A Throne of Blood and Stars

Chapter Five

Draco wakes with a gasp, disoriented and in pain. His legs feel as if they have been staked and there's a dull ache on his whole front. He realizes he's on the floor, a stone floor, and quickly assembles he's in Hogwarts.

Right, he thinks, I was dreaming? His head shakes off the pain as he sets his feet under him, steadying his breathing as fast as possible without making his chest hurt anymore. And then he sets for the eighth year common room.

It takes him shorter than expected, taken he didn't exactly see where he woke up, his only thought is to get to a bed and a quick peek out the glass stained windows informs him it is late in the evening. Everyone is already asleep.

He ascends the staircase to the boy's dorms, all the way to the back where he knows Blaise is already asleep. Merlin, he sighs in his thoughts, Blaise will hex me into next year for leaving him all day.

He doesn't bother creeping in, he knows Blaise is a heavy sleeper. So he freezes in his tracks when he sees the lithe figure of his friend staring out the window, his chin in his hand, pensive.

Draco must have made a confused sound because Blaise lifts his head, barely acknowledges him. And then he flips his face back to where Draco is standing with a dumbfounded expression Draco has never seen on Blaise's face.

"Draco?"

Draco is so stunned and confused, he only answers, "Uh...yes?"

And then there's an urn being hurtled towards his head at top speed, Draco barely misses it. "Where," Blaise seethes, but Draco is still frozen. "The bloody hell have you been? Have you any idea what hell it has been? Two search parties, Draco. Two! I haven't slept a wink!"

Alright, Draco is definitely confused now.

"What?"

Blaise growls, growls and stalks forward with purpose. He flicks his wand out and effortlessly pushes the door out of Draco's hand, slams it shut. He pushes harshly at Draco's shoulders and then grips them. "Where have you been, you imp!"

"Blaise," Draco's voice cracks. He tries to remember what Harry had told him before he took off. "I've only been away seven hours!"

That was the wrong thing to say. Blaise flinches off of Draco as if burned.

"Seven hours? Seven hours? More like seven days! Almost eight! A whole damn week! Where the hell have you been!"

"The Room of Requirement," Draco answers quickly, not confused any longer but definitely interested. "Seven days?"

"Yes," Blaise almost sounds like he wants to cry. "I've been going out of my mind looking for you! I thought...I didn't know...I thought you decided to end..."

"Sweet Circe, Blaise! No!"

"Well, I didn't know what to think," the fire returns to his voice, raw. "There wasn't a note, you just disappeared. And what the hell were you doing there?"

Draco looks at his best friend, his most trusted companion, and he breathes. "I found him."

Blaise doesn't even seem surprised, he just throws his hands up, defeated. "Of course. Of course," he says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course you go missing for a week and it's to do with the Golden Boy. You know, I don't need this kind of stress. I could be in Italy, tanning. With some hot arm candy guide, but no. I must be here, babysitting you."

Blaise stalks to his desk and picks up a fat stack of letters wrapped in twine. He tosses them at Draco. "What are these?"

"Your mother's despair," Blaise runs a rough hand down his face. "I received my fair share. You should probably let her know you're back after your disappearance."