Tw. implications of self-harm, gore.

Her head feels a thousand miles away from her when she awakes the next morning, her body pushed against the warmth of her cousins, legs tangled together on the makeshift bed they slapped together late the night prior. Winnie was acutely aware of her shoulder being pushed gentle, though a groan left her lips as she squinted her eyes. Nose disappearing in under the scratchy blanket.

"Winnie, we have to leave," Cordelia whispers gently, though her voice ricochets through Winnie's ears and she grumbles once more. Heaving a heavy sigh before blinking open her eyes, thankful that despite the bounding in her skull, her eyes adjust to the dim light slowly. Cordelia sits upon her elbow beside her, red hair tousled into a bun on the nape of her neck, azure eyes staring down at her as the female tilted her lips into a smile. "I knew the whiskey would work," an air of pride leaves with her words which causes Winnie to roll her eyes, forcing herself up into a sitting position.

'Why are you so chipper right now? Also we don't have classes, it's a Saturday. So technically we don't have to leave at all," Winnie drawled, dragging the blankets up around her as she leaned against the foot of the couch.

Memories of last night came back in flashes, leaving a discomfort grow in her chest as she twisted her silver ring. Truthfully, the memory of Theo burned more violently than the rest. The emptiness he left in her heart cut her deeper than any words could ever do, he toyed with her like a plaything and Winnie had very little control over his head.

He wanted her to hate him, and she did. No matter how much her heart ached for him, her stomach and mind could not help but to hate him for every word he ever uttered towards her. He left her alone with no reasoning, leaving her scrambling after the pieces of her heart while he walked freely.

His actions left a catalyst effect on her last night. When Winnie had finally managed to pick herself back up in the bathroom, she drowned herself in whiskey and danced until her feet felt like needles and pins every time she moved. Winnie had spent the majority of the night by Harry, who had taken it upon himself to make sure she didn't do anything stupid she would regret in the morning. ( Like kiss a total stranger, which she had almost done a little after he sixth drink. )

Though the blonde did shake him for awhile, her hands intertwined with Lavender as the twi swirled around in circles with heaps of hiccuped laughter. The two separated when Ron came looking for his girlfriend, the freckled boy giving Winnie a huge bear hug in the moment, which would usually end in Winnie pushing him off, but for once, she hugged him back just as tightly,

Winnie went back to searching for her best friend after that, finding the raven haired boy in a corner speaking quietly to Cordelia.  Harry Potter has a tell that not many would see, but Winnie Buldstrode has spent many days and hours with the chosen boy as of late. She knows when he scrunches up his nose, he is lost in his own confused thoughts. When Harry finds something particular funny but he does not want to laugh, he puts his fist to his mouth and stares blankly downwards, as if that will hide the grin twisting his lips, and when he is nervous or upset, he twists the sleeves of his flannel shirt that he has chosen to wear that day.

Winnie does not miss the beat of that action now, nor does she miss the way Cordelia side steps him, leaving him alone with his lonely eyes following after her.

It was an excruciating sight, only she remembers well from her own face staring back at her in the mirror. Winnie almost completely forgot about that moment until now, with her eyes staring at the fire in front of them from the Room of Requirement. Winnie twists her vision to Cordelia, who has gotten up from their makeshift bed, changing into clothes she must've grabbed before the party. Her teeth sinks into the side of her cheek, chewing on the gums as she stares at her cousin. A feeling of grief and frustration mixing together in her chest, her cheeks flush as Cordelia pauses. Blue jeans left unbuttoned as the redhead raises an eyebrow at Winnie.

"Why are you looking at me like I killed your owl?" Cordelia questions, a nervous tick of laughter leaving her lips as Winnie frowns.

'Why were you talking to Harry last night?" Winnie's questions sounds innocent enough with the airy tone that twists around it. The blonde even stands up, spotting a pile of clothes for herself on the corner of a coffee table. She spares a glance back towards Cordelia, who is standing with her fingers around the button of her jeans, eyes avoiding Winnie's.

