CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

[Shallow]

DRACO

"I need your help with something."

"Go away."

"No."

Draco looked up from his look to where Pansy was glaring down at him. Her lips were pursed and her face was pulled in a tight line to show she was serious.

"Blasie, tell her to get out."

"I let her in."

"Why the hell would you do that?"

"Because you look like you just watched your dog get butchered by a house-elf."

Draco scowls at the boy leaning up against his bedpost. "Maybe I did. Leave me the bloody fuck alone." He moves to pull close his bed curtains but Blasie catches his wrist.

"Why the hell are you so moody?"

"Come off it Zabini."

"Is it that time of the month again?" Pansy teases. She ignores Draco's wishes and sits herself down at the foot of his bed. Just in kicking distance too.

"I don't see what is to you."

"Because we're your friends." She sighs dramatically. "Not like your acting like it recently. You've been such a bore since school started." She nudges him with her foot and Draco makes a point by pushing it away dramatically.

The comment bothers him more than he would have liked. Of course he was acting differently. He woke up. They hadn't. He was stuck, blocked in, from every direction because of the goddamn mark on his arm they so gloriously worshipped. Every accomplice he once had dropped, no kicked, him the second they thought he would tear down their social standing. The two hadn't realized yet that a life like wasn't a life at all.

And his father. The thought burned his insides. Utter silence from him in over the half month he'd been at school. He should be glad that he had cut the strings, but he couldn't help but feel that wasn't the end of the story. That night at the inn was only the first round. There would be countless others before he would be cut free of the strings his father had crafted so carefully. The man was a snake, hidden underneath the brush, waiting to pounce when he least expected it.

They were just so blind. He wanted to grab them by the shoulders and yell 'Wake up! Wake you, you idiots! Don't you see what you're getting into?!'

But he couldn't. And they wouldn't.

"I'm busy."

"You're always busy."

"Ask Blasie to do it."

"Gah!" She throws her hands up in an act. "He's horrendously a terrible sneak. The bugger doesn't know the difference between stomping and walking."

"It's called walking with purpose." Blasie corrects her looking slightly annoyed. It was the millionth time they'd have that conversation.

"I don't care whatever it's called it's annoying as fuck. No, what I need is you. Speed, stealth, and an agile mind."

"You're able to get by on two out of three then?"

