Summery: Draco decides to stay away from Harry for their last year at Hogwarts. But being separated from him finally makes Draco realize how much he cares for the depressed Gryffindor.
Disclaimer: As much as I would love too, I do not own anything that has been previously mentioned in The Harry Potter Books, which is very unfortunate for me.
The Tale of a Dragon
Ch3: Don't Judge A Person By Their Breed
Draco sat in the Slytherin common room with a blank piece of parchment in front of him and a sugar quill stuck in his mouth. He hadn't looked at it before he put it in his mouth, so was unaware that his mouth was now turning a very Slytherin green from the ink he had spilt earlier on that day.
Unsure of why he had decided to send an apology owl to Hermione, he still persisted to go through with writing it, but it was hard to explain why he had slammed her into the wall.
H. Granger'It's a start.' Thought Draco. It sounded a bit too formal though, but in the other hand, they probably expected him to be formal and sound aristocratic. He hesitated for a moment before he ripped the top of the paper off in a straight cut using the edge of the table.
Hermione,
I apologise for my actions earlier on today. I hope it doesn't put a dint in our
In there what? It wasn't a friendship as such, but more of an… Acquaintanceship? But that didn't sound right. Once again he ripped the top of the page off in the same manner as before.
Hermione,
I hope that what I did earlier on today will not affect us getting to know each other better. I hope you understand that I had my reasons for not wanting you to touch my neck, but I would like to keep those reasons to myself for the time being. Please accept my apologies.
He reread it a few times in his head. Satisfied, he signed his name at the bottom and got up off the couch to go the owlery. The letter was fairly sincere with out explaining too much about his life at home, or making him seem like a coward because he was afraid of Vampires. Draco couldn't help but be being impressed by the letter, because normally when he put things into words, it just didn't sound right.
Draco's owl, Alzar, flew down, landed on his master's shoulder and stuck out his leg to grab the letter Draco was holding out.
"This goes to Granger. You'll know her when you see her. She's the one in Gryffindor with lots of bushy brown hair."
Alzar hooted in understanding and gave Draco's shoulder a little squeeze before taking off through one of the open windows.
Draco turned around and left the owlery feeling slightly less guilty then before. He started wondering wether Hermione would show the letter too the other two. He wasn't watching where he was going and ran straight into Harry.
"Hey, Malfoy, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"I'm in a hurry Potter, so no." Draco kept on going down the corridor and didn't stop until he reached his room, where he lay on his bed facing the ceiling.
He couldn't deny it. He was curious about what Harry wanted to talk to him about. Maybe Harry though Draco was going soft because he wasn't being as insulting as he was before. Or perhaps Harry liked to be insulted and Draco was just making things worse by ignoring him.
'I don't think that'd be it.' Thought Draco, 'Wait… Why the F--- am I worrying about this anyway? This is Harry Potter. Why should I care what he wanted to talk about? But he has been looking really depressed lately. I hope he doesn't do anything to hurt himself.'
Draco sat up as fast as humanly possible. Was he actually worrying about The-Boy-Who-Lived!?
Part of him wanted to ignore everything he was thinking and get on with his life the same way he always had, the other part wanted to confront Harry and ask if there was anything he could do to help.
Draco swung his legs over the side of his bed and sighed. He felt very conflicted at that moment. He was brought back to the real world by his stomach growling at him to say that it was time for dinner. He scowled and got up to go to The Great Hall.
Draco watched as Alzar flew in from the window and landed on Hermione's hand as she was bringing her golden fork to her mouth. She looked the magnificent owl for a while with a stunned look on her face; she obviously didn't get much mail.
As he was watching her, Draco noticed the absence of one green-eyed boy who had been the object of Draco's thoughts for the past few years. Wether they were positive or negative thoughts were completely beside the point.
As if on cue the subtlest door opening Draco had ever seen resulted in Harry entering the hall very slowly and then quickly making his way along the wall with his head down, so he wouldn't be noticed as much as he normally was.
Remembering a book he had read over the summer, Draco studied Harry's body language as he walked. His right hand was holding his upper left arm in front of him, telling Draco that he wasn't feeling confident but didn't want to show it too much. His shoulders were hunched and his feet were dragging, so he probably didn't want to be there and was tired and worn out.
If Draco was worried before, he was really, really concerned now. He sighed and started eating slowly, not really caring what he was shovelling into his mouth.
When he felt movement behind him, Draco turned slightly to look at Snape, who was looming over him.
"At sunset." That having been said, Snape turned and left. Draco looked back over at the table dominated by red and gold, where Harry was now looking directly at him with puffy, blood shot eyes. Draco found himself unable to look away, so it was Harry who broke eye contact when Hermione started talking to him. By the looks of things, it was more of an interrorgation then just a friendly chat.
Draco stood and turned around to come face-to-face with Pansy. "Blaze says there's something bothering you and you won't tell him." She said in a falsely sweet voice that reminded him of Umbridge. He suppressed a shudder that came with the memory of her ni a pink and fluffy cardigan.
"Maybe Draco you would find it easier talking to a woman about the problem." Draco got the urge to push her away when she started coming so close to him their lips were almost touching. She flipped her hair and it whacked him in the face.
"That's a good idea Pans. When I see a woman I'll talk to her," he stated, trying to look completely unruffled, despite the fact that she was making him extremely uncomfortable. "I think I'll go look for one." He edged to the side so she was no longer pinning him to the table and he casually walked away, casting another look at The Gryffindor Table as he left.
It was a fairly warm night so Draco didn't bother wearing a scarf when he went out.
The sun hadn't quite gone over the horizon and the moon was already up in the sky in all its glory. Despite the light from the two, the forbidden forest still was completely in darkness.
