[4] UNREQUITED ENEMIES ━ Draco Malfoy

14. Together

FOURTEEN TOGETHER

     Xander is unsure of how long he stays there underneath Draco's hex, unable to move. Even when he's fairly sure it has worn off, he can't help but stay there mourning. He mourns for everything he has ever let himself feel for Draco, through it all, from the moment he got asked out as a joke in their fourth year to the moment at Malfoy Manor when Draco had looked at him with tears in his eyes. He was such a fucking idiot. He wants to punch himself in the face for being so stupid, but he can't even bring it in himself to move. 

The doors to the Room of Requirement slammed shut and disappeared not after Draco, his goons, Harry, and his friends all disappeared into them. God knows what's happening in there now. He does not want to think of what Draco might do when in a life-threatening situation with Harry Potter. He likes to think Draco would not stoop so low as to live up to everything his parents expected him to be, he thinks maybe Xander's pity and Xander's love had changed his mind. He hates himself for doubting Draco, but when the boy hexed him and ran off, there is little hope to remain. Draco's wand burns a hole in the pocket of his robes, a constant reminder of what Draco could have been. 

He is not sure how much time passes, he is not even sure if he could move if he wanted to. He can hear the distant sounds of battle, but this area of the castle is painstakingly quiet. He hates the silence, the silence hates him as well, he thinks. 

The doors reappear and burst open with the teenagers who had disappeared into them, speeding out of the room on broomsticks as the fiery head of abstract conjuration magic that looks something like a dragon is fought off by the closing doors. Draco falls off of a broom that he looks to have shared with Harry and Blaze falls off of Ron's broom as well. Their third friend is distinctly missing. 

Xander stands harshly, springing to his feet ready to tear Draco a new one, but his collar is already being grabbed by the blond as they disappear down the hallway without anyone else. Words of confusion spill past his lips as they run and eventually, Draco shushes him with a hand against his mouth as the two of them press behind a column. Around them, he hears people running down the stairs, stragglers seeming to be evacuating the castle or going to join the battle in the courtyard. 

Once they are truly alone, Draco removes his hand and the silence is immediately broken by Xander's exasperated whisper-yell, "Draco! What the bloody hell is wrong with you? I have done nothing but be kind to you and hope to see the best in you and you go and prove me wrong every single time. I swear to Merlin I do not want to give up on you but you do not make it easy you giant asshole." 

"I understand," Draco breathes heavily. It's now that Xander gets an opportunity to really look at him. Soot and ash coat his hair and face and he does not think he has ever seen the boy look more wrecked. "I knew you would follow me in and I was not sure I would even make it out alive, I almost didn't if not for stupid Potter risking his life to save mine. If something had happened to you, Xander, I-I... I couldn't bear it."