What if He had a Choice?

45

Draco barely dazed his way through the morning without Tom. He found himself anxious, for a reason that he did not know, refused to identify, and did not want to think about, this feeling merely worsened as the morning continued. He could feel his hands mildly shaking as he drug himself for his first class of the day, something which lingered continuingly. He was almost in a daze, and not liking it, but not having the will to particularly care either. He was worried. How was Tom doing? He did not know, and it made him anxious. He was so distracted that it was obvious even to Crabbe and Goyle. He felt himself flinch as Goyle smacked his arm to get his attention in Herbology. He cringed as Goyle muttered to him that he had been dazed for at least two to three classes. This was followed by a sharp sting of panic as he realized he could not even remember the lesson, he could not remember the lessons before it, and hell..., glancing down to his hands, he felt and saw the dirt, mingled with blood, and his breathing quickened sharply with his eyes going wide in shock. He not only worried about what Tom would think, but his father being furious was the main thing going through his mind at the moment.

He was saved moments later from a rather embarrassing display by Pansy and Blaise loudly declaring that they were feeling faint after Crabbe and Goyle had discretely nudged them towards his way, and going up to the Professor to speak with them. Of course, Draco did not hear this, too focused on staring at his trembling fingers which had been in the process of doing...something, but he had no idea what. He could not even remember what they were doing, he had no idea what greenhouse they were in even. Goyle would relay this conversation to him later, but at the moment he could barely even feel Pansy and Blaise grip him sharply by either shoulder and careen him towards the door harshly and guiding him, with sharp nails digging into his shoulder that he barely registered, to the Nurses' office, having felt nervous allowing this behavior to continue further. They had no idea what it was.

Later, that being quite literally after classes were over in the Slytherin Common Room alone in their dorm, he would find out that from Goyle and Crabbe that they had been worried for the first couple of classes, noticing that he had seemed a bit more out of it than normal. Of course, at first this was normal, as Draco was normally out of it during classes, bored beyond his mind. The Pureblood had some of the best tutoring money could buy, and his father having extremely high expectations ensured that he not only knew but remembered everything that he was taught. This meant that he was routinely knowledgeable in everything that they taught in classes, as they had been dumbed down for the Mudbloods, rather than giving the Mudbloods the tutoring courses as they had done during Dippet's time presuming they wanted or needed them. However, it was not until Herbology when they had handed Draco a knife, and he had dropped it, nicking his wrist that they realized something was severely wrong, but they barely managed to get a rise out of Draco for the whole morning. What Draco found more concerning after this however was the fact that Potter had been watching him with narrowed eyes the whole time, and he knew that he was going to have to talk to Tom about that, before Tom found out himself.

As for now, though, his brain was almost entirely static. He felt almost akin to one of the ghosts as Pansy and Blaise dragged him to the infirmary, and lay him down the bed, one of the them rushing to get the Nurse. Draco just stared up at the ceiling, his gray eyes duller than either Blaise or Pansy had ever seen, leaving the two of them to glance towards themselves anxiously. They did not like what that meant, as they had seen Draco with a dull gaze about a thousand times, and especially during feasts or balls when he had been called away by his father for a time and returned later on. They all knew what happened during that time, and they found themselves suspicious of Tom.

After all, that was the newest development over Draco's summer, Tom, this newcomer. It was clear that Draco was close to Tom, and it had been made even more obvious by how Draco had not hesitated to given him his left handed seat, and to cover him in protection the very first night in the Common Room, but they also found themselves anxious in worry about what it could mean. For him to get this bad...it did not bode well. They would definitely have to question this Tom later, because this seemed...rather extreme.

The Nurse shooed them away quite quickly, stating that they needed to get back to class. Both of them did not hesitate to pull rank on her and use the Professor to gain permission to stay, not wanting to leave Draco alone, let alone with someone they did not trust. As much as Pomfrey was a nurse, who knew what she would do. The last time, Draco's father had been informed, and she had allowed Draco to be alone with Lucius as well. It was not something that they were willing to simply accept, and they did not trust the Nurse much after that. Whilst they definitely understood having to inform the parents when accidents happened, it was irate to suggest that they be willingly left alone, especially since it was clear to anyone that Draco was nervous about being left with his Father alone. Slytherins held grudges for quite some time, and they did not intend to let this one go anytime soon.

Whatever was going on with Draco, the nurse was not really being much help over, and Blaise and Pansy felt more and more annoyed as the time continued on and she did not manage to fix Draco from whatever shell of a thing this was. Once lunch came around, they both stormed out of the infirmary, going straight to the Great Hall, with full intention of dragging Tom back to the nursery. If anyone could figure out what was going on, surely it was him. After all, he had been the only one who was around this summer. As much as they had their own suspicions regarding Tom and Draco's relationship, they also knew that Lucius was quite particularly in whom was allowed to mess with his son, and Lucius would not allow a halfblood to do anything untoward to him. So if Lucius had in fact done something to Draco, Tom would be the one to know.

It took them a bit longer, in their frantic search, to find Tom at the Great Hall table, but when they did both of them stormed over to him, gripping him by the arms and promptly feeling stings of pain on both of them. They ripped their arms off only to bend over and whisper 'something is wrong with Draco' in both of his ears. At that, the dark eyes narrowed slightly towards them, as though he suspected they had done something, before standing, turning on his heel, and striding out of the Great Hall, easily getting other houses to stare at him as they did so. Of course, Slytherins did not generally come storming partially through the beginning of Lunch only to grab a transfer no name sixth year to leave with them.

"What is wrong with him?" Tom asked, his voice trembling slightly. Pansy and Blaise both glanced at each other, reassurance in their mind settling that Tom was not the one to do this. Even if he was, it was clear he showed more regard for Draco than...

"We don't know," Pansy admitted softly. "Even the nurse cannot figure out what is wrong. He hurt himself this morning in Herbology because he was so out of it." Tom stopped abruptly, staring at the two of them, a dark look flitting through his eyes.

"He did...what?" He questioned, the words subtly threatening, especially if one compared the brief flash of red that coursed through his dark eyes.

"He...accidently hurt himself." Blaise reworded. Tom seemed to breathe at that, and it made both Blaise and Pansy more worried for their friend.

"Take me to him, now."