✓ WE NEVER SLEEP, draco malfoy

T W E N T Y - O N E

"I am not going farther from you, I am coming nearer, green rain carries me nearer you."

— Robert Bly, from "The Night Journey in the Cooking Pot," Sleepers Joining Hands

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Rowan stayed in the little compartment until she could breathe properly again. And then, she stayed a little longer until she could stand without shaking. 

She only left once the train had stopped and that forced her to move, even though she waited for the majority of the students to file out. Her skin was slick with sweat and she could only assume her face looked even worse than she felt, a strange numbing ache coating her body and bones.

As she forced herself to leave the compartment, she was knocked forward by a sharp force behind her. She nearly fell on her face if not for the big hands that stopped her and she flinched away.

"Rowan," his voice was soft but it was like he stared right through her. "Are-are you alright?"

She didn't realized she was shaking again and she moved her neck, feeling it stretch as she avoided his gaze and hoped he didn't realize how she was coated in sweat. "Goodbye, Draco."

Do not give him the satisfaction of knowing how he broke your heart over the summer, she told herself and pushed herself past him and towards where he came from so she wouldn't have to leave with him. 

She felt his stare but she pushed her way into the next compartment, pausing. She was never one to sit back there at the tables, like a common room with a lack of privacy. She sat down and counted her breaths at the closest table and barely noticed Luna creep into the room.

"Oh, hello Rowan!" she said in her whisper soft voice.

"Luna, hi," she breathed, relived it was only her.

Luna casted her eyes from her and towards the ground, the girl wearing a peculiar pair of glasses. She pulled her wand free and pointed it at a spot on the floor and Rowan gasped as she cast a quick spell and Harry was revealed to be on the ground, his invisibility cloak thrown to the side.

"Oh my god!" Rowan gasped, dropping to her knees next to the boy. His nose was broken and bleeding and he was scowling. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Draco," he snarled.

No wonder he was trying to make a fast break out of here, she thought. Helping Harry stand, her went over to Luna as Rowan grabbed the cloak. 

"At least tell me you found out something juicy from him after nearly being stuck here until you died?" Rowan nudged him as they left. "Still think he has the mark?"

He said nothing, glowering at the fact that would be forced to walk back to the castle since they missed the carriages. 

Rowan let the pair talk as she walked idly by, her mind anywhere but their conversation and what was going on around them. She barely even noticed some of the professors checking students bags and trunks. 

She couldn't help but be oblivious, her bones still felt like they were on fire. Her skin still prickled. She feared she would never feel the same again.

She hardly even noticed when she'd sat down in the Great Hall, or when she heard Dumbledore announce Snape as being the new D.A.D.A. professor. The shocked expressions on her friends faces told her as much once the news settled down on her shoulders but she still couldn't focus.