Chapter Two
"She's dead! There's nothing we can do!"
"Why weren't you looking after her?! You promised me you would!"
"I can't watch the girl every moment of my life Draco! If I stalked around her house anymore than I already did, someone would eventually notice my absence from the wizarding world. And how the hell was I supposed to know that Wilmer had gotten suspicious?!"
"You were supposed to be watching out for everything that could have harmed her! Nothing was supposed to get passed you! And now she's…"
Draco trailed off, his words catching behind his clenched teeth. An emptiness filled the cavity that was his chest, making black the brightness that used to dwell there. Cold and numbness made his limbs feel weak and his head heavy as the word he had almost said sunk in. Dead. The most unpleasant and gut wrenching word next to torture. Dead and murdered in the same sentence was almost too much to bare under normal circumstances but in this case, Draco Malfoy dealt with both.
The silence of the deserted alley was deafening in Draco's ears, making him wish suddenly that he had made better arrangements as to where he had chosen to meet his messenger. Somewhere more open, somewhere less dark, somewhere where he could keep better hold of his swelling emotions. Here, he could scream, cry and explode into a million pieces if his so chose. The alley gave him to much room for expressing feeling and the barriers he had carefully set up towards the outside world were being broken down with every passing moment with only the sound of breathing from the man before him and his own meeting his greedy ears. Though the alley next to the Leaky Cauldron proved to be useful before, it now only made the fresh news more unreal and unbelievable in Draco's mind.
"You're lying," he said in a forced strong voice, his stormy eyes searching those that belonged to his former closest friend. "You're lying. It isn't true. What are you playing at? What do you want from me? Do you want me to get down on my knees and beg for her whereabouts? Is that what you're after?!"
Blaise Zabini shook his head mournfully and Draco saw that the façade he so desperately wanted to be true was just an illusion that his imagination had conjured.
"Katie is dead Draco. Wilmer killed her this morning. The Muggle police had to knock him unconscious before carrying him away because he was ranting about how she was a demon from Satan's circle. He saw what happened the other night , I'm sure of it now. I told you to be more careful and now Katie is dead because of your carelessness…"
Blaise's words hit Draco like an icy slap, hard enough to make his eyes widen and his legs to collapse beneath him. As his knees hit the cobblestone below him, bile bubbled in the back of his throat.
"I didn't…He couldn't have…I…Katie…" he stammered, unable to form a complete sentence. He fought back the sting of tears, the pride given to him through his family name still to great to let the crystal droplets fall even in his state of grief.
"Don't go back Draco," Blaise warned. "Don't go to her funeral or to her home. If you're seen, you'll be charged with exposing our world to a Muggle and her death because of it will cause more consequence than you have money to buy yourself out with. Stay away. Go about life as usual and don't let on that you know anything about Katie Tyler."
Draco nodded mutely, his usual fountain of comments and replies tapped out and dry. He heard Blaise sigh quietly and his shoes scrape and echo against the pavement as he retreated towards the end of alley he had first come from. With a soft pop, he was gone, leaving Draco alone in the alley with the monsters that were his thoughts.
Author's note: I know this is uber short but I need to get something up. I'm going to be away for a month starting next week so I'm going to try and get as much done on this as I can. I'm really sorry that this is so short but I'll try to fix that tonight or tomorrow with the next chapter. Hope you like it so far.