"I didn't-"

"I saw you guys," Winnie speaks quickly, a frown lacing her lips as she grabs the smooth fabric of a white blouse. "Why did you lie?" She questions now, more ache imprinted into the words as Winnie turns, her shirt clenched tightly in her hands as Cordelia blinks, lips twisted into a line.

"I lied because you do not need to know everything. What happens between Harry and I doesn't concern you. Just like I don't ask about you and-"

"Don't," Winnie warned, amber eyes glaring as Cordelia slammed her mouth shut, rolling her shoulders as she stood taller. "Do not be so cruel that you mention him to me, and Harry does concern me. He's my best friend," the female adds, licking her lips as she watches Cordelia's nostrils flare. Her fingers quickly moving to button her pants as she looks away, hands grabbing her sweater from the back of the couch. "You can't just string Harry alone, Lia. He loves you and you're with Blaise now. It isn't fair-"

"I love him too, I have never stopped loving him," Cordelia argues, snapping as she turns her vision towards Winnie who freezes, a sick bubbling laughter threatening to come out of the blondes lips. Instead, Winnie greets her pity with a hug, letting it twist her features into a frown as she shakes her head.

"Love doesn't look that way. You're killing him by loving him. Love does not mean sleeping with another," Winnie's words are quiet as Cordelia shakes her head, a sigh leaving her lips.

"You do not understand. Love is protecting those you care for from harm. I can not be with him, it's safer that way," Cordelia's words twist like a knife into Winnie's chest, her fingers turning bone white as she grips her shirt tighter. Feet walking towards Cordelia who has already pulled her sweatshirt over herself, already taking her leave as Winnie reaches out to clutch her cousins hand.

"Harry has been in danger since he was just a babe, why try to shield him now when it is already too late? Besides there is nothing truly so dangerous in your life that it must stop you from loving someone is there?" Winnie questions, a soft smile on her lips as Cordelia's jaw tenses. There is a voice so pure in the back of Winnie's mind that is screaming for her to dig deeper, to see clearer. But the voice is blocked by magic unbreakable, her mind is broken, a tiny drop of it is not her own but instead a memory spell that makes her unable to see what its so clearly in front of her. Winnie can see the pain that itches Cordelia's face, but she does can not see the answer written so clearly in front of her.

"I can do nothing but love him from a distant, it's just how it has to be," Cordelia's words are a mere whisper as Winnie's lips fall, her hands leaving Cordelia's as she nods, accepting a truth she does not truly understand.

"Then stay away from him, let him move on," Winnie did not look at her cousin, did not see the way Cordelia flinched as she left the Room of Requirementt. The cousins live in an fairytale world, where they each ignore a part of eachother to save themselves from the truth. One is a liar, and the other is blind to it all, each living in a delusional world where nothing can harm, but that false peace can not stay forever. It is already tethering on a dangerous slope that destined ti fall, and fall it will.

Winnie Bludstrode did not actively go looking for trouble as she left the Room of Requirement, her head still ached dully and she had a longing for sleep. Sleep would cure her nagging chest, would erase her rushed morning with Cordelia for at least a little while, perhaps she could pretend it never was there.

Though she knows that is a childish wish, Winnie could not ignore strange and odd lies forever, there would come a time when she would have to be faced with the truth.

She just never thought that truth would come in the shape of Draco Malfoy.

A weeping so full of anguish reaches her ears quicker than most, it causes her to almost trip in her footsteps as her back runs with a shiver. The sound of haggard breaths and deep wailing kicks her stomach into twisted aches. Winnie has never been one to walk towards a weeping person, she exists in her own world, only helping those closest to her.

The weeping calls to her now, tugging on her to draw closer as her feet reach the door of the second floor girls looThe very loo  that has been rumoured to be haunted by Moaning Mytrle for years, for a moment, Winnie believes it is the ghost that is weeping so distraughtly. That is a fickle idea that quickly vanishing when she feels her body be washed with a cold dread, it freezes her finger tips and makes her feet halt outside the loo.

