Sacred 28

Chapter 17: Theodore

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Draco's POV

My entire body felt like it had been plunged into the icy water of the black lake as I frantically searched the castle grounds for Theo, My mind completely consumed with worry and guilt. How could I have missed this? I was always on the top of my game. Nothing ever fell through the cracks, I was diligent, I was careful. I always made sure shit like this did not happen. Not ever.

How could I have forgotten today of all fucking days? a stupid question...I knew how, I knew exactly why I wasn't as sharp, why things were slipping through the perfectly weaved system of checks and balances I had placed in my mind. Avery fucking Rosier.

The second she showed up here I knew she would derail my entire fucking life, I knew I'd let her, and she's done exactly that. Clearly, given the fact that I was running through the castle grounds past curfew in the pouring rain in desperate search for my missing friend, potential consequences be damned. One thing mattered right now. Finding Theo...righting this wrong.

"Why didn't you remind me." I bark over my shoulder at Mattheo who looked like a wet fucking dog trailing behind me. I could only imagine I looked just as insane, soaking wet white hair hanging in my eyes, shoes and pants caked with mud from the over flooded quidditch pitch the two of us stalked through in the middle of the night, nothing but the illuminated tips of our wands providing any kind of light.

"When have you ever needed a reminder for anything! I figured you had it covered!...you always have it covered."

I scoffed and shook my head at his reply. I was pissed, but not at him necessarily. As much of a prick he was, he was right. I was the one who made sure everyone was okay, I was the one who remembered the schedules and the dates and kept everyone in line. And I failed. I failed in a major fucked up way that could end up with one of them dead in a ditch. And it would be my fault. I would be responsible.

A frustrated growl escaped my lips with no luck as we continued our search now moving down the path to Hogsmeade hoping to Merlin he didn't wander into the forbidden forest, because if that were the case, there was no way in hell we would be seeing him again.

I cupped my hands around my mouth shouting out for him over the rain "Theo!" Over and over again until my lungs burned and the taste of iron clouded my mouth as my vocal cords strained with each desperate scream.

We'd already been out here at least an hour when Mattheo squinted, pointing to something that looked like a large rock next to one of the benches that lined the muddy gravel path, a flickering lamp post near by providing us little visual assistances.

We picked up our pace and I slid to my knees frantically lifting his head to see if he was breathing. The moment I touched him he let out a groan and I a sigh of relief. He was sopping wet, body cold as a corpse, with a nearly empty bottle of fire whisky clutched in his fist...Salazar knows how long he's been out here. "Help me get him up Riddle." I grunt to Mattheo as I strained hoisting him up onto our shoulders each of us taking an arm.

"She's gone mate..." Theo slurred as we dragged his dead weight back to the castle "he fuckin killed her right in front of me and I couldn't do a damn thing about it..." he continued to mutter through drunken sobs.

I felt my throat swelled at his pain that I could do nothing to relieve. "I know Theo...I know." Were the only words I could conjure.

He was a mess, this was a mess. But it was a mess I had handled before, one I could clean up again. Unlike a dead body. No, I refused to have anymore people die at the expense of me, never again.