Chapter 12! Year 6. Lauren is worried, Draco is stubborn. Just a little feelsy, friendship chapter dealing with Draco's thoughts on his mission and Lauren trying to comfort him.

Not much I have to say about it really. Just gonna say thanks to PandaWong, SandyLovesKittens, XenaHades, nightworldangel, FonzFan, The Yoshinator, Isa'ralia Faradien, Lost Astronaut Of Apollo 11, Readergirl99 and DrainaPurpurne2412.

Hope you all, and random readers, can enjoy~

Chapter 12 – Little Miss Worrywart

Lauren was feeling good. It had been two days since but the memory of the academic meeting was still fresh in her mind.

Slughorn had summarily been put in his place by Snape and no longer looked at her like she was a failure and she'd also gotten an ego boost from Flitwick who had asked her to help him demonstrate the Augamenti charm in class today and boasted that he'd taught it to her in third year. Maybe it made her a pretentious but she liked being told that she was good at something, liked being bragged about for once.

Her mood was further improved when, earlier today, Slughorn extended an invitation to one of his Slug Club meetings. Apparently her papers had made an impression. She had very happily declined, but left in the air her attendance at his Christmas party, which he had also invited her to. He'd made her cry and now she was going to make him sweat, worry over the possible loss of a potential future star… Okay, now she really was getting pretentious. But Snape would be proud!

Since it was the end of her very short day, till Astronomy class anyway, she planned to go see him and assist with grading.

That was the plan, but it was quickly thrown down the toilet when she saw Draco, leaning against a window and looking pensive. Nothing good ever happened when he got that look and she had to go see what was wrong… Well she didn't have to but she'd feel bad if she didn't.

Slowly she walked up behind him, slipping her arms around his waist so that she could press against his back in a gentle hug. It was how she tended to greet him when he looked down and he didn't respond badly.

A chilled hand rested over hers and squeezed. She held a little tighter and smiled against the soft wool of his vest.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"You'll start spewing that nonsense about hope again" he scoffed but found it hard to put any malice in his voice. He only sounded tired, tired and a little sad.

"Draco" she urged, knowing that he was just a little ways away from breaking, knowing that he wanted to break and to have someone there to fix him afterwards.

"You don't want to hear it Dari" he supplied, using her last name as a means of distance. Even as he did that, he held her hand a little tighter. Even if he distanced himself in mind, he wanted her there in body, probably wanted anyone there who would just be there and maybe urge him to do what was right.

She sighed, rubbing her cheek against his back as she muttered "but you wanna tell. Don't you, Draco?"

He turned suddenly in her arms, breaking her hold. He advanced on her quickly, backing her up against the far wall of the abandoned corridor they shared.

She gazed up at him when her back hit the stone and she winced when he grabbed her biceps tightly, digging his nails in through the layers of cloth she was garbed in. Something told her that if those weren't there he would have drawn blood.

He didn't ease up though as he leaned down, close to her face. Their noses were less than an inch apart and bumped when he pushed closer still. His lips hovered over hers for a ticking moment and she felt a pang of worry, then they dropped to press against her ear.

"Could you kill someone?" he rasped in a voice so low it was quiet even by her ear. "If your life depended on it, could you, would you? If everyone you knew was forcing you…"

She shook under his grasp but he didn't let her go.

"Well, Lauren" and he practically hissed her name.

"No one can force you."

She swallowed hard then gave a slight cry when he shook her, shoving her hard against the stone wall again.

"Yes they can you delusional little-" His sentence cut off as his seething grey eyes met her green ones, filling with tears but watching him with nothing more than sad disappointment.

"No they can't" she asserted again. "It's your life, your choice. I told you that I know a place-"

"I can't run!" he nearly screamed, dropping her as he turned away.

Her feet had been a bit off of the ground and she lost her balance, falling to her knees with a whimper.

He didn't turn, simply stalked back to the window, slamming his fist hard against the wall beside it.

Through her watery vision she could see red bloom against his fingers and winced for him, disregarding her own pain. She thought that her own scraped knee and bruised arms couldn't hurt half as much as that did and hoped he hadn't just broken a finger or something. If he had he did not make it known. The only evidence of his seething state his quick, uneven breath.

It took little effort for her to get up and she walked up behind him again. Her arms did not go around his waist but instead to his hand.

"Let me see" she requested gently, taking his bleeding hand in hers.

Nothing seemed broken but the skin was split and bruising. Easy enough to heal, she drew her wand and mended things, using Tergeo to clean away the blood.

She kissed the healed skin when she was done and looked up to find his grey eyes watching her, full of so many pained emotions and conflicted feelings. "Draco" she sighed softly and he took away his hand, held it up and pressed it against her lips.

His other hand came up to cover his own mouth and he squeezed his eyes shut trying to collect his thoughts, put out of mind what he'd just done, what he'd just said. What he'd almost said.

"You don't understand" he finally whispered, eyes opening, hands dropping to hang limply at his sides. "You just don't understand."

"I'm trying to" she frowned up at him. "I'm trying to help… Don't you want help?"

"No" he snapped then "yes…" He groaned and sat in the window, head in his hands. "I don't know… You can't help. You don't understand and you can't help" he insisted. "I wish you could."

"I want to." He looked so sad, it was heart breaking. And when he turned those desperate grey eyes on her again she nearly cried.

His hand reached out and wrapped around her wrist, much more gently this time. He pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it, reciprocating her earlier action and then a little more as he kissed the inside of her wrist, over the pulse point.

After a lingering moment he yanked her down and into his lap, her back pressed against his front. He wrapped his arms around her middle and held her close, pressed his face into her hair, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

They sat like that for a long while. She could feel his chest hitch every now and again and knew he was crying, very quietly but he was crying… He and Harry cried the same. Though Harry would let her face him and Draco always kept her gaze away.

She placed a hand over his, rubbing the back of one gently. Her other hand went up to rest against the side of his head, fingers clumsily combing through his hair.

In the mostly silence she wondered what was going on. Who was he told to kill and why? What was he thinking letting these people tell him what to do and why wouldn't he just listen to her? She could help him, or at least die trying. It didn't seem like a bad way to go out if she had to, though she didn't want to.

A soft sigh left her and she leaned back against him a little more. He moved his head to her shoulder, tears mostly abated, and she turned her head to kiss his cheek.

"I worry you know?"

"Yeah… I know."

So? Thoughts? Hoping I didn't drag Draco out of character. He just seemed so sad all through HBP and I wanted to reflect that there. Sad and angry and confused and wanting someone to be there but not because he's a big boy and he can do this only he can't. That's what I was going for. Did I get it?

Anyway, next chapter is back to Sev, happier than this one, and coming up soon. =3

Questions, comments, advice? Send em my way! Or not~ Either way have a good day/night/other~