Winnie has only ever felt the feeling of death once before, and she will never forget who it came from. Draco Malfoy laid beyond that door, his sorrow reaching her ears. His grief and fear was so potents it blinded her own emotions. She could turn and walk away as if she had never heard anything, she could leave the cruel silver haired boy alone in his grief just like he has always been. Alone in birth and alone in life, but no matter how much she can whisper to herself that this is a horrid idea, she can not bring herself to step away.

She heaves a heavy breath, before pushing open the door slowly. A creak floats it's way through the nearly empty loo, white flickering lights greet her eyes as she steps inside. Winnie is barely away of the shattered glass, barely aware of the blood that pools on the ground from the boys knuckles, nor is she aware of the wand that is quickly pointed towards her. Instead, her head begins to ache rapidly as her eyes glue onto the blistered, scratched to shredded, skull mark on Draco Malfoy's left arm.

Decaying flesh twirls around her nostrils, making her withhold the urge to hurl as she covers her mouth with her hand. Eyes wide with bewilderment as she forces her gaze away from the crimson mess of his left arm, only to be greeted with a sight she may never forget in her life. Draco Malfoy appears like a wounded animal in front of her, a dragon harmed by his own hands. His silver hair is stuck to his forehead with sweat, silver eyes glaring towards her, though his cheeks are glistening with tears. A snarl twists his flushed face as she sits, hunched over on the ground next to a sink, Winnie is acutely aware of the acidic bile that sits in a puddle next to him only by smell alone.

"What the hell are you doing?" He barks, though his voice is quivering, lips trembling as his right hand shakes with his wand still raised towards her. Winnie does not know how to answer that at first, too distracted by the dying male in front of her. His left arm is almost unrecognizable, skin so shredded and filled with blood it lays in chunks against his bone with a skull twisting against the remains. He will bleed out if not helped sooner, later, when she is alone and left with the events of that take place over the next hour, Winnie will tell herself the only reason she did not run away was because he would die otherwise. Just as she takes a step closer, a hex is poorly shot out towards her, only he misses by a mile and instead it burns a hole into the wall behind her. "Leave me alone," Draco grits out, teeth grinding in his jaw as Winnie ignores him altogether. Crouching down next to his bleeding arm, ignoring the lump of acid he had thrown up beside her.

The flesh is thick with blood, a frightening sight with the skull and snake moving around it, as if the magic in it knows that the boy is trying desperately to get rid of it. "We need to go to the hospital wing-"

"No," Draco barks cutting her off as she glances up at him. Seeing his silver eyes blinking furiously, watching her closely as he cradles his bleeding harm to his chest. Winching as his arm brushed against his side, leaving his green sweater smeared with crimson as Winnie frowns.

"You will die otherwise," Winnie warns, eyes narrowing as she sits upon her heels. Ignoring the ache that fills her feet as Draco laughed dryly. His eyes squeezing shut as he rests his head against the cool stone of the wall.

"Maybe that's what I want," he mumbles with a small grin on his face. Winnie blinks, feeling her chest tighten as she runs her finger over her silver ring. It would be so easy for her to leave him right now, there's a thousand outcomes that could come from her leaving at this moment, Starting with her running to tell Harry that he was right, or, she could run to find Cordelia that she knows that Draco Malfoy now has the mark. That surely Cordelia must've known as well with how much time she spends with the boy now, and by default, Theo as well.

Her head aches louder as her mind races through the implications of Draco Malfoy having the mark, nothing good can come from what rests upon his arm. She should leave, leave him to die alone in his own misery, leave him so she could find out the truth of everything that has bee kept from her.

Draco winches beside her, a gagged couch following as he leaves over to dry heave and when her hands touch his back, rubbing in circles, she knows she will not leave. For with every vial and tortuous act he may have done in the past, he is still a child just as she was when she got attacked by a werewolf, and he does not deserve to die.