Pansy glares at Draco then allows it to deteriorate into a playful smirk. "There he is."

~~~

The library door opens with an eerie creak in the night air that makes Draco wince.

"You should have put a mufflio charm on it." He whispers to Pansy. The words echo like thunder in the large, cavernous room.

"Madam Pince won't notice. She's probably fast asleep in her knickers by now."

Draco makes a face at the vivid image. "Yes, but that doesn't mean someone else won't! You're careless, Pansy. There are two prefects scheduled for patrolling the first floor tonight."

"Yes, and if you actually showed up for the prefect meetings you'll know they're fifth years Colten and Griffen. I slipped a sleeping drought in their pumpkin juice during dinner. Come on you lazy bum. You're a Slytherin now act like it."

Draco followed reluctantly behind her. When she first proposed the idea of sneaking into the restricted section he had opposed. It was recklessly stupid, there had to be tons of wards and charms around it. Apparently, he underestimated the stupidity of his headmaster. All that forbade them going inside was a thin piece of rope.

Besides, it might be his only chance to find a real cure for Harry. He would have never been able to look around with permission with the taint of dark magic of his last name. He failed to word the idea to Pansy though for obvious reasons.

This part of the library was old. The floors creaked as he grazed his fingertips over the decaying bookshelves. Small runes were inscribed there; old ones that went out of date years ago. He could have stayed there for hours to scribble them all down and figure out what they did if Pansy didn't tug at his sleeve.

"Use a detect-"

"Detection charm, yes, I know. Honestly Draco. Stop treating me as if I'm four."

Draco gave her a sharp glare but didn't say anything else on the matter.

It would have been an obvious choice for Draco to hate the dark arts after what it had done to him and his family. It caused the rift between them that could never be healed. And yet, Draco still had a morbid fascination with it. Perhaps it was the blood that ran inside his veins. It was his mother's family that coined the term 'Black Magic' after all. He knew what it did to people who got too close, and so he always examined it from afar much to his father's distaste. There was evil in it for sure, but there was also good to be found in it if you paid enough attention. Countless lives could be saved if hospitals didn't have such a bias against it. I was like a sword; not necessarily evil though it's purpose to harm. It all depends on the person using it. In the end, knowledge was knowledge and shouldn't be restricted.

Draco glanced back over his shoulder to where Pansy had a 'Lumos' charm up to examine the titles. She refused to even tell him what he was looking for. It left an uncertain feeling in his stomach. Pansy wouldn't have nearly the same intent as he did. By helping he was potentially saving Harry's life but also causing damage to her in the long run.

"Watch my back," she whispered over her shoulder before heading deeper into shelves. She stopped at a bookcase labeled 'potions and poisons' before turning the corner out of sight.

Draco took out his own wand just in case. The two of them always said he was a scaredy-cat when in truth he couldn't stand not being prepared for something he could prevent. If he didn't, in some physiological way, he would blame himself for it just as his father would.

Casting an alert charm, he turned back to examine the plaques on the bookshelves. They were as old as the section themselves. A couple he had to wipe the dust off to properly read. When he finally found the medical section he was somewhat irked at the small collection. There were only five or eight books. He grumbled once again about Dumbledore's poor management of the school. You could have eight different ways to curse your enemies' bloodline but Merlin forbid something that could save a life. It was times like these he missed the Malfoy Manor library.

He examined the books closer. He couldn't possibly take all these books with him without someone noticing. He supposed he would have to take one and hope for the best. Suddenly he remembers the charm Bramble used to cast when he was little when trying to find a specific book he was pitching a fit about. He'd never cast it himself before and from what he remembered it only worked on small sections at a time. He toyed with his bottom lip. What was the hand motion again? A circle and a flick? A triangle? It was a sister charm of Accio so perhaps...

"Libererous sickness curse!"

It fails. He tries again, this time with more exaggeration. That too fails to work. He lowered his wand to give up when he caught sight of a small, pocket-sized book wiggling its way out from being jammed between two larger ones a couple sections down. Someone had misplaced it.

Draco helped it and it came flying out like an overactive snitch. He caught it with ease. It was newer than most books in the library. The leather binding on it couldn't have been more than a couple years old. He was just about to open it when faint whispering caught his attention.

Quickly, he shoved the book inside his robe pocket and threw himself up against the bookshelf. He could feel his heart drop to his stomach as the panic shot through his body. Millions of thoughts raced through his head at once in rebuttal of his paralyzed limbs. He could be expelled for this. They would send him back to the manor where he'll no doubt be killed.

His mind flies to Pansy. She had no idea. He had to hope she had a better sense of hearing that she liked to act on.

"Bend down, you're too tall. You're going to end up exposing us."

"Come on, it's not my fault I'm tall. You try walking like a hundred and fifty-year-old grandma and see how you like it!"

