Chapter Six: Spider Web
Alexia was dancing and spinning and no could touch her or hurt her. And the music filled her mind, no, her being. It was so blissful and complete. Well, there was something, something important that was unfinished. But it was small and like a bug on the other side of a crowded ballroom she could push it from her mind. Something was wrong but Alexia couldn't exactly think of it. It was insignificant in her world, her dancing, spinning and pretty world. Something pulled at her mind but the pretty music drowned it out. Oh, the music. It was truly exquisite.
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Draco had been wringing his hands for the last hour feeling the wood and the metal grinding into his palms. It felt good, having some control. Harry and Hermione had left hours ago, why, because he told them to. Then he heard it, like a blind man hears a mouse scuttling across his floor. click, click, click, click. Draco knew that sound better than his any other in this world. His father's heels click-click-clicking along the stone floors that always eerily reminded Draco of his houses own floors. He approached so that his feet were barely in Draco's peripheral vision.
"Come, Draco. We need to get going." How could Draco forgotten his annual family vacation? Draco was shaking slightly as he looked up at the man he had desired to become, but now he saw what he really was; a pillar of rock and ice. Draco was not afraid anymore. He stood up and met his father's eyes. Draco pushed the broken arrow into Lucius's hands. He cringed back from the arrow but still held it. Draco took another step forward so he was right in his Lucius's face.
"You. Missed." Draco back off and walked down to the end of the hall.
"What do you mean, Draco?" Lucius had turned and his eyes followed his son down the hall.
"She's not dead. Just barely, but she's still alive." and Draco walked out of the hall. Lucius stared down at the arrow and smiled.
"She's not dead." Lucius echoed.
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Harry laid in his bed. His hair still slightly damp from the shower he'd just taken. 'All that blood. Can one human really have all that blood?' Harry shuddered as he remembered the way her skin had been pulled up with the bloody arrow. 'Why did Draco just freeze up?' Harry thought as he turned over on his side and recalled the way Draco had barely gotten out of the bed to help his sister. Then later instructing him and Hermione to go back to their common room like he had been fine the whole time. Harry sighed, he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight with images of Alexia's agony ridden and bloody face telling him one more thing before she had gone under;
'...take care of Drac-, 'kay?...'
Then she had slipped literally in Hermione's arms until her forearm hit the arrow which drew a slow rattling breath. Hermione screamed for Madam Pomfrey before she actually came. Then Healers from St. Mungo's came to preform the surgery but then informed them that she should not be moved until she wakes. 'If she wakes' thought Harry darkly. Harry flipped in his bed and let his roommate's slow breath lull him to sleep.
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Ron laid in his bed slowly flipping through the Transfiguration textbook when Hermione burst in. "Ron, come quick! Draco's woken up." She was smiling like it was a good thing.
"Why do I care if that prat's woken up?" said Ron not looking up from the book, even though he wasn't really reading.
"W-well, I would have thought, um, I would've thought Harry would've told you that, well,-"
"Hermione, I don't have all day! What is it?" Ron sighed looking up from the book.
"Harry likes Draco and well, Draco has been nicer to Harry. And, well, I thought Harry would've told you that, since you're, you know, best friends." Hermione shrugged a little and a nervous giggle escaped her mouth, she thought Ron knew...
Ron's head swung down and he looked at the page. "Harry likes Draco?" Hermione nodded her head, not caring if he couldn't see her. He looked up and Hermione felt a pang of sympathy in her heart. "He likes Draco Malfoy? The same one who has consecutively tortured me, you and Harry for the last six years? Or are you talking about another 'Draco'?"
Hermione backed out of the room "Are you coming or not, Ronald?" She said using what the boys described as her 'teacher voice'.
"No, I think I'll just stay here and wallow for a bit." Ron looked down at the book again and listened as Hermione left the room, closing the door behind her. The was silence for a second until with a shout of pure emotion Ron raised the book over his head and hurled it across the room. Ron pulled himself up into a sitting position on his bed and preceded to beat his pillow to feathery pulp. Without undressing Ron fell back on his bed. The door opened again and Ron sat up fully ready to give Hermione a mouthful for coming back but, alas, it was Seamus.
