Hermione
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.
"Draco! What are you doing here?" whispered Hermione as she saw him enter the room.
"I came to see how you were." he said as if it was obvious. "I saw you this morning at breakfast..."
He looked down at her bandaged hands and opened his eyes wide.
"Did someone hurt you?" he asked.
"Draco, you can't just come and visit me in the hospital wing! What if someone sees you?" she asked, panicking.
"Relax Granger, no one comes to the hospital wing this early." Draco said as he sat down in the chair next to the bed Hermione was in.
She looked around and realised that Draco was a little right. There were no windows overlooking the corridor in this room of the hospital wing. Not wanting to admit that he was right, she pointed with her chin at the closed bed in front of her.
"He can hear you." she whispered quietly.
He frowned at the closed bed, then waved his wand in the air. Before Hermione could realise what he had just done, the curtains had closed around them and a Silence Charm enveloped them.
"Draco!" she said, still whispering despite the Silencio.
"Granger!" he repeated, mimicking her high pitched voice.
"You can't do that! When Madam Pomfrey returns..."
"I'm allowed fifteen minutes of visiting time." Draco protested in the same tone. "Just in time for the break. I won't bother you long, I just wanted to see how you were. Who did this to you?"
He pointed at her two bandaged hands.
"Nobody, just some mail."
Draco raised his eyebrows.
"You mean paper did this to you? You cut yourself seven hundred times on it?"
Hermione rolled her eyes:
"No, I got Bubotuber juice on my fingers when I opened a letter. Someone who read Rita Skeeter's article and thought I was breaking Harry's heart."
She rolled her eyes again to show that she thought it was completely stupid. Draco's features hardened:
"I warned you!" he shouted. "I told you that Skeeter could tarnish your reputation, but you didn't listen!"
"I don't care about the article." Hermione snapped. "If that's what you came here to talk to me about, you can leave."
That wasn't quite true. She was genuinely intrigued by the journalist's approach, she was sure she was using illegal means to eavesdrop on people's conversations. And if she was honest with herself, she didn't want Draco to leave. In fact, he was the person she most wanted to see right now. They hadn't spoken in the Library for three days and she had missed it, despite herself.
"Fine, I won't talk to you about it anymore." Draco capitulated, to Hermione's surprise, who had been expecting an 'I told you so' argument. "But believe me, I'm going to make fun of you for your hands. Bubotuber juice, seriously!"
He burst out laughing and Hermione smiled against her will. Draco's moods were confusing because they changed so quickly: one minute he could be full of resentment, the next he had a big smile on his face. Hermione let her emotions take over.
"Stop laughing, it really hurts." Hermione said, wiggling her injured fingers. "And I'm gutted I missed Arithmancy and Herbology, it's so unfair!"
"Speaking of which..." he said, reaching into his bag.
He pulled out two pages of parchment. Hermione took them without understanding, recognising his italicised handwriting.
"My notes." he explained before Hermione could ask. "I thought you'd ask for them, so I wrote them for you."
Hermione scanned the dozens of lines of explanation for today's lesson. He'd even copied down the diagram for the numerology formula.
"Oh... Thank you, Draco. That's very helpful." she said quietly.
She didn't dare admit it, but she found the gesture particularly kind of him.
He just shrugged:
"It's nothing. On the other hand, I did manage to make a prediction today, in Arithmancy." Draco said proudly.
"You did? What was it?" she asked, reading her notes at the same time.
"I predicted that you'd hurt your fingers by upsetting Rita Skeeter." Draco replied, and when Hermione raised her head to glare at him, his mocking smile stopped her.
"Very funny."
Draco closed his bag and got up. The break was almost over. Hermione hesitantly bit her lip. Seeing that she was deep in thought, Draco closed his eyes and laughed:
"Oh, Granger, if you're honestly wondering if I can take notes for the Care of Magical Creatures class for you, you're dreaming, there's absolutely nothing to write down that you haven't already..."
"No, it wasn't about the class. I just wanted to ask you something."
Draco paused, then looked at Hermione curiously.
"Well, you have unlimited questions now, remember?"
"Yes... Um... Well, actually I wanted to know..." Hermione asked, suddenly embarrassed. "If you stopped coming to the Library because of my... 'conversation' with Pansy last Friday."
Draco frowned and walked over to Hermione's bed, crossing the few feet between them in two strides.
"What? What do you mean? What did she say to you?" he asked, suddenly worried.
"She didn't insult me or anything, if that's what you're wondering." Hermione said reassuringly. "She just told me that you were her best friend and that she wanted to protect you, something like that... I think she's a little worried that our friendship..." She gestured at the space between them with her bandaged hand, "... is interfering with yours."
"Oh. I see." Draco said, though he looked puzzled by this explanation. "No, that's not why I didn't come to the Library."
"All right..." she said. "Is it because Theodore is better at Herbology than I am?"
Draco didn't understand the question. She rephrased, feeling her cheeks blush:
"He helped you with the Herbology test yesterday. I thought you'd rather he helped you than me."
Draco's confused face broke into a smile:
"Were you watching me?" he asked.
"What? No, no, I wasn't!" Hermione said, suddenly looking away, red with embarrassment. "Not at all, I just happened to see you when I went to get a book... I wasn't even sure it was you, actually..."
Draco continued to smile at her shaky explanation.
"Sure, Granger." he said. "I just never thought I'd see you jealous of Theo."
"I'm not jealous of Theodore, Merlin!" she said, blushing even more. "I was just wondering why you hadn't come, that's all!"
Draco laughed a little, and Hermione abruptly stopped talking at the risk of making an even bigger fool of herself.
He picked up his bag, slung it over his shoulder, ran his fingers through his hair and finally answered:
"I've had... some personal problems." he said evasively. "Nothing serious, but I couldn't come because of it. I can come tonight though. Will you be there?"
"If Madam Pomfrey agrees to let me out before the end of term, yes." she said in a low voice. "Will you tell me about your 'personal problems' then?"
The school bell rang in the corridor, announcing the start of classes. Draco smiled one last time and nodded:
"Why not. Take care, Granger."
He waved his wand and opened the curtains, lifting the Silence Charm. As he made his way out, Madam Pomfrey entered the room and gave him a disapproving look before coming over to Hermione's bed.
"Hermione, dear, I'm sorry, I was called into Dumbledore's office and couldn't come and check on you. Has that Draco Malfoy been bothering you?"
"Er, no, not at all." Hermione said. "He just came to ask for my Arithmancy book, which I accidentally took from him last time."
