Drabble Reading #11: Surviving
5itle: Surviving
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Word Count: 495
Written for Challenge #11 (Grand Finale) at dramione_ldws
You Are (in the Grand Finale): must include a baby or child AND it must be written in the second person POV
Surviving
So this was you. Seventeen. Fresh. Invincible. Still smiling ten years later in a faded photograph with a bent corner.
You run your finger over your eager face and wonder if you’ll ever be ready to live again.
This little box of photographs was the only thing Malfoy insisted on rescuing from the Manor before it became a pile of broken walls and ash. You can’t help wondering what you’re doing in this stack and how long you’ve been there.
There are fires everywhere and the roar in your ears is constant. Survival now is hiding in sheds and abandoned muggle houses until they are burned to the ground like everything else. If you are lucky, you find a muggle town that’s already been hit.
Now it’s you, Malfoy, and someone else’s child. He has two bottom teeth and doesn’t speak, and most of the time you don’t either.
You think that because you’re the woman, you should hold the child, but you can tell it’s important to Malfoy that he does. The little boy is comfortable with him. They’re both quiet and serious, like they’re always concentrating. The baby feels safe with Malfoy, and you’re not surprised because you do too.
Somehow, you three have become a makeshift family and you try not to think about that. You try not to want it. But you know that everyday that this war continues cements your fantasy a little more.
For now, you survive. You make sure the baby is warm and you feed him. Sometimes you feed yourselves. Malfoy tries to pretend he’s split the rations down the middle, but you know he always gives you more. And you don’t say anything, because you know he needs to make that sacrifice. And because you do the same when it’s your turn.
In the dark places where you huddle on conjured blankets, you catch Malfoy staring at the sleeping baby between you, and you wonder if he imagines that the boy is his. You wonder if he imagines that the boy is yours and his.
----
The first thing you notice when you wake up is your hand, warm, between the baby and Malfoy’s palm. The second thing you notice is the silence. It’s the first silence in many months and it pulls you fully out of sleep, and onto your feet and to the door.
In the weak light of dawn, small explosions are quietly bursting in your chest as you begin to realize it’s over.
And you walk out onto the soft charred dirt, where the air is cold and damp on your face, and you can still smell the smoke, sour and stale and woven into everything.
Your eyes are wet and your breath is stuck in your throat. But then Malfoy is standing next to you, with the baby still sleeping on his chest and he laces his long, warm fingers with yours and squeezes.
And you think, yes, you’re ready now. ”
So, I should have mentioned this in the recording, but I forgot. Some people left feedback on the drabbles and one of the comments I got on this one was that the person liked the plot and could see more. I was thinking, hmmm....yeah, that could really become a whole story and my brain started constructing it. This required a mandatory facepalm. Sometimes I've used these drabbles to work out plot bunnies for other stories. How I Fell In Love With My Wife, for instance was a way for me to get into a marraige law story I promised to breenieweenie who made Claiming Hermione's kick-fucking-ass trailer. Searching for Draco Malfoy and We Didn't Know Anything were bunnies from another story that I may or may not write. But THIS one, *facepalm again* was an exploration of the original fiction story that I would like to tell. I just forgot. lol. Anyway, thank you to those of you gave feedback and said you liked it. That was even more meaningful to me since it's my (fragile) little original fiction story idea. Oh yeah, and I don't think I read this one as well I could have. I was getting sleepy. I may re-do it later. Or, I might not. :)
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Word Count: 495
Written for Challenge #11 (Grand Finale) at dramione_ldws
You Are (in the Grand Finale): must include a baby or child AND it must be written in the second person POV
Surviving
So this was you. Seventeen. Fresh. Invincible. Still smiling ten years later in a faded photograph with a bent corner.
You run your finger over your eager face and wonder if you’ll ever be ready to live again.
This little box of photographs was the only thing Malfoy insisted on rescuing from the Manor before it became a pile of broken walls and ash. You can’t help wondering what you’re doing in this stack and how long you’ve been there.
There are fires everywhere and the roar in your ears is constant. Survival now is hiding in sheds and abandoned muggle houses until they are burned to the ground like everything else. If you are lucky, you find a muggle town that’s already been hit.
Now it’s you, Malfoy, and someone else’s child. He has two bottom teeth and doesn’t speak, and most of the time you don’t either.
You think that because you’re the woman, you should hold the child, but you can tell it’s important to Malfoy that he does. The little boy is comfortable with him. They’re both quiet and serious, like they’re always concentrating. The baby feels safe with Malfoy, and you’re not surprised because you do too.
Somehow, you three have become a makeshift family and you try not to think about that. You try not to want it. But you know that everyday that this war continues cements your fantasy a little more.
For now, you survive. You make sure the baby is warm and you feed him. Sometimes you feed yourselves. Malfoy tries to pretend he’s split the rations down the middle, but you know he always gives you more. And you don’t say anything, because you know he needs to make that sacrifice. And because you do the same when it’s your turn.
In the dark places where you huddle on conjured blankets, you catch Malfoy staring at the sleeping baby between you, and you wonder if he imagines that the boy is his. You wonder if he imagines that the boy is yours and his.
----
The first thing you notice when you wake up is your hand, warm, between the baby and Malfoy’s palm. The second thing you notice is the silence. It’s the first silence in many months and it pulls you fully out of sleep, and onto your feet and to the door.
In the weak light of dawn, small explosions are quietly bursting in your chest as you begin to realize it’s over.
And you walk out onto the soft charred dirt, where the air is cold and damp on your face, and you can still smell the smoke, sour and stale and woven into everything.
Your eyes are wet and your breath is stuck in your throat. But then Malfoy is standing next to you, with the baby still sleeping on his chest and he laces his long, warm fingers with yours and squeezes.
And you think, yes, you’re ready now. ”
So, I should have mentioned this in the recording, but I forgot. Some people left feedback on the drabbles and one of the comments I got on this one was that the person liked the plot and could see more. I was thinking, hmmm....yeah, that could really become a whole story and my brain started constructing it. This required a mandatory facepalm. Sometimes I've used these drabbles to work out plot bunnies for other stories. How I Fell In Love With My Wife, for instance was a way for me to get into a marraige law story I promised to breenieweenie who made Claiming Hermione's kick-fucking-ass trailer. Searching for Draco Malfoy and We Didn't Know Anything were bunnies from another story that I may or may not write. But THIS one, *facepalm again* was an exploration of the original fiction story that I would like to tell. I just forgot. lol. Anyway, thank you to those of you gave feedback and said you liked it. That was even more meaningful to me since it's my (fragile) little original fiction story idea. Oh yeah, and I don't think I read this one as well I could have. I was getting sleepy. I may re-do it later. Or, I might not. :)