"Then let me help you instead, it will not be the best, but I can try to stop the bleeding," Winnie suggests softly after he stops dry heaving, her wand vanishing the bile beside her so she coud sit next to him, her knees brushing his legs. The blonde watches silently, fingers itching around her wand as she chews the inside of her cheek. Draco watches her wearily, silver eyes in slits, sweat kissing his brow.

"Why do you care? Shouldn't you run and tell Saint Potter?" Draco's words is hard, meant to toy with her emotions and make her annoyed with his entire being. Perhaps in a different world she would be, but instead, she only shakes her head.

"I don't," Winnie takes a sense of pride in watching how her words wash over his face. His eyes widen for a sliver of a second, ice water fills her mouth with astonishment that trickles from his mind. Exhaustion eats away at his bones, and she knows hes is too tired to block her emotions from her.

"I'm sure you'll do fine, wolf," he lets his arm move towards her, but not without the frostiness of his words. She tenses, biting her tongue as Draco smirks, satisfied with himself, though Winnie will not give him the satisfaction of showing him annoyance. Instead, she reaches forward and grabs his wrist, savouring the sound of a wince that leaves his mouths at her actions. "Salazar, be careful." He growls, shifting as Winnie rolls her eyes, lifting her wand over his arms. Winnie mumbles tiny healing spells, she has forced herself to learn healig spells since her infliction, though Draco's cuts are more severe than her own at times. She is pleased to see the skin mend together in under the yellow light of her wand.

She grits her teeth as the vision of the mark becomes more prominent in her line of sight. Silver scars run along it's path, but the dominant black mark is hard to miss. The skin is still jagged, with dried blood smeared along the pale of his forearm, Winnie was unable to heal everything, she has not studied as much as healers, but it will be enough for now. Winnie drops her wand, letting it lay close to her thigh as she untucks her shirt, ripping a piece of the fabric near the edges.

"What are you doing?" Draco questions quietly, all ire gone from his tone as Winnie glances up at him. Her finger softly placing his forearm on her knees.

"I don't have gauze, so this will have to do. I can't heal your arm fully so it will still bleed, but not as much as before. This should stop the bleeding by adding pressure to the cuts," she explains, wrapping his arm in the ripped blouse. WInnie glances up at him through her lashes, seeing his eyebrows furrowed against his forehead. "Gauze is-"

"I know what gauze is, I took muggle studies," he cuts her off coldly, pressing his lips into a line as Winnie blinked, surprise evident in her featured as she tucked the final strand beneath the already wrapped strands. "I actually paid attention, can't break my perfect record," Winnie was sure there was a hidden meaning behind those words. Students got to pick their studies and classes after fifth year, and she was sure Draco Malfoy did not need to take Muggle Studies for his perfect Minsistry job.

"Oh well, congrats then," she mumbled, letting her hands fall away from his arm as she laid her hands on her lap. The flush that once kissed his cheeks seemed to disappear without the quickening loss of blood, his skin no longer had a gleam of sweat. Now he looked as pale as snow, save for the violet bags in under his silver eyes. Without the broke flesh clouding her mind, all that was left was the troubling mark that floated upon his skin. Draco Malfoy spent his days as of late surrounded by Cordelia and Theo, the trio tied hip to hip. Winnie glanced up at Draco, eyebrows pinched against her head as a level of distrust begun to build inside of her chest.

"You know, I feel sorry for you," Draco muttered after a moment, molten eyes opening to face her as Winnie blinked, stomach tightening at the sly uplift of her lips. "You figured out everyone was lying to you months ago.'

"What are you talking about?" Winnie questions slowly, her eyes glaring as Dracio snorted, a tired sigh leaving his lips.

