That evening Lily sat in the Ravenclaw common room with Indigo, who lay sprawled across one of the armchairs near the bookshelves. With a bored expression on her face, Indigo let out a sigh and asked "You're not going to find the answer to why Draco left you alone last night in a book, why don't you just go and ask him?".
Lily turned and raised an eyebrow.
"Because I doubt he'd want me showing up at his dorm and letting the whole Slytherin house know about what went on. Besides, books have the answer to everything if you know where to look."
"You're unbearable."
At that moment Lily decided that she needed some fresh air because she hadn't left the castle all day. Indigo agreed to join her for a walk after a few minutes of begging.
The pair set off through the castle and out in the direction of the forbidden forest. Once they stepped outside, their cheeks stung from the bitter wind. However, they persisted and decided to head over to an oak tree by the far side of the lake. They both walked in a comfortable silence over to the tree. When Lily and Indigo reached the base of the huge oak, they sat on the crisp green grass and pressed their backs into the bark. Each little rib and knot dug into them through their robes. Hogwarts looked rather spooky at night, like the castles in horror movies, but with warm glows from a few windows giving it an overall enchanting feel. Lily was enjoying looking at each individual window and trying to decipher which room it belonged to, then she noticed something up on the astronomy tower. It looked to be a figure but she couldn't quite make out who it was. At that same moment Indigo seemed to have also noticed the strange shadow. The girls exchanged a look, sprang to their feet and dashed over to the area beneath the window.
"Lumos!"
Lily's wand tip immediately ignited with a blinding, blue tinted light. Pale and shivering, the face of the figure was illuminated and it became clear who it belonged to. Draco Malfoy stood on the wrong side of the railing, his feet hanging mostly over the edge. Even though he was so many metres up, Lily could see the empty look in his eyes. That same look he had the day before when she caught him crying.
Before her mind could process the situation, her feet had already started running to Draco. Her mind went blank through shock while her body was already in motion. Adrenaline surged through her veins as she disregarded everything else, her sole focus was on him. Lily could hear her heartbeat ringing in her ears as she sprinted through the corridors. Once she reached the door to the astronomy tower, she threw her entire body weight into it only to discover it had been locked. Presumably by Draco so that nobody could intervene or find him in his current state. It wasn't a lock that a simple Alohomora charm couldn't open, she cast the spell and ran as fast as her feet would take her up the long flight of stairs but ensured to slow to walk once she reached the top.
As soon as she'd taken her foot off of the last step, she came to a halt. She cleared her throat to announce her presence without startling the blonde boy, on the verge of plummeting several stories.
"Draco, what's going on?" Lily asked, in the softest and most calm tone she could muster.
"Stay back!" He yelled.
"Okay, can you tell me what's going on?"
"Nothing! Just leave!"
Lily could hear the tremble in his voice, it seemed to have taken over his entire body. His hands, legs and voice were all quivering uncontrollably.
"How'd you get up here?"
Draco's brow furrowed; he must've been debating whether to talk to the girl across the room. He released a breath he had been subconsciously holding and softened his features.
"I just...I just can't"
"You can't what?"
"Cope. It's too much"
As he finished speaking, Lily thought back to what Draco had told her the night before.
"Can I come closer? I can help you."
He paused to contemplate whether to agree to Lily's request. After around thirty seconds, the blonde boy tightened his grip on the railing, pulled himself into it and nodded gently. As he said so, Lily took a few steps towards him. Now there was only about a metre between the two but she still wasn't close enough to try to pull him to safety. Even though she knew that she didn't have the strength to bring him back over the railing, the moment she was close enough she was desperate to try. Lily had a very slim body, didn't weigh much at all and was only 5"3, much in contrast with Draco. He was tall and muscular with extremely broad shoulders.
"Look at me Draco."
He swallowed then turned to face Lily but directed his gaze towards his shoes.
"This isn't the solution to anything even if you think it is."
The blonde boy bit his lip and his eyes began to well up. Lily saw the tears rolling down his cheeks and started to choke up but tried desperately not to let it show.
"But there is no other way, I can't escape no matter how hard I try."
"Draco, I know this seems like the easiest way out but please trust me this does far more damage than it solves."
Now, it seemed Draco's quivering had spread to Lily. He brought his gaze upward once he noticed how much the girl was shaking and his grey eyes met her emerald ones. All he could see through the vats of tears blurring his vision was the desperate pleading look she was giving him. Silently saying; Please Draco, please don't do this.
In that moment he thought to himself, what are you doing? It was then he had a second of clarity. The fog that had been clouding his mind for months, the one that had brought him to the railing, had finally cleared. Using all the strength and courage he could gather; Draco began pulling himself back over the rail towards Lily. The second he began to come back to her; she ran forwards and wrapped her arms around his torso and tried to help him back as quickly as possible. As soon as his feet were both safely inside the tower the boy's legs buckled and he dropped to his knees.
