"He needs to go to Madame Pomfrey!" Hermione hissed, grabbing Harry's arm to spin him around. He had taken Draco straight to the common room, surprising Hermione and Ron who had been waiting for his return.
"I need to get him upstairs!" He had shouted at them, allowing himself to feel panic now that he, and Draco, were safe. He flew past his friends, knowing they were following, and laid Draco down on his bed. Neville, who was the only other person in the room, stared at them, his eyes wide.
"Neville, make sure no one else comes in here." Harry had asked him. Neville responded with a nod, and run towards the door. Harry was sure he was standing on the outside of it, trying to piece together everything he had just seen.
"We can't take him there, Hermione!" Harry said, pulling away from her. "She will just send him back to Slytherin once he's all patched up."
"Harry!" Hermione said, pleading with him. "Once he is patched up is the exact reason he needs to go see her. We can't help him!"
"We have to." Harry said, turning back to face Draco.
"Mate…" Ron said, staring between the two of them and Draco's lifeless body on Harry's bed. "I think he did this to himself."
"What?" Harry demanded, rounding on Ron. "You think Draco tried to kill himself?" Ron shrugged in response, throwing a look at Hermione. "Do you, Hermione?"
"Look at his arms, Harry…" She said slowly, taking a step towards Draco. She hesitated, and Harry could sense the internal battle she was having with herself, before she shook herself and picked his arm from the bed. "These were not done by someone else, Harry. These were intentional."
Harry looked down at Draco's arms. Scars were criss-crossing themselves, heading almost up towards his elbow. He looked up to meet Hermione's eyes.
"Please, Hermione." He whispered. "I just know he can't go back to Slytherin." Hermione shut her eyes, taking a deep breath.
"Ron." She said, after a moment. "Go to my room and get my purple bag. It should be hanging over my bed post."
"But…" Ron started.
"No, I invited you there." Hermione waved him off. "You should be able to get up the stairs with no problem." Ron nodded once and left the room, leaving a worried Harry and Hermione with Draco.
"I can't promise anything, Harry." Hermione said after a minute. "It looks like he took some sort of poison… something that seems to be shutting him down internally. But I can't be sure."
"I trust you." Harry responded automatically.
"That's what worries me, Harry." Hermione turned to him, tears in her eyes. "I don't want to fail and have you hate me because I couldn't save him. I know that Madame Pomfrey would know what he had taken and would know how to fix it…"
Harry took a step towards her, placing an arm on her shoulder. "Hermione, I could never hate you." He said softly. A tear slipped down her cheek and he reached up to swipe it away. "Come here." He said, pulling her into a standing position and wrapping his arms around her. "I never, in a million years, would have expected you or Ron to open your arms to me. And I am so grateful you did. You two are the best friends I could have ever asked for, and nothing will ever, ever change that." He pulled back to look at her. "I love you, Hermione."
Behind them, Ron cleared his throat. Hermione wiped at her eyes and reached for Ron's outstretched hand which held her bag. A look passed over Ron's eyes as he met Harry's, but now wasn't the time to over analyze.
"Alright." Hermione said, composing herself. She sat down on the side of the bed and pulled a bowl out of her bag. She tapped it with her wand and handed the bowl to Ron. "Dip some cloth in there and wrap Draco's arms with it, please." She said, pulling out a large text from the bag. She didn't wait for a response from Ron before she started flipping through the book, mumbling things to herself as she looked at Draco every few minutes, and began looking up his symptoms.
"Harry…" Hermione said, looking up from the book. Harry was at her side immediately. "Did you notice anything around Malfoy in the room? Any bottle or phial? I have narrowed the possible poisons down to three… well, two actually. I don't think Malfoy would have been able to get his hands on a Moonseed potion… Moonseed is extremely rare…" She trailed off, biting her lip again.
"No…" Harry said, mentally kicking himself. "I barely looked around the room once I found him."
