Healing // d.m.

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⛔️ Trigger Warning ⛔️

• Flashback: Draco Malfoy 16 - 17 Years Old •

  "COME on, Draco." Blaise said to Draco. He pushed a plate of potatoes closer to him. "At least keep your health in check, despite it all."

  "Since when do you fucking care?" Draco asked him. He pushed back the potatoes further away from him. He didn't have the stomach to eat anything this year. Not when he had to kill someone by the end of it.

  "Well I still don't want to see you starve yourself to death." Blaise retorted.

  "You're skin and bones." Goyle snickered. "Be careful you might just lose your admirers and I'll take them all."

  He can have it, Draco thought. It was funny how the other pureblood Slytherins could joke around and act like everything's just fine. It's like their insanity was no longer intact. But then again, his task was the most grim of all.

  He looked around the Great Hall. It was a place he once called home. Hogwarts was a place he loved to escape. Here he was the Prince and he didn't care what people thought of him. By the end of this year, everything will change.

  They will all remember him soon. For all the wrong reasons. For all the wrong prospects that were never his choice.

  It killed him inside, piece by piece, every single day.

  To make it all worse she was still here.

  At the thought of her, which happens constantly these days, he looked around again for his brilliant Hufflepuff. It was Christmas break and Draco knew she was here. He saw her a few times loitering around in the middle of the night. He was once scared that she would find out his tasks in the room of requirement.

  Something was wrong with her, something must be going on behind closed doors. He saw her body getting frail. She would nap in the afternoon by the Astronomy tower like she just ran a marathon.

  Draco found her sitting across the hall. She always sat at the far corner, near the front table. Her hair in the usual bun and her yellow Hufflepuff sweater was pulled up to her neck and wrists. She never ate more than a slice of toast. Today she was holding a book in her hand, but her eyes were focused blankly on a random spot on the table in front of her. Her cheeks were getting hollow. Her eyes had no life.

  It was like looking into a mirror.

  He didn't know what her battles were, but he was sure he understood her best at this very moment, and so did she.

  His thoughts were interrupted by the screeching of owls. It was mail day. There were only around a dozen of them circling the air, given most of the students were away for the holidays.

  Ariendra seemed unbothered by the commotion. She kept focusing on the same spot, her eyes barely blinking.

  Goyle and Blaise both received packages from their respective owls. Not long after he saw his mother's brown barn owl fly through the wind and landed right on his left arm. She hooted softly and dropped a small box onto his empty plate.

  "Hai, Athena." He greeted her, offering some bread crumbs to satisfy her efforts.

  He slowly opened the box, revealing a silver coloured scarf. His mother must've made it for him amidst all the chaos happening at the Manor. There was a note as well, wishing him Happy Christmas and reminding him of the task. As expected, his father didn't even care.