The nurse wasn't surprised by the lie and went back to working on her blistered hands while Hermione read Draco's notes with an amused smile.
.
.
.
Hermione spent the rest of Monday in a much better mood than when she woke up. Her fight with Ron had completely vanished from her mind since Draco had visited her in the hospital wing. In fact, it was the only thing on her mind. She kept thinking about his smile, his laugh, his mockery and had to pull herself together instead of daydreaming about it during class.
Since when had she seen Draco differently? How long had she been thinking about his smile at random times of the day? And most importantly, how long had it been since he was Draco, and not Malfoy?
She swallowed her dinner in four mouthfuls and got up quickly to go to the Library. Harry and Ron waved at her absent-mindedly as she left, used to her spending her evenings there. She hurried to the far table before Viktor arrived, then took out her Arithmancy textbook and Draco's notes to catch up on her missed lessons.
About ten minutes later, Draco arrived. She recognised his footsteps. Ron always dragged his feet and Harry always walked very fast. Draco's walk was instantly recognisable and Hermione was surprised to find that she knew it as well as her two best friends.
"Good evening Granger." he said in his usual drawling tone as he took a seat across from her at the small round table.
"Good evening Draco." she replied. "Theodore isn't too jealous that you're with me tonight?"
He grinned as he pulled out his Herbology things.
"Theo is not jealous. In fact, when I sit next to him while he's working, it's as if I don't exist. A bit like you, actually."
Hermione smiled and went back to her book.
"I see you can't write." Draco pointed with a mocking laugh. "Something wrong, perhaps? With your hands, for example?"
"Leave me alone!" she exclaimed with an exasperated sigh. "I won't be able to remove the bandages until tomorrow morning. Is it possible not to make fun of me in the meantime?"
Draco smiled at her tone and took out his quill, absently running it through his fingers to smooth it. A strand of hair fell across his forehead.
"Only if you admit that I was right to tell you not to bother Rita Skeeter." he said, his mischievous smile still on his face. "I was sure she'd write a article about you to take you down. What did you say to her to make her mad?"
"I just told the truth! That she was horrible, that she had no consideration for anyone..." Hermione listed sharply.
"And this is the result." Draco cut in, pointing at her injured hands. "I was sure you'd do it anyway, even after I warned you. You really are a Gryffindor."
"Good observation." she said with a hint of irony.
"So you admit I was right?" asked Draco.
"You were right, but that doesn't change the fact that I had to tell her what I thought of her." Hermione said confidently. "She's a terrible journalist, I don't understand how Parkinson can like her."
"She likes her horoscopes." Draco explained with a shrug.
Hermione couldn't hold back a disdainful hiss. Horoscopes. Only Pansy Parkinson could appreciate that.
They began to work in silence. Hermione used her wand to flick through the pages of the manual, abandoning the idea of writing with a quill. Draco would laugh at her immediately if he saw her doing that. She contented herself with reading the day's lesson and working out the formulas in her head.
"No tea today?" asked Draco suddenly without looking up from his Herbology textbook.
Hermione was taken aback by the question.
"Are you saying that to make fun of my hands?" she asked.
"No." he said, slowly raising his head to look at her. "I'm just asking because you always have cinnamon tea next to you when you work."
He pointed to the empty space to Hermione's left.
"Oh. Yes, I do." she replied, surprised.
He returned to his reading and Hermione watched him, touched again by this special attention. She knew Draco was very observant. He knew about her study sessions with Neville every Saturday, he knew that she received a letter from her parents every Sunday, and he anticipated the lessons she would need. Ron and Harry never paid attention to such details.
The fact that Draco did meant a lot to her, though she couldn't say why.
She took out her mug and a cinnamon tea bag that she always kept in her pocket. Opening it and dipping it into the hot water was difficult because of her bandaged fingers, but Draco was diligent enough not to notice.
She waited for her tea to brew, absent-mindedly watching the boy in front of her. He was finishing his Herbology essay on the properties of the Flutterby bush. Every once in a while, he would look up to read a sentence or two from the textbook and then continue writing.
Draco always had a certain poise about him, Hermione thought as she swirled the tea bag in the water. He always stood perfectly straight in his chair, his elbows resting on the table. She had never met anyone so distinguished. What's more, he always spoke with a heavy, noble English accent. She wondered if it was because of his aristocratic upbringing. Did Zabini have the same charm?
Hermione thought about the way he spoke as she watched him write. His quill was huge, almost brushing his cheek as he wrote his essay. She watched the feathers. She had never realised that the quill Draco was holding was so beautiful. Just then, Draco suddenly looked up at her and she was caught red-handed.
"Watching me again, Granger?" he said, amused. "It's becoming a habit."
"I was actually looking at your quill." she said, although that hadn't really been the case a few seconds earlier. "It's a peacock feather, isn't it? From the Scrivenshaft' shop?"
Draco looked down at his own feather with undisguised pride.
"Yes. Bought it a few weeks ago."
"They're very expensive, aren't they?"
As she asked the question, Hermione had unconsciously leaned towards the feather, suddenly struck by its beautiful blue colour. She had often walked past the Scrivenshaft shop in Hogsmeade, but had never been able to bring herself to put so many Galleons into a quill.
"Yes, excessively expensive." Draco replied, not in the least upset by the observation. "But it's worth it."
Before Hermione could ask him to try it on, Malfoy suddenly looked up at her with a grin that was very different from the one he usually wore when they were in the Library.
"Why didn't Weasley get you one for Valentine's Day?" he asked. "Oh, I forgot, he's far too poor to buy himself a peacock feather. What did he get you, a pigeon feather?"
Hermione immediately lost the adoration on her face. She straightened in her chair.
"You know you can be really stupid sometimes?" she asked, irritated.
"Calm down Granger. A little joke about Weasley now and then never killed anyone." he replied, putting down his quill.
"Laughing at such things isn't funny, Malfoy." she said as dryly as she could.
"Are we back to Malfoy now?"
She glared at him. Behind his smirk, she could see some concern.
"We'll be back to Draco when you're Draco again." Hermione said. "Right now you're Malfoy, the mean one, the one I hate."
Contrary to what she had imagined, she saw Draco take the brunt of the blow. He seemed genuinely saddened by the sentence. Still, it was obvious to her.
"I don't like it when you insult Ron or Harry or any of my friends." she reminded him coldly. "I thought I made that clear."
"Then I won't make any more jokes about your boyfriend." he said with a vague shrug.