"Ron! Oh, my god! Ron, you have to come and see this! Plea-" For the second time that afternoon Ron cut someone off.
"Oh, my god! Seamus, I don't care. I don't care what ever it is! I just don't care. So, you can leave. Now." He flopped back down onto his bed. Ron was rude and mean but Seamus didn't back down that easily. Seamus crossed his arms across his chest and stood there staring until Ron said something. "What do you want now?"
"I want to know who got your bloomers in a bunch." Ron sat up again and looked pointedly at Seamus.
"Well, if you really must know, it was a combination of three huge idiots." Seamus took a running jumping at the bed and landed right next to Ron.
"Who are these three?" He said poking Ron in the side until he laid down next to him.
"The first is none-other-than: Harry effin' Potter. The second is a slimy git we know as Draco Malfoy and the third just had to be Hermione Granger." He said staring at the ceiling mournfully.
"Explain, please." He said as he rested his head on Ron's shoulder staring the same spot with mild interest.
"It's a long story."
"I have time."
"Harry likes Draco, Draco likes Harry back and Hermione told me because she thought I already knew."
"That's not very long."
"I wasn't finished."
"Oh."
"I like Harry."
"Oh."
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"Ugh." Draco moaned into the pillow. "Oh, my head." He whispered to no one. Draco pushed himself up off his stomach into a sitting position. 'Here's what's going today,' Draco thought as he stretched 'I'm going to go see Lexie with Harry. She'll wake up and everything will be okay. And The Dark Lord and my father can go suck it.' Draco let his feet swing down and hit the hard wood floors "Fat chance. I'm so dead."
"That's for sure." Blaise said coolly as he strolled into the room.
"How do you mean?"
"Well, a little birdie told Pansy that you kissed Harry Potter and she's on a rampage. I'm surprised that you weren't smothered in the night." Blaise chuckled and tossed Draco a blueberry muffin. "Oh, and you missed breakfast." he added cheerfully.
"Perfect, what's today?" said Draco as he caught the muffin with ease and took a large bite out of the top of it.
"Saturday, no classes, no worries. Well, not for me, at least. You are in so much troub-"
"Alexia was hit with an arrow and now she's in a coma." Draco cut in surprisingly monotone.
"Oh." Blaise said simply, flopping down on the bed next to Draco. "Are you all right?"
"It's Lexie who's in a coma, not me." Draco said before taking another bite out of the muffin. "Oh, and by the way who was this 'little birdie' that told Pansy?
"Hm, oh, just some first year who was walking by the Hospital Wing." Blaise shrugged slightly and looked down at Draco's bare feet. "Why Potter?"
At that point Draco whole upper body disappeared into a little ball on his lap. "Because he is 'The Golden Boy', The-Savior-Of-The-Wizarding-World', he's perfect." Draco said, quite muffled.
"I never liked gold though." Draco looked up at his friend and grinned.
"Silver's always been more my style." They finished in unison and laughed. It was joke that everyone in Slytherin had been saying for years, because of Gryfinndor's house colors being 'gawdy' and 'loud' in the Slytherin's opinion.
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Waking up was hard enough in Harry's opinion, and mostly everyone else's in the boy's room, but having to try to accomplish this task with the stress of a woman lying in the hospital with near-fatal wounds and your boyfriend being in your only rival house and your best friend being mad at you for reasons unknown was next to impossible, no scratch that, it was impossible.
Harry opened his mouth to yawn, but only got a mouthful of pillow. He sat up and removed the pillow from his face. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night and flopped back down on the bed to fall asleep when another pillow hit his abdomen.
"Get up, or you'll miss breakfast." Ron said with a tinge in his voice. Harry opened one eye lazily and stared at the fuzzy image of Ron.
