cigarette burns

guilty conscience

December exams were creeping up on everyone, so the library was packed with sixth, seventh, and eighth years drinking too much coffee smuggled in from the kitchens and shushing anyone who dared to speak above a whisper.
Asterin herself had been glued to her charms and care of magical creatures textbooks and notes every chance she got, considering they were her worst grades out of her five classes, though she was sleeping less and less due to the stress of it all. It was definitely taking its toll. Resting her chin on her palm, she stared at her scrawly, slanted writing, trying to make the words sink in, trying to retain at least some information.

"Asterin?" Tyler sat down heavily, ignoring the glares and whispers telling him to be quiet. "You got a sec?"

"Tyler, what's going on?" She looked up. "Merline, you look exhausted, when was the last time you slept?" Asterin pulled her notes away into a somewhat neat pile.

"A couple of days. I keep seeing... I keep watching it all replay in my head every time I close my eyes."

"Ty-

"I know we agreed we weren't going to talk about it, that we wouldn't go back there. But I just..." He looked down, placing his hands flat on the table. He hadn't looked at her yet, hadn't made eye contact. "it feels..."
Asterin took a shaky breath, turning away and distracting herself with properly tidying her notes, pulling them into her bag.
"It feels like the guilt is eating me from the inside out. And I hate to bring it all up for you again, so out of the blue, but I-"

"No." The word sounded ugly and harsh against his whispers, cutting through the quiet of the library. "No. We agreed, we said- I can't. I can't talk about it, not with you, not after- That guilt you're feeling? It's not my problem, Tyler. Not when I have my own guilt and grief to deal with."

Tyler looked, confused, then sad, then angry in the space of two seconds. "Asterin, please, this- this guilt we're feeling is the same, can't we just help each other through this? That's what friends do for each other, Asterin."

Asterin hung her head, sighing. "Tyler." She spoke softer now, losing the fight. "Tyler we're not friends because we like each other, or because we get on. We're not here for each other. We're- no, you're here out of some sort of necessity, because of the guilt of what happened, to make sure no one else finds out about your guilt."

"What's going on?" Draco stood, confused with a slight frown on his face, eyes darting back and forth between the two.

Tyler rolled his eyes, a hard expression taking over his face. "And here's your knight in shining armour to save the day."

"Tyler!" A round of whispers telling her to shut up echoed around the shelves. Her eyes met Draco's. "I'm just leaving."

He nodded, not really wanting to question it when Tyler had such a pissed off look on his face and Asterin looked more like she needed someone to lean on than ever.

"No- Asterin." He stood too quickly, grabbing her wrist hard and making her jump back, but no sooner had she released his grip than Draco had Tyler thrown against the bookcase.

"Woah, Draco, I'm fine, I'm ok," she rushed forward, not quite daring to touch him when his eyes were filled with nothing but pure rage.

"I swear to Merlin, Jacobson, you lay one finger on her, I don't care in what way, and I will curse you into next year. Got it?" His eyes were flashing dangerously, a look Asterin had never seen on him before, not even with everything that had happened between him and Harry Potter.
Tyler didn't respond more than clenching his jaw, a clear mix of anger and fear on his face.
Draco wasn't quite satisfied, but he'd already created enough of a scene, so he let him go, doing his best to wind down, but the fury was still clear on his face. He kept his eyes trained on Tyler's every move as he straightened out his jacket, not even sparing her a glance as he turned away and left her standing alone to deal with the fallout.

Half the library had gathered to watch the show, at least slightly curious as to what exactly had happened between the three Slytherins, and no doubt there would be a million different rumours flying around by tomorrow morning. asterin couldn't ignore the stares for long, so she turned and faced Tyler's cold glare.

"So you're just going to let him do that, talk to me that way and get away with it?" He yelled, causing those who'd carried on studying to shush him once more.

Asterin could barely breathe, having no response to his outburst. "I said 'no', Tyler. That doesn't mean you get to force my hand, it means 'no'." The words were out of her mouth before she could think, and she'd turned and was walking away before she'd even had time to register what was happening. By some miracle, she held off running until she'd turned the corner down the hall away from the Library, though once she'd started she couldn't stop until she was doubled over and gasping for breath at the top of the astronomy tower.
Collapsing against the wall, she wrapped her cardigan tighter against the cold, drawing her knees to her chest. She really didn't know what was going to happen now, with either of them. After that display of... well, whatever it was, it was more than likely that the two would get slapped with more than a few nights of detention, though hopefully not together; Asterin didn't want to have to attend either's funeral if they tried to murder each other.

"Hey," Draco spoke softly, joining her on the cold floor.

She turned, not having the energy to smile. "How did you find me?"

"I took a couple of wrong turns." He admitted, drawing his knees up and leaning back. "I'm sorry, about the library, if I overstepped or-"

"No!" Asterin knew it was too quick, too loud of an interruption. "He- I- he was trying to force me into taking on his guilt, and I said no twice or three times, I don't remember. And... Thank you for having my back."
There was a slight pause, with both of them trying to process it all, with new perspectives.
"Though maybe the threat was a little overboard."

Draco laughed softly, turning to look at her. "I meant it. At least in the moment, I meant it. Did... I didn't scare you?"

"Is that why you didn't look at me?" He nodded slightly. "I was admittedly a little surprised that you moved so fast and that you could feel so much anger at once, and had that look been directed at me I would definitely have crumbled. But no, I wasn't scared of you." She smiled softly, searching for any kind of sign that he believed her: she needed him to believe her, she couldn't lose him because of this. Leaning her head on his shoulder, she took a deep breath. "Thanks for having my back."

He laid his head on top of hers for a second, before being distracted by her wrist where Tyler had grabbed it. "Bloody hell, you're bruising. I swear, I'm gonna-"

"Do nothing unless he does it again. After that, go crazy. But don't make me attend another funeral." She looked at him, trying to sound authoritative, trying to force him to listen - though he would anyway. Not that she knew that, but he would have listened to her if she'd whispered it too quietly to hear.