"Well… It could be a weedosoros potion… But this states that the effects induce delirium and sorrow before it would cause the drinker to become catatonic… If Malfoy was really was attempting to end his life, I can't see him choosing to pick a poison that would drag it out. So perhaps Baneberry potion…"
"Can you reverse the effects?" Harry asked, falling to his knees before her. She looked at him a moment before nodding slowly.
"Do you have your potion ingredients in here?" She asked. Harry nodded, pushing himself off the floor and running to the end of his bed. Ron knelt beside him, taking ingredients as Harry pressed them into his hands.
They brought the supplies to Hermione who had conjured a small fire at their feet and was already picking up some ingredients from the floor.
"I need you to crush a bezoar, Harry." Hermione said, adding a few ingredients to Harry's cauldron. "The whole bezoar does nothing… but it still has properties that I believe will help advance the effects of the antidote." Harry nodded and grabbed the mortar and pestle. Hermione continued adding ingredients, and muttering to herself as she glanced between the book and the ingredients on the floor. "Okay, Harry." She said, looking up at him. He tipped the mortar over the side of the cauldron, the powdered Bezoar turning the potion a bright shade of blue before calming into a dull purple color. Hermione swallowed hard before she scooped some of the potion into one of the goblets that Harry had duplicated earlier in the day.
"I'll do it." Harry said, taking the goblet from her. "Thank you, Hermione." He added, pushing off the ground and moving towards Draco's side.
"Don't thank me yet." She whispered back. From the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione reach over and grab Ron's hand, Ron intertwining their fingers as they watched Harry.
"Please work." Harry whispered, lifting his old friend's head and pressing the goblet to his lips. The potion slowly crept into Draco's mouth, and Harry paused, watching as the liquid seemed to melt into Draco's tongue and lips. When the cup was drained, Harry sat back on his heels, waiting. "Should we give him more?" He said after a moment, looking over at Hermione.
She had pulled the book forward and was frantically flipping through the pages, desperate to find an answer for him. Behind him, Draco coughed and all three of them spun around to look at him.
"Harry?" Draco asked confused. He blinked his eyes a few times, taking in his surroundings. Harry could see the confusion slowly change to anger and then fear as he realized he wasn't in his room anymore. Then he spotted Ron and Hermione who were leaning over and staring at him. "What the fuck?" He said, trying to push himself back on the bed, but failing.
"Even with the antidote," Hermione said quickly, running her finger along a passage in the book again. "Weakness and general malaise is common and will last for a few days…"
"What did you do, Harry?" Draco asked, looking away from Hermione and Ron on the floor, his eyes settling on Harry.
"The question is, Draco… What did you do?"
"You shouldn't have done this, Harry." Draco said closing his eyes. "You should have left me alone. I told you to leave me alone!"
"So you did this on purpose?" Harry yelled at him, suddenly furious. "You tried to kill yourself?"
"We will be outside, Harry…" Hermione said, quickly pushing herself off of the floor and yanking Ron up with her.
"In hollering distance." Ron added as he was pulled out the door.
"I can't believe you." Harry hissed, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"You have no idea what I'm going through." Draco responded, refusing to meet Harry's eyes.
"What you're going through? You chose this!" Harry fired back at him, reaching forward to grab Draco's face, pulling it towards him.
"I didn't have a choice!"
"There is always a choice!"
"No! There isn't!" Tears sprang to Draco's eyes as he pushed Harry's hand away from him and tried again to scoot up in the bed. He managed to half sit, resting against the headboard. "I never had a choice, Harry. I knew from the time I was a young child, exactly what it meant to be a Malfoy. I was even okay with… Fuck, I wanted it!" Tears streamed down Draco's face, but he didn't seem to notice them. "I wanted the power that came with it, people feared our family and they respected us. Even as a child, I was able to demanded what I wanted and needed from almost everyone my father had over the house. I wanted the money, the properties, and the recognition. I wanted everything! I knew my place and what was expected of me."
He paused, shaking his head. He reached up to wipe as his cheeks, surprised when his hands came away wet.
