Deliverance | Draco Malfoy

Eleven

Somehow, Malfoy's harsh words in the following days didn't seem to make me upset anymore. I had expected such cruelty from him, but my brain was also ignoring the tone they carried when he was the one saying it. Similar to when Graham shouts at me...

If I could get myself to pretend that the boy I agreed to let help me had a sliver of care for me somewhere inside him, then my toxic brain wouldn't try and plague my thoughts with the idea that he was plotting something else deep down and had other intentions to hurt me.

I didn't think he would use me— or maybe I just hoped he wouldn't. I had seen the hurt and pain in his eyes when he had told me about his similar past. I saw how he looked at me when he did give me the time of day. And he had been going out of his way this week to keep Adrian Pucey from stalking me like wounded prey.

Sometimes, I could tell when Malfoy's behavior was a giant act to make me believe he hated me. But others, the look on his face proved how much he meant his short-tempered insults.

There had been a few times where I got lucky enough to be in the presence of Theo, who had convinced his best friend Adrian that he would do the right thing and tattle on me if I went against Graham's rules, but in reality— he never would.

Then we had my precious boy, Blaise. The light of my life and apple of my eye. He had found a way to sneak around at night and meet with me so we could talk all about our lonely days and express how much we had been missing each other. We talked about our plans to run away one day and how the two of us would get out of here for good. But we both knew that we were shouting into the wind.

We'd never escape.

I walked myself to Transfigurations that Thursday morning, and it felt good that the air was easy to breathe. It seemed it had felt that way ever since Malfoy claimed he could help me battle the dark emotions I felt. If he could just help me learn to fight back like he had, maybe Graham would finally stop all of this, and the two of us could be happy together.

"Rookwood." I rolled my eyes from the annoying voice that had been trailing me like a puppy dog all week. He was present for almost every step, breath, and shiver I had every day. He was starting to become unbearable, and I realized that he was far from being my friend— unlike the other 2 Slytherin boys he thought were helping him out this week.

"You weren't at breakfast." He snapped next to me when his strides caught up. I put some space between us and hugged my books against my chest.

There was something in his voice this morning that didn't settle well with me. It reminded me of the harsh way Graham would speak to me when I had done something wrong.

"I wasn't hungry." I lied. If I ate a real meal, I'd most likely give in to the temptations I had been feeling of throwing all of it back up again just for the hell of it. So I decided not showing up to the dining hall wouldn't be such a waste of my time.

"That's not how this works." He snarled through a laugh. "You broke the fucking rules. Rules that I'm supposed to make sure you follow." He hissed at me. I looked at him out of the corner of my eyes and felt any courage I may have possessed slip from my body when I saw his stare.

"Why would he care if I went to breakfast or not?" I asked him quietly to draw attention away from us. Adrian was really finding more ways to make me loathe him. "Maybe I slept in."

"Don't lie to me, Rookwood. Zabini wasn't there either." He seethed with a harsh glare. That was news to me. I hadn't seen Blaise all morning. "I will send him an owl. You know that right? I'll send it right after classes." He warned me. My throat closed off as the curious students watched us stopped in the middle of the hall. I gave him a startled look.