Knots In Our Heartstrings [Dramione]

Four Drunk Slytherins Apparate to Surrey

Pansy was wailing, that, he knew.

He heard her shrieking cry cutting through him like a knife, slicing and stabbing at him cut by cut. Cold and warm with every shivering press of the blade, and his own blood that would fill its path. The icy shriek and the hot pulse of life that fought against it.

She cried, and she screamed, the slicing turning to a heaving pounding against his flesh and bones as rage slipped off her tongue and out from her mouth with every hallowed breath.

Hands found him. Grabbing and clawing. Fingers pressing and pulling. A hammering against his chest as she pleaded.

And the anger slipped. Pansy was wailing once more. And all Draco could bring himself to do was laugh.

He laughed as her please hammered down on him, as her hands dragged and hammered, and dragged again. He felt the slap of them against his wet clothes, the sodden fabric only adding to the weight and sting of every hammer against him.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught the orange glowing lights of the bus's schedule. Blurred orange stripes were just too far off in the distance and out of reach for him to truly make sense of them. But they glowed warmly in the corner of his eye. Just out where the world was finally meeting him. Drawing gently into focus. A little guiding light as the little fragments he'd found and focused on slowly drew together.

Draco was laughing.

And when he finally looked up from the dark concrete abys he thought he'd been drowning in, he laughed some more.

Pansy was scowling, hands landing tired falls against him as she sputtered.

"You fucker!"

She cried.

"You fucking, fucker !"

Draco laughed and she sobbed, "You fucking... Fuck."

Her hands clutched at his coat, and she surged toward him, letting her head slam against his chest as it continued to rattle out sputtering laughs. She screamed into him, croaking and angry before lurching back, releasing him quickly before planting a cracking slap across his face.

"Fucker!" Pansy was crying. "You scared me half to death!"

Draco coughed his breath finally as his laughter finally sputtered out. "I'm sorry," he said. He reached out and she lurched back, hands firmly crossed against her chest as she shrugged out of his reach. "Pans," he said. "Please," he said. "I'm sorry. I'm fine. I–"

"You scared me," she snuffled.

Pansy took a step closer, and he wrapped his arms around her frame, stepping in to meet her there as he held her.

"You scared me," she said.

"I know," he said. "I'm sorry."

She leaned into him, wet and squelching against his sodden clothes, sniffling and hiding a loud snort of snot against his dripping coat.

"If you ever do that again I'll kill you myself."

"I know you will, Pans... I know you will."

They stood there, as the water from his clothes soaked through to her own for a while, until suddenly she pushed off of him, a thick scowl etched into her face. "What the fuck happened? Why are you soaking wet?"

He shrugged, and turned his head to see Theo and Blaise departing the bus he'd not long tumbled in front of, each slipping their wands into their pockets. The doors shut on the bus, and it pulled away slowly, continuing on its route through Oxford, the passengers in the windows sitting peacefully, preoccupied with whatever may entertain them in their evening commute. The sound of the engine rattled away slowly until all that remained was the gentle buzzing hum of the orange lights, and the faintest drip, drip, drip as a puddle pooled at his feet.