"And then," He started again, looking down at his hands. "Then, I met you. And after all of the shit you had to endure, you were still so friendly, and so good. You were happy! And I realized, just on that first train ride, that even though I had everything I could possibly want, you had one thing I would never have. You were happy." Draco looked up again, meeting Harry's eyes. "I was honestly surprised you were placed in Slytherin, and even more surprised when you decided to give me a chance as your friend."
"Everyone can choose their own path, Draco." Harry responded after a moment.
"My parents were happy at first, that I had befriended you. From that first Christmas, they wanted me to get information on you… on your whereabouts… who your friends were, who you lived with, anything that they could pass on to him. They used me to get on the good side of him, especially after he obtained the Sorcerer's Stone from Quirrell and was punishing the rest of the Death Eaters for not offering their bodies up for him to use instead. So I started lying to them… I told them you hadn't wanted to be my friend anymore after you realized who my family was. They seemed to accept that."
"Until last summer…" Harry said, remembering the way Draco had reacted when Harry was brought back from the graveyard.
"Exactly. My father was laughing, whispering to me the big plan when you were nearing the center of the maze. And then, you were gone. And I was so scared… I was so afraid he was going to kill you. I couldn't hide it from my father. He told me that the stone wasn't enough for The Dark Lord, and that he still needed your blood to form his body in order to use the stone. He told me he was glad you would be dead tonight, for the Dark Lord and for me. He said I was foolish to place my trust in you, and my beliefs in someone who was born to fail." Draco trailed off and looked away. "When you came back, I cheered… My father pulled me away and took me straight home. They put me in the dungeon… My father refused to feed me until I 'saw reason' and he punished my mother when he caught her bringing me meals. He finally told me after two weeks that if I didn't join the right side? He was going to kill my mother. It was that night I was marked. I didn't have a choice Harry, not really."
"You really think he would have killed your mother?" Harry whispered, the anger he had felt earlier disappeared. Sadness and pity replaced it.
"I honestly think my father is so corrupted, he would do anything The Dark Lord wanted him to. They wanted me to be here, and to be their eyes and ears where they were unable to reach. My father doesn't know I broke off our friendship. I lied to you before… I have been feeding them false information about our fake friendship. But I think they know the truth…"
"Why did you try to kill yourself, Draco?"
"Because I can't do this anymore. I don't want to be on their side. This," Draco pulled up his left sleeve, ripping off the murtlap essence wraps Ron had placed there earlier. Scars littered his arm, but the Dark Mark was completely untouched. "Is something I can't change. It will define me for the rest of my life. I stopped wanting this the day on the train."
Harry ran his fingers over Draco's arm, ignoring the shudder that ran though him. He gripped his wrist harder as Draco tried to pull away.
"Just because you have this mark…" Harry started.
"It will always be a part of me, Harry. I've been poisoned by him." Instead of trying to pull his arm away again, he settled for yanking his sleeve down. "The questions I've been getting from my father have been harder to answer… And I know they want me to make a move. They have been talking about me trying to get you out of the castle – by whatever means necessary. I know we aren't friends anymore, but I refuse to hurt you, no matter what side I'm on."
Harry was quiet for a moment. "I think by the actions you're taking… you are still my friend. It's a pretty shitty way to be someone's friend, but you are still trying to have my back."
"Don't defend me, Harry." Draco said finally twisting his arm away and crossing them over his chest. "I have done nothing this year except betray you."
"I'm still here and kicking." Harry shrugged, a small smile on his lips.
"You're impossible." Draco scowled at him.
"Get some sleep." Harry said, pushing off of the bed. "You're going to stay in here." He added when Draco tried to push himself up. "This conversation isn't over."
"I figured." Draco said, rolling away from Harry with a sigh. Harry waited a moment before he pulled the covers up from the end of the bed and pulled them over Draco's body. He carefully cleaned up the potion ingredients from the ground and replaced them in his trunk. When he was finished, he saw Draco's eyes were closed and the boy's breathing was steady.
"Harry?" Draco called as Harry reached for the door. "Thank you."