WE NEED EACH OTHER [DRARRY]

✨BONUS CHAPTER FOUR ✨

Sunday, 27th September

Astoria's POV

Despite Draco's previous warmth, I could tell that something was off. His face was oddly blank, eyes far away. I could see his mind whirring on something.

I would have been mad, but I'd noticed that he had been acting like this lately. Draco looks like he's been drowning. Something was pulling him down, ensnaring him in his own body, and I couldn't tell what it was.

"Sooo," I dragged the word out. "Do you know the correct way to pick toadstools?"

Draco nodded again. "Yes, it's easy enough. You just need to cut them around a thumbs' height from its base. And once cut, you need a moist environment to store them in so that they don't dry out."

"Correct," I grinned. "You're excellent at this."

Draco smiled weakly, eyes clouding over once again. Only now did I notice the faint rings under his eyes. I might have blamed them on last night and the drinking, but they had been there for days now, lingering like shadows he couldn't quite shake.

It must be hard for him—thrown into a candidacy he never wanted, forced to work alongside Harry Potter, the one person he'd spent years hating. Draco looked so fragile. Even though he was a whole foot taller than me, which most people would find intimidating, all I saw was the softness in his eyes and the sweetness hidden in the corner of his lips.

Draco Malfoy looked like he was about to shatter, and it terrified me. The thought that all of this might pull him further away— it terrified me. That he might disappear into himself — unreachable, leaving me to watch helplessly as he unravelled.

"Draco," I whispered. "Are you okay? Like, really okay?"

That brought his gaze to mine, sharp, and a little startled. For a moment, I'd expected him to brush me off with his usual arrogance. But then his shoulders sagged, and something unguarded flickered in his expression.

"I don't know," he admitted, voice low, as if the words hurt to say. "I just... I just can't get away."
"Get away?" I asked, my voice barely heard over the rustling plants around us.

Draco's expression shuttered, showing too much and too little at the same time. "From myself."

Oh.

Guilt consumed me. I knew his history, every reason Draco had to hate himself, and yet I still pushed and prodded him into facing himself. And now he's suffering, carrying the weight of it all, and I was utterly powerless to help him.

"I know it's been hard for you," I said gently, my chest tight. "But you don't have to deal with it alone, you know. I'm here."

His lips twitched into the ghost of a smile, though his eyes still held that weariness. "Sure Astoria," he exhaled.

"No really," I pushed a little harder. I wanted him to know that I meant every word I spoke. "Draco, I never ever want you to feel like I'm not there for you."

Again, he just smiled. "Yes, I know." 

I opened my mouth to say something else, but then he interrupted, "So, where exactly do we get these toadstools?"

"The forbidden forest," I replied, swallowing my protest.

Draco sucked in a breath, "Are we allowed to go in there? You know it's dangerous."
"I wouldn't be saying it if we couldn't go, Draco," I sniffed, "Prefects are allowed to access some parts of the forest" 

That was a complete lie, the forbidden forest had always been... well... forbidden, but the best toadstools always grew there. It was daytime, so all the dangerous creatures wouldn't be roaming about.