’s death at the hands of his father, and from that moment, he became his father’s punching bag. Yet, somehow, Theo remained lighthearted, always smiling despite the torment his past encapsulating.
Blaise, on the other hand, was both the luckiest and unluckiest bastard Draco knew of. Lucky, because he had no curse put on him. Unlucky, for he was still somehow cursed.
His mother was a beautiful witch famous beyond the British wizarding world. She was selfish, more focused on her fame and her many husbands. Leaving her son all alone for most of his childhood. Raised mostly by house elves, Blaise grew up to be self-reliant and bitterly sarcastic.
During his time at Hogwarts he found friendship, comfort and finally love in Padma Patil, but even that was torn by the war. Two lovers on two sides of a brutal war. Blaise chose his heart, helping Padma during the war as her spy, but after, they could never have their happy ending. To break Theo’s curse, Padma married their friend, Theo. even though her heart belonged to Blaise.
Draco knew he too, had to face his curse. For his son, for his friends, and for Granger, the woman who had unknowingly consumed his entire being. This sham of a marriage had brought them together, but he had been drawn to her since sixth year, when the world was against him, and he carried the weight of Dumbledore’s death sentence on his shoulders. Hermione Granger, with her wild curls and fierce spirit, had become the one thing that grounded him.
They hadn’t been friends or lovers, but her belief that there was still good in him had consumed him. Over hearing her convince potter that he Draco, her bully, her tormentor wasn't capable of murder made his heart beat once again. And now, having her so close, he couldn’t stay away. But he also knew he didn’t deserve her. How could he, after everything he had done? After watching her suffer at the hands of his aunt? Yet, selfishly, he indulged in her presence.
And Pansy had the audacity to ask if he would consummate the marriage to break the curse. If it meant touching Hermione, he would do it even if it ended the world. But he knew she would never agree, and he would never force her or anyone into such thing. He needed to tell her the truth, about the curse and about his son, Scorpius.
Scorpius was his world. But because of the curse, Draco was never permitted to see him. Locked away since birth, his mother Astoria was the only one allowed near him.
Astoria was never a romantic connection to Draco. They were just two teenagers forced by their parents to wed. Or so they thought. In their foolish attempt to destroy the engagement, they fell in bed together. For there was no greater way to destroy a pureblood engagement, then to seamer it with debauchery. They were too young and too foolish to realise Voldemort ordered them to be wed, and not their parents.
For the action of premarital sex, Voldemort punished Astoria and Draco severely. He forced them to entertain his guests. Exploiting the young witch and wizard, making them perform shameful acts in public. Laughing, he declared 'if they enjoy wasting pureblood seed everyone might as well enjoy their performance.' This time led to the painful conception of Scorpius Draco Malfoy.
Both Astoria and Draco found accepting a child born of trauma difficult. Asotria was first to accept her son; And Draco never having seen him, accepted his son with time and healing. He learned to love Scorpius and separate him from the traumas that led to his being.
Finally, Voldemort decided to punish every Deatheater who failed him. Forcing them to place curses on their offspring. Some were more reluctant like, Lucius Malfoy. Others, more than willing.
Nott senior for instance, made some suggestions that even Voldemort thought too exterme for a pureblood child to bear. For, even Voldemort wanted to ensure that pureblood lineages survived. So Nott senior settled on shackling his son to wed a women and bare a child. Knowing his son would rather die than preserve his father's lineage.
Draco was cursed as punishment for failing to kill Dumbledore. Draco's curse ensured that he could never be with a pureblood or halfblood witch. Lucky for him, Draco only had eyes for one witch and she was neither.
Marrying Hermione had been a dream come true in one way, but it was also a curse. If he didn’t consummate the marriage, every Muggleborn would be doomed.
Pansy had broken her curse by marrying Potter, and Theo had accepted his by marrying Padma. Even Blaise, curseless, had sacrificed his happy ending. Now it was Draco’s turn. He had to break his curse for his son, his friends, and the woman he could never have.
......
Draco rose from his seat, the room eerily silent after his thoughts had calmed. Where was Granger? She usually spent her weekends with him, talking over breakfast, or reading in the library while he watched the way she lost herself to literature, too absorbed in her presence for him to read. Or she would come to his office to throughly dissect issues in his financial proposals. She would never stay in her room for this long. Maybe she was sick, Draco worried. He searched the house, but she was nowhere to be found. Finally, he noticed a note on the marble counter.
The note read: Popped out to Ginny’s. Don’t wait up tonight. I’ll be sleeping over.
Worry gnawed at him. This wasn’t like her. Without thinking he ran to the Floo and called Ginny.
She appeared almost immediately, her voice stern. "Malfoy."
"Weaslette," Draco shot back. He wouldn’t be talked down to, not even by the one Weasley he could tolerate.
"What do you want?" she asked, her tone sharp.
"I just wanted to check if my wife’s alright," Draco said worry furrowed in his brows.
"Wife now, is it?" Ginny raised an eyebrow. "She’s fine. She’s staying here tonight. You’ll see her tomorrow," Her tone was final.
"Tell her I’ll see her then," Draco muttered, feeling strangely unsettled.
Before he could say anything else, Ginny cut the connection, and Draco stumbled back, hitting his head on the bookshelf behind him.
Rubbing his temple, Draco knew there was no more time for secrets. Something spooked Hermione and tomorrow, he would tell her everything.