AN: This one hand me biting my nails while I wrote it…I'm pathetic but it's alright. –Richard S.
Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 18
Killious spent the first thirty minutes of her class ignoring entirely everything Snape was saying, she stared intently at the seat next to hers, the empty stool that use to contain her best friend.
"After we've added the aged clever cloves what should we add next…Killious, enlighten us." Illy glanced up at once, hearing her name torn her from her memories of the night of the chess tournament, she had just reached a good part of the mental movie. She had played it over a thousand times since Draco left, if was her last genuinely important memory of him.
She glanced at the board where Snape had written 'Pondering Potion',
"You powder the cloves and then you add extract of lavender." She shrugged before returning to her intense staring contest with the stool. Snape sighed and went on with his lesson. Illy's gaze had trailed to the floor, she looked across the room to the scorched ground where Harry and Ron's cauldron had leaked and fallen on Ron's foot, just as she did a piece of paper fluttered to the stool beside her. She opened it slowly, hoping that it wasn't another attempted flirtation on the part of Harry, she read the text with drawl enthusiasm: 'I've missed you more than you know.' She glanced around the room, no one was looking her direction, she scribbled back, in the purple ink she favored, regardless of grade deductions. 'If this is who I think it is, I've missed you enough to want you back, even though you'll be upset with me' She sent the note off towards its owner, it fluttered to a part of the room behind her that was out of her line of vision.
Illy scratched down a few notes on the lesson to appease Snape, he had noticed the notes but hadn't said anything yet, it was best to encourage that. A new note landed on her desk, 'What could I ever be upset at you for' It was Draco, or a very cruel person, but most likely Draco, she decided to play with him a little, 'I'm sorry, but me and Harry, well I was lonely and we spent the night together…and we didn't sleep' she added the last few words for good measure and sent the note on its way.
"YOU DID WHAT!?" Draco shoved the door to the class room, Hermione gasped, Ron's face lit up with a smile that he shortly after stiffed, Harry scowled, and Illy was out of her seat before any one else had time to react. She launched herself into his arms, throwing her hands around his neck and pulling her knees up as he hugged her and spun her around. Ron's smile had just left by the time Illy had buried her face in Draco's shoulder, Harry was outraged, he stood up, knocking over his stool as he did so.
"Tell me you did not really shag Potter." Draco whispered into Illy's hair, as he ran his hands over her back. She pulled her head from its spot on his shoulder, tears in her now black eyes.
"Of course not!" He smiled at her, leaning in to plant a long over due kiss on her lips,
"Do you think you could save it for a more appropriate time?" Harry sneered before Draco had a chance to claim his kiss. He immediately pulled his face away from Illy's and instead set her feet back on the ground, though he refused to let go of her.
"Must you ruin everything Potter?" Draco glared at Harry as he pulled Illy tighter, emphasizing his power over her at the moment. Illy was tempted to stop the fight, but she was even more tempted to snogg Draco in front of the entire class, so she sought the happy middle ground and nuzzled herself deeper into Draco's chest, breathing freely for the first time in a week and a half.
"Only when you disrupt a class for the sake of trying to jump one of my best friends…again." Harry put bitter emphasis on the end of his sentence.
"She ran to me Potter, not the other way around." Draco's grip on Illy was loosening, he had missed fighting with Harry almost as much as he had missed Killious. Snape was debating whether he should laugh or throw Draco out of the class.
"If I had someone threaten to rape me I'd do what they said too!" Illy's eyes widened, Harry had always been aggressive, but this was excessive. She let go of Draco's waste, earning her a puppy face from the boy, but she had to stop this before it got ugly. She opened her mouth to speak in Draco's defense, but he put a finger to her lips. "I'll take care of it, I wouldn't want you thinking that I can't protect my own honor, let alone yours love."
"Potter, I do believe that it could be considered malicious verbal assault to accuse a fellow student of rape. I'll leave your class now professor Snape, I would hate to disrupt it further." Draco nodded to Snape who did the same. Harry took his seat again, but still watched maliciously as Draco hugged Illy tight one last time, "Get a pass to the restroom." He said before leaving with a signature Draco Malfoy hair flip. That was when Illy saw the bandages, Draco's hair was longer than ever, down to his eye brows, and it was hiding some nasty bandages, several layers thick in one spot. Illy took her seat, tearfully as she attempted to wipe away her tears, only smudging her eyeliner across her face. Her hand shot into the air,
"Yes?" Snape asked, slightly shocked when he looked at her now smudged face.
"May I be dismissed to the restroom?...to fix my makeup." Snape narrowed his eyes, giving her what she had affectionately labeled the daddy eye, of disapproval. He knew just what she planned to do, and fixing eyeliner would take no where near that long. None the less he nodded and dismissed her, killing his parental instincts and returning to the lesson at hand. Illy would have to find a way to explain this to Harry that wouldn't send him into another rage, as she walked by Harry she placed a hand on his shoulder, and mouthed out a small, "thank you" he could decide what it was for on his own, she had better things to do.
