Aria saw nothing for a while, but darkness and black colour. She heard someone muttering her name and shaking her but she just couldn't open her eyes. She tried to move her hands and her body but all she heard was just her bones cracking. She tried to shake off the buzzing feeling in her head and ears but to no avail. She felt someone holding her from behind and she smelt a strong scent of mint and dust.
Wait, what?
After a lot of shaking her head and tried to open her eyes, she finally succeeded and tried to take in the place she was in cause it definitely wasn't familiar. It was a dark place with dust heavily coated on the walls. It was so big, Aria didn't know where it ended but it looked creepy. She looked around for more information and spotter thick bars but there was no light coming in. There was a black door that was blocking it. The floor she currently sat on wasn't very clean either. It had dust on it and some black oil in places. There was simply no hint of the outer sun, but yes that even depends if it is day outside as Aria didn't know what it was. She tried to wake up and found herself kneeling on something, no someone.
She turned and finally saw something bright but that just happened to be Draco's white-blonde hair and his electric blue eyes. Draco wore a very worried frown over his face. His hands held her shoulders tightly and Aria then realized it had been him who was waking her.
"W-where-where am I?" she asked, hearing herself after a long time. Draco's expression dropped. He didn't meet her eyes and everywhere but her.
"Dra-
"How do you feel?"
"um..." she thought as she was hardly aware of her body. It was almost numb and if she moved she just 'heard' cracking of bones but didn't 'feel' them. She tried to move her hands in the air but she just a buzzing sensation in them and the same could be said for the rest. She rubbed her hands over her legs but didn't feel much.
"Well...you could say I am feeling...nothing?" she suggested, with a hint of a joke and a smile.
Draco stared at her and for a second something flashed it them but went as quickly as it had come.
"What do you mean by 'nothing'?" he asked.
"um...I can hardly feel anything." He looked at her sadly before putting his head down.
"And again, where are we?" she asked.
"um...my-I-mean-The Francis-I-I, well...look I have nothing to do with it--
"Draco," she said soothingly. "just answer, I won't blame anyone for anything and especially not you."
He again looked sad and guilty but answered anyway, "My place"
"You mean-" He nodded.
"NO" Aria screamed, her voice echoing the large, darkroom. God!!!! Everything just came back to her mind like a sea wave. The past memories of the war...the last thing she remembered was to be smacked by Morana in the head and being knocked out...hearing Draco's scream was the last thing she heard...
Draco rubbed her arms in comfort but she just couldn't feel it either.
"You mean-I am- this place-Morana" Heck. And now she got it. She was simply smacked by Morana in the head and she brought Aria to be imprisoned in her own best friend's house. Don't you have your own house, Morana? she mentally thought.
But then another thought drilled onto her head.
"What about you?" she asked Draco quickly. "I mean, you fought from our side, isn't it? She might have known that you are betraying her."
At this, Draco quickly told her to shut up so that no one hears us.
"Are you crazy?!!" he said." Anyone could freaking hear us and mind you, it had been a lot of effort to convince her that I was 'pretending' to be your friend rather than I 'am' your friend."
"How did you do that?" she asked.
"Told you it was hard work," he said, rolling his eyes.
"What about the others?" she asked.
"The ones who fought are imprisoned and the ones who didn't are at Ilvermorny."
"Are they okay?"
He sighed, "As far as I know, yes" Aria breathed a sigh of relief. At least they were safe.
"And now, why am I not able to feel anything?"
Draco hesitated, "um...when we came here, you weren't waking up and so Morana thought you were acting so she just tried to...torture you? But she didn't seem to realise that it will just hurt you further."
"what the heck" Aria whispered. By now, her head was feeling like a bag that was overloaded. The latest news was trying to get their way in, but the constant buzzing and the shock of their word just didn't let them.
"Look, Don't worry. I have it handled by now and it's midnight. I have sneaked in to meet you."
"Really?!" she asked.
"Well...yeah" She smiled at him, but then scrunched up her eyes in confusion.
"Why would Morana let you have the keys?"
Draco laughed, "Are you really a witch?" Aria glared at him. "I mean come on!! These prisons do not have locks. It just has blood identification."
"Blood identification?"
"yup. It recognizes only my family's blood. No one else can get their way in unless it is someone from us letting them in."
Aria's eyebrows shot upwards. Nice technology.
"But why has she kept me here. What does she want and has she really forgotten the Morana's-poison thing?"
Draco raised his eyebrows. Apparently, he had forgotten it too. He went deep in thought and for about 10 seconds, there was silence, except for their breathing and in this silence, Aria noticed that there was a strange, weird sound echoing through the room. It sounded just like the music which is played in horror movies, which made Aria shiver. Her breath became panicky as the atmosphere in the room certainly wasn't right. She somehow took a deep breath and took her shaky hands to snap Draco out of his thoughts.
"Draco!!!" she called. "DRACO!!"
He looked up at her, startled.
"W-what?"
"what-what happened to you?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.
"um...nothing. Just thinking and well...just know that the poison will be out of you soon," he said.
"Out of me soon?" she asked in confusion. "What do you mean by 'soon'?"
"Trust me," he said.
These two words shut her up, not shut her up but actually reassured her. At least there was someone there for her. She nodded and once again silence filled the room. Fear rushed through Aria's veins, again. God knows why but everything around her was giving off a bad feeling to her.
"Aria?" came Draco's voice. She hummed in response. "Why are you looking weird?"
She turned towards him, "What?"
"You are looking pale? And why are you shaking?"
"um...n-nothing." she said, looking at the floor.
"Aria" he demanded.
"FINE!! Isn't this room giving you creeps?" she asked.
"well...It actually is and I am not stupid to be here with you so that you don't get scared and it is common sense that you are not the first one here."
Aria's eyes went wide.
"First one?"
"yeah, many were here before and it didn't end up well."
"You are here to comfort me or scare me out of my mind?" she asked.
He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her head. She felt warm and accepted it gladly. He rubbed her arm and said, "Everything will be fine. We are in this together. All of us."
She looked at him gratefully. she liked the fact that he said 'together' rather than safe, cause in this situation no one is safe, but yeah together will work. She hugged him tighter.
"I hope so."
"Hope what?" he asked.
"That..." she said, looking up at him. "We are together until death does us apart."
Both of them stared at each other, till it felt like forever. Nothing in the world mattered anymore now, only the warmth that they found in eachother's eyes was everything. But the thing that was weird about him was that whenever something like this happened, there was another look in his eyes which she couldn't quite recognize. It was a mix of comfort, relief, guilt, happiness, sadness, well...practically all the emotions mixed. She went completely lost into his beautiful eyes and the same could be said for him. No one wanted to move or tear their gaze away from each other.
But that was until they heard a voice.
"Draco?" came an unfamiliar voice through the darkness and again Aria was filled with fear. She looked at Draco with wide eyes and he returned the same. His grip on my hands tightened and Aria felt a little safe and protected. She tried to pass the panic in her eyes through a silent message and she found out that he too, was trying to calm down his panic by taking a deep breath.
Aria panicked. Her breath went out of control and her hands were cold and shaking. She tried to swallow the bulge in her throat but it was so hard it almost hurt. Draco pushed her against his body to give her comfort and keep her close which she gladly accepted and appreciated.
They both were looking around trying to find a place to hide when someone emerged from the darkness and into the light.
And both of their hearts stopped.