𝒯𝒽ℯ 𝒫𝓇ℴ𝓂𝒾𝓈ℯ𝒹 𝒪𝓃ℯ | 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲 |

#19 Liquid Nightmares

"Wake up!"

The green light was all around me again, shining in my eyes. The hissing tongue in the back of my mind practically burning down. It would never leave again, I realized that now.

"Tiara!"

His eyes were grey, a veil over them as if someone put some too big, too bright contact lenses in. His lips were open, not in a slight way but distorted. Like a snake dislocating its jaw to swallow the mouse.

"Hey, come on!"

I looked down on him, I couldn't move by the forces keeping me steady on my place. My neck hurt, but it felt as if the cold I experienced was crawling into my body deep down towards my soul. I tried to scream, but I couldn't.

"Listen closely, my child."

„FOX!"

I snapped my eyes open in the same moment I took a deep inhale and pushed myself up in an upright position. My breath was pacing, my forehead covered in sweat, my hair plastered on it.

"Merlin, are you alright?", Draco's voice was shaky as I looked up in his startled grey eyes. His hands were grabbing my shoulders, keeping me steady when his other one came up to my face.

But I couldn't feel it, like my body was all numb and still trapped in the prison of my imagination. But he was there, he was alive. That's all I needed right now.

"Yeah", I quickly said and shifted to the edge off the couch with my feet on the ground. Silently I counted to ten with my eyes closed like I did every time I had one of these nightmares.

I fell asleep on the couch in the common room, probably along with Draco whose hair was standing in all directions. He had took off his sweater by the heat of the fireplace on his left and laid it neatly over the armrest, letting him in a plain white shirt. If it wasn't for my current state, I would probably be surprised why he was staying there in the first place and why he stayed on the same couch as me, with my legs still in his lap and himself in a sitting position instead of comfortable in his bed. But I couldn't think. I couldn't even inhale calmly.

"Yeah, I'm fine", I whispered again as I tried to take my pulse and my breathing under control.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Come on, Fox, keep your shit together.

"You're sure? You're hyperven -"

"I said I'm fine, Draco!", I snapped louder and turned towards him. He furrowed his eyebrows confused, but didn't move as I quickly stood and headed up to my dorm, trying my hardest to keep my balance. I was tired, I was tense with the nightmare still clearly on my inner eye as if it wanted to hang on just a little bit longer than the last time. And I was mainly embarrassed that Draco witnessed probably the most vulnerable state of mine. And my thoughts were too swirling for me to realize, that Maribel wasn't in her dorm bed as soon as I laid down in mine and drifted away in a restless sleep again.

In the next morning I did notice.

I woke up along with the other girls who were nearly as pissed being woken up then I was worried to see Maribel's bed untouched. Their little pre-tournament meet up with the boys thankfully went longer than I stayed sleeping in the common room. Otherwise, the rumors of me sleeping with my legs up on Dracos' body for everyone to see in the Slytherin dungeons would spread quicker than a wildfire around the castle. Especially if Pansy or Daphne would've found me there.

It was the day of the second task and as soon as breakfast was over - on which I didn't see neither Hermione, nor Ron, nor Maribel for that matter - we were directed down to the Black Lake.