Next chapter at 85 votes & 200 comments! Dedicated to boredbitchx
— TWs for Draco being a complete twat

  WITH A FLICK OF HIS WAND the door slammed shut and the periwinkle flames turned to crimson. "So..." He trailed, turning to sit at his desk as if suddenly entranced by his new company, "How can I help?"

"Cut the shit Seamus, you know why we're here." Sighed Navy, slumping down into one of the leather armchairs like she owned the place.

The scar-faced Seamus only smiled, something sinister dancing behind those sharp teeth, "I know why yer 'ere Angelina, you've made that more than clear in yer many owls, but what I really wanna to know —," He hesitated, honing hawk-eyes in on his prey. " — is why she's 'ere."

Seven's skin scorched beneath the collective gazes of the room and she opened her mouth to answer, only no words found her. Why was she here? — Because she wanted to prove herself — to spite Draco. The only reasons that came to mind were the ones she'd never humiliate herself by saying.

"You've met before?" Bill asked; surprised even though nobody else seemed to be.

"Everybody's met everybody at some point, Weasley." Seamus sneered, to him the answer was obvious. "Tis just whether it was before or after the world went to shite."
Bill grimaced, but Seamus was far from done, " — So don't look so high and mighty — I remember the times when yer own brothers sat 'cross the tables from Crawlers — or at least, that's what they call 'em now, but back then they had names — dare to recall any George?"
The youngest remaining Weasley shrank back.

Madness wove its way between the rambling words — seemingly without a beginning or an end, and when the horrified look on George's face perturbed that he was not about to start reeling off names, Seamus set off once more.
His gaze soured, finding a new, more interesting mark.
   " — But none more so than our dear Draco 'ere, he not only ate from Gluttony's hand but fucked her when he thought no one else would notice. Nobody would've guessed that out of the lot of ya it would be the fickle Pansy Parkinson that rose to power." Seamus sat back; satisfied, flicking at his cuticles as if the current damage was almost to his satisfaction. Almost, "And don't even get my started on the rest of yer family, though I'll admit that rise was always to be expected —,"

" — Enough!" Draco barked. Limning the harsh angles ad shadow of the room into hideous monsters. All fell silent.
  The smirk on Seamus' mouth only stretched wider, at this point, Seven was certain he must be mad for the way he grinned like a Cheshire Cat.
  Though she didn't let his delirium detract from what he had said; Draco had known Gluttony, maybe even loved her, just as with her dying breath she'd claimed to love him. "Did I touch a nerve? Or should I continue? I'm sure Seven would love ter hear what I have to say..."

She'd known many a man like Seamus Finnegan, foolish and blinded by a wrongful sense of security. Nobody was ever safe. Anybody could kill you, at any time. It would not be the first time that one wrong word had soured an alliance or caused a friend to turn to foe.
A silver-ish haze hung heavy upon the room, a fog of the mind, too many dizzying thoughts swirling through her head. Most of which consisted of her replaying Gluttony's last moments over and over again.

"We can go back..." She had said, "We can run away, somewhere he'll never find us and it will be just like before!" A tear had slipped down her cheek that was still plump with youth, full of life unlived. "Draco, I love you, — I've always loved you."

She remembered the way he'd looked down at her. A strange look, she recalled. At the time she hadn't recognised it, so far removed from the stern yet soft man she thought she'd known. He'd taken a breath, strong shoulders rising with the intake, letting it fill him up and become him, and then falling with the expulsion. He had rid himself of emotion — became what he was supposed to, shutting out all else. Features hardening, growing harsh, unforgiving.

  Looking back now, she knew that look having seen it many times since. That was the real Draco. Certain and sure as the words he had whispered, "Avada Kedavra."

  "Seven," Draco snarled, calling her back to an unbearable clarity — back to him and his game of secrecy and lies. "Get out."

" — No." The word came fast; instinctively and her scowl rippled the air with its heat. He glared back, unaffected if not frustrated by her fiery rage. "I'm as much a part of this as you are."

He scoffed, closing a menacing step between them. Seven didn't dare move back. She was done cowering from him.
  He could cut her and bleed and carve her heart from her chest, but still, she would not bow to him.

  "You think you're a part of this?" He leered down at her, "You see Navy? Do you see Bill — George? They are part of this... They are needed." His breath came hot and fast against Seven's flushed face. A tingling in her fingertips itched to strike him, like a thousand insects infecting her skin — every one of them screaming to get him as far away from her as possible. "But you..." His lip curled into a sickening sneer, "You are nothing."

A monster of grief awoke inside of her then as he turned away; leaving her discarded like a tired toy. Clawing at her eyes and raking serrated talons along the insides of her throat. She tried her best to fight the beast, to shove it down so deep inside of her that it may never surface again, to drown it in all the tears she kept unshed. But with every second that slipped by, she began to lose the fight.

A wetness shone in her glassy green eyes but she refused to submit. She buried the feeling, donned the mask, became that cold-hearted facade that had once come so easily to her. — But that was before she met him. Before he tore down her walls and left her reeling, hapless and bleeding to the wolves.

"I've killed just as many Sins you, Draco." She said, so coldly it's felt as if the fire had died, "You not telling me your plans — deliberately leaving me in the dark — does not make you any more worthy than I am. It makes you a coward."

  He looked shocked then. They all did. Nobody expected the lost puppy to bite, with its soppy doe eyes and supple fur, scarcely weaned from its mother's milk. And yet it had.
  Seven's teeth had closed and Draco reacted as if he physically had felt the pinch, though unlike most, he didn't blanch away from the fight — he never had. He strode towards her so that there was hardly any space between them, his face pushed close to hers.
  It was the most beautiful nightmare she could imagine. A terrible storm plagued with thunder. A wicked wind that caressed her face only to steal her breath and leave her choking. A sea that sank sailors and flooded the lands to endless lakes.
  Seven couldn't help but feel an innate pull to such terrible natural disasters, like a ship sucked into a whirlpool. Maybe it would end her, or perhaps, she would end it. She had always favoured fear, it kept her awake; it kept her alive.

Draco didn't shout, but perhaps that was the most terrifying of all the disasters he could've hailed down upon her in that moment.

  "Don't you dare speak to me about cowardice," He brandished his words like weapons, each syllable a perfectly-aimed strike, forcing them through her chest, to the soft spot he knew beat only for him. "You of all people. The silly little girl who can't even remember her own name — fumbling blindly through district after district in search of what?" He cocked his head, eyes narrowing like a snake assessing where best to strike, finding his target with practised ease. "What do you think you'll find? There is no salvation Seven!" He laughed; a rich, golden sound. " — And the sooner you get that through your thick fucking skull the less of us will end up dead."

Stunned silence suffocated the dim room and even Navy's sable skin began to grey. The words echoed, refracting over and over as poisoned bullets fired into a steel cage, each finding a body, embedding deep. Not a soul in the room went unpunished.

  One clap, a second soon followed, then another, and another. They pierced the air with wicked intent, shaking the foundations of all they stood upon. Seamus was clapping, a slow, mocking sound and his face alight with mirth. This was was the show he had been hoping for. "It appears there's the beginnings of mutiny amongst us! And I must say — well done Draco, yerv proved yer'self more than capable of everything I thought you of!"

  Navy looked mortified, eyes wide and furious, though at which of them she couldn't tell. "Both of you." She snarled, "Get out."

***
QOTD-Who are you siding with? Or are they both wrong? Or maybe, they're both right...