"I'm so tired, Ronny. Let me sleep some more. 'Kay?" He murmured groggily, closing his eye again.
"No, you really need to get up. You'll miss breakfast and then you'll eat to much at lunch and be sick and skip dinner." Ron said as he took the pillow off of Harry's stomach and flopped it down again.
"Roo-oon, let me sleep. Why do you care if I make my self sick?" Harry rolled over on his side to avoid getting hit with the pillow again.
"Get. Up. Now." Ron said in a tone that the only other place Harry had ever heard used was by Hermione.
"Did I tell you the news?" Harry said trying to change the subject away from him.
"What news?" Ron snappily.
"Lexie was shot with an arrow yesterday. I was there." Harry said frowning slightly at his and Ron's tone of voice.
"Oh." Ron said simply. "Are you, is she all right?" Harry felt pressure on the other side of his bed as Ron sat down.
"She's in a coma, I'm, I'll be okay, I guess." Harry shrugged slightly but it didn't have the affect he was going for since he was lying face down. Harry was now fully awake but still not in the mood for breakfast.
"Oh, well, then all the better reason to come to breakfast and tell everyone what happened." Ron stood up again and picked up his pillow only to plop it down Harry's side.
"I wonder if Draco will be there." Harry wondered aloud flipping over on to his other side and grabbing his glasses. Ron sighed a small sigh as he threw his pillow back on his own bed. "You know me and Dra-"
"I know." Ron said quickly, glancing back at him.
"How?" Harry muttered unhappy that he hadn't gotten to tell Ron himself.
"Hermione. She came to me after he woke up and spilled the imaginary beans. Sorry, judging by the look on your face I think you wanted tell me yourself. Although it's not really Mione's fault either, she thought you'd have already told me. I was surprised." Ron cast a look over his shoulder again and seeing the unhappy look on Harry's face, turned back smiling.
Harry sighed. "I'm still not hungry."
"I don't care. Get dressed. It's Saturday, you know, maybe we could go see Hagrid. After breakfast, of course." Ron sighed again. "I'm going downstairs and if you're not down there in ten minutes I'm going to come up here and kick your arse." He walked out.
Harry, knowing that, in fact, Ron could, and would, kick his arse, pushed himself out of bed. Harry reached in and pulled out a shirt at random and it turned out to be his insanely baggy, long-sleeved, black shirt with exactly eleven holes in it. He pulled it on anyway, but reached in for another shirt so he wouldn't get hell from Hermione. And, now, possibly Ron. The next shirt he pulled out was a very faded green one that he'd gotten from Dudley last year, so he knew that it was bigger than the black one. Then he pulled on a pair of faded dark blue jeans and headed for the door.
"Wait." a sleepy voice came from one the beds. It was Seamus, he'd propped himself up on one arm and the thick scarlet blanket that had been pulled up to his chin had fallen around his waist revealing light-blue pajamas with teddy bears on them.
"What is it, Seamus?" Harry said softly.
"You can' go out lookin' like tha'." Seamus muttered pulling himself out of bed an slouching to the end of it. "Come 'ere." Seamus waved him over and when Harry got closer he saw that the teddy bears on Seamus's pajamas were not regular bears. They were all wearing black and had little sliver rings threaded through their ears, noses and lips.
"Seamus, what're you wearing?" Harry leaned down and poked one of the bears.
"My pajamas." Seamus said as he slapped Harry's hand away. "Look, you can' go out like that. Those jeans are terrible." Seamus poked one of the more permanent grass stains on them. "Here you can wear some o' mine." He opened his trunk and flopped down on to the floor next to it and began to dig through it. "Found 'em." Seamus said triumphantly.
"I really don't think I should be wearing your clothes."
"Nope, as your friend, I can not let you go out looking like a raga-muffin. Now, put these on." Seamus handed Harry some black cargo pants with several green straps and chains. "I think you can get away with the shirt but be careful with that hole on the inside of your elbow."Seamus got up and walked back to his bed fully prepared to slip back to dreamland.
