The Heaviest Burden of All

Dedicated to the one and only who would rather marry Arthur than Lucius… you know who you are… ;)
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Chapter 5

New circumstances


Late at night, Sheryl was still awake and not able to find any sleep. Something still occupied her mind although she couldn’t name what it actually was. Malfoy’s strange behavior during dinner led her to the conclusion that he hid more from her than she probably wanted to know. His cryptic answer may not have satisfied her curiosity, but at least she was sure by now that she was supposed to be part of something. Something that seemed to include Lucius as well. The more she tried to turn everything around, however, the more confused she got. There were so many questions in her head and she was afraid of never getting them answered right in time. What if she was part of something she didn’t like? What if it meant pain or, worse, even death for her? Against her will, she started to rethink it once more. Voldemort wanted power to rule the wizard world and presumably the rest of the universe, too, and since this was magic, it logically called for a prophecy. But those prophecies demanded rituals to fulfill them, and rituals needed a special spell and certain items. A special spell… Suddenly, Lucius’ words struck her. There’s no one closer to the dark Lord than you…
She recalled the four lines again that she had stumbled across in Malfoy’s study. They were related to Voldemort, she realized as she repeated the first two phrases over and over again. The closest you have… that was her since Voldemort had no other children. The most faithful you get… she had little doubt that this referred to Malfoy. So whatever the prophecy was about, it obviously required either certain people and circumstances, or it asked for a ritual to acquire it. The first blood of possession. Sheryl definitely didn’t have a good feeling about this, but she decided to skip that part and go on to the last line. The highest light in the dark near decay… the dark had to stand for night, and the highest light seemed only logical to be full moon. But what about the rest? She sighed in anger and looked out of the window in her room. The trees outside looked pathetic with most of their leaves gone now, and the wind was icily blowing through the fragments of an once blossoming beauty of landscape. Near decay… of course, Sheryl smiled to herself. It meant autumn and probably referred to the poet’s language that considered November as the month of decay. There were only two more days left of October, and the first full moon in November was supposed to be on the ninth. But what did the third line mean? She shrugged off the uneasy feeling about it and decided to better take a hot shower. Even if she solved the whole riddle, what use could it bring anyway as long as she didn’t know exactly what it described or instructed? It was like reading a map without knowing which town it belonged to.