"Ron is not my boyfriend!" hissed Hermione, suddenly on edge.
"Oh, right, sorry!" he said, putting both hands in the air. "Sorry! It's Krum, your boyfriend, isn't it? The one who's too old for you?"
Hermione saw red. She didn't know if it was anger or embarrassment. She hated that nasty, conniving Malfoy who had a knack for hitting on sore spots. Hermione looked away and hurriedly packed her things into her bag. Seeing her do so, Malfoy suddenly lost his sadistic grin.
"Granger, relax, I was only joking..."
"As you can see, I'm laughing my head off. I'm off. Good night, Malfoy."
She rose theatrically, but Malfoy caught her just in time, grabbing her wrist to stop her going any further. The touch instantly reminded her of her night blurred by alcohol: he had gently stroked the inside of her wrist to calm her down. Now, he held her a little tighter to keep her from leaving.
When she looked up, she met his deep, grey, almost pleading gaze and felt an instant shiver run down her skin.
"Sorry, I went too far." he said softly, and she felt his cool breath on her face. "I didn't mean to upset you about Weasley and Krum. I won't do it again."
Hermione was still flushed, but she agreed to sit back down. When he let go of her wrist, she had the contradictory urge to take his hand again. How could she be so angry with him and not want to leave?
She preferred to drink her tea in silence so as not to reveal her feelings. The more time she spent with Draco, the more her moods changed drastically. She found it hard to keep up with herself.
"I hate it when you do that." she finally grumbled after taking her sip of too hot tea.
"When I do what?" asked Malfoy, who was now Draco again.
"When you provoke me for no reason. Is that something you do to your friends?"
Draco pondered the question as he stroked the tip of his quill against his chin.
"No, I don't. I guess I just like messing with you."
She rolled her eyes:
"We're supposed to be friends. I don't want to be friends with you if you always act like this around me."
"You never tease Weasley and Potter, do you?"
"I do, but I never hurt their feelings." she said firmly. "I know some subjects are too painful to joke about."
"Are Weasley and Krum painful subjects for you?" he asked.
"No, except when you make fun of them."
Draco didn't seem to understand, but nodded anyway. Hermione didn't understand how it was possible not to understand the basic rules of conversation. Maybe he had never talked to people so openly before.
"I'm sorry." he said, and hearing him say the word was still as shocking to her as it had been the first time. "I won't do it again. If you want to make it up to me, you have the right to one question."
Hermione rolled her eyes:
"It doesn't work that way at all. Why do you always make everything into deals, into promises, into concessions?"
"Because I'm a Slytherin." Draco replied matter-of-factly. "That's how I work. But if you're not interested..."
Hermione hesitated for a few seconds. She was, if she was honest, dying to ask him questions. In fact, she had a hundred of them in her head right now: Do you enjoy our study sessions as much as I do? Have you told Parkinson about me? Why were you jealous of Viktor at the Ball?
But these questions were a bit taboo, Hermione knew she wouldn't be able to ask him. She could feel her heart beating faster just at the thought of saying them out loud.
"I thought I was entitled to unlimited questions since I hold the honourable title of friend to you?" she asked as sarcastically as she could.
"Maybe, but I don't always have to answer them. This time, you can ask me anything."
She instinctively bit her lip as she thought of the infinite number of possible questions to satisfy her curiosity. She saw Draco's eyes linger absentmindedly on her mouth before hurriedly returning to meet her gaze.
"What did you want to talk about when you told me you were suffering from personal problems in the hospital wing this morning?" she finally asked.
Draco's eyes flashed with a quick spark before he broke into a laugh.
"I was sure you were going to ask me that." he said. " I was even surprised you hadn't asked before."
Hermione said nothing, not wanting to admit how much the question had been on the tip of her tongue since that morning. She just took a sip of cinnamon tea.
"The answer isn't very sensational." Draco continued. Hermione noticed that he was twirling his ring with his finger, a gesture he often made when he was stressed. "Let's just say it's the same old story: my parents, the honour I'm supposed to reflect, their expectations..."
"Does it make you that anxious?" asked Hermione, not expecting such an answer.
"Yes." Draco replied after several seconds of hesitation. "I'm always worried about it."
"But what can they do to you when you're at Hogwarts?"
Draco let out a dry laugh.
"Just because I'm at Hogwarts doesn't mean I'm safe." he said. "My parents are in one of the highest ranks of the wizarding world. Snape is a friend of my parents, as are three quarters of the Pureblood parents in this Castle."
"And you're afraid they'll find out... that..."
She gestured at the room around them, especially the table they were sitting at. Draco nodded.
"Yes."
"But you're not doing anything wrong!" Hermione protested angrily. "I mean, I know your parents don't approve of my blood status, but would they really blame you for being friendly to me without insulting me?"
"There's a difference between being friendly and being your friend." Draco clarified. "If they found out that we study together in the Library, and spend time on a bench in the park, and see each other every day..."
He suppressed a shudder that Hermione noticed. He really did look tortured. She thought back to when they had argued on the bench a few days before the Ball. When he had whispered to her "it's too dangerous."
"What would happen if they found out we were spending time together?" she asked, her throat tightening.
"I'd probably be disowned by my family." he said, as if the possibility had crossed his mind many times. "And the humiliation that would cause my family would be terrible. I'd probably never see my mother again in my life."
Hermione nodded, her lips curling. She found the likelihood rather dramatic, but she was sure Draco wasn't saying that lightly. Lucius Malfoy was quite capable of losing his temper like that.
"So... do you want us to stop?" offered Hermione, even though the suggestion broke her heart. "If you want, we can stop seeing each other."
Draco smiled the smallest of smiles, a far cry from the mocking one he'd had when he'd laughed at Ron. This was the kind of genuine, rare smile that Hermione secretly adored.
"That's the point, Granger." he said. "I'm starting to enjoy our study sessions too much to stop them."
Hermione smiled, suddenly feeling her heart beat against her eardrums as she heard his admission. She, too, was enjoying her evenings in the Library a little too much. She was glad to know the feeling was mutual.
"Is this what Parkinson meant when she said she didn't want anything bad to happen to you?" she asked. "And that it would be my fault if it did?"
Draco frowned considerably.
"Did she say that?"
"Yes. But please don't mention it to her."
Hermione certainly didn't want another confrontation with Parkinson. The girl frightened her. Draco nodded and sighed:
"I suppose she's right. She knows my family well enough to know what would happen if my parents found out."
