Aftermath

6.7K 203 72
                                    


⚡️⚡️⚡️
Chapter 8
✨3rdpovharry✨
Ron and Hermione were deeply concerned when Harry climbed through the portrait hole the next morning with a slight limp. They took turns embracing him, before bombarding him with questions about where he'd been. To which he answered the he honestly did not know.

They set off to breakfast making idle talk. To Harry'a great relief, his friend's were making an effort to create a sense of normality despite the distance he had put between them. He was more grateful perhaps for their friendship then they would ever know. Though at breakfast Hermione fussed over his lack of appetite, which made him feel slightly insecure. He had lost weight since the start of term. He'd always been on the skinny side, due to the Dursley's lack of proper feeding but for some reason he found himself forcing down meals rather than enjoying them, and as a result they became few and far between.

He picked at his egg and toast, which looked about as appetizing as one of the slugs Ron had coughed up their second year. The red-head in question was having no trouble with his own breakfast. He himself was on his second piece of toast, third egg and 4th sausage link. Harry felt a little jealous, it wasn't that he didn't want to eat, he just honestly couldn't bring himself to.

"Harry you're going to starve at this rate!" Hermione noted unhelpfully. (That was the third or fourth comment about his eating since they'd sat down to breakfast). Harry set down his fork in frustration, contemplating storming off, but having just made up with his two best mates he didn't think it was the best time to have a temper tantrum over something as trivial as some scrambled eggs and toast. He sipped his orange juice instead, choosing to say nothing, to avoid snapping at her.

He glanced at the Slytherin table on instinct, automatically locking eyes with Draco Malfoy. They stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity but what must have only been a few seconds, locked in an intense staring match, as if challenging each other to look away. Harry's eyes flitted down to his food which was surely cold by now, and then back to Malfoy who was still staring intently at him.

For reasons beyond him, he felt his cheeks heat up.

-

Classes were as frustrating as ever. His memory and concentration seemed to be worsening with each passing day. Of course he had never been the top of his class, but he had always been a decent student, he did his best. Now his best was barely scraping by. Even with Hermione's help he couldn't seem to remember the the majority of the material from the lessons. He was truly doing everything he could, and yet he was going to fail his newts for sure. His scores in his classes paired with his diminishing weight were weighing heavily on his self esteem.

Crying himself to sleep became a routine. It happened more often when he would wake up in that strange tower in the middle of the night alone without his memory. He wasn't sure why he was crying really, but the loneliness crept in. Along with a strange sense of betrayal.

-

Of course Harry Potter had no way of knowing that he had a child growing inside of him when he began getting sick. He thought he had caught a long lasting and persistent case of the flu. Hermione and Ron, were of course worried when day after day he excused himself from breakfast and classes to expel what little food he had consume but mostly stomach acids and bile into the toilets.

✨3rdpovdraco✨
Draco Malfoy had his suspicions about Harry's situation. After all, he was the only living soul who had any hint of knowledge. Draco had left Harry alone for a long while, mostly because of the guilt that threatened to destroy his very being whenever he though of what he was doing to Harry mentally and physically. After the third week of sickness however, Draco followed Harry to the toilets one morning after the boy raced from the great hall at breakfast to expel a quarter of an egg from his stomach.

Harry was to consumed in his violent episode of vomiting on his hands and knees, face inches from the toilet basin to hear Draco's footsteps echoing off of the stone floor of the bathroom.

"Harry?" Draco's voice came through the stall door, Harry froze, attempting to hold back another surge of bile from clawing it's way up his throat.

"Go away Malfoy!" Harry managed out weakly. But Draco wasn't going anywhere. He pushed the unlocked stall door open and crouched down next to where Harry was slumped on his knees by the toilet. He felt a wave of worry and guilt deep inside of him, threatening to choke is very being. Instinctually he knew he was the cause of this.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his voice betraying some of the worry he felt. He couldn't even muster up a good sneer like the old days. It just wasn't in him. "What happened."

Harry's green eyes were rimmed in red from the tears forced out by the vomiting and a little dull from apparent lack of sleep. Draco reminded himself over and over that Harry didn't know what had happened, that he knew nothing of their secret time together. He couldn't just kiss him out of the blue like he wanted and make it all better. And oh how he wanted to.

"I don't know... I've been sick for weeks." Harry said. Swallowing another wave of nausea. "I-" he choked on a sob miserably. "I'm scared." He broke down into tears.

Draco took Harry in his arms, ignoring the way the other boy stiffened under his touch at first. The hug lasted a long time, almost long enough for Harry to stop crying. It ended when Harry pulled away in a panic as a fresh wave of nausea hit him and he found himself once again bent over the toilet basin wrenching his guts out.

"This isn't right." He groaned, spitting into the toilet.

"Have you gone to Madam Pomfrey?" Draco asked, rubbing his back soothingly.

"Not yet." He admitted sheepishly. Truth be told, he should've gone weeks ago.

"C'mon I'll take you."

A/N:
⚡️⚡️⚡️
Ahhhh thank you to everyone for reading it means the world!! I've been having major writers block so I wanna give a special thanks to @sylverMine @kalazimmerman and @lavanyaAnand for adding my story to reading lists. You guys really helped make this update happen :)
-Andy

⚡️Obliviate//Drarry mpregWhere stories live. Discover now