entanglements | d.m.

52.excuses

January '99 | H I M

"I did not—Devyn!"

His call does nothing to stop the witch from walking away, watched by more eyes than his as she walks towards the common room doors.

Draco means to stalk after her, but two rough hands shove him back. "Fuck her. I'm asking you to give me one damn reason why I shouldn't punch your face to fucking dust."

Another shove.

Draco glares at his friend, who resembles an animal ready to fight for his territory. He tries to move past him, but Blaise shove him a third time, and this time, Draco does it back. "Let me the fuck go!"

Seeing the intensity, Blaise's eyes pop, shocked, surely that Draco chooses Devyn over him, and takes a staggering step back.

Draco rushes out, passing Pansy on his way and glares for the fraction of a second he holds her eyes. He'll have to deal with them all later. First, he has to get to Devyn.

He almost falls on his quick run down the first set of stairs, missing a few steps and having to grip the railing. His heart is leaping for different reasons. Where the hell is she? Leave it to Devyn to make a quick escape.

He finds her at the end of the second set when he's ontop. Calling her name will only send her sprinting. The doll is still clutched in her arm, head swiveling at the side of her frame.

He's catching up to her at the bottom, pulling her aside at one of the study areas in the Astronomy Tower.

She shakes his hand off her arm, but stays facing him, her tone hard. "You said no one. You said there was no one."

"There was no one," he says, but he might as well have called her stupid for the glower she serves. "Not in the way you think."

She laughs, but it's as cold as she must be after waiting for him in the dead of scottish winter. She turns, but he holds her back.

She shakes him off.

"I did not sleep with Pansy, Devyn." He can hear the pleading in his voice. "Blaise blew it out of proportion."

Disbelief that cinches her brows. "Blew what out of proportion?"

Draco blows out a breath, rocking on the balls of his feet. He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out, comically so.

Shaking her head, she turns, patience running out.

Draco walks around her in quicker steps, keeping a hand on her shoulder to stop her from going further. His eyes are pleading.

"It was the day I saw you—after I saw you get it on with Emrys," he starts, facts that he doesn't like but which they have discussed already. "I didn't know what to do with myself. I came to your house because I couldn't take it anymore but I had no plan—except—" he screws his eyes shut. "I just wanted to see you and I did but not how I imagined. I would take five wolf scratches over that type of pain—"

"If you're trying to guilt trip—"

"I'm not." He gives a vigorous shake of his head. "No excuses, just my whole truth, Dev."

When she only stares at him, he takes it as a good sign that she isn't running, and continues.

"I thought my whole world crumbled when I saw you move on. I was not doing great, at all, and the next place my feet landed me before was the Parkinson Manor. I just needed a friend and a shoulder to cry on and with Pansy's father being sent to Azkaban only days before, she wasn't doing great either. Alcohol got involved. A lot of fucking alcohol. Too much—that is why I don't like to drink anymore. I associate it with bad, high emotions. Bad decisions." He exhales heavily. Stalling, he knows. "I was so hurt, and I know I had no right to be, okay. I know. And I needed to get that image off my mind. I needed something else, and I needed to..." his voice grows incredibly small, "to hurt you back like you hurt me in that moment."