Hermione nodded. She understood Draco's confusion a little better. As if he could guess what she was thinking, he ended the conversation by simply saying:
"Don't worry, I've found a solution."
"What solution?" she asked.
"A solution that will allow me to continue our secret rendezvous without fear of my parents' reaction." he replied without looking at her.
Hermione turned the sentence over and over in her head, not understanding.
"What are you going to do? Bewitch Madam Pince?" she asked half laughing.
Draco grinned.
"No. Let's just say I'm working on myself."
Hermione wanted to know what he was talking about, but decided not to push. He'd given enough away, she didn't want to embarrass him by insisting. She was afraid he would stop being so nice and shut down completely, reverting to the insensitive Malfoy she didn't like. So she changed the subject.
They spent the rest of Monday night talking about music again. When the Library closed, they both left at the same time, comparing Vivaldi, Beethoven, Hedge (apparently a very famous wizard musician) and Mozart, and Hermione was so focused on their debate that she didn't even notice Viktor looking at her strangely from a little further away.
They continued to debate on their bench until far too late, and Hermione laughed so hard at Draco's remarks that her ribs ached as she quietly made her way back to the Common Room. Even the fact that she was reprimanded by a prefect on the way didn't stop her from smiling.
And as she lay in bed, far too late at night, Hermione thought of Draco Malfoy and his smile as she drifted off to sleep.
.
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Draco
.
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"You need advice on how to meditate?" repeated Pansy, dumbfounded.
Draco sighed. He hadn't planned on asking Pansy, but she was the best person to help him. Snape had told him to clear his mind and meditate before bed, but Draco had no idea what to do, and his next Occlumancy lesson was fast approaching.
"Yeah, I need to clear my mind or something..." muttered Draco without looking at Pansy.
Theo lifted his head from his book and looked at him strangely. They were in the Transfiguration courtyard, the one that was often empty and allowed Pansy to enjoy a morning cigarette between classes.
"Why do you need to meditate?" asked Pansy suspiciously before taking a drag from her cigarette.
"I've been having nightmares again." Draco explained in a quiet voice. "I read in a book that meditating can stop them from happening while I'm asleep."
This was a partial lie. He did have nightmares from time to time, but more scattered images of his father than actual night terrors. The part about the book was a lie, but he didn't want to tell Pansy and Theo that he was having private Occlumancy lessons with Snape.
Fortunately, talking about his nightmares cut short Pansy's questions. She knew it was far too sensitive a subject to venture into. She straightened slightly on the bench and took her Divination textbook out of her bag, which she seemed to take with her every day. Theo sighed in exasperation and returned to his book.
Pansy flipped through the pages for several minutes before finding what she wanted.
"To fully perceive the veils of the future, the subject must be rested and the mind must be cleared of all harmful thoughts." (Theo chuckled softly, but Pansy ignored him.) "For this, it is important to meditate beforehand. Meditation, from the Latin 'Meditare' which means to contemplate, is a practice of the mind that allows one to free oneself from negative or disturbing thoughts in order to contemplate them from a distance, to tame them."
"I know what it means." Draco growled, afraid the next class would start before Pansy could give him any real advice.
"There are several possible meditation techniques." Pansy continued reading without answering Draco. "But the most common is also the simplest: the subject must relax, in a comfortable position where they feel at ease and close to their body. They should close their eyes and breathe deeply. Make peace with the thoughts in their own mind. They should look at their thoughts and accept them without being drawn into them. In this way, the subject is conscious and can confront their own thoughts in a calm and serene manner. Meditation has many benefits: improved concentration, reduced stress and anxiety, and even a way to cure chronic pain."
Theo rolled his eyes dramatically at Pansy's presentation.
"You can do it with stones too." she said, ignoring Theo's mocking laughter next to her. "Each stone has a specific use."
She leafed through the book again and placed her manicured finger on an illustration of gems:
"Tourmaline, citrine and rose quartz, for example, ward off bad vibes, nightmares and heartache. I can find you some and you can put them under your pillow or in your hands to meditate with."
Draco nodded, though he didn't really understand what meditation had to do with crystals. He couldn't imagine admitting to Snape that he'd managed to close his mind with a pink pebble. Theo, who was still pretending to read his book, laughed even harder when he heard this. Pansy turned to him angrily:
"Can you stop mocking me for once in your life, Theodore?" she spat, her eyes black. Theo immediately stopped laughing and made a strangled sound.
"I'm not mocking you!" he protested, closing his book. "I'm just saying it's not science, it's just a dubious practice..."
"Yes, you are! You can't admit that there's some truth in Divination, you're too stubborn to open your mind!"
"And don't you have a crystal for that?" he asked, amused but a little frightened by Pansy's reaction.
Pansy slammed her textbook shut.
"Yes, and there are also crystals to stop you being stupid. You really should look into that." she said, getting up from the bench.
She crushed her cigarette butt and waved it away with her wand before walking down the Transfiguration corridor, not without giving Theo one last glowering look. This time she looked really annoyed.
Once she was gone, Theo gave a false, indifferent laugh as he turned to Draco:
"She really is mad, isn't she? Crystals... You're not seriously going to stoop to Divination to prevent your nightmares?"
Draco didn't answer, thoughtfully. Theo finally muttered something about being surrounded by idiots, then fell back into his book.
The rest of Tuesday was spent in a tense atmosphere between Pansy and Theo. Theo pretended not to care about Pansy's reaction, but everyone could see that it was tormenting him. He tried several times to talk to Pansy, who remained stoic. She had taken it badly that he had attacked the love of her life: Divination.
Blaise, who hadn't been there when their fight broke out, didn't understand what was going on and decided not to ask questions at the risk of reigniting the debate. But Draco was far too distracted to care: he was thinking about meditation. He had listened to Pansy's advice and tried to apply it at various points throughout the day.
It was difficult to clear his mind, but when he did, Draco found himself in a state of peace he had never experienced before. In the evening, hidden by the curtains of his bed, Draco sat cross-legged on his mattress and closed his eyes. He took several deep breaths and noticed that the thoughts that were constantly running through his mind were much slower this time. He watched them pass before him without taking them in. Granger, his parents, Pansy, his fear... All had become a distant cloud of dark thoughts.
He fell asleep easily and had no nightmares that night. For the first time in a long time, he slept through the night and woke up feeling perfectly fine.
Draco returned to clearing his mind at random times and meditating before going to sleep. When Draco knocked on the door of his Potions Master's office on Thursday, he was in a much calmer state than on previous occasions.