Right in the middle of the night, just as Sheryl’s mind had come to a rest and she had finally fallen asleep, Malfoy suddenly burst into her room without even bothering to knock first. He better had a bloody good reason to disturb her at such a time, she thought in anger and sat up.
“Get up”, he said, and she noticed he wasn’t looking at her, but opening the cupboard instead. A simple spell made all clothes inside disappear, making Sheryl aware that she wore nothing but boxer shorts and an old t-shirt. A sudden rush of air made her jump as Malfoy’s cane came down to hit her bed.
“I said get up”, he said a little bit sharper and she understood that he wasn’t used to people not obeying his words the moment he spoke them out. Slightly scared by then, she hurried to get out of bed, but he didn’t even look at her again. Instead he turned around and motioned with his hand to follow him. Sheryl wondered how he would react if she didn’t do as he wanted her to, yet the expression on his face promised that she would probably not survive her curious attempt. So she simply tried to stay behind him, however, far enough behind him to not collide with his cane should he decide to use it once more. They finally came to a halt in front of a door she hadn’t seen before. And when Malfoy opened it to let her in, she immediately knew why she was completely unfamiliar with the room behind it. It was his bedroom. And good Lord, it simply wasn’t a normal bedroom, but the incarnation of wealth and impressive luxury itself. Although Sheryl couldn’t understand why one man needed such a big bed, she still had to admire Malfoy’s taste for style. Everything about the room was as beautiful and intimidating as its owner.
“Once you are done staring at it, you may come to bed”, his amused voice reached her ear while the door was shut again.
“What?”
She definitely wasn’t sleeping in one bed with him since she already didn’t like the idea of being in his bedroom with him, either.
“I believe you heard quite well. From now on you will spend your nights here and you will only leave this room when you are allowed to.”
“What did I do?”, she frowned in anger.
“Nothing. There are circumstances that force me to do this.”
“Which circumstances?”
“The Order.”
She sent him a puzzled look.
“At least you can’t say I didn’t answer your question this time”, he remarked with a sneer and she resisted the temptation to stick out her tongue at him.
“I won’t sleep in a bed with you.”
He only laughed at the stubbornness of her voice.
“And I wasn’t asking you to sleep with me. You are, however, free to sleep on the floor if you wish to.”
With a slight crack in her pride, Sheryl gave up and crawled into bed. The sheets were soft against her skin, admittedly feeling much better than the bed she had slept in before. She had expected Malfoy to come to bed, too, but she certainly hadn’t wasted a thought on the possibility of how he would sleep. And that turned out to be naked. Not just half, but absolutely naked.
“Don’t worry”, he softly said as he noticed her gaze, “I won’t touch you.”
She noticed that he talked to her like she were a nun. Did he think she was still inexperienced? True, her five nights with the Bulgarian exchange student last winter hadn’t been the highlight of the universe, but at least she was prepared for real relationships to come by now, without having to worry about the first sex and how it would be. It was done which she was extremely thankful for now even if it had hurt for two days afterwards. Malfoy, however, seemed to think differently about her love life since he treated her like the virgin of the century. And suddenly, that little beeping alarm in Sheryl’s head went off again. The first blood of possession… so that was what the third line meant. Sex. Not just any sex, but the very first time. She recalled the other lines and their solutions again to hope that she was wrong. Her, Malfoy, sex, full moon night. To someone else it might have sounded like a dream coming true, yet to her it could have been the end of the world as well.
“You bastard!”, she spat out, turning around to face Malfoy who had just gotten into bed, fortunately far enough away from her. To say he was stunned would have been the understatement of the year since he looked so confused that he lacked any reply for quite a few seconds. Finally, however, he forced a small smile on his face.
“I’m afraid I don’t follow you.”
“Oh, I think you do very well.”
“Enlighten me…”
His eyes burnt in the room that was illuminated only by a few candles.
“The ritual which is the key to the prophecy… I found four lines last afternoon in your study.”
“You’ve been in my study?”, Malfoy’s mood darkened visibly at those words.
“I intended to never let you find out since I had gotten lost after being in the garden, and I didn’t know which way to go… your study’s door was the first I saw, so…”
“Sheryl”, suddenly his voice didn’t sound warm and gentle anymore, but like a merciless rush of icy wind, “You won’t go in there again. Ever. Consider yourself lucky to be the dark Lord’s daughter, otherwise you would have regretted it dearly.”
As he stared at her in the most sinister way she had ever seen, a hot wave of anger built up inside her.
“Well, maybe it would have never happened if you hadn’t let me alone all day! I’m not a plant that you water three times a day and put aside to stand in a corner until you show enough kindness and talk to it again for a while! I’m not even meant to be here!”
His own mute rage slowed down her frustration, and for the first time since her arrival, he suddenly realized what it meant for her to actually stay at his Manor. She had been ripped out of a life after seventeen years without ever getting the chance to decide for herself or receive the answers she was longing for. Voldemort didn’t even show enough sensitivity now to spend time with her. True, the dark Lord was busy, but so was Lucius, too, and maybe quite a bit more. In a certain way her comparison with a plant wasn’t even that absurd as it might have appeared at the first moment.
“Sheryl”, his voice returned to its normal smoothness, “I don’t think I’m supposed to speak about the ritual with you, yet since I haven’t received any order to not do so, and you have found those lines, I believe it may be necessary to clarify a few things.”
She simply nodded, afraid to experience his fury once more.
“What do those four lines mean in your opinion?”
If he thought she was going to be embarrassed that easily, he would be disappointed about her immediate answer.
“The both of us having sex in the first full moon night in November. At least that’s the only solution I’ve found to the riddle.”
“I admit that it took us quite a bit longer to figure that out”, he said not without the hint of a smug satisfaction about her results.
“What’s it do?”
“The ritual will fulfill an old prophecy which is said to allow the dark Lord to gain rare power and finally rule in invincibility.”
“Voldemort will be ruling the wizard world, then?”
“Yes.”
Now that wasn’t exactly great in any kind of way.
“You know, I think I just found out why it took me that long to solve the ritual’s third line”, she thoughtfully said after a while.
“Did you?”
With a soft smile, she moved closer to him.
“Imagine this… the first full moon night next month, you and me, probably a bundle of candles, spells and whatever to create the magic atmosphere…”
It was too pleasant how Malfoy reacted to her words with a satisfied smile and Sheryl already knew that she would enjoy the following seconds for the rest of her life, even if that weren’t long.
“… and then you will find out that I’m no virgin anymore.”


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Evil? Yes, since there is a little Malfoy in all of us... ;)