the girl with all of the choices

s e v e n t y - t h r e e

4948 words

march fifteenth- another chance at leaving

~ Addison ~

It had been exactly a fortnight since Ron was poisoned. 

Draco had been essentially nonexistent. 

We decided that we were both staying here for the holidays, then he told me that things were going to get worse and he might have to leave, then Theo barged in, prompting Draco to question about if someone was dead. I still didn't understand why he had asked Theo those questions. But then, we discovered Ron was poisoned and Draco got angry again. He felt guilty. And then he broke down, so I held him for the rest of the night. But when I woke up the next day, he was gone. 

He was doing what Blaise did when he was upset; running away. He hadn't been to many classes. I only saw him in Potions twice these past two weeks, Herbology once, and Charms two times, none of which were on the same days. He was never in the Great Hall for meals. I never once saw him in the corridors or was able to get more than a word in with him during the few classes he did show up to. He was just... not there. 

Theo wasn't any help. I tried to ask him on multiple occasions where Draco was, what he was doing, if he was okay, but he never said more than two words:

"He's fine."

It was infuriating. He shouldn't have been spending this time alone. Something awful had happened and I couldn't help him. He was so distraught about accidentally hurting Ron. He needed support, but I couldn't give that to him. 

I received a letter last Friday at dinner, a few hours after I had seen him in Potions for the first time since everything happened. 

~

I'm fine. Stop asking about me. Stop worrying about me. Don't try to find me. I don't want to be found.

~

It wasn't signed, but I knew who it was from. I couldn't believe he had the audacity to tell me to stop worrying. He very obviously was not fine. If he was fine, he would have been in classes. He would have let me see him.

No, he was not fine.

Even my friends had started to pick up on it. I wasn't spending time with him, so I was around them much more. I still wouldn't talk much, and I always removed myself from the conversation if the topic turned to Ron. Everyone was talking about it once he was released from the hospital wing. It was awful to have to sit and listen to these terrible stories people made up. The lucky part, at least for me, was that none of my friends suspected Draco, not any more. The ironic part was that they should have. 

I still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else he wasn't telling me. Why did he need to sneak poison in through Madam Rosmerta? How and why did it get into Ron's hands? 

What wasn't he telling me?

I thought he had told me everything about his task, but I wasn't so sure anymore. The incident with Katie Bell seemed like a one-time fluke when we discussed it during the holidays. But now, it had happened again, with the same near-death results. Katie still hadn't come back to school; she was still at St. Mungo's. Ron was still here. He was released from the hospital wing last week, and he returned to classes this week. 

It just all seemed too strangely coincidental. 

We were sitting in the Great Hall eating dinner, just like we were the day Ron was poisoned.