Draco's Hufflepuff | Emerging

Sixty-Four: Apathetic

**

Friday, 7th March, 1997

Things with Draco hadn't gotten any better, if anything, they were getting worse day-by-day. He was a shell of his former self, and I knew there was nothing I could do.

He was like a walking corpse, like he was purely existing, and not living. His beautiful, grey eyes had no sparkle in them, and they had a constant dark ring around them. His perfect, porcelain skin had no colour to it. His always perfectly styled hair hadn't been done in weeks. He looked really sick.

His always perfect looking and pristine uniform was nowhere to be seen. His robes were creased, his tie was crooked, and there was no effort put into his appearance like he had done for six years.

He barely spoke anymore. He wasn't tormenting anyone. He was just... completely apathetic. I think I would prefer him being unpleasant and cruel to everyone, because at least then it would be something.

He wasn't doing any of his school work, or if he were, he was just about scraping an Acceptable, he'd even received a few Poor and Dreadful marks. In all the years I had known Draco, he'd never gotten less than Exceeds Expectations.

I even spoke to Patrick for a moment in the Great Hall for the first time in what felt like forever. It wasn't about anything in particular, he was just asking me about what day I would prefer our Prefect meeting to be on. I didn't have the energy to attempt to be standoffish with him.

Draco didn't even care that he spoke to me. Admittedly, he did watch the entire one-to-two minute conversation happen, and I thought it was going to cause a nasty, violent argument between the two boys, but Draco never said a word.

At the table, as we sat down, Patrick discreetly gave me a small, apologetic smile, and even though I didn't return it, I appreciated it so much.

In all honesty, I think I would have liked it if Draco made a huge fuss over it, because it would show that he cared still. I used to think his jealousy was a bad thing, but that was before it seemed to disappear.

He did tell me that he was busy working on something for Snape. I thought I was finally going to get to the bottom of what the matter was, but he just froze up and completely shut back down. I knew he regretted telling me, but it was one tiny answer to a million of my questions.

**

Because of Draco's slowly declining grades, he was receiving detentions almost every day. Annoyingly, but understandably, they all seemed to take place either during break or after dinner.

After History of Magic, and a whole hour of Draco being almost next to me, but simultaneously feeling a mile away from me, Hannah and I were walking back to our common room to sit and have a cup of tea together.

Hannah was being more supportive than I probably deserved at the moment. Every night I was in bed, as I closed my eyes, I got images flashing in my mind of our big argument that followed the truth about me and Draco coming out. I couldn't help but wonder sometimes if Hannah thought of it too.

"...and I couldn't believe that he actually thought he could just walk in like it was nothing," Hannah laughed as she relayed some story about Seamus, and I felt bad for not listening.

Ron had thankfully made a full recovery and had been discharged from the Hospital Wing. I never did get round to visiting him, it just never felt like the right time, and I was more preoccupied with the downfall of my relationship and the breakdown Draco was going through.

Speaking of, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all walking in front of us, and they clearly didn't know that we were directly behind them all. They were talking quietly amongst themselves, and something was telling me that they were talking about Draco.