"Lumos." The tip of Draco's wand lit and he could just see in front of him as he walked. The strap of his bag dug into his shoulder as Draco gradually filled it with herbs and plants, many of which gave off a rather unpleasant smell, not that he minded much. He had his robe tied around his waist because the constant walking was making him sweaty.
For over an hour Draco didn't hear a sound at all, not even the wind, just his own nervous breathing, so when a twig snapped behind him he almost wet himself.
The trees rustled and Draco spun around quickly. He strained his ears and was just able to pick up the sound of padded feet on the forest floor, but they were coming from the opposite direction to the way he was facing. He spun again to look in the direction he originally was.
Now the footsteps were to his left.
'Which direction is it F---ing coming from? Oh $hit it could be anything! What the hell am I going to do now!?'
Draco looked up and strained his eyes too see in between the trees, he was lucky to stop in perhaps the only place in the forest where the sky could be seen. The moon was full, much to Draco's horror.
As he was looking up something pounced on his back, knocking him over. Whatever it was that had attacked, it started breathing heavily in his ear and digging its claws into his back.
Draco saw the Werewolf's snout for a split second before there was a sharp pain in his left shoulder. He cried out, but no one was there to hear him. The teeth dug deeper and deeper into Draco's shoulder, then the Werewolf slowly dragged his mouth up from the shoulder, across the collarbone and up his neck, licking the blood as it went.
Vaguely aware of the huge impact tremors in the ground, Draco passed out.
Author: I was this close (::presses finger and thumb together::) to ending the story here. But then it would have been too short and I'm going back to school in a few days (::cringes::) so I won't be able to get the chapters up as fast as I usually do.
Draco kept his eyes shut as he untied his robe from his waist and wrapped it around himself and his torn, bloody shirt to stop himself shivering. He lay there unable to move until he heard the crashes of footsteps/ Draco was sure it was the werewolf coming to finish him off. Instead, when he opened his eyes, he saw two boots come into view and when he looked up, a huge beard and two small beady eyes.
"Hagrid?" whimpered Draco. It was so quiet he was shore he hadn't heard him, but he did.
"Malfoy? What yeh doing in 'ere?"
Draco's response was just a pitiful sob as tears started to sting his eyes. He swallowed, trying to keep his dinner where he had left it the night before. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut and tried to control his shaking, stomach and tears all at the same time.
"Are yeh hurt?" His voice was full of concern, something Draco wasn't used to.
Before he knew it, Draco lied about what had happened. It was almost scary how quickly the lie came to him.
"S-Slipped. Hit head. Can't m-move." Draco felt himself being lifted up by Hagrid and he was slowly carried out of the forest. It was very surprising how gentle the half-giant was being and Draco started regretting everything he had ever said against half-breeds.
"I'll take yeh to the hospital wing."
"No, just take me to entrance to the dungeons, I'll go from there." Draco seriously doubted he could make it to his room and, judging by the look on his face, so did Hagrid.
"If yeh sure."
Draco had to blink a few times and let his eyes adjust when they got out from inbrtween the trees, because he didn't expect it to be morning.
The trip to the castle went fairly well, despite the incredible close call when Draco almost threw up on himself because fang decided to get under Hagrid's feet, making him stumble.
Hagrid took away his arm that was supporting Draco's legs and let him stand, keeping him steady with his other arm. After a quick thanks, Hagrid left, and Draco tried to walk, but failed when his legs gave-way. It took half an hour for him to get up enough energy to stand again and make his way down the staircase. He thanked his lucky stars that everyone had class, because he would have been so unbelievably embarrassed if anyone saw him this weak and helpless.
The effort of walking was making him dizzy and nauseous, so he had to make a stop half way to his room and get into the bathroom so he could vomit into the sink.
Holding the edge of the sink, Draco pushed himself up so he could get a good look at himself in the mirror. He was a sickly yellow colour and his eyes were bloodshot, even though he hadn't cried it looked like he had.
Disgusted with his current appearance, he turned away just as the bell went. He went into one of the cubicles and locked the door, determined on not letting anyone see him. A few people came to empty their bladders on their way to the next class, but eventually they all left and Draco waited a few more minutes (just to make sure) before coming out.
Eventually he got to his room, but by now he was taking sharp breaths and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop shaking.
He looked in the mirror again and took off his robes and blood soaked shirt. The bite was so deep he could see the bone, and blood was oozing unstoppably out of it making him feel even woozier than he was before.
Draco pointed his wand (which he thankfully didn't drop) and healed the marks on his back. He tried to heal the bite going from his shoulder to his neck but it just stayed the same.
Sighing, he opened the draw where he kept his muggle shirts and dug through the clothes for a few seconds before his hand brushed against something.
What ever it was, it hurt his hand more then he thought was possible. It was like being grated with a cheese grater that had made a burn on his hand. He yelped and stuck his hand in his mouth in an attempt to stop it from hurting. He eventually took his hand out, carefully picked a t-shirt up and ripped it with his teeth before wrapping it around his shoulder and neck.
He looked in the draw and saw what he had brushed his hand against. Underneath where the t-shirt was, was the silver fork he had put in there the day before.
Then finally the reality set in.
"I'm a-a." He didn't want to say it, he didn't want to think it, but he couldn't stop himself. "Werewolf."
He kept whispering 'I'm a werewolf' to himself over and over again as he lent his back against the wall and slid down.
The worst thing was that he had always hated 'half-breeds' but now he was one, and anyone who found out would surely treat him like he would with any part human.
Finally he gave in and buried his head in his hands and cried his heart out for what seemed like forever. He was crying so hard he didn't notice someone coming in and standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame, watching him cry from behind his glasses.
