𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐨

chapter twenty four

Monday October 5th, 11PM

The hospital wing had fallen quiet.

Then the only sounds were her soft breathing, and Madam Pomfrey's footsteps as she made her final rounds to administer medication.

His head was beginning to droop now, but he couldn't peel his eyes away from the soft features of her face, draped by the darkness of night and the green silk curtains covering the tall antique windows.

He held the hand that was free of a fresh bandage, covering the wound she'd inflected upon herself mere hours before. There was no admitting it to himself, but he was still in shock.

He was traumatized.

"It's time to leave, Mister Malfoy," he heard McGonagall's voice echo from the door, merely a dark figure with a pointy hat in the archway, "I was kind enough to give you an extra hour."

Draco didn't move an inch.

He tried to ignore her blood stains on his shirt.

"Mister Malfoy," she repeated herself, stepping forwards with a slightly more aggressive tone, "Return to your common room at once."

He bit his lip and released her hand with a vengeful shake of his head, plodding towards the doorway at a dreadful speed.

When he passed the Headmistress and exited into the hall, he turned with a slow head to get a good look at her for the last time.

"She's in good hands, Mister Malfoy, I assure you," McGonagall sighed, staring at him with an understanding expression, "Now please... Return to your dormitory and get some rest."

He still didn't speak, merely walked away into the darkness of the corridors. It was past curfew, but he didn't care, taking his time with every step down the stairs and into the dungeons.

Usually he'd want to express his experiences through art, but this was too difficult. He'd break down if he even attempted to paint what had happened on a canvas.

When he entered the common room with a bloodied shirt and puffy eyes, his friends were sitting on the couches, awaiting his arrival.

The air was awkward as he approached, standing in a defeated stance as the others stared on at him in an array of confusing emotions.

Of course, the incident had spread through the school like wildfire. The rumors regarding it were even worse. Seamus told many that Draco had been the one to tear up her arm after losing his temper. That one made his blood boil.

"So, lover boy... What the fuck happened?"

Theodore was the one to break the tension, being slightly too lighthearted for Draco's taste. Draco knew the moment his head lifted and he stared Theodore in the eye, he could see it.

How much pain he was in.

"If you said anything, or did anything, let alone  moved an inch, or fucking breathed to trigger her that badly and I find out, I will rip your tongue from your fucking throat and you will never speak again-"

"He wouldn't," Pansy placed a hand on Ginny's shoulder, soothing her temper, "The lesson was on the unforgivable curses, Gin. Something Lupin said must've triggered her memories. It was truly an accident."

He couldn't hold himself together anymore, and they all watched in a shocked silence as his knees buckled and he sunk to the couch behind him in a long cry.

None of them had ever seen him cry before. Even during sixth year, he'd managed to lock his emotions somewhere private in his heart, away from where his friends might notice.