[4] UNREQUITED ENEMIES ━ Draco Malfoy

15. Don't Remind Me

FIFTEEN DON'T REMIND ME

"Merlin, there you are!" Diana exclaimed as she passed by the entrance to the hospital wing just as Xander was exiting. There were no visible wounds on the boy, but Diana seemed to think there would be as she placed her hands on his shoulders and began checking various parts of his torso to see if he was hurt. "People saw you cast a spell at Potter and he was chasing after you and then I didn't hear from you at all! I thought Potter hexed you or something! Are you hurt? Why are you in the hospital wing? Tell me everything!"

"I'm fine," Xander spoke, sounding more exasperated than he would have liked. His voice was hoarse, likely from exhaustion considering he was fresh out of a duel. A duel that almost killed Draco Malfoy. "I'm not hurt, I was helping Malfoy to the hospital wing. Harry almost... Harry almost killed him. If not for Snape -- and I can't believe I'm saying that. It was horrible, Di, I never wanna see something like that ever again. Just bloody awful."

The girl reassuringly wrapped her arm around his shoulders and gave him a gentle squeeze as they began to walk towards the common rooms. They had classes to go to, but surely any professor would understand given that Xander was rather shaken up. Thanks to Draco, nothing Harry had cast had actually hit him, but it was still a scary thing to go through. Xander usually avoided physical confrontation at all costs because it was one of his least favorite things.

"What the hell happened? What did Harry do that was so bad it almost killed him?" Diana asked, running a nervous hand through her blonde hair as they walked. Xander rested his head on her shoulder, thankful that Diana could always provide a feeling of normalcy and stability.

Xander sighed, "He cast some curse I've never even heard of before. I know for sure I haven't seen it in any spellbook. Draco was distracted because I had fallen and Harry got him and next thing I knew, Draco was on the floor and his chest was all sorts of sliced up and... and... there was so much blood. I-" He shivered.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry you had to see that," Diana looked at him with a concerned expression as she pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. They entered their common room and Xander was thankful for the familiar warmth of a room that felt like home. He pulled off his Hogwarts sweater as he headed up to the dorms for a brief moment to put on a sweatshirt that Alecks had bought him from some thrift store back in California. It used to be hers while she stayed out there and now he wore it when he needed to be reminded of home. It helped that it was Hufflepuff colors so most people didn't bat an eye when he wore it. When he came back down into the common room, Diana was sitting, staring into the fire.

He sat down next to her but didn't say anything, just staring at the flame with her. She was the first to speak, asking him, "Why did you run after him? Draco? I mean, wasn't he running from Katie Bell basically him admitting guilt? Why rush to someone like that?"