"Good evening, Draco." Snape greeted him as he walked in. "Are you ready for your next lesson?"
"Absolutely, Professor." he said as he took a seat in front of the desk.
"Have you been doing the exercises I told you to do?"
"Yes. I've meditated and cleared my mind several times. I have the impression it's working well." replied Draco.
"Good. We'll see about that." Snape said as he stood up.
He pointed his wand in front of him. Draco took a deep breath, trying to ignore the anxiety growing in his stomach. Without any signal, Snape said the spell and Draco felt that slight pain in his head again and his vision blurred.
Images flashed by, just like the previous Sunday. Blaise eating lemon ice cream in his garden. His mother sewing in the conservatory, humming music. The landscape around Hogwarts, viewed from his broom high in the sky.
Draco tried to concentrate, to regain control of his mind. Gradually the images blurred. He wanted to fight Snape and his intrusion, but he couldn't find him. He felt a pain in the right side of his head, towards his temple. His breathing had become more ragged.
Snape dug deeper. He could feel something breaking through the layers of his mind. Without knowing why, Draco pictured it as a needle. He felt it enter even more intimate parts of his memory. His vision had gone white and shaky and the image that appeared was more vivid than ever:
Granger drinking cinnamon tea and reading her book in the Library.
He felt what he had felt at that moment: that she was beautiful, that he felt good, that he was even... in love with her...
Snape tore the confession from his mind against his will. Draco tried to distract him from the image, to keep him from seeing his Granger. He looked for the needle, but couldn't find it, and Granger was still there, sipping her tea, and she looked up to talk to him about something, and Snape was there, beside him...
Suddenly the pain was unbearable and Draco felt his own body react beyond his control. When he opened his eyes again, Snape was leaning against the fireplace, his wand pointing at the floor. His robes were slightly burned across his chest.
"What..." Draco began.
"You attacked me with a spell. Sparks, I presume." said Snape, casting a Reparo on his black robe.
"But I don't even have my wand!" Draco defended.
"It was a defensive spell, you didn't do it on purpose." Snape explained in a perfectly calm tone, as if this was a tea discussion and not after he had made Draco's head explode. "Your magic acted on impulse. You didn't want me to see what I saw."
"I didn't." Draco hissed, suddenly embarrassed. "It was private."
"Nothing is private until you Occlude, Draco." Snape said in his deep voice. "If you don't close your mind..."
"But you haven't explained how to do that!" snapped Draco.
"You have to empty yourself of all your emotions, clear your mind and close it!" explained Snape, pointing his wand at Draco again. "You've done that very well so far, I just had to get inside your head a bit more and you panicked."
Draco wanted to scream. He wanted to keep his memories with Granger to himself at all costs, he didn't want to give Snape the weapons to weaken him. He had managed to stay calm until she appeared. His own feelings bothered him terribly. It was hard for him to say them out loud, and here was his teacher rummaging through him like a diary!
"Calm down, Draco..." Snape said as he regained his position in front of him. "Calm down, clear your mind, think of nothing, close your mind..."
Draco inhaled and closed his eyes. He felt all sorts of violent emotions towards Snape, but he tried to put them aside, to step back. He thought of his mother and her impassive face and imitated her as best he could.
Through the veil of his thoughts he heard Snape's throaty voice:
"Push me back, Draco, into your mind... Legilimens!"
The needle entered his skull and went straight to the deepest layers of his mind. It penetrated and images appeared: Blaise, aged seven or eight, confessing that he thought his mother was a murderer. His big caramel eyes were fixed on him, waiting for an answer, but before he could hear himself answer, Snape switched to another image: Draco, lying in his bed at Hogwarts, his left arm around Pansy, as she whispered "I love you"...
Draco winced and searched his brain for the needle, following the flow of heat. Images kept appearing and Draco tried to ignore them. When he finally found Snape's intrusion, he pushed with all his mental strength, causing him to groan in pain.
Granger appeared then with a braid down her back. She glared at Draco as if she hated him. He didn't really like that sight. He preferred the Granger laughing on their bench, or raising her eyes to the sky with an amused little smile. He lingered on the vision of Granger, then remembered Snape, who was still in his mind. He found the needle and pushed it violently away.
Snape left his mind and Draco collapsed against the chair.
He tried to breathe properly, panting and a little dazed. He could hear Snape's voice talking to him, but he couldn't make out what he was saying because the tinnitus in his right ear prevented him from hearing properly. He finally focused on his teacher's figure, still standing by the desk.
"-very good, Draco. You've managed to push me away. Now that you've understood how to do it, we'll do it again and again and again so that you master the practice."
Draco replied with a hiccup of pain. Snape produced a glass of water, which Draco swallowed in a second. His head hurt badly.
"You have a keen mind and a tendency towards Occlumancy." Snape told him after Draco had finished his third glass of water. "You can do it. After this, you will be a master of your emotions."
The prospect was tantalising enough to bring Draco to his feet. His legs were shaking and his right temple still hurt badly, but he faced the professor with a sigh of pain.
Snape entered his mind. He practised pushing him away, each time more gruelling than the last. When he collapsed halfway to the floor after pushing Snape out of his mind for the tenth time, the professor finally ended the lesson and allowed him to leave, advising him to meditate some more.
Draco returned to the Common Room, his head a mess and his stomach in knots. He skipped dinner and went straight to bed, exhausted.
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The weeks passed and March came to an end, bringing with it the last fresh winds of winter. The grounds of the Castle now enjoyed a new landscape, much greener, full of flowers and, above all, sunshine. Students began to study outside, or to walk around the lake at weekends, stretching their legs in the new spring air.
The Occlumancy lessons were as exhausting as ever, but Draco had made enormous progress. Every Thursday, Snape penetrated his reluctant mind, and every Thursday, Draco practised pushing him away. At the beginning of April, Snape suggested an alternative: instead of pushing him away, he could now try to distract him and show him other images. It was an arduous task, requiring even more effort than before. On Friday mornings, Draco felt like his brain was sore.
This new habit tired Draco as much as it strengthened him. Meditation helped him sleep better, he was less anxious, and he was able to capture and hide his embarrassing or private thoughts. On the other hand, Occlumancy classes were as exhausting as ever, if not more so than in early March. Every Thursday night, Draco would collapse into bed without eating, only to wake up the next morning with a stabbing pain in his right temple.
Of course, it didn't take long for his friends to realise that something strange was going on.
