SYNOPSIS: The Order of the Phoenix is losing. Four years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter failed to defeat Voldemort and has vanished without a trace. In his absence, the Order of the Phoenix continues to fight against the dark forces but to no avail. They are quickly being depleted of soldiers, resources, and power. Meanwhile, the youngest Death Eater in all of magical history–Draco Malfoy–has become the Dark Lord’s most formidable and trusted follower. When Voldemort tasks Draco to hunt down a mysterious magical entity, he doesn’t expect to uncover the very secret that keeps Voldemort in power–and if revealed, could end the war. For good.
GENRE: slowburn, post-war AU (of sorts), draco malfoy x original character.
TW’s: n/a. *each chapter will have it’s own set of trigger warnings. reader discretion is advised & mdni!
NOTES: just a miniscule teaser/prologue for my new wip. enjoy!
0. PROLOGUE
Inside the infamous Malfoy Manor, the Dark Lord was stirred from his thoughts. His scarlet-red eyes glared ahead towards the grandiose marble mantelpiece in the emptied Drawing Room. The fire crackled; flames blazed around the hearth.
There was something very amiss. He could not quite grasp it. He closed his eyes, eyeballs shifting rapidly underneath his waxy, grey, thin lids. He is searching for something, the missing thing, but he does not find it.
In its place, there is only a willow tree planted firmly in the ground. Unmovable and infinite.
the urge to write a slowburn, strangers to crushing on each other for years, but i break your heart over and over again because i'm a superhero and i don't know how to be so many things at once and i also don't want you to be in danger because of me to maybe lovers, is so strong in me right now. do i dare?
It feels dangerously domestic watching Mark try and cook his mother’s buttermilk pancakes in her kitchen. She stares at his bare back from behind the marble island, his muscles flexing as he moves his arms to flip the batter sizzling on the pan.
“I’m not sure how these are gonna turn out [name],” He says with an endearing chuckle. “I’ll have pizza on speed dial.”
“I’m sure they’ll turn out great, especially since you followed all of your mom’s instructions. Right?” She raises a brow at him. When he turns his head, a sheepish smile creeps up on his face–his shoulders rising towards his ears. Guilty, no doubt. She sighs and shakes her head. He laughs and turns his focus back on the pancakes.
It’s easy to get back into the groove of things after Mark comes back from a mission. He just makes it so seamless, so effortless. After spending a few bed-ridden days at the GDA, he’s already back on his feet. Healed and ready to fight for the world again. He’ll kiss her forehead and tell her how much he missed her. Despite her arguing about resting, he’ll shake his head–insist on making these pancakes because he hasn’t been able to do anything romantic for her. As if he wasn’t teetering off the edge of death. As if she didn’t cry and scream at Cecil, beg him to save Mark’s life. Hyperventilating, all alone outside his hospital room.
But she knows. The harrowing thought swirling in her consciousness, the dread filling her lungs.
This. This tranquil moment–Mark in his whole humanness, his easy laughter, and romantic heart–could be taken from her. Stripped and beaten down to the bare skeleton.
It’s almost happened, more times than she could count. She has nightmares about it, her mind remembering his agonizing screams, the sound of his bones splintering inside his skin, his bruised body and face. The blood pooling around him. His blood.
It constricts every chamber of her heart, when she remembers. It makes it hard to breathe.
“–and I don’t think I was meant to–wait [name]? Are you okay?” Mark’s voice snaps through her thoughts. She didn't realize there were tears forming in her eyes until her vision blurred out his face. She blinks, the tears falling down her cheeks as she suppresses a weep. Mark quickly rushes towards her and grabs her face with his calloused hands.
“Baby? What’s wrong? Do you–Do you not want to eat the pancakes?” He says, so softly and innocently. She can’t stop the sob that escapes her chest. He sighs, bringing her body towards his. She wraps her arms around his waist as she cries into his chest.
“Please don’t leave me.” She says, voice raw and cracked. He presses a kiss to her hairline.
“Is that what this is about?” She nods.
“Hey, hey, look at me.” Mark whispers, gentle but firm. He waits until she finally tilts her wobbling chin up to meet his eyes.
“You’re okay.” A thumb brushes along her cheek. “I’m right here.”
Her voice cracks as she speaks: “I know.”
But it isn’t that simple. It’s a nuanced feeling, dense and muddled. She’s terrified of the quiet after these moments. Moments that seem so insignificant, so small in the grand scheme of things, that they could fit in the palm of her hand. She’s afraid of getting that call from Cecil. Afraid the world would beat and break him, until he was nothing left but dust.
It’s overwhelming, the thought of it all; the anxiety of waiting for him to come back, the pressure to always be unselfish with Mark, having to always be able to let him go. To always be noble. Like Debbie and Oliver. Like Eve or William.
Mark leans closer, his forehead resting against hers. She can feel his heartbeat, steady and alive.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know.”
“I think of you [name]. In every fight. All I can think of is you,” He says, voice low and slightly trembling. “And, I think about how I need to come back to you. How I can’t leave without telling you that I love you, one more time. And somehow–I keep fighting. I will always keep fighting for you. To make this world a better place. For you.”
A silence settles over the kitchen. The smell of scorched batter wafts through the air, but neither of them moves. Her fingers curl tighter into the fabric of his shirt. His arms wrap more firmly around her.
And for a moment, the world doesn’t ask anything more of them. Just this. A boy and a girl in a kitchen, breathing. Existing. Together.
She presses her face to his chest and lets her eyes close. His heartbeat thrums against her skin, a reminder. That he’s here. That he’s still hers.
For now.
The future can wait.
He brushes his lips against her temple.
“I love you,” he whispers again, like an oath.
