Chapter Eighteen
It was dark when Draco was finally able to pry his eyes open. He felt fear creeping tight up his throat as he briefly wondered if he had truly gone blind from the poison. But no, he relaxed as he saw the curtain flutter ever so slightly from the open window, bringing in a stream of blinding light.
Theo and Blaise were piled in his bed on either side of him and Draco thanked the stars that he had indulged in such a large bed. Originally it had been because he knew he tended to take up a lot of space when he slept and judging from the mess of his bedding every morning he was rather active in his sleep but it was also big enough to give the three of them space to sleep side by side.
Theo laid on his back, an arm thrown haphazardly over his eyes while Blaise laid curled on his side facing Draco.
It reminded Draco of their summer holidays when they were young. Narcissa would tuck them all into separate beds and kiss them goodnight but inevitably by morning they would all end up together in one.
He pulled himself carefully up to sitting, leaning heavily against the mountain of pillows behind him. Blaise stirred, reaching out and wrapping an arm around Draco's waist, as if even in sleep, anchoring Draco to them and making sure he couldn't slip away. Draco brushed a stay curl from Blaise's forehead.
He hadn't meant to worry them again, hadn't meant for that last potion to go so horribly wrong. He'd been too tired and that had made him less cautious and sloppy.
In his defence, it had passed the spells he had cast and since he had bought from that particular potions supplier before without issues, he had been fairly sure it was safe. And he hadn't wanted to waste anymore of their very limited potions on it. At least he had the wherewithal to only buy a sample before ordering more, which had ended up being exceedingly lucky.
No, he corrected himself, it was lucky that Granger had been persuaded to help.
Granger.
His head dropped back and he crushed his palms to his eyes as he felt heat flood to his cheeks.
Marvellous.
It was one thing for Blaise and Theo to see him in that state, another to have Hermione bloody Granger. He was exceedingly grateful she had helped him, he had no business dying right now but he was still mortified.
"Mortified Granger saw you nearly die, Caro mio?" Blaise's rough sleepy voice asked and Draco started.
"Or mortified she almost discovered that copy of 'A History of Magic' you stole from her back at school?" Blaise teased, cracking an eye open to look up at Draco.
"Or maybe, that blush comes from remembering a certain Gryffindor principessa in a certain t-shirt"
Draco took a pillow from behind him and swung it towards Blaise's face. Laughing Blaise rolled to the side before the blow could land.
"No thank you? Core 'ngrato. I thought you would have been pleased to see that fantasy realised after all these years" Blaise dodged another hit from the pillow. "Well maybe not the entire fantasy, but a man can only do so much-"
Draco lunged at Blaise. "I can't believe you still remembered that! I told you that over ten years ago, I was drunk!"
They wrestled half tangled in the sheets before falling to the floor with a thump and taking all of the bedding down with them.
With Draco still as weak as he was, Blaise pinned him easily. "So fiestey! I am glad to see your fire return caro mio!"
"You two have far too much energy for this early in the morning. You almost died, you could at least have the decency to sleep in" Theo groaned from the bed above them, clearly having been woken up when all the blankets were unceremoniously ripped off him.
"Blaise-" growled Draco struggling in a rather half hearted effort to break free.
"Did you think we forgot? Don't worry tesoro, we won't tell" Blaise said in a sing-song voice planting a kiss on the tip of Draco's nose.
"Get a room. Some of us are trying to sleep." Theo grumbled rolling to the side of the bed to look down at them, his hair a tousled mess.
"We have a room." Blaise pointed out sitting up, straddling Draco's waist.
"A room far far away from people who are trying to sleep" clarified Theo.
"Amore, if we did that you would miss out on teasing Draco about Granger." Blaise said grinning.
Draco managed to throw Blaise off him and scrambled up. "There will be no teasing. There is nothing to tease about." He said angrily, cheeks still pink. "That was a confused schoolboys, drunk, hormonal-driven fantasy. Nothing more."
"You know Blaise, did I ever happen to mention that Pansy told me Draco called her something rather interesting during one of their romps while they were at school?" Theo asked innocently, helping Blaise to pull himself back into the bed. "Well not called her something so much as called her someone-"
"Draco! What an absolutely dreadful thing to do to a lady in your bed!" Blaise scolded, sounding horrified but he shot Theo a wicked grin.
"That- " Draco gaped like a fish out of water.
"That was an accident! It happened ONE time- I can't believe she told you that!" Draco said indignantly, cheeks growing pinker.
"Ah. Draco. Pansy tells me everything, should we revisit some of the other things she's told me?" He asked, mirroring Blaise's smile.
"You two are the worst sometimes, you know that?" Draco said, turning and marching to the bathroom.
"And yet you love us tesoro!" Blaise called after him laughing with Theo.
Draco shut the bathroom door behind him with a snap and locked the door.