Malfoy

11 - Boy

The next day, Draco was out shadowing his fathers friend. You wondered if his meeting had gone well.

The day dragged on. None of your classes were interesting today. You spent most of your time thinking about him.

As you walked out of History of Magic, you thought you saw a flash of platinum blonde hair. You turned the corner into the back hallway and saw Draco walking very quickly away from you with his head down.

"Draco?" you called and he spun around, wiping his eyes and cheeks. Was he crying?

"Sorry, I can't today," he said in a monotone voice and then quickly turned back and started walking away even faster. Strange.

You stood there for a moment, confused by what had just happened. Where was Draco's usual arrogance? He seemed so... quiet.

You figured his shadowing didn't go well. Whether that was due to his father's friend or his father or Draco himself, something had to have gone wrong in one way or another.

Things with his father, Lucius, are rough, as you understand. Nobody knows much, but everybody knows that it isn't the best relationship. However, nobody seems to care. Its like people blame it all on Draco or they just don't think about it. You don't know. You think Lucius is controlling. But you don't know him and you're definitely not going to go bring that up with Draco. Things are just starting to get good.

You had planned to meet up with Draco later that night and you hoped that he would feel better by then.

By the time nighttime rolled around, Draco was no where to be seen. You wondered if he was blowing you off or something.

"Whatcha doin'" Raya said as she sauntered into your room.

"I don't know, nothing I guess," you said and chewed your lip.

"Wanna get some food?" She asked, "I'm literally starving."

"I just ate," you said, but it was a lie. Your stomach was twisted up in knots and you couldn't imagine yourself hungry any time soon. You had a bad feeling in your chest.

"Oh, damn," Raya said, "I'm gonna go find Molly, maybe us three can watch a movie or something tonight, I barely have any homework."

"Yeah, maybe," you say, distracted.

"Okay, well," she says with a slight frown, "Hopefully I see you later." She looked at you for a moment, trying to work out what was going on in your head before she turned and skipped out.

Honestly, you didn't even know what was going on in your head. You just had a bad feeling about Draco and your relationship with him. As you had thought more about it you decided that he had definitely been crying or something like that. The thought of it made you feel uneasy.

Draco had something else inside of him besides that confident and arrogant personality. Something worse, something missing or broken.

To clear your mind you decided to walk around Hogwarts and explore a bit.

It was starting to get later and most of the academic hallways were only dimly lit by lanterns at intervals along the walls. It was calming in a way. It was quiet.

You made your way up and down a lot of hallways, some were busier and brighter than others. You passed a few groups of students huddled together gossiping and talking.

You decided you would make your way up to some of the more impressive structures at Hogwarts, namely the bell towers. You rarely explored this much so it was fun to sneak around all alone.

When you reached the base of the tower you decided it would be more fun to climb up the steps. You imagined how nice it would be up there, so quiet and peaceful. You could get a good view of the school and mountain from the top too.

You started your ascent up the seemingly never ending steps. See? You didn't need Draco to have fun. You were just fine on your own.

As you neared the top you thought you heard something, so you paused for a moment to listen. The noise stopped. Probably the wind.

You kept climbing and then you heard the noise again. You were more sure of it this time and you stopped dead in your tracks. It sounded like sniffling. Was someone else up here?

You proceeded cautiously. The sniffling sounds grew louder. Someone was definitely up here. There's no way this was the wind.

You started to feel really scared. This was not safe. Being all alone at the top of a dark clock tower with a mystery person up there waiting. You debated sprinting all the way back down and around the school until you found Draco. He brought you comfort and made you feel safe.

This was so stupid, why would you come up here? Nothing good was going to come from this. But, you just couldn't stop. Your heart was pounding. The wind was picking up dramatically, it was freezing.

As you rounded the final corner you saw something that made your heart stop. It was Draco. He was standing in the open window at the top of the tower, swaying dangerously. He was crying.

You felt like throwing up or crying or screaming or a mixture of all three. You were terrified of what might happen next. You thought you might pass out.

What the fuck am I supposed to do!! Your mind was racing, you didn't want to scare him or make him do anything.

Your foot slipped and you grabbed the railing, hard, causing the metal to make a loud clang. Draco's head whipped around. His face was contorted in an expression of agony. He swayed even further out the window and you screamed.

"Draco!!"

He froze and then sunk down to his knees, hanging his head down in his hands. You hurried over to him and helped him down off the ledge. Holy shit.

He was wailing and he pressed his face into your chest, his entire body shaking. Tears streamed from your eyes and a massive lump formed in your throat. You held him tightly.

Your mind was spinning. How had you not noticed this? How had nobody noticed this? God, you wanted to throw up. You couldn't even imagine what would've happened if you hadn't randomly decided to go up the bell tower. Fuck.

You were crying harder now. I'm so sorry Draco.

You imagined him walking up the stairs to the tower all alone, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders as he ascended in almost complete darkness. His breaths shallow and rapid. His mind running circles. He knew what he was about to do. It was the only way out of this, he had to jump.

You imagined him climbing up to the windowsill and gripping the walls. You wondered how long he had been standing there, looking for a reason not to jump.

You both cried until you fell asleep on the freezing cold ground of the top floor of the bell tower. The window still wide open.

Im sad. Poor Draco, nobody cared about him. He was so sad.