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Chapter 29: The Skin in Sacrifice [ AO3 ] | [ ff.net ]
Draco Malfoy had lived seven years under the reign of Lord Voldemort, and during that time he allowed the things he'd seen to become impersonal. So he'd seen his classmates go missing. So what? he'd thought. He'd seen his mother die, and it hadn't been murder. People died, whether at a wand or not. Death was impersonal. He made it impersonal.
But the body, when punctured, suffers three ways.
Blood loss; this is the most obvious. Draco fought it by keeping his head down, by keeping his distance. Theo's loss would have bled him, so he played his cards; he let someone else take the fall.
Shock, then. He lived seven years of it, feeling nothing. This is how the body shuts down. This is inaction. Shock is paralysis, numbness, delivery to oblivion. This is the wait before the breathing stops, before the heart falters, before the end - unless the shock subsides, but perhaps he knew even then that what comes next is always harder.
What comes next is pain.
Hermione's lips against his; pain. The sound of Theo's laughter; pain. Harry's loyalty. Daphne's tirelessness. Even Pansy's troubled presence. Pain, pain, and pain again.
All of it was pain, because for the first time, it was personal.
It was personal.
He suffered.














