dislike ↠ draco malfoy

twenty-five

The next few weeks went by slowly. I avoided meeting eyes with Draco after that night in the common room. Luckily, he ignored me right back. The weather had started to warm up as spring approached. In the back of my mind, I thought about when Draco had told me that he had to kill Dumbledore. It seemed like so long ago now. There was only a few more months of the school year, so when was he going to do it?

I glanced up at Draco one day while we were in Potions. He was very focused on his current task, which was peeling his shrivelfigs.

Unfortunately, he saw me looking at him and snapped, "Do you need something, Hastings?"

My face flushed. "Oh—um, no." I put my head down and started peeling my own shrivelfigs.

"Stop gawking at me then," he said curtly and dumped his shrivelfigs into his cauldron.

"I am not gawking at you," I said. "I hardly even glanced at you."

He shrugged and stirred his potion. "If you say so."

I glared at him and went back to cutting my ingredients. I really didn't understand him. Were we friends or not?

Blaise had skipped class today, so it was just Draco, Carmen, and I at our table. I watched as she walked away to get more ingredients and I leaned in so that I could talk to Draco without anyone else hearing.

"Dumbledore," I whispered.

"What?" he hissed.

"You're supposed to kill—"

"Shut your mouth, all right?" he snapped. "Don't talk about that here."

"Are you going to do it?" I asked, ignoring him.

He dropped his ladle and backed away from me. "Yeah, I'm doing it soon," he muttered. His face looked... slightly sad.

He hastily snatched up his bag and started to walk away.

"Draco, class isn't over—"

But he was already out the door. I sighed as Carmen came back over to the table.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked.

"I don't know," I muttered.

* * *

When Potions was over, I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked out of Slughorn's classroom. Something was wrong with Draco, and I was going to find out what.

Where would he go?

The bathroom, I immediately thought. That's where he had gone before.

I made my way up to the boys' bathrooms. When I got to the corridor, I saw Harry Potter walking in front of me. I noticed that he was holding some sort of parchment in his hands, which he was starting down at intently as he walked. I watched him make his way into the bathroom.

I couldn't go in there when Harry was in there.

I stood outside the bathroom door and pressed my ear against it. I couldn't hear anything. I opened the door slightly, so that no one inside would notice but I could still hear everything.

I could hear someone sobbing.

"Don't," a girl's voice that I didn't recognize crooned. "Don't... tell me what's wrong... I can help you..."

"No one can help me. I can't do it... I can't... It won't work... and unless I do it soon... he says he'll kill me..."

I recognized the voice immediately. It was Draco.

I wanted so desperately to go into the bathroom and comfort him, but I couldn't risk Harry seeing me.

Suddenly, I heard commotion. There was a crack of a spell.

"No! No! Stop it!" squealed the girl. Was that Moaning Myrtle? "Stop! STOP!"

There was an explosion and the crack of more spells. Harry and Draco were dueling. I finally pushed open the door and stepped inside. "Stop—"

"SECTUMSEMPRA!" Harry yelled.

I had never heard of that spell before. The spell shot of of his wand and struck Draco square in the chest. Gashes appeared on his face and chest. He clutched his chest. Blood was soaking his shirt. He staggered backward and fell on the floor, which was covered in water.

I screamed and rushed over to Draco. "Harry, what the hell did you do?"

"No—" Harry gasped. "No— I didn't—"

I was now closing my hands over Draco's wounds, desperately trying to stop the bleeding, but it was like a waterfall now, pooling around him.

"MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!" Moaning Myrtle shrieked.

"No, Draco—" I started to try and use my bag to soak up the blood, but it wasn't working. I didn't think that he had much blood left in him. He had started shaking uncontrollably now.

The door banged open and Professor Snape strode in. He pushed Harry aside with his arm and approached Malfoy. "Move, girl," he hissed at me.

I jumped up, surprised. Snape got out his wand and pressed it to his wounds. He started muttering a spell, and the wounds started to close.

I let out a loud sigh of relief. Harry was still gaping down at Malfoy, looking horrified. His face had gone completely white.

Snape lifted Malfoy up and I rushed over to support his other side.

"You need the hospital wing," Snape said, "There may be a certain amount of scarring, but if you take dittany immediately we might even avoid that... Come..." Together, we helped Draco walk across the bathroom. Before we walked out the door, Snape turned back to Harry, who still looked completely shocked. "And you, Potter... You wait here for me."

Harry nodded vigorously.

Together, Snape and I helped Draco walk to the hospital wing.