Serpent's Veil || Draco Malfoy.

Between Anger and Attraction

Emily's POV

The night had been wild, to say the least. 

One minute, we were having fun, and the next, chaos erupted.

Draco threw a punch at Theo, and everything spiraled from there. 

Theo completely snapped, hitting him like he was fighting for his life, while I stood there, shouting for him to stop, my voice barely cutting through the madness.

As the fight broke down, I wanted to check on Draco because I knew I was going to spend a good amount of time curing Theo and trying to calm him down. 

I wanted to make sure that he was equally taken care of. 

I wanted him to be okay.

But Pansy took care of that, as always. 

She took him to his dorm as the rest of our friends dissipated too, but not before making sure I was alright. 

Daphne asked me about five times, to be exact. 

But I told her to go to sleep. 

She probably needed the rest as much as I did.

I just wasn't going to get it tonight.

Theo sat on the edge of his bed, still seething, his knuckles bruised and bloodied. 

His chest heaved with each breath. 

I knelt beside him, gently taking his hands to clean the cuts, but he barely seemed to notice. His mind was somewhere else, trapped in a place that I couldn't seem to reach. 

I wish I could read his mind; I could ease his pain somehow.

"Theo," I whispered. "You need to calm down. It can't be good for you to be this stressed constantly."

He didn't respond, his gaze fixed on some distant point, lost in memories I couldn't touch. 

I worked silently, dabbing at the blood, my heart aching for him. 

I knew there was more to this than just a fight with Draco.

No matter how much he tried to deny it, I just did.

As the minutes ticked by, the adrenaline from the fight began to wear off. He looked at me then, his eyes filled with sorrow.

"Emily," he said, his voice hoarse. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen."

I shook my head, wrapping my arms around him. 

I didn't know how to act; I knew he was not okay, it was evident, but I'm not the best at comforting people. 

I seem to have a talent to do the opposite.

"It's okay. Just tell me what's going on."

He took a breath, leaning into my embrace.

"I just... when Draco punched me, I saw my father, and I couldn't help but react, but liberate my anger in some way, any way. I also saw how he had been looking at you before, and I snapped."

I paused, trying to remember if Draco had been looking at me in any particular way, any different way from what he usually looked at me. 

I had been too high all night long to notice a thing like that. I mean, I did find myself thinking about him on a few occasions. 

He just looked good. 

But that was all. 

Maybe the same thing had happened to him, and he had stolen a few glances here and there.