[4] UNREQUITED ENEMIES ━ Draco Malfoy

14. Sectumsempra

FOURTEEN SECTUMSEMPRA

     Nothing really felt different after Xander's late-night confession to Diana. It was less like a confession and more like an elephant in the room that had finally been addressed. Xander was relieved if he was being honest. Secrets were one his least favorite things -- especially when they were being kept from Diana. They were sitting in the Great Hall now for breakfast after Xander had gotten probably one the best night's sleep since he got back from the winter holidays. It sounded cliche, sure, but it felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Hey, Xander, look, Katie Bell is back," Diana asked, smacking the boy gently to get his attention away from the food on his plate. She pointed where Harry Potter was now speaking to the girl who had left school months ago after being cursed. "Merlin, what's it been? Like six months?"

"Yeah," Xander confirmed, "I think so. I'm glad she's doing okay, I was worried after how terrifying that whole thing had been. Seeing someone get cursed like that... I never wanna see it again."

It was then that Draco Malfoy entered the hall. He and Xander still had yet to have any form of a conversation since the train back to Hogwarts and Xander had somewhat hoped that a lack of interaction would cause these odd feelings he had to cease, but apparently, as his heart fluttered at the very sight of him, he had no such luck. In fact, he thinks it may have gotten worse. Great, just what he needed. Xander watched as Draco stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he saw the girl. Their eyes met from across the hall and the blond turned and hurriedly left the room. Before he even knew what he was doing, Xander was out of his seat and running after him. It seemed he wasn't the only one with that idea as he could hear Harry Potter close behind him. Xander had a bad feeling about all of this as he chased after Draco.

"Sorry for what I'm about to do," Xander muttered to himself as he pulled out his wand while running, turning, and casting, "Arresto Momentum!"

Harry slowed to almost a full stop, pushing through an invisible wall of resistance which gave Xander enough time to catch up to Malfoy without having to worry about Potter being hot on his heels. He had half a mind to cast stupefy, but that one would get him in significantly more trouble than he would like. He wished he thought before he acted and then maybe he wouldn't get into situations like this.

Xander followed Draco into one of the bathrooms and he saw the boy had pulled off his Hogwarts sweater and loosed his tie. More importantly, he had a white-knuckled grip on the sink and was  -- shockingly -- sobbing. Not even a light, manly cry, just full-on sobbing. Xander didn't know Draco was capable of such emotions.

"Draco --" he called out softly, stepping forwards slowly as he tried to make sure the other boy knew he wasn't a threat. He locked the door behind them and pocketed his wand, holding both his hands up so the boy knew he wasn't going to try anything. "I -- uh, do you wanna talk about it?"