Illy slipped out the door of her class quietly, making sure the door shut completely as she looked around for a certain Slytherin prince. Draco was no where to be found, she must have left sooner than he imagined, she walked to the bathroom, floating on air the entire way, doing her best to be patient, she would see him at dinner, that was enough. She wiped off the smudged liner and ran a brush through her hair, doing her best not to dwell on Draco, he would dominate her thought for most of the class inevitably, but that didn't mean she couldn't fight it. She washed her hands, unsurprised by the cessation of her urges to clean herself. Instead she found herself satisfied in just warm water and a small amount to soap, no scrubbing, no picking, or at least not for now, the morning would be different, mornings always were.
Illy opened the bathroom door and almost screamed out of pure delight. Draco stood across the hall in an alcove that receded around four feet into the wall, just enough space for two bodies to be undetected. His hair was in his eyes again, and tipped around his neck, it was perfectly straight, but choppy, about as shaggy as a Malfoy could get. His pale skin was accentuated by the dark grey sweater he wore, it was one of Illy's favorites, soft, reversible with black stripes, cashmere. A collared white shirt with grey pinstripes peaked out of the top and bottom of the sweater, tucked into the front of his designer jeans behind his belt buckle, but left to tail in the back of his pants. He was staring intently at the stone floor in front of him, one foot on the wall, the other on the ground, his shoes were black dragon hide, this man wreaked of wealth, he even smelled like it.
"I didn't thin purebloods were aloud to shop at muggle stores." Illy moved towards Draco, who lifted his head and reached out to put his hands on her hips possessively.
"I didn't know that mudbloods were vixens as well as demons." He smirked at her, moving each thumb to rest just inside the top of her skirt. "My father takes me on vacation a lot, we have to fit in, but of course we don't because no muggle spends this much money on clothing without being some faux god." Illy smiled warmly, as she craned her neck to rest it on his shoulder, inhaling deeply the scent of his body.
"What did the doctor's say?"
"Just that it was a miracle I don't have permanent brain damage, I guess we can thank Pomfry for saving my arse in the end."
"I'll have to make sure I do that." Illy whispered in his ear. He rubbed his thumbs over her hips once or twice before moving closer to her face. She closed the distance with a kiss, plunging her fingers into his now long hair, he backed her towards a wall, his hands moved over her butt, he lifted her up off the ground, pleasantly surprised when she wrapped her legs around his waste. He moved one hand to her back, and the other ran across her face and to her hair. She put a hand underneath his sweater, gently running her fingers over the spots where her nail marks had been.
"I had quite a time explaining those to the nurses, I hope you know that." He slipped a hand back to the top of her skirt, using his thumb to massage the inside of her hip bone. She moaned into his mouth, sending chills downs his body and giving his already swelling erection a boost that it really didn't need.
"That was the idea. Now unless you want more keep your mouth shut and continue." Draco now employed both hands, relying only on his hips and the wall to keep Illy up. Her chest pressed against his, it was oddly unfamiliar, but Draco ignored it and continued to work his thumbs steadily closer to her panty line, he withdrew one hand and put it under her shirt, hoping to get in a decent grope before Killious had one of her insane mood swings and decided to head back to class, his hand ran over her ribs, he went entirely stiff and set her back on the ground, gently but firmly.
"Killious, open your shirt." Illy panicked,
"I will not Draco Malfoy." She tried to kiss him again, he allowed it but broke it quickly.
"Fine, pull your skirt down."
"Draco, that's a bit much for a hallway don't you think?" She giggled at his rash behavior, but he remained serious, he pulled the skirt down to the top of her panties, exposing her protrusive hip bones, dotted with blood vessels that had risen to the surface of the worn skin, but never quite spilled.
"Killious what the fuck is this?" He asked, clearly terrified of what he saw.
"I'm an obsessive compulsive cleaner Draco, you know that." She tried to brush off the subject as if it were nothing.
"It was never this bad…you haven't been eating." The pieces were coming together, as he ran his hand over her bony hip again.
"I have too, ask the twins, and really it's not worse than before." She tried again, but was silenced by the severity of Draco's stare. She went rigid as he squatted next to her, putting an arm around one of her legs as he pulled the knee high down from the other. He looked away quickly. He could see her muscles and bones like a skeleton for anatomy, free of any body fat, and more over, covered in shiny spots where skin was beginning to re-grow and scabs from freshly lost flesh. Draco pulled the stocking up again. Small glass like tears in his eye were forming. He stood up again, pushing her cloak aside completely and unbuttoning her shirt slowly. As he parted the shirt he gasped softly, every rib was visible, her skin was less damaged but she had shrunk almost a cup size and her already grotesquely thin frame was now a skeleton.