Draco strained to catch some of the intruder's conversation. He recognized the bickering of Granger and Weasley almost immediately. He held his breath. They must have used Harry's invisibility cloak while he was a way to sneak past his alarm.

"You're walking too fast!"

"No, you're just short."

There was no way Draco was going to get out of there undetected. The voices were coming closer and closer. He suspected they were heading exactly where he was. Looking around, he realized he was in a dead-end. There would be no other way.

He looked around the corner. The two were beginning to shed the cloak while whispering something he could no longer hear. Draco took a deep breath and turned the corner in the most casual manner he could manage.

"Going for a walk I see?"

The two stopped dead in their tracks. Granger moved faster than Weasley, spinning around with her wand in hand before Draco could blink.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Weasley hisses. He had stepped forward in front of his friend looking as if he would hex him. Draco raised his own wand in retaliation.

"I could ask you the same." He adds a sneer at the end of it for good measure. Pansy was right about one thing- he was acting differently since school started. If the two of them noticed it, then the rest of the school would be on the same train sooner or later. It was best to establish who he was again and the two of them would be the best way to do that.

"None of your bloody business."

"Unfortunate. Care to steer me to the magical creature section? I've been looking for the best way to boil my cornish pixies with the rancid smell that comes with."

Granger made a face then raised her wand. "Watch it Malfoy. We could report you to the headmaster. You could be expelled."

He ignored the way his heart skipped a beat. "I suppose, but what would he say about his two out of his three favorite lapdogs breaking some of the school's biggest rules as well? He definitely wouldn't be very pleased with you either."

Weasely moves suddenly and Granger grabs him from the back of his robes. Draco raises his eyebrow tauntingly at him who practically growls back.

"He wouldn't be very pleased, but who would get in the prophet first?" She tests, her voice ice.

"'Malfoy Heir, Expelled from Hogwarts for Dark Arts'. Not a very nice headline, is it? Might even destroy your family's reputation."

Draco's hand tightens of his wand. Their words had quickly diminished his fear into anger. They have no clue, he thinks frustrated. No one did. Everyone was so fucking clueless. If they knew he was trying to save their best friend's life he wouldn't even be here right now. They acted like he was the selfish one, but so were they in their own rationed way and they didn't even know. They didn't know and didn't want to and so he would constantly be blamed so they would never have the time to look into their own.

"Yeah? And who's word are they going to take? Some filthy mudblood and a blood traitor over me?"

He regrets the words before they even left his mouth. He doesn't believe them, they had just came tumbling out before he could stop it. He almost can't believe it was him who said it. He had only wanted to lash out as they did him. Draco's hands start to shake in disgust and fear at himself.

Weasely rips away from her grip and launches himself at Draco. If it wasn't for his quick 'protego' Draco would be lying flat on his back.

"You bastard!"

A spell suddenly flies over his ear causing Draco to duck. His hopes she would hold back the redhead quickly dissolved looking at her face.

"Stupefy!" She yells again. Draco throws himself behind the table on instinct. There are few other spells thrown that all narrowly miss and hit the bookshelf behind him. A two on one was destined to lose so where the hell was Pansy?

"Petrificus Totalus!" He looks over his shoulder and shoots at Granger who shields but not before shooting a slicing charm back at him that hits his cheek. He winces then brings a hand up to it, feeling blood.

He jumps up from his spot with the protection of a couple shields and makes for the door. He didn't want to draw blood. That would make him on the same level as his father and that was the last thing he needed.

Suddenly Draco's head went reeling. He hadn't expected the Weasely's muggle way of fighting. The powerful punch sent Draco stumbling into the bookcase behind him. A couple books fell ontop but he could barely notice with the ringing in his head. It felt like a drugged version of the cruciatus curse but contained in one area. He groaned loudly as held his head in his hands. The world was spinning around him in a way that made him nauseous.

Somewhere he registered a sharp squeal coming from one of the open books next to him. His two attackers sunk to their knees with their fingers guarding their ears. Dazed, Draco looks around for an escape. Despite the blurriness, he sees the discarded cloak on the floor. He scrambles up to reach it while they're both distracted. It's soft underneath his fingers.

Draco throws it on and stands up with the help of the table and almost busting his chin. He dizzily limps the best he can towards the door. Madam Pinch would find them eventually.

~~~

You say I don't care at all

But if you only knew

At night all the sleep I lose

Over what I can't change

~~~

Hiya, a little bit of darker Draco? as a treat?

I have no idea how much more I'm going to write in about the next two weeks. My cousin (basically childhood friend) and grandparents are visiting for the next two weeks for my birthday and my sister and her bf are going to be here as well soon and they all live over 12 hours away in Florida so. Be thankful for your patience lads. 

Words: 2502

Published: 7/10/20