Two months into term.

A strange light was coming from the room as Blaise entered it. It came from behind Pansy's curtains. He drew his wand as he crossed to them, pulling them back and gasping.

Theo had his wand out and was levitating a rat in front of him, peeling the skin from it layer by layer with a cruel sounding spell that he repeated, over and over again. His eyes were dead and haunted and his hands were shaking. Tears streamed down his face as he repeated the curse again, pulling another layer of skin from the rat which promptly disintegrated into the air around.

Blaise acted quickly. He grabbed Theo's wand from his hand and threw it onto the floor, physically restraining the other boy who tried to throw himself after it. He threw the mutilated rat out of the bed for good measure, yanked the hangings closed and dropped down on top of the near hysterical Theo.

'How many Dark Arts lessons have you had recently?' he asked, trying to get his friend to focus on him.

'Three this week, plus two extra sessions. He scheduled it during break. I couldn't get detention from Flitwick in time. Then he made me cruciate Longbottom in Muggle Studies, trying to show off what I'd learnt.' Theo was shivering, his hands twitching against Blaise's back as he struggled involuntarily beneath him. Luckily, Blaise was bigger and stronger, his magic not nearly as depleted as Theo's. He had little trouble holding the other boy down as he struggled.

'You're pretty close to addicted then.' He concluded, watching the tears streaming down Theo's face as it contorted with anger.

'You don't say! I was craving it so badly when I got back here. I nearly cruciated the first years. It was all I could do to find a rat and kill it before the urge to rip it to shreds took over. I can't control it Blaise. I can't fight it. It's too much for me. Please, just let me hurt it. It's dead. It can't feel anything. I just need a little more, and then I'll be alright.'

'Theo...you know why I can't let you do that.'

'I'm going to end up addicted anyway! There's no way of avoiding it. Not with Carrow's Dark Arts lessons coming so frequently. They're asking us to cruciate the others in other lessons now as well. And they've realised about the detentions. We can't use that to get out of it. Please, Blaise. It hurts so much. I need it.'

'And what if you can't find a rat next time you get a craving? What if you hurt someone?'

'I won't. I promise.'

'You can't know that, and you'd never forgive me if I let you get addicted and that led to you hurting someone.'

'I'm already addicted, Blaise. There's nothing you can do to stop that now. And if you don't let me skin that rat, I'm going to hurt someone, I can feel it.' Blaise could see in his face that he wasn't lying, could see the hatred for what he had become and what he needed to do now.

He took a moment, trying to collect his thoughts, before leaning forwards and kissing Theo fiercely. Tongues and teeth battled, Theo's shakes making the whole experience slightly surreal, before Blaise pulled back and reached out for Theo's wand.

'Not that I'm complaining, mind,' Theo stated carefully, 'But I might wonder about the why...'

'This isn't your fault. They got you addicted to this shit. There's nothing wrong with you and I still love you, no matter what they force you to do. You understand that, right? You are so much more than this, and I promise you I will not judge you for anything you do while under the influence of this addiction, and when this hell is over, we'll get over it together. '

Clarity seemed to descend on Theo for a moment, pushing the self hate from his eyes as he nodded and Blaise sat back, letting him reach for his wand and the rat and settling himself beside his friend on the bed. Theo looked at him for a moment.

'I'm not leaving.' Blaise said hotly. Theo seemed to struggle for a moment between the all consuming desire to destroy and the wish to hide at least some of what he was becoming from his friend. The addiction won.

He pulled the curtains closed, levitated the rat and sliced off another layer of skin, feeling the dark magic rushing through him and gasping audibly in relief, tears of guilt falling from his eyes again as he revelled in the destruction flowing through him. Blaise reached out, taking Theo's free hand in his own and trying to control the nausea that he felt with every new layer of rat that disintegrated into nothing in front of him, trying to hide his disgust.

God, what was this year doing to them.