"Wait, Seamus, you really want me to wear these, uh, pants?"
"Yes." Seamus settled down in his bed as he settled the matter. Harry had just finished changing his clothes when Ron stormed in.
"Harry Potter, I gave you ten minutes and now it's time for an arse kicking!" But he stopped when he realized that Harry was fully dressed.
"Ron, I was just about to come down, but I was stopped by the fashion police." Harry gestured to his pants and sighed.
"Oh, well, we should get going now." Ron grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him halfway down the stairway only to stop, turn around and fully look at Harry. "Are you wearing Seamus's pants? And are you really wearing Slytherin colors?"
Harry really looked at himself for the first time. "Well, I am wearing Seamus's pants, but I didn't realize I was wearing Slytherin colors." Harry looked Ron apologetically, smiling slightly. Ron seemed to melt right there on the stairway, his shoulders hunched and his expression changed ever so slightly. Harry almost didn't notice his change in demeanor.
"Come on. We need to get to breakfast before it's over." Ron grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him the rest of the way down the stairs. When they got to the Great Hall Harry looked around for some time trying to see if Draco was there. Finally Ron snapped "Harry, he's not here. Okay?"
"Why wouldn't he come?" Harry said as he stared dejectedly at his plate.
"Maybe, maybe, he doesn't... like breakfast." Ron said lamely but in a way it was comforting to Harry. He smiled and looked up at Ron, who smiled back.
"Oh, really. And I 'spose that's because he doesn't like watching you vacuum food into your mouth!" Harry said lightly with a glint in his eyes.
"You say that as if he's ever even looked at me." Ron laughed a little and poked Harry in the side. The two laughed and ate for a little bit more and finally went down to Hagrid's house.
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Draco had been sitting in the Hospital wing for a half an hour working out a small knot in Alexia's hair. Her hair had created a golden halo around her head, but all that resulted in was making her more pale. She looked deathly pale in Draco's opinion. Her hair was slightly teased from not being washed and her face seemed waxy and her bones seemed to large for her skin as if it was a dress that was a few size to small.
"So how's she been fairing?" Ron said from next Draco. Draco jumped away from Ron when he spoke for he hadn't know he was there.
"Oh, I suppose she fine. I wish she'd wake up, though." Draco mumbled after he was a safe distance from Ron. "Where's Harry?"
"He's off somewhere else looking for you. We split up to look for you after we got back from Hagrid's and we said we would make you stay where ever you where until the other came along. Anyway I'm kind of glad I found you first, because I really need talk to you." Ron settled down in a chair on the other side of Alexia's bed and reclined slightly.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" Draco said forcing himself to stop fiddling with her hair.
"Well, I really wanted to talk about Harry and you and, if we have time Alexia."
"Why would you want to talk to me about that?" Draco questioned leaning forward slightly.
"I wanted to talk to you about the danger you're putting them in." Draco opened his mouth to speak but Ron held up a hand to silence him. "Please, let me go on. You are the son of a convicted Death Eater and Harry is, well, Harry Potter. Everyone knows of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's disdane of women being at the head of a family and Alexia was older than you so she would have been head of family once your parents died, now, look at her. Really, don't look so surprised. You never thought about this?"
Draco opened his mouth to talk once again but Ron stopped him again.
"Please, it was retorical." Ron scoffed a little but went on. "Anyway I don't think the other Death Eaters will be as delighted as you that Harry is yours now. And Alexia will never be truly safe now that her 'little' secret of being a Malfoy got out. And now you'll never really safe if you and Harry's little relationship gets out. Look, I'm not just worried about Harry, I'm worried about you and Alexia as well."
Draco opened his mouth again not to talk but just in shock, he'd never actually considered it this seriously. Could he really be putting Harry and Lexie in danger? Just by being around them? He stared down at Alexia's almost motionless body as if expecting an answer from her. Could this really be all his fault?
