Perfectly in Pieces

Chapter 44: Theo

All rights of characters and world are reserved to J.K. Rowling
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Someone scuffed the stairs.

You have got to be shitting me...

He has to force himself to continue up with the tray of food. Even with a statis charm, a muffin was better fresh. He could spare the time it would take to remove the damn mark on his way back down.

Not that he has much time to spare. Work on the shithouse had to be placed on hold as he and Hermione became consumed with a greater priority over the past few days.

Draco.

They had both been in agreement that giving all of their time to try and figure out the cure to an obliviate in three days was bloody impossible. Witches and wizards had tried to find a cure for decades with no luck. Even Hermione admitted that she had tried to find a one after having to do something very similar to her own parents to try to keep them safe.

It was a waste of precious time.

But figuring out how to help Draco. How to save him from the eroding effects of the Dark Magic he had been forced to use, that couldn't be a lost cause.

It couldn't.

They had to find a way to help him. They had been reading non stop as he slept most of the time. Anytime he was awake he said it was too hard for him. Too hard to function. To fight whatever was trying to lay claim to him. Theo was also currently brewing another batch of the advanced calming draught Hermione had been taking. Draco needed it as well.

This isn't fair...

It wasn't. Yes Draco was definitely ruthless, and deadly. But not to those who were innocent. Not to old schoolmates, and muggle borns. He was dangerous to those he deemed dangerous.

He had the ability to kill, and even savored it as he made clear after what he had done to Amycus, which Theo was still pissed about. But his decisions were reactionary not actionary. What he cared about had to be threatened before he got to that level within himself.

Killing just to kill, to feel the addictive crave of Dark Magic being wielded with your body. That was not something he ever wanted. Theo knows that.

He can't imagine what it must be like to grow that area, to feel it course through your veins as you wield it. Something that couldn't be occluded either.

Draco did not handle things well if he didn't have the ability to occlude. He had used that crutch of his so much, that it became a necessity for him to function.

So to have that numb quiet taken away from him, becoming something darker that he couldn't stay in alone for long, must be killing him.

It is killing him.

He had thrown up so many times, they had moved him onto the floor of the bathroom. His body trying to dispel the dark magic in the only way it instinctively thought was possible.

The only thing that seemed to help was Hermione touching him, filling him with warmth and affection. So he wasn't alone in the gloom anymore.

Hermione believed his reaction was due to internal conflict of intention. He didn't want to be this, but he would. Could that sacrifice be selfish?

Theo knocks on Ginevra's bedroom door and waits. She had been eating again like she promised him she would for the last two days. She had changed her clothes and walked steadier as well. Whatever Hermione had done must have helped. She truly was an amazing friend.

"Hey, Teddy right?"

Theo turns to see a man who he slightly remembers, walking down the hallway towards him. A Gryffindor if he was remembering correctly. He thinks the man once dated Ginevra before dating that Irish bloke. Maybe his name is Dean, but he isn't sure.