Please Be There If I Remember

Chapter Sixteen: Arguments II

Entering into his dorm was no better for Draco's current state of well-being after having that talk with Pansy, because there, sitting on his bed unassumingly with his nose in a book, was Theo.

Draco sighed deeply for what felt like the sixteenth time that day.

At the sudden noise, he glanced up at the sound to see the blond standing there with a look on his face that showed he would rather be anywhere else at the current point in time.

Today was not turning out to be a very good day.

Theo uncrossed his feet from where he was slouching over the book in his lap, moving his notes to the side and moving to the edge of the bed. He let his feet slide off it and stared at Draco apprehensively.

At least Theo appeared as if he wanted to talk about what happened, unlike Pansy.

Draco strode up towards his bed which was to the left of Theo's, not wanting to stand in front of him, knowing that it would seem like he was trying to tower over him. Instead, Draco sat down on his own bed, mimicking Theo's position, his legs dangling easily off the green covers. He leaned backwards and focused on him, taking his time to calm his features to show that he really wasn't that mad at him, just overwhelmed with everything that had been happening.

Theo glanced up to peer at Draco apprehensively from where he had been previously staring at his hands and Draco thought back to his 'conversation' with Pansy, deciding that this time, he would let the other person start speaking.

They sat there like that, looking at each other then glancing away for what felt like forever. But Draco was keen on letting Theo start.

Finally, after an abnormally large amount of awkward moments later, Theo sighed and leaned forward on his bed to initiate the exchange with him.

"I guess we should probably talk about what happened," the boy in front of him spoke—cautiously, as if he didn't want to scare away Draco. If anything, Draco felt like it was the other way around, but believed it to be the wrong time to point that little detail out.

"Yes," he nodded. "We should."

Theo nodded back slowly and Draco deemed that this was the most awkward he'd ever felt—conversations with Potter aside.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," Draco started—accidentally blurting it out before he could come up with a better statement. Theo seemed to appreciate the sentiment, though.

"It's fine," the boy answered with a whisper of a voice, still not looking up at Draco.

"It's really not, Theo."

Draco suddenly had to clamp his teeth down onto his tongue hard to stop himself from making a joke about that being Theo's name, doubting that the boy would appreciate the dumb attempt at humour. "I really am sorry for yelling at you. I shouldn't have, I was just...No. I'm not going to make excuses. I was in the wrong."

"No," Theo conceded. "You were right." Draco noticed how hard it was for him to say those words, one's which he doubted ever left anyone's mouth in the Slytherin dormitories, ever. "We kept walking around you like there were eggshells on the floor—treating you like you were something to be caged and taken care of like a piece of glass, not letting others talk to you—" He knew he was talking more about Potter here than the first day into the common room— "and not taking how you felt into consideration and the fact that you barely knew us and we just kept hanging out like nothing had ever changed. Like we were trying to pretend like it didn't even happen. It was bloody dumb to act like that, but I think we all just thought you would have gotten your memory back at this point, so we didn't think much of it."

Draco nodded his head in assent, letting the words wash away his worries to nothing like a river flowing gently over stones, slowly turning them into sand. His conscience had finally been eased after running on high for the past few days, making his heart pound, and his chest squeeze.

He was once again reminded that he needed to go see Madam Pomfrey for the calming potion again since he had drunk the one she had given him in the hospital wing after the very conversation that had spurred this one to exist. Turning to Theo, who now had his eyes lifted towards him, Draco nodded and let the words flow out of his mouth like butter.

"I forgive you, Theo."

He said the same thing back to him, and when Blaise walked into the two of them chatting away again like nothing had ever happened, he sighed exasperatedly at his best friends, glad beyond belief that they had worked out their spat.

That night, when Draco slept in his own bed with the curtains drawn, he had a smile on his face when he closed his eyes to drift into a dark, peaceful sleep.

~*"*~

Draco left the hospital wing in stride, having gone there after class had ended earlier that day. Madam Pomfrey had frowned when he told her he already had had to take the calming draught, but she replaced it quickly with a smile as if the expression was never there and went over to the locked cupboard in the corner to grab another one.

Draco stared at the cupboard with interest, wondering what large range of potions could possibly be contained in such a small vessel. He moved his head from where he was sitting on the hospital bed to peek around the mediwitch's shoulder into the dark shelves. It was filled to the brim with an assorted variety of coloured vials with small pieces of paper on the front that—even though he couldn't see it from where he was—knew contained labels for each type.

Madam Pomfrey reached her hand into the cupboard that must have been enlarged to fit such a large range of medicines and healing products and watched keenly as her fingers artfully searched through it until she pulled out her arm with another corked vial in her hand. He realised that she probably couldn't put any large magical charms on it to help search for the kind of potion she would need, lest the magic from her wand would interfere with the ones in the bottles.

He hunched his shoulders to lean forward over the bed more, regarding the way the witch, with her free hand, swished her wand across the front of the cabinet, the sound of a deft click clinging in the room as the door locked to anyone but Madam Pomfrey's hand.

Draco was at once curious at what spell she used since he didn't see her mutter any words.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, deciding that now was probably not a good time to be thinking about which locking spell someone used, he stood up, graciously accepted the vial, and left with another hearty word of thanks to Madam Pomfrey.

Seriously, that witch could fix anything.

He stood up with one last curious glance to the cupboard and progressed through the hospital wing—which he had grown a fond liking to, even though it wasn't exactly regarded on with fond memories (or proceeded lack of them)—and pushed the creaky door open so he could leave.

One look at the hallway where he had first met Green Eyes in had him once again reminded that he was supposed to meet him outside of the defence classroom where he had the...interruption from Ron and Hermione.

Of course, I forgot to ask him about it before he left, he thought, almost facepalming to himself in the middle of a corridor.

Heaving a gust of hair through his nose which instantly made him think of Pansy, he left to the Great Hall for supper, hoping he could catch Green Eyes before he left to the Gryffindor dormitories for the night.