Wonder // Draco Malfoy

53. First Impressions

It's the next morning. I know everything now and I wish now more than ever that my name was never drawn. Marcus had to kill someone to save me. A fourteen-year-old boy should never, ever have to do something so terrible for a friend. Both he and Rue have assured me that he doesn't regret saving my life, but it should have never happened in the first place. Now Marcus has to live knowing that his innocence was wasted at such a young age. Because of me.

My father slept on the chair next to my bed, despite Professor Sprout offering him a room with a bed. He didn't tell me, but I overheard him tell her that he was too scared to be more than ten feet away from me. Mr. And Mrs. Weatherby also slept next to their son, Mrs. Weatherby holding him in her arms as they shared the small bed. We only feel asleep because Madam Pompfrey gave us a potion to make us do so. But neither of us feel any better.

"Draco should be waking any moment now," Rue says. She came early in the morning, sitting next to Marcus's father and rubbing her boyfriend's arm as he slept. "I overheard Professor Snape talking."

I glance over at his bed. His curtain has been closed since I arrived, and I haven't seen anyone go to help him. They must've done it while I was asleep. "Fred kept asking about you, you know," Rue says. Her eyes are on Marcus as she whispers to me. "Today after breakfast, he sat down next to me to ask a million questions."

I nod my head. If I never spoke again, I feel that it would be justified for the harm I caused in the last 24 hours. "He told me that it was Draco's father who wanted me dead," I say. My eyes are still on Draco's bed as I speak. I haven't told this to anyone; I didn't even think about it until the words were out of my mouth.

"I don't believe it," Rue replies. I turn to her in confusion - everything makes sense. I'm the mudblood who wants to taint his perfect bloodline and reputation. Why wouldn't he want me dead? "If Harry's words were true. If... if he is back, then Draco's father wouldn't be worried about his son's love interest, right? He would be too focused on..."

We look at each other knowingly. Her words are correct - isn't it selfish and juvenile to think his father would go this far out of his way to make sure I'm dead when he has much bigger things at hand? A small weight lifts off my chest that won't fully be gone until Draco reassures me. But the weight of what Marcus had to do to protect me will never be gone. "Do you think he'll ever recover?" I ask. My gaze is now on Marcus, where hers has been for a while. "Do you think he would have to never speak to me again because I would remind him too much of last night?"

Rue grabs my hands. "Valentine, he wanted to save you. We both had this terrible feeling that something awful would happen. Then your father realized you hadn't returned when Harry and Cedric appeared, Marcus was running before I could even say goodbye to him." Tears are now running down her face as she looks at Marcus's angelic sleeping face. I wish he could always look this untroubled. "He and Draco ran before anyone else could process that you hadn't returned. The crowd was focused on Cedric's father mourning his only son and no one remembered that other champions existed. It was hard to think of anything when Cedric was dead in the grass."

A flood of tears runs down Rue's face as she collapses into my arms. I hold her tightly and rock to comfort her as Marcus did to me many hours ago. Cedric and Lev are dead. Marcus has killed someone. Draco is stunned and doesn't know that I was a second away from being dead. And Professor Moody was never Mad-Eye Moody, but a death eater in his place. Lev had to have been taking orders from him; they had to have been the ones to work together to try and kill me.

Once Rue's crying has ceased, a stirring is audible in Draco's bed. Rue leans back to allow me to get up. I stand too quickly and squeeze my eyes shut at the dizziness. Everything seems to spin quickly around me as I wobble on my feet for the first time since the many head injuries from last night.  Once I feel stable enough, I slowly open my eyes and continue the small walk to Draco's bed. I slowly open the curtains and see him sitting up and looking around. Once he sees me, he jumps up.