[4] UNREQUITED ENEMIES ━ Draco Malfoy

20. Kill The Boy

TWENTY KILL THE BOY

     Following Draco, Xander ends up in the astronomy tower. He has no idea what the boy's plans could possibly be, but he's going to stick around to find out if it kills him. He hides behind the wall that leads into the open-air of the tower's peak, but he knows his heavy breathing from running to keep up with Draco is going to give him away. This is proved correct when Draco's voice can be heard.

"You need to get out of here, Xander, I mean it," Draco calls out, his voice is choked up like he's holding back tears. Footsteps can be heard coming up the stairs to the astronomy tower and the boy wonders who else knows about this. "Shit, you need to hide. Go, please. Please, Xander."

Xander can hear the pleading in the boy's voice and he caves, hiding underneath the grated floor just in time for two people to apparate onto the top of the astronomy tower. He doesn't speak a word as he sees that it is Dumbledore and Harry, which might explain why they had the ability to apparate on school grounds in the first place. Draco hasn't seen Harry, though as the boy is ushered into the same hiding spot as Xander. Immediately, both of them have their wands out and pointed at each other, but both of them don't want to make noise so no spells are cast as they eavesdrop on the conversation between Dumbledore and Draco.

"Good evening, Draco, what brings you out on such a fine spring evening? Or is it Summer?" Dumbledore spoke calmly as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but nothing about this felt safe. Xander's stomach was sinking further and further with each passing moment.

"Who else is here? I heard you talking," Draco called out, not answered the headmaster's question.

Dumbledore answered with ease, "I often talk aloud to myself. I find it extraordinarily useful. That which sounds sane at a whisper can seem utterly mad when said for all the world to hear. Haven't been whispering to yourself, have you, Draco?" The boy didn't respond. "You are not an assassin, Draco."

"How do you know what I am?" Draco spoke, his voice angry and choked with tears. Xander wanted nothing more than to pull him away from the situation, but he knew he couldn't. "I've done things that would shock you!"

"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping she would, in turn, bear a cursed necklace to me? Like, replace a bottle of mead with one laced with poison. Forgive me, Draco, but these attempts are so feeble I cannot help but question if your heart has really been in them. I'm curious when Voldemort gave you this task, when he asked you to kill me, was it in a whisper?"

Draco once again avoided the question as he shouted, "He trusts me! I was chosen!"

Xander and Harry watch with careful eyes as Draco reaches out and lifts his sleeve. Neither of them needed to see it to know what Draco is revealing to the headmaster. Xander never wanted to believe Draco was a lost cause, now he was questioning even that. Still, he didn't want to give up the boy. Not when so many people had already done so.