The Purest Kind of Magic

- fifty three -

Y/n POV

Draco came through the door, looking distressed and extremely mad. His usual air of confidence seemed shaken, replaced by a mixture of frustration and anger. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him, my worry for him immediately taking over.

"Draco, what happened?" I asked, rushing over to him.

He ran a hand through his hair, his grey eyes meeting mine. "It's... it's a mess, Y/n. Everything went wrong."

I felt a knot forming in my stomach as his words sank in. "Tell me what happened," I urged, my voice tinged with both fear and curiosity.

He let out a heavy sigh and spoke at a low voice, "I tried to change things, to prevent what happened during the Third Task. I thought I could alter the course of events, but it turned out I did nothing at all. I was useless."

I turned to look around to see if anyone had paid attention and pulled Draco aside. "Don't say that, you're not useless, you tried your best. Now, what happened?"

Draco's gaze darted away, "I used the time turner, I thought I could stop Crouch from taking you, so you won't have to experience the whole... incident. But I was wrong, completely wrong."

He then looked into my eyes with an expression I couldn't depict, "Crouch was never the one that took you."

"Who took me?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

Draco looked over to the moderately large group. I followed Draco's gaze towards the group of students gathered nearby, and my heart raced as I realized he was staring right at Theo.

"Don't tell me that..." I started.

"No," He shook his head, "Not him. His father."

I bit down my lips as I processed the information, "Well, last time he did say he didn't intend to harm me yet..."

"Key word, yet."

I shrugged, "Don't feel bad about yourself, what has happened, happened. And who knows if something worse would come our way if you did change history."

"You're not wrong, but," Draco's voice trailed off before he continued again. "But now I can't look at Nott without thinking about what his father did."

"That doesn't change much, does it? You're still on last-name basis with Theo because you're still mad about what he did to me."

Draco rolled his eyes, "That is true, but that's, like, different. His father basically ruined your whole life."

"No, the Dark Lord basically ruined my whole life. You probably know how he's like, giving orders here and there," I stated firmly in a low voice.

Draco's eye immediately met mine, "What do you mean? Did he... is he already making you do something?"

I shook my head, "No, I don't think? But it's like common sense to assume that He just gives tons of orders and stuff."

"Right." Draco nodded to himself, "Sorry."

"Let's go introduce you to the group?" I asked as I tucked at his arm.

Draco snorted, "Pretty sure they already knew who I am."

As we made our way to the gathered people, there were quite a handful of eyes looking at Draco. Probably wondering what another Slytherin-- A Malfoy-- is doing here.

Blaise grunted and approached us and gave Draco a guilty look, "Look, I'm sorry, Y/n told me that whatever secret you two are hiding could mean life or death to her. I shouldn't have lashed out on you."

Draco raised an eyebrow, seemingly taken aback by Blaise's unexpected apology. He exchanged a brief glance with me before offering a small nod. "Apology accepted, Blaise. And thanks, Y/n, love."

I blushed slightly, "You're welcome. Now come on."

--

"So," Draco started, "This is just some self-defense group where you, Potter, teach us these basic dueling spells."

"It'll get harder," Harry spat, "Jeez, not everyone here had bloody tutors teaching them everything when they're barely walking."

Draco huffed, "I'm sure everyone already knows Expelliarmus."

"You don't know that!"

"If," Draco hissed, "you just pay the fuck attention to class, you would know that it was part of the damned curriculum."

"Alright, enough fighting for the day, can we just get on with it?" I complained loudly as I pushed the two away from each other before they start a fist fight, or worse, a duel.

Draco grunted as he gave Harry one last glare before turning to me, "Whatever you say, love."

"Come on, back to the common rooms," I quickly demanded as I dragged Draco away as I gave Harry an apologetic look.

Draco smirked in amusement, "Didn't know you were so dominant."

My face turned a shade redder as Draco's teasing remark hit me. "I just didn't want you two causing a scene," I mumbled, embarrassed.

Draco chuckled, clearly enjoying my flustered reaction. "Relax, darling, I'm just messing with you."

"Please, I'm about to gag at your weird foreplay, can't you at least speak in a lower voice?" Blaise said with an eye-roll.

Elmia laughed as quietly as she could, "Let them have fun, Blaise, it's not their fault you're still single."

Blaise groaned, "You don't know that."

Daphne raised an eyebrow, "A girlfriend that lasts 2 weeks doesn't count, Blaise."

"Still a girlfriend!" Blaise exclaimed.

"Hush!" Draco hissed, "It's past curfew, do you want to get caught by Filch or what?"

"Sorry," Blaise muttered. I resisted the urge to burst out laughing at the situation as we needed to stay quiet until we reach the common room.

We scurried into the common room as fast as we could and practically ran in. We collectively let out a sigh of relief as we all hopped onto the comfortable couches in the warm common room.

"Are we ever going to talk about how you're literally about to kill me with your stare?" Theo said quite bluntly to Draco.

Draco's eyebrow shot up in surprise at Theo's straightforward comment. "I was just making sure you didn't ruin everything," he replied coldly.

Theo leaned back against the couch cushions, a wry smile playing on his lips. "Well, thanks for the vote of confidence. And here I thought we were becoming such good friends."

Draco rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Don't push it, Nott."

Theo chuckled, seemingly unfazed by Draco's response. "Oh, come on, Malfoy. I'm just teasing. We're all on the same side here, aren't we?"

"Not so sure about that," Draco immediately replied. I quickly elbowed his arm before he says anything else.

Theo raised an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?"

"Your fuckinig f--" I immediately cut Draco off.

"It's getting late, isn't it? Let's all head to bed, hm?" I said innocently.