Please Be There If I Remember

Chapter Nine: Curiosity

The walk back to his dorm was a rather subdued one, his leather shoes and his steady breathing being the only sound in the empty hallways. Sometimes he would come across a student or two, violating the curfew by being out of their dorms at night, and he saw one of them being sent back after a prefect had seen them. They had looked in his direction but made no move to get rid of house points like they did to the other person. If anything, it looked like they thought Draco was going to take points from them, and they quickly scurried away after the stern warning they had given the other student.

Draco continued his walk with a forlorn look on his face, wishing he could understand why people acted the way they did around him. The unknowing was starting to really grate on his nerves at this point, but there was not much he could do about it except take it in silence. He wouldn't dare to ask his friends either, in case they thought he was paranoid. He also wanted to avoid having another confrontation with one of them after the—whatever—that had happened with pansy earlier that morning.

He had yet to figure out what had made her so riled up.

Sighing loudly through his nose, he reached the bottom of the steps and walked up to the wall that entered into the Slytherin dungeons. The annoying painting that had taunted him last time had started up again and Draco just rolled his eyes at it and ignored it.

He had better things to think about anyway.

"Bezoar," he said out loud to the wall. It opened up once more to a mostly empty common room and he walked down the dungeons to his dorm. He remembered what his mother had said about his roommate 'accommodations' and saw a door with the names Vincent and Gregory on a door beside his room. It suddenly clicked that they must also be in fifth year, but for some reason, he didn't share a dorm with them. Why, though, Draco did not know. Maybe he could ask someone, he thought with a mindless shrug.

He slowly opened the door to his room, his eyelids drooping in exhaustion after the long first day of classes and meeting his mother. His hand fell away from the handle almost in slow motion, which is why he wasn't prepared when the memory came full force into his head.

He was in a large room with antiques strung across the walls and mantles. Paintings rested in the hallway outside, a small fire crackled in a looming fireplace, and shades of green and grey clouded his vision. He felt shorter, like the world had grown in perspective around him and he could see a tiny hand pulling on someone's robes in front of him. The man was terrifyingly tall in comparison and just him standing near Draco was making him get the shivers. He realised that he wanted something, and he thought that the man's robe that he was tugging on was going to give it to him. But he left, ignoring the young child with his back turned away as he stepped out of the room. And Draco stayed there, feeling a sharp sense of loneliness settling into his heart.

He came back to himself on the floor gasping, feeling wetness in his eyes that showed that they were filled with unshed tears. The sound of someone running over to him made him lift his head up from where he had stumbled against the half-opened door, and he saw the shape of Theo's head enter his vision.

"Sorry," he muttered, lowering his head again to hide his teary face. "Just got a bit of a dizzy spell there."

Theo looked at him skeptically, and Draco could see his raised eyebrow even through his blurry vision.

"Dizzy spell my ass," He muttered beside him before lifting his arms underneath him and hauling him up from where he was resting on the door.

Draco quietly thanked him and went to move away when Theo put his hand on his chest, stopping him short.

"You remembered something, didn't you? Draco it's alright, you can tell me."

"I...ya Theo. I think I remembered something."

He had the decency not to immediately question him about what it was, but Draco could see the urge lingering behind the way his posture changed; his hands behind his back and his body leaning towards him curiously. Finally, the war seemed to win out as he led his tired body over to his bed, and Theo just straight up asked him.

"And? What did you see?"

Draco bit his lip with his upper teeth and glanced downwards. "I'm not sure, it was all really blurry and it felt like I wasn't even in my body. But all the feelings were still there. It felt pretty depressing actually," Draco responded with a small, self-deprecating laugh.

Theo quickly decided not to comment on his teary eyes.

"Are you going to tell Madam Pomfrey about it?"

"Uh—" Malfoys don't stutter. Draco shuddered at the cold voice and continued on. "I should, shouldn't I?" He eventually whispered back, trying not to wake up the sleeping Blaise in the corner.

Although, if he hadn't already woken up at this point, then he doubted he ever would.

"Yes, that would be the wisest option."

Theo said it so formally that Draco couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Ok, I'm going to go get ready for bed now. Goodnight Theo."

"Night Draco."

~*"*~

The morning was pretty much the exact same as the one before—Draco not wanting to wake up, and then Blaise clearly stating how he would never get to class on time if he didn't, until Draco was spending the entire morning in the bathroom fixing his hair and getting ready.

Let them laugh, he thought, they are the ones that are going to end up with greasy hair anyways.

He went to his classes, he noted the different things that his brain recalled and the things that he didn't. And he went about his day as if he had never lost his memory in the first place.

Of course, if that were true, he wouldn't have gone to the hospital wing after class had ended, but, whatever, he basically had a normal day.

He probably wouldn't even have gone if Theo hadn't pushed him towards the doors at the end of their last class and unceremoniously shoved him into the hospital wing.

"Do you want me to come with you?" He asked Draco with concern in his eyes.

"No, I'll be fine. But thanks anyway."

He nodded and watched as Draco slipped through the door and into the hospital.

Madam Pomfrey was in the room, changing the sheets on one of the hospital beds. She lifted the sheet up into the air with her wand and brought it down, tucking in the corners at the same time and resting the pillows on top with another swish of her wrist.

"Hello Madam Pomfrey," Draco said kindly to the witch in front of him. She turned around with grace that resembled his mother and Draco's heart twinged a little at her smile.

He felt oddly close to the witch; most likely since she was one of the first people he saw when he woke up, and the one who helped calm him down once he realised his memory was wiped. If anything, she was like his first friend—one that didn't already know him by heart before he even met them. And to Draco, that already made her one of his favourite people.

"Hello Draco," she smiled back at him with slight worry. "Are you here for your pain medication already?"

When he shook his head no, pieces of his hair falling in front of his face, her smile slipped into a bit of a frown.

"Did you come here to learn more about the school? Because I would be happy to help."

"No. I uh...actually wanted to tell you that I saw um...a memory." His voice hitched at the end and he felt his cheeks pink in embarrassment.

"Oh. That's wonderful Draco! It should be a good sign. The fact that you have already had one shows that you might actually get your memory back sooner than we thought. This is good. Very good." She seemed like she was saying it more for herself at this point, like she couldn't handle one of her patients being hurt at all for any length of time, and—or especially if—their situation was out of her control.

"You don't have to tell me what it was about," she said at his nervous look. "Although it may help tell us about who wiped your memory."

"Ya, ya, of course. Sure." He said back. Madam Pomfrey's mouth twitched into a smile at the corners of her mouth at his blatant hesitancy and he began to tell her about the memory.