"Where do you go on Thursday nights?" Pansy asked him bluntly one night in the dormitory.
She was playing a game of Exploding Snap with Theo on the floor, while Blaise and Draco were reading the April issue of Seeker Weekly, which had arrived that morning. Pansy had gotten into the habit of coming to the dormitory on nights when there was no party, but she no longer slept in Draco's bed.
Draco looked up from the article about the new saddle that was about to come out, the one that could do looping curves. He realised Pansy was talking to him when he met her curious gaze.
"Nowhere." Draco replied.
"You come back every Thursday at exactly the same time." she said without batting an eyelid. "You don't eat any more, and by the time we see you, you're already asleep in your bed. And on Friday mornings, you're so groggy we can't get two words out of you." Pansy listed, before placing her Jack of Clubs on the shaking pack of cards.
"Mind your own business, Pansy." Draco said, turning back to his article, but Blaise had also looked up:
"Maybe he's seeing a girl and it makes him uncomfortable to tell us."
"No, that's not it." Pansy said, sure of herself. "I would have found out. The only likely girl was at Beauxbatons, and Daphne told me earlier that she was single."
"Hey!" said Draco, rising frankly from his bed. "Stop theorising about me when I'm standing right next to you!"
"Well, you're not answering anyway!" interjected Theo, who was analysing his deck of cards intently. "If you'd just tell us where you are, we wouldn't have to work out any theories..."
"And why do I have to tell you everything?" asked Draco sharply.
"Because we're your friends." Blaise said with a smile. "And if you don't want Pansy digging through your whole life to find out the truth, you'd better tell us now."
Draco sighed and sat back down on the bed. Then he muttered:
"All right, all right. I'll tell you."
His three friends all straightened up a little, eager to know the reason for his weekly absence.
"I'm taking private lessons." Draco said. "With Snape."
Blaise grimaced. Pansy frowned. Theo looked outraged.
"Private lessons?" he repeated. "In what?"
"Alchemy." Draco lied.
"That's not until sixth year." Theo pointed out, placing a Three of Diamonds on the pile of cards on the floor.
"Snape said I was advanced enough in Potions that I could take Alchemy to get ahead." Draco said, puffing out his chest.
He was offended that his friends found it hard to believe him, even though it was all a lie. Pansy's eyebrows were still furrowed and she looked at him suspiciously.
"Alchemy lessons? Really?" asked Blaise, also unconvinced.
"Yes! You can ask Snape!"
"Then why are you so tired when you get back?" asked Theo.
"Wouldn't you be tired if you had to study another subject on top of all the others in our timetable? And with Snape, no less?"
Theo was about to outdo him, but Pansy laid down a card and the whole game exploded, startling all four of them.
This brief distraction was enough for none of them to ask him any more questions about his private lessons.
He continued to spend most evenings with Granger in the Library. Draco had never been so far ahead with his homework. He knew every lesson by heart, except for History of Magic. When Granger was absorbed in her work, he liked to watch her discreetly. He knew her facial expressions by heart. One or two evenings a week she would accompany him to her bench and they would chat about anything and everything under the stars.
Draco loved those moments. He enjoyed them even more now that he was working on Occlumancy with Snape: knowing that he could tuck his secret away in a corner of his mind helped him not to feel guilty. He didn't come away from these meetings with the usual knot in his stomach. On the contrary, he remembered them every night before going to bed.
It was clear to Draco now. He was madly in love with Granger. Ever since Snape had forced that confession out of him, he had been forced to see the nature of his feelings. He'd done everything he could to deny them, to protect them, even to convince himself that they weren't true. Now he knew for sure.
Fortunately, he was able to put the secret away in a corner of his mind. Even though he was still just as afraid of being discovered in their company, he felt a little more protected by his own mind.
On the Wednesday before the spring holidays, Draco snuck into the Library. As usual, he looked for Theo, who was sitting under a large window writing an essay. Draco made his way to the far table, detouring into the Library stacks so his friend wouldn't see him, and went to find Granger.
She was already seated, tea on her right, scrolls and books spread across the table.
"Good evening, Granger." he said in greeting.
She replied with a vague wave of her hand, too focused on what she was doing to register his presence. Draco sat down opposite her, grumbling that she always took up too much space.
Draco took out his Potions book and began to read in silence. Granger was concentrating on her book and still hadn't spoken or even looked up. Draco could be an ogre and she wouldn't have noticed.
Suddenly, after Draco had been reading quietly for several minutes, Granger let out a sigh of annoyance so loud that Draco jumped back in his chair.
"Sorry." she said, putting her book back on the table.
"What's the matter with you, Granger?" asked Draco, surprised to hear her complaining so loudly in the Library.
"I can't understand this rune, it's driving me mad!"
She put her finger on the book she was reading. The whole page was filled with symbols Draco didn't understand. Granger showed him a particular rune, a sort of inverted triangle on a horizontal line.
"Because you can understand the others?" asked Draco, analysing the page filled with strange symbols.
Granger's eyes widened.
"Don't be silly. No one can read this, except maybe Dumbledore. I use dictionaries."
She gestured to the open books scattered on the small table.
"And you can't find it in there?" he asked, but seeing Granger's reaction, he realised it was a rather silly question.
"Obviously, no. I've looked in all the books, all the dictionaries, I've even asked Madam Pince for help, but I can't find it!"
She let out another sigh and drank her cup of tea without taking her eyes off the text.
"Is that why you didn't come to dinner?" said Draco. "How long have you been here?"
"Since my Charms class finished." she grumbled.
"Since four o'clock?! Granger..."
"It's not a symbol of fertility, there would be a bar in the middle... And this line here, it's probably related to protection..." she whispered to herself, completely indifferent to Draco's concern.
"It's not even urgent!" he continued anyway. "Isn't your Rune Studies class on Friday?"
Granger looked up at him, her eyebrows furrowed. She looked surprised that Draco could know her schedule.
"Um...? Yes?"
"Then why are you doing it tonight? It's Wednesday."
"It's not for homework." she said by way of explanation.
"Then what's it for?"
"For my personal culture." she said very seriously. "I hate not understanding something. If I don't find out what this rune is, I'll be thinking about it all the time."
Draco smiled. He was sure he'd heard that sentence before, coming from Theo's mouth.
Granger returned to her unintelligible text. Draco noticed that she had placed a piece of parchment to her left with several words crossed out. Probably guesses.
"Can't you ask your teacher on Friday?" offered Draco, interrupting Granger's reading once again.