She doesn’t say it back—not yet. The words felt so small compared to that feeling in her chest. She reminds herself to say it later, when the world doesn't feel so big.
The buttermilk pancakes burn. Debbie would be so disappointed.
𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔: CORNYYYY!!!! tomato tomato!!!!! no but seriously, angst is my fave genre to write; i can’t stop hurting my own feelings!
anyway, thank you for reading! it means the world (especially since i never thought my writing would see the light of day again). see you later <3.
“A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves, created when an object moves through the air faster than the speed of sound.”
And Invincible, clad in black and blue, leaves one behind as he vanishes into motion, fleeing not from fear, but toward a threat so cataclysmic it warps the air around him. A man engineered for destruction, broad-shouldered and cloaked in white, crashes into him mid-flight and drives him into the earth with the force of a dying star.
_______ doesn’t know how long she’s been lying on the gravel. Air barely able to get into her lungs, ears ringing from the chaos above. She feels the sound energy vibrate the ground. Feels it rattle her bones. She knows she should move.
Move.
Get up.
Move.
MOVE!
But she can’t. Her fingers could hardly twitch, her body aching. A wet tear slides down her cheek, a daunting thought plaguing her mind: Nobody will save you now.
“Maybe, you just need a little motivation.” A sinister, grating voice growls above her.
A massive hand wraps around her neck before she could scream. Her body lurched upward, as if gravity itself had betrayed her– limbs heavy, lungs locked. The pressure against her neck tightened, and her feet scraped uselessly against the air. Her hands clawed at the fingers choking her, but they might as well have been carved from metal. Something cold and unyielding pressed against her back. Not skin. Armor. Muscle. Bone. All wrapped in something too still, too unnatural. An arm slithered around her waist like a vice, locking her in place. The air thinned. Her vision stuttered at the edges.
“Don’t fucking touch her!” Invincible spat–sharp and desperate. But his voice sounded so far away, as if he was shouting from the other side of a void.
“Oh, I am beginning to understand your affinity for these lowly creatures, child.” He leaned in closer, his face brushing hers. The man behind her laughs, but nothing about it was joyous. It wasn’t mirth, it wasn’t even madness. It was a sound that crawled underneath her skin, perverted and sick. Bile burned at the back of her throat.
“This one has the most gorgeous face. She even cries pretty.” A wet tongue slid up against her cheek, lapping up her tears. Her body recoiled on instinct, but there was nowhere to go. Her stomach coiled with dread, her sobs unending.
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t scream. Couldn’t stop him.
“Get away from me!” She choked out, voice shredded. The cuts on her limbs throbbed. Blood trickled down her skin, warm and slick. She dangled higher now, suspended in the sky. The world below blurred into a sickening kaleidoscope—buildings, pavement, fire, smoke—spinning like a carnival ride from hell.
“Look at this, Mark. This is what you’re willing to die for? A weak, trembling little human, begging for her life? How touching. Let’s see how much of her I can rip apart before you beg me to stop.”
Mark? Wait–
“NO!”
It was only a split second. A nanosecond in the infinity of time. One moment she was suspended in the sky like a marionette on broken strings, and the next–she was falling.
The wind whipped past her, her limbs flailed uselessly as gravity tore her down, down, down. Towards the distant, uncaring earth.
A scream ripped from her throat, ragged and raw.
This was it. This was the end—splattered on the pavement, insignificant, and forgotten. There was no time to regret. No time to think about how she should have told him the truth. Should have told him that she loved him. He’ll know, she prayed.
But just as the Earth reached up to claim her—
A deafening crack split the air.
A sonic boom erupted above her, a force so powerful, it split the clouds. Then—impact, but not with the ground.
Invincible slammed into her trajectory mid-air, arms catching her with a force that made her ears ring and bones jolt. They spun through the air, before he redirected them both in an arc that sent parked cars below flying from the shock waves.
The ground never touched her.
His chest heaved. Blood smeared the collar of his suit. One eye, almost swollen shut. Ribs rising unevenly beneath the tight fabric. His hands trembled—either from fear or rage—but he held her. Held her tight.
She stared up at him, dazed, heart still hammering inside her rib cage.
“Y-you…” She breathed, voice cracking. “Mark?”
His jaw clenched, his lip split and bleeding.
“I’m sorry.” He rasped. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
Tears spilled from her cheeks at the sight of him. Battered, bruised, soft hair swaying with the wind. It made her heart ache.
“You’re—you’re him.” She whispered. “You’re–“
He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.
Above them, a shadow blotted out the sun. A familiar monstrous silhouette began to descend. Mark turned his head, teeth gritting against pain. Something off-kilter flickered in his expression–rage, fury.
Vengeance.
He set her down to her feet gently, his hands lingering at her waist longer than necessary. When his defeated eyes meet hers, she swears her heart cracked into a million pieces.
“I’ll come back,” He said, voice low and fraying at the edges. “I swear. I just need you to call for Cecil. I need you to get out of here and I need you to take Oliver. Do you understand?”
“Mark–“ she reached for him, tears still falling, panic swelling again. “You can’t go. You’re hurt–“
“________! Do you understand?!” He snaps, gripping her arms. Panicked eyes darted across her face frantically, as if he’s trying to hastily memorize this moment. She swallows, and despite the dread snaking around her bones, she nods.
Before she could say anything else, he was already gone. The wind from his flight blowing into her face, a sonic boom cracked the sky again as he shot upward. A trail of blood, left in his wake.
She dropped to her knees, heart in pieces. She heaves–heavily and forcefully. She breathes one last broken sob, before her chest hardens and her resolve fights back.
𝓃𝑜𝓉𝑒𝓈: can you tell i haven't posted on tumblr in years? (& note to self–put this in a future fic, fingers crossed!)