"You must understand, you were at the wrong place at the wrong time. I had no choice but to erase what you heard, it was for the best." Draco's words hit her squarely in the chest, her head pounded as she quickly backed away from him, knees scrapping against the concrete floor. Erase. There was no possible way he had raised his wand to her and she let it happen, her mind was already frayed, she couldn't have let it happen again. "I had to obliviate your memory. Seems a little foolish now really, maybe you aren't as much of a saint as I thought. You just healed a member of the Dark Lord's army, and you have no idea that your pretty little cousin is one too." A wicked laugh left his lips, only to be cut short as Winnie reached forward and slapped him across the face. Her hand stung painfully as her teeth gritted in her mouth, holding her hand close to her chest.

"You're a fucking piece of shite," she spat, watching as the boy sniffed, rubbing his hand along his jaw. They still sat against the loo floor, blood dripping from his knuckles that she never bothered to heal. Her heart aching in her chest, she has been lied to. Repeatedly, and her cousin bares the same mark against her forearm. Winnie felt a ridge grow in her chest, her eyes stinging as she blinked furiously, holding back the urge to cry in his presence.

Draco was silent, silver eyes watching her closely as she pressed her hands closely to her chest. Turning her head to side as she worked through her emotions in her head, lips pressed into a line. Betrayal was an act she expected from her parents, something she expected to see when she saw her mother in March. Betrayal did not come in the form of her cousin, and yet she could not ignore the truth behind his words. She's seen it in the way Cordelia clings to Draco, the way her cousin appears more weary and distant.

She found an acceptance to the truth in her ache and silence.

"How long?" Her voice filters out like a wounded animal, slowly engulfing the boy as her head stayed glued to the side. Giving him nothing but a sea of blonde heair that acts like a curtain to shield the pain itched across her face.

"What?" His own voice is hollow, perhaps too drained to be mean now. He recieved his end goal, to stab Winnie in her heart when she was the most vulenerable, least expecting.

"How long has it been since the mark lives on both yours and my cousins body? How long has it been since my cousin has been lying to me?" Winnie's voice is sharper now, memories of sleeping next to Cordelia just this morning. Where a wall lived between them for reasons Winnie could never understand.

Correction, She did understand, it was just stolen from her.

"The summer," his words makes her eyes squint shut, a shuddering breath raking through her lungs as she swallows her cries. She will noit cry, not here, not in front of him. "She did what she could to survive," his words protected Cordelia and WInnie's emotions begged to Cordelia down.

"Do not start to lecture me on doing what it takes to surive Malfoy," Winnie started turning her gaze finally onto the boy across from her. His eyes in permanment slits and mouth in a line, he appeared like a fallen angel. A terriozing human in the form of a broken boy, but Winnie never was one to take pity on broken things."I was raised in pureblood culture just as you. I know what a true, healthy dark mark looks like and yours is infected, rejecting you. Exposing who you truly are."

"And what is that?" Draco didn't miss a beat, biting back with sharp words as Winnie's lips pulled into a smirk, leaning towards the boy slowly.

"You're weak." She snapped, grinning victoriously as his nostrils flared. "But, somewhere, deep inside of your rotting body lays some good. Godric forbid you let it come out, but you can not hide behind rude remarks and daddys little protection. Somewhere inside of you lays some light, otherwise your body wouldn't be rejecting the dark makr. I bet it fucking hurts all the time, so much so you can probably barely sleep," her words hit hard as he twitches, eyes glowering as Winnie smirks. "But regardless, you ae weak. I would've died rather than let that makr stain my body."

"That's exactly the bullshite I'd expect to hear from a Gryffindor," Draco remarks as Winnie scoffs, rolling her eyes as she leans back. "I did what I had to do to survive, see it as you will, but you know nothing about me. Don't act as if you understand us just because you were raised by purebloods, you stopped understanding us the moment you became a lion. Cordelia and I did what we had to do, you'd be foolish not to." WInnie chewed on the inside of her cheek as she glowered at him, eyes hard and throat stinging as she swallowed.