He had the impression that her eyes were getting darker and darker as she raised them to him. Her hair was a mess, even more so than usual from pulling at it.
"And not know by then? Impossible." she said before returning to her book.
Draco would have liked to help her, but he couldn't decipher a single symbol in this alphabet. He looked lazily at the dictionaries around her, but he couldn't find the rune in question. Besides, it was upside down.
Twenty minutes later, she finally gave up. She slammed her dictionary shut and ran her hand over her face in frustration.
"Forget it for now." Draco advised her, noticing her bad mood. "Sleep on it. You'll see more clearly tomorrow."
"I won't be able to sleep." she growled, and Draco had to summon all his mental strength not to laugh at this exaggeration.
"This class sounds incredibly boring." Draco said, looking down at her erasure-filled parchment once more.
Granger let a small smile form the corner of her lips.
"That's what Harry tells me all the time."
Draco didn't like the idea of saying the same thing as Potter, but he preferred not to retaliate, lest he put Granger in an even worse mood.
"What's this book, if it's not for an assignment?" he asked, trying to change the subject.
"A book that Professor Babbling told us to read for the exams."
Draco thought the name was perfect for the subject she was teaching.
"You mean you're already studying for the exams?" he asked.
That wasn't very surprising. Granger was already talking about next year's OWLs. When she heard the question, she looked at him strangely.
"Obviously. You are too, aren't you?"
She shifted her gaze to the book in his hands. Not wanting to admit that he'd come to study just to spend time with her, he shrugged slightly:
"Yes, but mostly the subjects I like."
"What?" she gasped. "But you have to study everything! It's already April!"
Granger pulled out her study schedule, which was hidden under a pile of papers. She usually hid it from Draco, not wanting him to read her precious syllabus. This time, however, she unfolded it mechanically and Draco could see what she had written.
It was a notebook divided into seven columns representing the days of the week. Draco guessed that Granger had magically enlarged it because it looked huge in her hands. There was something written in each column, but the sheer number of sentences and colours made it impossible for him to make any sense of it.
"Today I was supposed to study this chapter of Rune Studies and the last lesson of Astronomy." she said, more to herself than to him. "But I didn't even have time to finish the Runes chapter! So I have to move Astronomy to tomorrow, at the same time as Herbology. Friday is my Potions night, because I have to review all the antidotes Snape mentioned last week, except I might have to add some Herbology if I don't finish it the day before. Or I could do Herbology on Saturday, during my session with Neville? He'll help me understand the lesson on Bubotuber's pus..."
As she spoke aloud, the planner added lines to the paper. The word 'Herbology' was crossed out from Friday and moved to the Saturday column, in yellow. Draco struggled to understand the colour code. "Harry" was in light blue and "Ron" in orange, and the word "Rest" was in dark blue, usually in the evening. He assumed the yellow lines were for Longbottom. There were even book titles, possibly her current reading, highlighted in other unintelligible colours.
He noticed his own name wasn't there. Yet, she spent most of her study time with him. This made him feel a little sad.
When her overloaded schedule seemed to satisfy Granger, she tucked it away in her bag and sighed one last time.
"I'm off to the Common Room." she announced as she put her parchments away. "Sorry for the stress, it's just been a busy week and that stupid rune has been haunting me since yesterday."
"You should go through the kitchens on your way home." Draco advised. "Eat something before you go to bed. You missed dinner."
Granger's face returned to its grumpy features as soon as he'd said that. She pointed at the S.P.E.W. badge on her dress.
"Absolutely not." she snapped.
"You can't go to bed with just tea in your stomach." Draco said.
"You never come to dinner on Thursday nights either, and yet I don't tell you anything!" replied Granger.
This time it was Draco's turn to be surprised. Since when did Granger analyse his schedule?
"It's not the same thing." he replied evasively, although it was exactly the same thing.
"I'll have something to eat before I go to bed." she promised. "Good night, Draco."
And she left, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Draco was sure she was lying and wouldn't eat. That girl was so stubborn.
He closed his book. He didn't feel like working when she wasn't there. He stood up and spotted Theo, who was still sitting at his table.
As Draco approached him from behind, he saw three essays lying in front of him, probably Crabbe and Goyle's.
"Hey." Draco said as he joined him.
"Oh, hey. Didn't see you there." the dark haired man said, putting down his quill to rub his eyelids.
"Are you going to be much longer?" asked Draco as he leafed through the parchments.
"No, just another ten minutes or so. Are you coming to study?" asked Theo when he saw Draco's bag.
"No, not really. But I can wait for you before I go back to the dormitory, if you like."
Theo pointed gallantly to the chair opposite him. Draco sat down and didn't even bother to open his book, just watched as Theo wrote quickly. The ink he used was dark blue, slightly pearly, which made his essay quite neat.
"Do you have a synonym for the word 'sprinkle'?" asked Theo, without looking up.
"Er... Sow? Spread? Scatter?" offered Draco.
"I don't think Crabbe knows the word 'sow'..." said Theo, looking at his essay. "Spread, that's not bad."
Draco watched Theo's quill slide across the paper. It was a fascinating sight. He realised how tired he was when he almost fell asleep. The Occlumancy lessons were taking too much out of him.
He looked away and fixed his eyes on Theo's bag hanging from the chair behind him. Several textbooks were sticking out of the opening, including the same blue dictionary Granger had shown him earlier. Draco had forgotten that Theo took that option as well. From time to time he also read texts like Granger's, with runes and strange symbols.
Tearing off a piece of parchment, Draco hastily drew the upside-down triangle symbol and waited for Theo to finish the essay before asking:
"I saw this rune in a Potions text earlier and I don't know how to read it... Do you have any idea what it means?"
Theo barely looked at the piece of parchment for a second before answering immediately:
"Rune of Inversion."
"What?"
"This is the rune of inversion. It means 'to reverse' in the Scandinavian runic alphabet."
"Oh. I see." said Draco, amazed that Theo could recognise a rune so quickly.
"What was a rune doing in a Potions book?" he asked, perplexed.
"No idea."
They returned to the dormitory soon after. Draco didn't stay long at the party, which wasn't really a party that night, just small groups of friends in corners of the room and much softer music than usual. Since Pansy seemed to be feeling better, the parties had become much less intense.
Draco waited until Theo was in bed and Blaise was in the shower before he slipped out into the dungeon corridor. He climbed the stairs discreetly, checking several times to make sure no prefect was passing by, then headed out into the Hogwarts grounds. He called to Ebony in a whisper, and the owl arrived a minute later, straight from the Owlery.