"I really think you're putting Harry and Alexia in danger just by being around them." Draco shivered slightly as Ron voiced his thoughts. Ron came around the bed and leaned on the back of the chair putting his head right next to his so Ron's lips just barely ghosted over Draco's right ear, Ron's left hand came up clasped Draco's chin, gently directing his face toward the deathly pale, barely moving, almost dead form of Alexia and whispered in his ear. "Just think all of this could have been avoided if you just weren't around."
"Just think..." Draco hollowly repeated.
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Harry had been looking everywhere for Draco when he finally thought of the Hospital wing. He was on his way there when he literally ran into Hermione. The books she had been carrying had clattered to the floor.
"Oh, Harry!" She shouted when she realized it was he who'd she'd just run into. "I've been looking for you. I've just seen Ron coming out of the Hospital wing and he told me to tell you, if I saw you, that Draco was in there and that he was going down to the Great Hall for lunch and he was going to bring Draco back some. I would have gone in but I had to go to the Library and pick up some books because I wanted to look into something my teacher said in arithimencey."
"Hermione, you don't have to explain everything." Harry laughed as he picked up the last of the books and piled them back into her hands. "You can come with me right now. I was just on my on my up there." Harry and Hermione made their way to the Hospital wing in better mood than before but they both became grave as they entered the white room. Draco turned when he heard them enter, his face softened for a moment but then hardened and he turned back to Alexia.
"Hello, Harry. Hermione." Draco said quietly. As they came closer they both realized that Draco was sitting away from Alexia and he had his arms crossed in front of him an a hard look on his face like he'd come to a decision he'd not wanted to make.
"Hi, Draco." Harry said happier than Draco. "How's Lexie been?"
"Fine, I suppose. She doesn't move alot but she's still breathing." Draco gestured to the chairs in the room. "Sit." He said simply. Hermione went to the other side of the bed and dumped all her books onto one of the chairs and sat next to them leaving only one seat open for Harry the one next to Draco. Harry lowered himself down into it only to have Draco shift away from him as if they didn't know each other, but Harry masked his hurt behind several questions about Lexie and after several answers of 'I don't know.' and 'You should ask Madam Pomfrey.' He turned to Hermione began to ask her what she was studying but that too fell into lapse as Harry had no idea what she was talking about. The silence grew and expanded until they were all certain it was going to burst.
"Hey, who died?" a weak voice asked from the bed between them all. There was more silence for a split second.
"Lexie you're awake!" Draco cried out. She tried to push herself up but fell back down and gripped the part of her johnny that was slightly thicker than the rest, where the bandages were.
"Oh, my god! Stay down! Don't get up." Hermione shouted springing up from her chair.
"Why shouldn't I? What happened?" Lexie said surprisingly.
"Well, you were shot with an arrow." Harry said lightly. "Don't you remember?"
"Oh, I thought that was dream." She bared her teeth and her hand fluttered over her padding. She looked up to the ceiling and said, seemingly to herself, "I was not expecting this." She sighed. "Hey, Hermione can I talk to you," She glanced over at the boys. "in private." after Hermione had shooed them out of hearing range and shut the dark blue curtain, the boys saw Hermione's silhouette slip back to Alexia's bed side and major whispering ensued. There was some rustling of sheets and a few pained sighs and two silhouettes moved around behind the curtain, now. Draco made a move to stop them but Harry reached out a hand to stop him from going any further. Draco leaned slightly into the touch and turned toward Harry, his face gave to a half smile.
"I'm sorry, about earlier, I was just worried about Lexie." His tone was apologetic but his eyes said something different, completely different. Harry ignored Draco's eyes and so his own eyes floated around the room looking at anything but those grey eyes.
"It's okay, it'd be weird if you weren't worried." Harry let out a small chuckle as he felt Draco's arms tightly wrap around his neck.
Draco buried his head into Harry's chest and muttered "Thank you, Harry. Thank you for everything you've ever done for anyone. Thank you, Harry Potter." It was slightly muffled from Harry's shirt, but he got it. Harry wrapped his own arms around Draco's chest and buried his face into his bent, blond head.
