Nora’s Pov

“It’s all right; it’s what I deserve. I am a man with blood on his hands, I may not have been able to finish the job, but I still played a hand in the circumstances of Dumbledore’s death.” He whispered so softly I barely heard him.

“What do you mean?” I knew I shouldn’t pry that I’d bring up whatever it was that had brought that look to his face earlier, but the question came out before I had a chance to stop it. “Wait, you don’t have to answer that.” His eyes glazed with that sad regret again, and I hated myself for bringing that pain back to his face.

“I think I should start from the beginning.” Draco’s voice was distant like he was lost in another time and place. “My family we… we were old money.” He sighed his face turning upward, staring intently at the moon. “With that comes traditions and a feeling of superiority. I won't lie when I was a child; I believed it when my parents told me I was better than everyone around me.” Draco let out a humorless laugh. “My family had been a part of a vile following of an even more vile man. When I was younger, my parents always told me if he were in charge, the world would be better." The way Draco's voice broke made my chest ache.

“Draco you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” I wretch over and placed a comforting hand on top of his, but I don’t think he felt it because he seemed to be trapped in his head at this point.

“All lies the lot of it, he was no great man he was wicked and cruel. He ordered me to kill someone, the man he ordered me to kill was good and kind, but if I didn't kill him, everyone I loved would have been killed as I was made to watch. Only then would I have been granted the mercy of a slow and painful death." I could see the tears welling up in Draco's eyes. "But, when the time came I couldn't bring myself to do it. No, Snape had to do it for me. It’s my fault; it’s all my fault."  At this point, Draco was sobbing hysterically, pulling him into my arms I tried to console him. The sun was beginning to rise by the time that he ran out of tears.

“Come on Draco lets go inside,” I said when all that Draco had left was hiccuping sobs. I wasn’t sure if he could hear me, but he didn’t put up a fight as I pulled him to his feet. After leading him to the couch, I went to the kitchen to see if he had any proper comfort food. It took me a moment, but I found a carton of ice cream shoved to the back of the freezer. Was this the best course of action given what he’d just told me, no, but I didn’t know what else to do, how do you comfort someone who just bared there sole to you in the most painful of way.

“Eat up it'll make you feel better,” I said, handing him the carton and a spoon. Then I walked around the room looking for something to distract him, that’s when I spied a bookshelf in the corner, it seemed to be packed with some of my old books from when I was a tween, and visited Grandma every summer.

 I chose one of my favorites and sat down on an armchair adjacent to the couch then I started to read. “Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom and dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.”

I pretended not to notice the way Draco’s head snapped up at the word half-blood and continued with my reading, hoping to distract him from that awful mess in his head.

It was sometime later that both Draco and I had fallen asleep in his living room.