Ebony must have woken up from a deep sleep, because he was a bit grumpy and refused to have his head stroked with an annoyed peck. He did, however, accept Draco's note, a simple piece of parchment with the word "Inversion" written on it, without any signature or explanation, and a muffin.
Draco whispered the destination to Ebony. The owl immediately flew to the top of the Gryffindor tower. Soon Draco couldn't see it anymore because the owl's black plumage blended into the inky black sky.
He waited a few minutes, dancing from one foot to the other. He was afraid that one of Granger's flatmates would open the window. She wouldn't understand the word, but she might recognise Ebony, which was a particular colour. He was beginning to regret his idea when the owl swooped down and landed on his arm. It had a piece of paper in its beak.
Draco picked it up and Ebony flew away with a plaintive hoot.
The paper contained just two words, in Granger's neat, round handwriting:
"Merlin, thank you."
Draco smiled. He could see her relief in it. She really hadn't been able to sleep because of this.
He was still smiling when he got back to the dormitory.
.
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The next day, however, Draco wasn't smiling at all.
He was in Snape's study, as he was every Thursday. Either Snape was having a bad day, or he was in a foul mood for no reason. In any case, Draco was taking a much larger dose of Occlumancy than on previous occasions.
"Concentrate, Draco!" Snape repeated tirelessly.
Draco tried. At first he managed to ward off his teacher's mental needles, but after an hour he was too exhausted to resist the onslaught. He lacked the mental strength. Snape easily penetrated the depths of his mind, revealing images of his parents and himself crying. When he reached Theo, who was reading a Muggle book in the dormitory, Draco let out a groan of pain.
"You're not Occluding, Draco!" said Snape, withdrawing from his mind.
"I can't! Can't you see I'm exhausted?" wailed Draco as he leaned against the desk, panting.
"You think your attacker will be conciliatory?" sneered Snape. "Do you honestly think the Dark Lord will give you a little break, so you can rest?"
The question made Draco's blood run cold. He stood up and looked at his teacher, who did not blink.
"How..."
"You need to be prepared, Draco." Snape said sharply. "The danger is closer than ever. You must be able to hide your emotions."
Draco felt his hands shaking. He wanted to ask more questions, to ask Snape what he meant by this threat. But before he could open his mouth, the Potions Master brandished his wand:
"Legilimens!"
A cry escaped Draco's throat. The needle entered his tired brain without feeling the slightest resistance. Draco tried in vain to push it away, but fatigue and fear paralysed him too much to do anything. He let the images flash before him, his father screaming, his nightmares. When Snape managed to extract an image of Granger calling him by his first name, Draco summoned the last of his energy to wrest that image, that precious memory, from Snape's hands.
He hadn't noticed that he had fallen to the ground. It was only when he heard Snape's penetrating voice that Draco opened his eyes to see the foot of a stool.
"Get up." Snape ordered.
Draco did so with difficulty. Snape didn't help him, just stood in front of him and watched him struggle.
"I don't think you realise the danger to her if your brain is analysed by someone dangerous." Snape said calmly.
An unpleasant shiver ran down Draco's sweat-soaked back. He knew this only too well. It was a fear that had been with him every day since he'd sat at his desk in the library at the beginning of the year.
Even longer, in fact.
"Legilimens!" yelled Snape before Draco could brace himself.
The pain was more piercing than ever. He heard a cry and knew it was his own. His temple was about to explode, his head was boiling. Even the images were blurred by exhaustion, but Snape tried relentlessly to push them out of his mind.
Draco was no longer in control. For a few seconds, he even forgot where he was. He saw image after image without recognising them. He saw his mother cutting flowers in the manor's garden and felt an uncontrollable urge to cry, without knowing why. His legs trembled.
After what seemed like a quarter of an hour of mental searching, Snape said, "Concentrate, Draco! Push me away!" and Draco tried. Snape took a picture of Granger and Draco concentrated on it to keep from flinching. He breathed, tried to relax, tried not to feel the pain piercing his temples.
He concentrated hard enough to find the needle and try to push it away, but he couldn't. It was too deep in the layers of his head to be removed. Draco tried to replace the image of Granger with something else, but as his mental strength dwindled, all he could see was a black background...
Suddenly, with one last spark of magic, Draco struck back. He had no idea how his body had managed to produce magic without him being aware of it, he simply felt a mental defence, like an impulse, and suddenly Draco penetrated Snape's mind, who had not foreseen it, and found himself disarmed.
A clear image emerged. He saw a red-haired girl with emerald green eyes, smiling. It was an old memory, like a faded photograph. She wasn't moving, as if frozen. Then Snape Occluded and the image disappeared.
When Draco returned to his body, he was surprised that he was still standing. His head still hurt and his vision was a little blurred. He could make out Snape standing in front of him, a hand over his heart and his wand pointing at the ground.
"You... You may go, Draco." his teacher said in a low voice. "Rest and meditate well before next Thursday."
Draco wanted to point out that next Thursday was during the holidays, but he didn't have the strength. He had a feeling he shouldn't be debating Snape tonight. He had no idea of the significance of the memory he'd inadvertently extracted from his teacher, but judging by Snape's reaction, it must have been quite important.
Draco staggered to the entrance of the study. His head was spinning. He was thirsty. For fresh water. And he wanted to lie down in his bed to stop feeling dizzy.
He struggled to open the door. The corridor was dark. Snape had overstayed his tutoring time; it must have been well past eight.
Draco turned towards the Common Room door but was surprised to see the silhouettes of two boys in the corridor.
Theo and Blaise. They were waiting for him. Draco approached them.
"Well, well, well!" exclaimed Theo when he saw him coming. "8:10, a bit late for a private lesson!
"Are you all right, Dray?" asked Blaise, worried.
Draco must have looked very pale for him to understand his state without speaking. Draco couldn't feel his hands, and his stomach was about to turn. He shook his head.
"Draco? What's wrong?" asked Theo, but Draco couldn't see him, because his vision had become so blurred.
"I... I need..." he stammered.
The weight of his own legs was too much to bear and he collapsed against his two best friends. Theo and Blaise just managed to catch him.
"Wow, Dray! What happened to you?!" exclaimed Blaise.
"Did Snape hurt you? What the hell were you doing there?" asked Theo, his voice filled with fear.
Draco nodded, ready to reveal the real reason for Snape's private lessons, but he fainted before he could answer.