"Uh, your welcome. And thank you for being everything I can't." They stood like that for a long time until they heard the rustle of curtains and a long 'Aw' broke through it. They pulled away from each other, Harry beat red and Draco just as cool-as-cucumber. Alexia was standing away from her bed and Hermione was crawling into it.
"Hermione, your hair is blond!" Harry almost shouted.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious. Now, will you please be quiet before Madam Pomfrey comes out and realizes that I'm trying sneak out." Alexia hissed and cast a wary eye over the to the office door. "Come on, I'll explain outside." Harry took in what Alexia was wearing; it was a sleeveless, long, simple, white dress that pooled on the floor over her bare feet and her hair was still frizzy but it had been pulled away from her face with a thin white headband. Maybe it was just Harry or an illusion created by the dress but she looked skinnier and paler to him.
Now that all three of them where a safe distance away from the Hospital wing Draco stopped them "What's going on here?" He said urgently.
"I have something to show you two but I can't do that if I'm laying in a bed in the Hospital wing and I know Madam Pomfrey would never let me leave in my state. So I used a charm on Hermione's hair to make it lighter and Hermione used a spell on my wound to make it heal faster and-"
"Why didn't they do that in the first place?" Harry cut in.
"Because it is very painful and the scar is usually larger than if you were to just let it heal naturally. Anyway, Hermione will take my place while I'm out of the bed and just keep her head covered and I get to show you guys my surprise." She smiled brightly. "Come on, we don't have much time 'till Madam Pomfrey notices that her patient has shrunk two inches." She began a brisk walk down the corridor despite her bare feet.
Draco and Harry followed after her but she began to slow and her walking became heavier and she would wince every few steps. Harry ran up next to her. "Do you need any help?" Alexia nodded and put her arm over his shoulder and began to lean into him for support. Draco walked up on the other side of Harry.
"I'd help too, but you know?" Draco shrugged his shoulders apologetically.
"It's okay, Draco. I can bear her." Harry sighed dramatically.
"Oh, are you calling me fat?!" Alexia cried in mock offense despite her weakness at the moment.
"Actually, I think you've lost weight since we left the Hospital wing." Draco stared at Alexia in interest.
"Huh. I guess getting shot with an arrow and being out for a day takes a lot out of you." She giggled lightly as they turned the corner and Harry began to wonder where they where going.
"Lexie, are we going to the R.O.R?" Alexiagave Harry a small smile and glanced over to Draco, who was watching the clouds drift by as the morning crawled into the afternoon. 'Oh.' Harry mouthed. When they finally got to the bare stretch of wall Harry was practically carrying Alexia.
"Maybe we should go back?" Draco said, his voice filled with concern.
"Yeah," Harry agreed "maybe Hermione messed up that spell. It's possible." Harry tried to shrug but, as half of him was weighed down by Alexia, it wasn't really a shrug.
"No." She said forcefully. "No, we've come this far. We're right here, come on, we're running out of time." Alexia pushed herself off of Harry's shoulder and painfully paced three times in front of the wall.
"What're you doing?" Draco practically screamed but he was silent when the wall began to bend and shape into large, oak doors. "What is this?" Draco whispered.
"Draco open the doors." she said as she collapsed back onto Harry "This is the Room Of Requirement. You walk past it three times and think of what you need. Then - ta-da - you have this." Draco pushed open the door to reveal a large stone room, the floor was covered in dead leaves that scuttled across the floor when a slight, cold breeze blew in from floor to ceiling archways that looked as though they might have had stained-glass in them at one point. Draco looked up, expecting to see a high ceiling with matching stone as the rest of the room and there was one, but the thing that shocked him was that there were hundreds, possibly thousands, of pieces of glass hanging from it.
"Lexie, what is this?" Harry said takig a few steps in with Alexia.
"It's a place. I found it in my third year." She said with a pained expression on her face.
