NUMB WITHOUT YOU | Draco Malfoy

| 04

It was late in the winter evening on Christmas Eve when I found myself running out of the Great Hall of Hogwarts amidst the jovial celebrations of the Yule Ball. I didn't know where I was going as tears had completely blurred my vision. I was relying on muscle memory alone to maneuver through the corridor. The clicking of my heels echoed through the stone halls as I desperately searched for a quiet place to be alone. Most of the good spots to sit and cry were occupied by students who were all trying to get a quick snog in before a professor caught them.

I found a small alcove and wedged myself between the column and the wall so I was just out of sight, and I let out a wretched sob. I sat there alone for a few minutes crying my heart out until a voice spoke out to me.

"Aurora is that you? Are you alright?"

I quickly wiped my tears away, smearing my makeup across my face in the process, "Piss off, Scarhead, and leave me alone. Nobody asked you."

Harry Potter knelt down to my level and looked straight into my eyes. He appeared like he was searching for something deep within them. It was probably what all the Gryffindor students were all taught too do to check if Slytherins like me could really have a soul somewhere deep down inside. I had never been this close to Potter's face unless I was mocking him with some of my friends, and admittedly it made me feel really vulnerable and exposed seeing my own face reflected back at me in his green irises.

"You shouldn't let Malfoy make you cry." Hearing him have the audacity to say that to me made my blood boil. I don't know where he got his assumptions from about me, or Malfoy for that matter. Harry stood up and walked away as quickly as he came, leaving me alone with nothing but my own thoughts and my tear-stained dress.

I stood to follow him. I wanted to scream and hex him for inserting himself into my personal business, but when I saw Potter again, Hermione Granger was already screaming in his face so I didn't have to.

"Where have you been?" She demanded to know in a nagging sort of tone that the girl was often heard using in the presence of her two idiot friends. Harry looked back towards me with his mouth gaping open, but no words came out. He couldn't explain himself, despite how much I was interested to know what he would have to say about our little exchange. However, Hermione had grown impatient with his silence. "Nevermind! Off to bed, the both of you."

"They get scary when they get older." Ron Weasley muttered loudly on purpose so others would easily hear him as the two boys walked up the staircase together leaving Hermione standing alone at the bottom.

"Ron, you spoiled everything!" Hermione screamed up at him. The air in the room stood still as everyone turned their attention to the girl. She was causing a scene and it was embarrassing to watch. Honestly, I quite enjoyed it. It made me feel better about my own problems with my own boyfriend. At least I wasn't the girl screaming for the entire world to witness my mental breakdown. I was just the girl that the boy with no parents and a stupid scar felt sorry for, and I could live with that for the time being.

I stood there grinning and laughing to myself watching her cry in front of me and the rest of the student body when I felt a warm arm snake it's way around my waist.

"Aurora." Aidan Hastings smirked down at me completely impervious to the scene that had just unfolded. The smell of firewhisky was hot on his breath. "Want to get out of here?"

"Sure." I muttered. I was thankful for any reason to leave this stupid excuse for a party. It was getting more and more lame by the second.

"Just one more thing." He said. His voice got low and raspy and made my knees feel weak, "Rory. Wake up."