This chapter's short cause I've been busy at University but I wanted to get some Draco in there before the weekend, will update again soon!
Draco paced the walls of his dormitory, his left forearm red and agitated from where he'd been rubbing it. He stopped himself for the umpteenth time, shoving his hands in his pockets to resist the urge. He felt feverish, even so deep underground. The dungeon had never felt claustrophobic; instead the walls seemed to stretch up miles above him, dark shadow looming above where the soft lamps couldn't reach. He lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling, reaching his arm up and extending his fingers toward that shadow.
Of course, he couldn't reach it. No one could extend their hand to the ceiling of a vaulted room while laying on a bed. The idea itself was ridiculous. Impossible. Perhaps he could charm his arm to stretch further, or his body to levitate. He thought of the wand movement involved, the incantation and inflection, and he lowered his arm. He sighed heavily and rolled on to his side. Magic can't solve everything, he thought bitterly, it's a cheap way to get ahead. Being a skilled sorcerer is like being a skilled liar: you may be good, but your talent is wasted on vagrancy and deceit. Theives' skills, his father would call it.
Though according to his father, magic could solve everything. Draco just wasn't trying hard enough. He had to mean it. There was no way around it.
He noticed he was rubbing his arm and stopped.
Two meters away, in his drawer, was a marbled journal, sometimes green and sometimes red. He could open it right now and tell her everything. He hadn't noticed the tension in his face until he felt it relax. He inched his arm toward his drawer. Maybe magic was good for some things.
He stopped, his face darkening. If he wrote to her, it would be found, and both of them killed. He withdrew his arm, but the knowledge that she was so close was killing him. He dug his fingernails into the putrid black ink on his arm and stifled a yell. No, he thought. Anything granted by magic is just as easily taken away.
