MARA WILLIAMS

Though Blaise was not talking to me again he still wasn't quite the same, he wasn't the same berry-eating, potion-burning Blaise that I had come to know and love.

He was far quieter than usual, but that was understandable, he felt a loyalty to his best friend, the boy who'd broken my heart, lied flat out to my face and put my life at risk, it was foolish of me to expect things to be just as they were.

There was life before Draco Malfoy, and there was life after, but it wasn't the same. It was hollow, empty, devoid of felt and vacant of feel. Maybe he hated me now, and maybe it was better off that way. He didn't even show up to class anymore.

Loving him was a Pyrrhic victory. -One that left a trail of devastation in its wake, strong enough to catch us all in the tide, and Blaise was feeling it's affects now, as he packed away his books.

If hadn't have known any better I would've thought he was packing his things deliberately slowly to avoid leaving at the same time as me. "I'll see you later." I waved him goodbye and he returned a small but awkward smile. "-Yeah, see you."

I pulled my robe a little tighter around myself as I walked down the corridor to the Great Hall, the winter chill seeping through the castle walls to bite at my fingertips. My stomach growled with the anticipation of the dinner feast no doubt awaiting us.

Without warning my feet faltered and I froze, my heart sinking in my chest. I tried to turn and run, hoping that he hadn't yet seen me, but it was already too late.

The only advantage I had over him was I knew these grounds like the back of my hand. Better than a foreigner could ever hope to.

But deep down we both knew there was no escaping this. He was faster. Stronger. He always had been.

"There's no point in running, Solnyshko." He sneered, even the sound of his approaching footsteps was enough to make me feel sick and my head spin. "-We both know that."

"What do you want from me?" My voice quivered and shook, even my heart trembled before him, flinching for it knew him and the pain he brought all too well.

He was right, running was futile. There was nowhere and no one that was safe from him. I had ran to the ends of the earth, across oceans and rivers and sky, and even then he plagued my nights, seeping through the cracks and turning dreams to nightmares.

Even Hermione's spells couldn't stop him, his wounds already healed from the previous day evidently by magic.

Breath hitched in my throat, and tears blurred my vision as I reversed away and he stalked closer until my back collided with the wall and there was nowhere left to run. Some small part of me debating just giving in, I'd spent years fighting, maybe it would be easier to just give in, maybe if I did what he said he wouldn't hurt me like last time? Maybe I should just return to Dermstrang with him, God knows nobody wanted me here, maybe a fresh start was what I needed.

Hermione and Parvati's faces swam through my mind. No. For them, I would fight.

"You're so beautiful when you cry." He whispered, wiping the line tear from beneath my eye with the pad of his thumb.

"Why don't you just leave me alone?" I couldn't even look at him without seeing my own reflection in his souless eyes, without seeing how pathetic I looked, how helpless, how fearful.

"-Because I love you."

He was a liar. He never had. No one could, even my own flesh and blood had damned me to die a slave to a master who wanted nothing more than to watch us all rot.

This was not love. Love did not manifest itself in fear, in bloody thighs and sleepless nights, in bruises or broken bones, in heavy fists or tear filled eyes. This was not love.

-Not anymore at least. It had been at first, but with time came the inevitable cull. After all every soul I'd ever dared to love had hurt me in some way or another, even my own mother, her death had struck had harder than my father ever could.

Viktor tilted my chin with his fingers, forcing me to look at him. "...Tell me you love me too."

"I..." My fingers slid into the pocket of my robe, reaching to slowly pull out my wand. I pointed it up, resting it against his throat as slowly his grip on me loosened but he didn't back away.
Viktor opened his mouth, "Mara-," When a blast of bright red light hit in square between the shoulder blades and he fell to his knees before me.

I was just as shocked as the boy himself for a moment, the spell had not come from me, until I saw two figures fast approaching.

Draco was the first, tearing Viktor away by his throat as Blaise landed a swift kick to his gut.
"No, stop!" I cried out instinctively. "What are you doing!"

"-Mara get out of here." Blaise hissed and I tried to pull Draco away but he threw me off him, knocking me to the floor as easily if I were a rag doll. "Draco stop!"

I dragged myself to my feet, just as struggled Viktor struggled to stand, lashing out with a heavy fist towards Blaise right as I ran between them.

For a brief moment I was weightless. My head span and a thousand stars lined the edges of my vision, before I came crashing back down to earth and the world seemed to erupt around me.

There sounded strike after strike after strike. The was a cry, the sound of skin splitting, bones breaking, blood flowing.

"Mara!" Blaise helped me to my feet, holding me by the shoulders and shaking me slightly. "Mara you have to get out of here, now... run and don't look back!"

He shoved me in the opposite direction and I ran, slightly dazed at first but soon I realised that the pounding wasn't just in my head. I couldn't help it, I turned back right as I rounded the corner and instantly wished I hadn't.

Viktor cowered before Draco, hands outstretched and pleading for mercy. But there was none. Draco Malfoy had never been to forgive, let alone forget.
Blood poured from Viktor's lip and cheek, crawling down his throat and soaking his robe. But what frightened me most was the look in Draco's eye.

-No trace remained of the boy I'd once thought I had known. Only anarchy remained.
When I looked at him towering mercilessly over boy that begged, I couldn't help but see my father, so I ran.

I ran blind sighted until my lungs seared and my muscles ached, chest heaving with the absence of air as I collided with a thick chest.

"Mara?" Cedric frowned holding me to steady my swaying, "What on earth happened to you? -Are you okay?"

• • •

"Are you sure you don't want to see Madame Pomfrey just incase?" Worry lines marred his attractive face as he dabbed at my cheek with peroxide soaked gauze. "-Sounds like you hit your head quite hard, you might have a concussion."

I winced at the bitter bite of the antiseptic. "No, honestly I'm fine."

And that's what I liked about Cedric, he never pried. One look at my face and it was obvious I had lied about walking into a door and yet he let it be, instead he focused all his energy on helping. He was a kind soul, one far too pure for this world or the next.
He'd led me to the fifth floor prefect's bathroom, where he assured that no one would see us. I wasn't too surprised to learn that Cedric was a prefect, all this seemed to come so naturally to him.

We talked for a while as he tended to my split lip and cheek, until finally he set down the gauze.

"Hey Mara, umm I was wondering..." Cedric pulled away rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, "...Of course only if nobody's asked you to go already..."

I watched him with a small smile, his shyness quite endearing, so careful not to ruin what we'd built. "If maybe you um... If you wanted to go to the Yule Ball with me? -As just friends obviously..."

Just friends. -No love. No way to get hurt.

There was safety in Cedric, a constant. No pain, no secrets, no lies.

I eyed him, lingering for a moment on the way his pale eyes glinted with exactly what I was looking for before I closed the distance between us and crashed my lips against his. "-Fuck being friends."

***
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