"I went to a hospital and let filthy muggle nurses touch me, just so I could get better for you. And when I come home…you've been killing yourself all along." She waited for the anger, for a shove or a push, something. Instead her pulled her close to him, his tears wetting her hair. She stood limp in his arms, clueless about what to do.
"Aren't you mad?" She finally asked. He looked her in the eye, and lifted her chin to keep her focus.
"How can I be? This is my fault. I should have stayed, you have to sit with me at meals now, every meal, and I'll taking that damn sponge of yours, and I'm putting you to bed at a decent time."
"It's not your fault, what could you do? Sit and feed me three times a day? Take a shower with me every day? Sleep with me to make sure I rest?" Draco smiled deviously.
"If need be, I shall do it even now." Illy was confused…dazed and confused. "Now get back to class, I'll see you at dinner, we can do our best not to scare the life out of one another from now on." He smiled at her softly, guiding her face to his an kissing her softly, running his tongue over her lips, but pulling away before he did more. "That's the last one I'll steal…for a while at least." He left in bright spirits, happy but pensive.
Killious walked back to her class, being sure to correct her hair and robes. She took her seat again and Harry blew a note her way. She slowly opened it, not interested in what it had to say, but trapped by his stare. 'We need to talk after class.' She could feel the indents from the words on her fingers, he was pressing hard when he wrote this, maybe he was smarter than she had thought. Killious spent the rest of class scribbling notes onto her parchment and glancing back at Harry, who appeared entirely cool, a headache was brewing the longer she sat in the room, maybe it was just the smell of the pondering potion. Illy was actually beginning to dose, slipping into dreams she was uninterested in facing, but powerless to resist.
Illy could feel a hot hand across her cheek, she glanced down at her current day body, confused by the lake side surrounding. A figure was present, the person who had just slapped her, but they were too fuzzy for her to see. The reached out and grabbed her by the roots of her hair, pushing her down, so that they could tower over her.
"Class is dismissed." Snape informed as Illy returned from her daze to find the professor staring intently in to her eyes, she blinked several times, it felt like there was a thin layer of something over her eye, almost like a gooey contact lens. The feeling went away and Snape broke his gaze and Killious gathered her book, turning into Harry who was waiting for her just outside the door. He reached out to her elbow, tightly wrapping his fingers around her arm, just above the joint.
"I told Ron and Herm that we'd see them at dinner, so that we could talk." Harry pulled her down the hall, and up a flight a stairs, dragging her out into the sunlight, down by the lake. Illy tried to protest, eager to see Draco once more during class changes, but his grip tightened and she followed without another word. "We'll go strait to herbology after we talk, madam Hooch won't mind if I'm a little late." He spoke lightly, as though he wasn't putting a death grip on her arm. They stopped beneath a tree large enough to hide the two of them from a distance.
"Harry, can you please let go of my arm now?" Illy chose her words carefully, he may have been smiling and speaking pleasantly, but his eyes were ablaze with anger and jealousy. None the less he released her arm and spoke gently,
"Killious, tell me what exactly you have with Draco."
"Nothing, we're just friends." His eyes sparked with rage, but he calmed himself and began again.
"I know that's a lie, everyone in our potions class knows that it's a lie, you two were about to rip each other's clothing off on the spot." Harry spat through his forced smile.
"I promise, we've talked about it, we're just going to be friends." It was too late to tell the truth. Harry snapped, he pushed her against the tree and backhanded her, leaving a hot stinging sensation on her face. She whimpered but stood her ground.
"You will not embarrass me." He smiled at her, the sick gesture sent chills down her spine.
"I…I t-t-told him that we needed to st-stay friends, but Harry" She was pleading for him to calm down in her vocal inflections. "please, I just got caught up, I haven't seen him for a long time." Harry seemed appeased by the confession at first, but suddenly he reached out and grabbed her by the hair, pushing his weight down on her, she slunk below him leaving him a foot and a half taller than she was, he smiled brightly,
"Keep it that way. I don't want anyone hurt. Now clean yourself up, you look like someone ravaged you." He snorted as he turned around, waiting for her to straighten her hair and clothing out again. Harry was disgusted with himself, but something about her made him angry, crazed and jealous all at once, he wanted her body, but some part of him hated her insolence deeper than he could explain, she needed to understand that he was the one in control. She tapped him on the shoulder timidly when she had fixed herself again. Harry nodded and laced his fingers through hers with a smile, she understood, it wouldn't happen again.
"You look good lately, tired but good." His complement passed right through her, she was in shock over the whole situation, she would have to do her best not to be alone with him. He led her back inside the school, towards her class, her heart began to beat in double time as she saw Draco up ahead, she tried to pull her hand from his, but he tightened his grip. Draco noticed, but instead of causing conflict chose to keep walking and ignore the secret couples presence. He sighed inwardly, she was just as much of a slut as Pansy…but at least she had never snogged him and his worst enemy in one day, or ever for that matter.
