Draco's Hufflepuff | Diminishing

Nine: Tangled

**

Thursday, 12th February, 1998

I needed to get over Draco. I needed to try my hardest to stop loving him so much anyway.

It was as though my body was trying to tell me the same thing, because for the past few days, the ink on my chest has been burning me and sending sharp jolts through my chest.

The initials of him – D.L.M – which he etched into me not last Christmas, but the Christmas before that. The time of our lives where we were at our happiest and when we were most in love.

I hated that I had a constant reminder of him on me, as if I needed anything else. More so, I hated the reminder of what they mean... that the best few weeks of my life were now meaningless.

It also wasn't lost on me that he also had the same mark on his chest, in the exact same place – M.E.P short for my name, Madeline Eloise Parsons – and I had to admit, I was a little curious as to why Draco hadn't come to me and asked me to remove it.

Maybe he liked having the knowledge of knowing he still had some sort of control over me. Maybe he got off on the fact he would always be a part of me. Or maybe he was just a sick bastard.

With another jolt of pain shooting through my chest, the skin around the mark inflamed and boiling, I put my cup of tea down a lot harder than I intended.

Wincing, I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the searing pain radiating from the ink. I could feel the skin around the mark tighten and throb, and it was the most uncomfortable feeling ever.

"Are you alright, Mads? You look like you're in pain," Hannah asked, stirring some strawberry jam into her porridge,

"Yeah," I pulled my lips into a small line, "I think I've just slept funny or something," I lied, taking a sip of the slightly-too-hot tea,

"Go and see Madam Pomfrey, she'll give you some Wiggenweld or something," Hannah suggested kindly.

I knew that Madam Pomfrey couldn't give me anything, but I couldn't exactly say that without invoking more questions and I really didn't want to get into it during breakfast.

So, I just smiled and nodded at her, showing my appreciation.

We were supposed to have two back-to-back lessons of Charms this morning, but we had been given the first period off, because Professor Flitwick needed to attend to something urgently in Hogsmeade and wouldn't be back in time for classes to begin at 9:00am.

I decided in that moment that during our free period, I was going to find Draco and I was going to make him take this off me. Perhaps once it was off me, I could finally begin to live a little and maybe stop thinking of him constantly.

**

During the last five minutes or so of breakfast, my eyes were fixated on Draco. I was morbidly fascinated with him because he put on this bravado and this face of someone heartless, ruthless, and cruel, but there would be these moments that he would show his true self.

I could see he was scared and sad, and that he probably felt all alone, just as much as I did.

I was keeping track of his every moment – of how he slowly drank his black coffee, how he was lost in his thoughts, how no one bothered to speak to him, how his shoulders were hunched over instead of his usual upright and perfect posture, how his hair was a little wavy now, how his jaw was clenched, and how he was tensing his hands into tight balls.

I was tempted to not go through with my plans to ask him to remove the mark once he glanced up and we made eye contact. I could have sworn his lips twitched as he noticed I was looking over at him.