"So this is what you wanted to show us?" Draco turned to Alexia his face filled with shock and a little anger. "This is what made you trick Madam Pomfrey, and put yourself through so much pain? A dusty old room?"
"Draco it's not just 'a dusty old room', it's so much cooler than that. Harry, to the middle of the room." She made a grand gesture to the center and also motioned for Draco to follow them. When they got to the center Alexia once again broke away from Harry and this time lowered herself to the floor and laid down. Her dress splayed out around her as she patted the floor space on either side of her so the boys could lay.
"Why are we here laying on the floor staring at rather sharp pieces of glass hanging above us?" Harry asked after a little bit.
"We are waiting for the sun to get into the exact position, now shut up." Alexia shifted and winced slightly but didn't complain. "Harry what time is it?" she said after shifting for a second time.
"2:19, why?" Harry said as he glanced at his watch.
"Okay, only eleven more minutes to go. It should go by in flash. Right?"
Of course. Only you would make us lay on the floor for eleven minutes." Draco muttered. Alexia nodded her head in agreement quickly.
"I'm also the only one who is able to get away with it." She smiled proudly and, just a she said, the eleven minutes went by in a flash. Harry and Draco were talking but she cut them off. "Shh, you guys look at the ceiling, it only last for a few minutes." Harry looked away from the other side of the conversation and gasped.
The sunlight had hit a few large pieces of glass hanging near the windows and they had in turn shot the light into other pieces of and those had shot it into more until all of them were lit up. The ceiling had turned into a giant sunlight spiderweb.
"M-Merlin, Lexie, this is beautiful!" Draco finally choked out.
"I know." She said but her voice was horse and than she began to cough. Her body convulsed and coughing became harsher. She started to talk in between coughs "I guess... I'm lucky, I always... wanted... this place... to be the... place where I... died." She moved her hand away from her mouth. Her hand was covered in blood as was her mouth.
"Alexia!" Draco screamed sitting up beside her.
"Draco, shhh." she murmured but it was lost on Draco.
"Oh my god! Oh my god! Harry we have to get her back."
"Your right. Okay, Alexia I'm going to pick you up and carry you to the Hospital wing. Okay?" Harry started to stand up but Alexia grabbed his shoulder and with surprising strength pulled him back down.
"No. Okay? I don't want to leave. Just shut up." Draco kept babbling though. "Draco, I said shut up." She clapped her bloody hand over his mouth and her recoiled and became quiet. There was silence for a few seconds punctuated by a cough or two from Alexia and a few sobs from Draco . He never wiped off his mouth though. Harry just stared down at seemingly the only color on Alexia's face; the splotch of thick blood on her mouth and around it. Her breathing hitched for a second and stopped. Just stopped. Her eyes didn't close, she didn't smile and hug Draco or Harry and tell tham good-bye, nothing. Draco didn't move, didn't speak, nothing.
Harry looked up sowly from Alexia to Draco. He was saying something now, clutching Alexia's had and murmering something over and over. "Draco?" Harry said, leaning forward tying to catch it.
"Say it's a joke. Say it's a joke. Say it's a joke."
"What?" Harry leaned closer.
"Say it's a joke. Say it's a joke." Draco was clutching her hands so tight, Harry thought the bones would break. "Say. It's. A. Joke." Draco said fiercely, darkly.
"Draco," Harry was crying now. "it's not a joke."
Nanci: WHHOOOO!!! That was 6,026 words! Whoa! That is the longest chapter I have written, ever. SIX THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX WORDS! I'm freaking out... It was also the most sad. So there.
Mandy: That was pretty sad.
Damion: I'm think I'm going to cry.
Nanci: So, on even sadder news; I'm going to a boarding school. No joke. It is unknown if I will be able write these there. I know, life sucks. If I'm able to you'll know and if I can't I'll write during the thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. I'll get them out some how. I promise.
Damion: On a happier note that pimple on the end of your nose is gone.
Mandy: Damion... shut up.