"He'll kill you both either way. Harry will win and you guys will die, do you not understand that?" Winnie argued, feeling heat kiss her cheeks as she stared at him. Watching as Draco glanced away, his finger smoothing over the dragon ring on his thumb,

"Why do you have so much faith in him? He is just a boy," it was the quietest she has ever heard Draco speak, especially when it comes to Harry. His tone stuns her for a moment, while Draco continues to stare at his family crescent ring, Winnie blinks, her fingers reaching up to touch the locket that connects her very being to Harry. She knows he has his wrapped aroud his neck wherever he is. A picture of the two of them sleeping by the fire lays inside of their lockets, it is theres and theres only. Winnie takes comfort in knowing that no matter how far away they are, it'll only take slipping the metal upon their tongues to take them home to each other.

She has a home forever in life, and for the first time in her life, she wonders in Draco even has the same luxury.

"There is perhaps not a person in the world I trust more than Harry," there is an geniue smile floating as her face, her tone quiet as she starts to speak. "He saved my life and I would die for him if it ever came down to it. I believe in Harry because he is kind, because he has lost more than any child ever should and still he is the kindest person I have ever met. He has to win this war, and he will win it because he has people who truly believe in him by his side. Not out of fear, or out of a chocie between death, but because he is Harry and we will follow him. He's my family, there's no one else I could believe in more than him." Draco's eyebrows had begun to furrow as she spoke, his finger still twisting his ring.

"He is not you family, he doesn't share the same blood as you." Draco words are quiet, factual and Winnie cannnot argue or feel bitter towards him, for it is true. She does not share blood with Harry, but she will consider him family until her very last breath.

"Family does not equal blood Draco," Winnie pretends not to see the widening of his eyes as she uses his first name. Said without a cruel tone as she sighs,"I believe family is who you choose to care for, who you choose to love and believe in. You can make your own family." Winnie watches closely as Draco frowns, and she knows his emotions are open for the taken, but there is a bridge of opprunity being built between the two. He is vile and a twat, but he is a child raised by pureblood beliefs, perhaps that could change.

'Are you going to tell Harry?" Draco questions, meeting her eyes as she frowns, chewimg on the inside of her cheek. She knows she should, he has been raging all day with his beliefs of Cordelia and Draco being deatheaters. And yet, she knows this would break his heart just like hers was, and if she could save him from a heartbreak so soon, she would do it a thousand times.

"No," Winnie does not miss the look of disblief that floats across Draco's face. The way his eyebrows furrows against his forehead. "You are not the villian here, the real villian is the Dark Lord and I'm giving you a choice. Hopefully you pick the right one." She does not to explain further, for Draco is more intelligent than he lets on. He simply glances away, jaw locking as he stares at the shattered pieces of glass on the floor.

Winnie Buldstrode she is not wrong for doing this, and while her heart is breaking with the truth of her cousin, she prays to the gods above that she has perhaps saved a life today, and hopefully more.

        — winnie: i dont like broken people!!!
             also winnie: i hate you but you're bleeding and dying so i'm gonna make it my life's mission to save you!!!
        — it is so fun to write scenes that totally fucks with canon, makes me so excited to start writing the second book 😵‍💫😵‍💫
        — i probably said it in a authors note awhile ago, but draco is a very complex character and he will definitely play a big part coming soon!! i was setting up the cards here in this chapter 😉
        — winnie's reaction to all of this might seem a bit weird, but she sees draco as just a boy. yes he is still an awful person here, but she was given a choice to get away so she kinda sees it as her duty to try and do the same especially seeing draco's mark be inflamed and gross. i don't know the logic behind the dark marks but good thing this is canon because i can do whatever i want!! i find the dark marks very interesting and i plan to play with them more in the second book to this. don't worry though, winnie is still gonna be very mad and feel betrayed for awhile, especially towards cordelia.
        — no theo for awhile, ( i want their happy ending too and originally they were gonna be happy by now but i'm my own villain ) but we'll find out what he's doing soon!! xo xo i love you guys and happy new year!!!