The Slytherin prince

Chapter 46: A bottle in the ocean

I was walking back to the common room, with my thoughts everywhere except from reality. I most bumped into a large group of 7th year Slytherins.

"Watch were you are going freak! Ah look who we have here." The leader of the group looked me up and down with a nasty look, his group just watching. "The girl who gets in every kind of trouble." The tall skinny boy in front of me said. I tried walking past them and to ignore him. "All because she has a crush on Malfoy." They laughed. I froze in my tracs.

"Where did you get that stupid gossip?" My heart was racing inside my ribcage.

"Don't deny it, Victoria. Everybody knows what happened in the bathroom the other day." He winked and walked away. They mean that Potter had almost killed Draco? Or was the story twisted in every possible way?

"Vic!" Someone shouted behind me. With a sigh I turned myself around. "I've caught what happened. I was worried sick! I wasn't allowed to visit, am so sorry!" Anna rushed her words out without breathing.

"Relax, am fine. We both are." I gave her a smile that I didn't mean at all. "What version did you hear? And from who?" I asked her.

"There are multiple versions already? Damn." She thought about it. "Harry is in really deep trouble." a fine line between her eyebrows appeared.

"He almost killed him, Anna." My hands became sweaty and cold, my stomach dropped and my head started spinning again. "He almost killed him." It was barely a whisper. My throat was constricting till the point that I wasn't getting enough air. My breathings became heavy and fast.

"Victoria, calm down please! You are scaring me!" She shouted at me. "He isn't dead, alright. He is fine. You both are." She tried calming me down, with no luck.

"Victoria, honey." A soft female voice said me behind me. The sound startled me. She kneeled beside me, looking directly at my red tearing face. "Deep breathings honey. Breath in, hold for a sec, breath out." She did the exercise with me. "Breath in." Only now I could recognize her face, too overtaken with my panic attack before. I looked at Anna, who was cramped at the wall, watching in distress.

"Thanks professor Trelawney." She thought divination here. "Sorry." I whispered, out of breath.

"Don't be. Keep in mind, if this happens again. Deep breathings." She stood up. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, am fine. Thanks." I wasn't fine, but didn't want to talk about it either.

"Okay, you are always welcome if you change your mind." I nodded at her. She gave us one more smile and walked away.

"Sorry for scaring you." I cleared my throat. Anna's face was frozen in a frown and eyes way to big.

"Never do that again please." She breathed deeply, relieved that Professor Trelawney came to our rescue. For the whole day, I tried supressing one panic attack after the other. Lying in bed, turning every minute, not finding a comfortable position. Everything was filtered out, except from what happened. I did not dare to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I relived that moment over and over again. As a vivid dream, I could see him lying on the floor, this time dead. No one to the rescue, just him, dead. I snapped out of it. I couldn't bare this any longer. I pushed myself upwards, scanning the room. Everybody was already sleeping. In complete silence, I walked towards the door and left the room, going straight to Draco's dorm. Maybe if I saw that he was okey, the dreams and the mental terror would stop. I was standing in front of his door, hesitating to knock and afraid of my own reaction. Sunken away in thoughts, I just knocked. The sound snapped me out of it again. It startled me how it ego-ed through the common room, making too much noise. It was quiet for too long. Maybe he didn't hear. Or maybe he wasn't even there. This was stupid. I turned myself around and walked back.

"Victoria?" A soft sleepy voice broke the silence hanging in space. My heart picked up its pace. "What is wrong?"

"Nothing, am sorry for waking you." I didn't dare look at him.

"It is 3am, whatever it is, it is not nothing." The tone in his voice made me turn around and look at him. To my surprise, It did nothing. No relieve, no panic, no nothing. He walked back into his room, leaving the door open. "Please come in." I heard him say in the darkness. I gave in and followed him into his dorm. I closed the door behind me to not wake anyone up.

"I couldn't sleep." I was standing at the door in my pj's, looking at how Draco pulled his blankets away and stepped in his bed again. "I've had a hard time dealing with everything to be honest." I said honestly.

"Dumbledore told me about your panic attacks." He said softly.

"really?"

"Guess he knows everything." I heard him snort. He lifted the blanket besides him and patted the empty space just like yesterday. With no hesitation I climbed besides him, pushing myself against his body. In a simple human gesture, he laid his arm around me. "You've had them before?" He whispered to me, resting his head against mine.

"No." I tried to ignore the way he made me feel. It made everything even worse. "I had to see you." I whispered back, ashamed of admitting it. He was about to say something to that, but decided not to, only letting out a deep breath while tightening the grip aground my waist.

"Are you feeling better?" He asked me. I nodded, the comfort feeling of him around me consuming me completely. "You?" I asked after a silence.

"Yes." It was a short answer, but it made the knot in my stomach go away.

"Thank you." I closed my eyes and buried myself deeper into his chest.

"For what?" He whispered so softly that I almost didn't understand it.

"For being not dead." I laughed. He snorted again. I could practically hear him smile in the darkness. I felt at peace and let the warm feeling sweeping me away like a bottle in the ocean.