Atelophobia (Draco Malfoy x Male OC)

Chapter Fourteen

After talking to Blaise and asking him to Slughorns party, it wasn't hard to find Draco. Well it was hard to miss him when I could feel his eyes burning into the back of my head while I walked to Potions.

I looked over my shoulder, half expecting to see one of my sisters or perhaps even Pansy Parkinson, she had never really been fond of me so her trying to fry my brain with her eyes would be expected. "Draco? Who spat in your pumpkin juice this morning?".

The look on his face was like that of a lion who had been teased with bit of meat only for someone else to eat it. And out of force of habit I assumed I was either the person who stole the meat, or the meat itself.

"Why are you going to Slughorns party with Blaise?" He asked the question quietly as he walked beside me.

I sighed softly, leaning my head back to look at the roof. It was a rather boring roof but it was better than looking Draco in the eyes. "Because we need to make people less suspicious of us, us being together isn't our biggest secret Malloy" I kept my voice rather soft so we wouldn't be overheard "and you'll be busy that night anyway, you have a date with the cabinet"

Draco huffed a little bit and when I glanced at him I swear I saw cracks forming in his usual well put together appearance. I noticed that instead of being just angry, he was scared too, he had just as much to lose as I did... if not more.

"I'm not surprised that you're mad though... you're stressed enough as it is and I'm only making matters worse... you can talk to me you know Draco?"

Draco's eyes widened when I looked at him, "I'm not stressed Pluto I'm fine, I'm just annoyed that you didn't tell me you were going with Blaise" he wasn't the best liar, not when he grit his teeth as he tried to tell me he wasn't stressed "and I'm not mad at you either... I just..."

He fell quiet as a group of giggling Hufflepuff girls wandered past us.

"This probably isn't the best place to talk" I said softly "we could go to the room of requirement or we could go to the girls lavatory, it'll be empty besides Moaning Myrtle... it even an empty classroom"

"Empty classroom, Myrtle will eves drop and I don't want to go to the room, not at the moment" as Draco ran a hand through his platinum hair I realised how bad he looked, I mean of course he still looked ridiculously attractive but he looked disheveled and less put together than usual.

I nodded and reached out, grabbing the sleeve of Draco's robes with my fingers, gently pulling him towards a classroom that appeared empty. I let him go once we were inside and I pushed the door closed with my back. "Now tell me what's wrong, and don't lie please".

Draco was hesitant, seeking out a seat on one of the desks and fidgeting with his slender fingers. My mother would often describe Draco's hands as piano hands, they were thin, long and nimble and if I had to admit they did help with the piano when he used to play before fifth year.

"I'm scared Pluto" his voice was quiet as if he were worried someone might still overhear "and I'm frustrated... I just, before now I thought I knew what I wanted. I was going to follow in my father's footsteps and fight alongside the Dark Lord but now..."

"You're not sure?" I breathed out, a little bit surprised as he nodded. Carefully I sat beside him on the desk.

"I want things to be normal, where I don't have to kill someone, I don't have to worry about dying, and I can actually walk around and be carefree. I'm sixteen for Salazar's sake!" He buried his head in his hands and tugged on his hair in an angry manner until I pulled his hands away gently and held them in my own.

I was tempted to tell him about my plan to defect from the Death Eaters and ask him to do the same, but I didn't want to give him more conflict and I had promised Aquarius that I wouldn't tell him. So instead I simply looked down at our hands, his porcelain white and mine dotted with freckles. "I know how you feel, but for now we just have to do as we're told and stay alive" that's all I could say and it made me feel sick.

"No you don't understand Pluto, I'm the one who did it, I cursed Katie Bell! I told her not to touch the necklace, it was intended to be given to Dumbledore. I put her under a bloody Imperius curse" his hands were shaking so I held them still though I was shocked, I had had my suspicions but I didn't think Draco was capable of that "I want all of this to go away".

The silence that followed only lasted a few seconds, long enough for me to look at the dark circles under his eyes and how his clothes that once fit perfectly were now quite loose on his body and how he was visibly falling apart.

"Get up" I said, standing and tugging on his hands "we're going for a walk, I'm going to try and make this go away even for a moment"

I didn't know where we were going to go but when Draco nodded weakly and stood I decided I had to find somewhere, and the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest seemed like a good place to disappear and forget reality for a few hours.