Out of Time

Chapter 1

Draco drifts.

It's an odd feeling, a floating without water. Or air. Maybe it's just his mind drifting.

The more he thinks about it - or tries to think, everything muddled as it is - the more that seems right. His mind is drifting.

He's not sure what happened. He remembers flashes of things but doesn't know when they happened. He doesn't even know if they happened at all. Maybe he's dreaming. Maybe this is all one massive, bizarre dream.

"Murder! Murder!"

Murder? There's not supposed to be any of that. No, no murder. That's why it's supposed to wait until summer. He's been trying so hard to stall. It's very important.

"What did you do?"

Pain. A deep, dark slash of it. A scream, loads of screaming, a bloody sodding screaming contest happening in his ears. In him? Is he screaming? Is it someone else?

"Move, idiot boy!"

A rhythmic lull of words, a chant. A tugging, a stitching, his flesh being pulled this way and that. His torso shifts on the cold floor, warm splashes of liquid at his back as his shoulder blades hit down.

"I didn't know - I didn't mean to -"

"Stay here."

The feeling of being carried. No; levitated? More floating.

* * *

"Will you shag me?"

That's nice, a nicer flash of memory, of something good. Had it happened? Or did he dream it? She'd asked him... hadn't she? She'd wanted him. She'd come to him. She had, hadn't she? He can hear her voice, can almost see it. See her.

So pretty. Perfect.

* * *

"Oh, Severus! What happened?"

"It's Dark magic. I can stop the bleeding, but not -"

"Tell me what you're doing. How are you doing that?"

"Come over here, Poppy. He must remain still. Steady, Draco."

* * *

"I'd never call you Draco."

The smirk that looked so good on her mouth, her full lips, her defiance.

* * *

"Will you shag me?"

"Have you done anything else?"

She had not. She'd come to him, asking... asking...

"I won't shag you tonight. There's a lot that should come first."

He'd been excited, for the first time in months, it seemed. He was happy to drag it out, to have more.

* * *

Heels tapping on the stone floor, a pretty girl winding her way between the tables. A flash of a red toenail peeping out the tip of the shoe, a heel, higher than standard uniform issue. A smell of shampoo - lilac? - as she brushes by, her cheeks a little pink.

A stirring in his trousers, something that feels... distant. Like it's been evading him.

* * *

"Severus, the scar... his chest -"

"There's nothing I can do about the scar, Poppy. But he'll live. Whether Potter will when Lucius hears what he's done, I can't say."

* * *