Half-Dimension

35

His eyes were slanted, his breaths were heaving, as though each single inhalation took far more effort than it really should have. It left Severus quite worried, anxious eyes scanning Draco's body carefully, observant as ever, and clearly noting that something had set him off, though what it was...Well only Draco could answer that and given how heavily he was breathing, practically panting, it was unlikely many words were going to be spoken from the other. It clearly had something to do with Tom, although he knew that neither him nor Lucius posed any threat to Tom, and they knew that even in Draco's creature addled mind, they would know that. Yet...even despite that...Arms were wrapped about Tom in an almost desperate gesture, his nails were definitely going to leave some marks for a little while, the halfblood Slytherin noted. It was almost painful to watch how much Draco seemed to curl into Tom, or rather...force Tom to curl into him. His arms encompassed the Alpha, his body curling up behind him, chin resting on Tom's shoulder.

Following Draco's eerily pale blue gaze they rested upon Dumbledore...and things made quite a bit of sense all of a sudden. At the end of the day, Dumbledore was a threat to Tom. There were a lot of people that claimed Tom was scared of Dumbledore, but personally, Severus felt that it was the opposite. He was fairly sure that Dumbledore was terrified of Tom, of his power, and that bled through all the time. Severus had seen first hand the treatment that Tom had to deal with from the previous Transfiguration teacher, and suffice it to say, it was not good. Severus really felt that Dippet should have stayed as headmaster, but it was null and void now. They were stuck with Dumbledore.

Dumbledore...well he was quite the threat to Tom, and given the side glances that he kept giving, it was clear that Draco had sensed that and reacted. This was...horribly dangerous. They still were not entirely sure what it was that Draco was presenting as. Severus felt his fingers near his mouth as Lucius grabbed them and interlaced their hands. It was helpful, Severus had a habit of biting at his nails when he was nervous, which lately had been far more often than usual. He was glad that Lucius was willing to notice and take some time to remedy what was going on.

"You are awake now!" Pomfrey suddenly exclaimed, having now noticed the perfectly awake Malfoy, not that it mattered much. Even Lucius could tell that he was being still heavily influenced by his creature, whichever one it was. She moved forwards easily, staying a rather respectable distance away despite it, clearly wary, and for good reason. Dumbledore turned to move as well, but the moment he took more than a step forwards, Draco's eyes flashed a molten gold and another hiss echoed from his mouth, fingers twitching from where they laid on Tom's arms. Draco took the opportunity of Dumbledore's freeze to growl lowly in the mid of his throat, snatching Tom and pulling him onto the bed, though Tom did not make it easy for him, causing the boy to have to bodily drag Tom up and into the nurse bed, before dropping himself on top of the Alpha, curling into him, and Lucius could see where pale golden eyes stared balefully at Dumbledore, as though daring the other to try anything.

It was definitely an effective way to get the Madam to shoo Dumbledore out of the door, even if a bit dramatic. Though Lucius and Severus both thought that it was a bit more than just hopes that Dumbledore would have been shooed away. Draco seemed to be rather protective of the Alpha. Neither were overly sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but they were hoping for the former, while knowing that it was probably the latter. The other had not shown such protectiveness as of yet, which meant that this transition was likely just as bad, if not worse, than Lucius' own. The Heir shuddered at the memories of his transformation. It had been awful.

"Has father been alerted yet?" Lucius questioned, his eyes turning towards Pomfrey, having to rip them away from the sight of Draco laying atop Tom, his head buried in the latter's neck. It was uncomfortable a sight to see, knowing how dangerous Tom was, knowing Tom was an Alpha allowing this to happen for seemingly no reason. Had anyone else in transition ever even dared...Lucius did not doubt that they would not make it through the transition whole...or alive.

"Yes, I alerted him as soon as I saw you four entering the wing, hopefully he will be here soon, as quickly as possible." Lucius bit his lip. His father was delayed then, and he was not sure that bode well, for any of them.

The longer that Draco was in the presence of Tom, the more likely it was that Draco would develop a dependency bond on Tom. If it was someone that was already spoken for, someone that was not an Alpha, or even someone of family, it was far less of a concern, but given what they had seen so far, it was already quite likely that the bond had already started, and Lucius knew his father would not take well to knowing that he had allowed this to happen on his watch. He was not sure what he should do about this...and it left a bad taste in his mouth to know that Tom would likely end up having first pickings in the realm of suitors.

He knew Draco was infatuated with the Alpha, that much had been obvious from the amount of letters that Draco himself typically sent the young Ex-Student, which also made the required updates that Lucius and Severus had to give quite frustrating and somewhat redundant. Given Draco's own precedent towards Tom, it was not exactly a surprise to think that the two would have been a good match on a general rule, and they would have. Draco's genuine like of Tom also meant that the other already had a high likelihood of being accepted as a potential suitor, but the fact that he had helped Draco through his transition merely raised his worth, particularly in the eyes of his father...despite his father's dislike of having both his sons engaged to be mated with halfbloods. He doubted that much could be done about it.

"What...Happened..." His father burst through the door speaking in dramatics, but slowly tapered off upon seeing the golden eyes of his youngest. He paused, taking but a moment to realize that Tom was underneath Draco, who merely dug himself back into Tom's neck after ensuring that Abraxas was not Dumbledore. Interestingly enough, but even still...Lucius hoped such things would be minimal, they would already have to deal with Dumbledore after this was over, and it was something he was not looking forwards to. He did not want Draco to continue to antagonize that wizard. "What...What is going on here?" Abraxas demanded. He turned his gaze over his son and Severus, to Madam Pomfrey, all of which seemed silenced.

Abraxas moved forwards with purpose, and intent, likely to drag Draco off of Tom, but the moment he got close enough to even begin to reach out to touch them, Draco pulled his body upwards, his fingers twitching once more as he hissed darkly towards Abraxas. Lucius' father seemed almost affronted, and stared in shock and a bit of frustration towards his youngest son. "Draco, you cannot scent just any random Alpha that comes waltzing in to help you!" Abraxas stated in frustration. "Get off. Before I make you." Draco merely narrowed his eyes, as though daring. Abraxas' own temper began to flare. The stress and anxiety the entire rest of his meeting had given him and then the way to Hogwarts was nothing short of lighting his fuses short.

"Father...I think you will find..."

"Silence, Lucius," Abraxas ordered simply, causing Lucius to bristle, but lapse into silence nonetheless. "Draco. Come here. now." Draco did not listen, but one more step had the transforming boy ready to lunge towards Abraxas, no doubt likely to cause harm.

Luckily, or maybe not so luckily. Tom intervened at that moment. He pulled himself so that his back was braced against the headboard of the nurse beds, and then using his fingers he pulled Draco's arms down to his, pulling the boy in and pressing his ear so that the Malfoy boy could hear the steady rythmn of his heart. The tension that had wracked Draco's body slowly bled out the longer he listened to Tom's heart, until the Malfoy boy was practically once more wrapped about Tom, this time calm and content. Lucius grit his teeth.

This really was not going to bode well.