Tainted Love - Drarry

Chapter Twenty Three

Draco 

It was finally the day of the NEWTS exam. And I was going absolutely bonkers. 

After Harry and I's little adventure, I returned back to my constant studying habits and haven't stopped until today. I was convinced that my life would be ruined if I did even somewhat poorly on this test. But by now, I was feeling pretty confident that I had most of the material down pat. I'd gone through every page, every paragraph, every sentence of wizarding life. I had to have it in the bag...or so I hoped. 

The day of the exam I looked like a complete nightmare. 

I'd barely had any time to shower in the last two days so my hair looked dull and disgusting and I was beginning to be able to smell myself. All of my clothes were wrinkled and dirty. There were suitcase sized, purple bags under my eyes, and my skin was even paler than usual. I would have to take a year long nap after this fucking exam to get back to normal looks. 

I woke up the morning of the test on top of one of my text books. In the last five days I'd only had about 12 total hours of sleep anyway, so at least I got some rest before testing. I peeled myself off of the book, rubbed my eyes and walked to my bathroom. I quickly splashed some water on my face, brushed my teeth (which felt wonderful), and trudged out of my room with my pre-packed bag of supplies. I didn't even bother to change my clothes. 

Once I had reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the common room, I noticed all of my friends already sitting on the couches of the common room. Hermione seemed to my in similar shape to me, looks wise. She was perched on Pansy's lap as Pansy softly stroked her hair and placed kisses on her head, whispering inaudible things into her ear. It was quite cute actually. 

As soon as Harry saw me from where he sat on the couch, be sprang up, ran towards me and pulled me into one of his bone crushing hugs. 

"Baby, what are you doing to yourself?" he asked sadly, his head still buried in my chest. 

"I've been studying love, you know that. I promise I will look less gruesome as soon as this test is over." 

"You don't look gruesome, you're beautiful. You just look like you haven't slept in days." I blushed a bit at his compliment. 

"Well I haven't slept in days to be perfectly honest." Harry sighed a pulled away from our embrace, taking hold of my hand instead. 

"I'm forcing you to nap the second we finish the NEWT's," he said sternly before dragging me towards the Great Hall where the rest of our friends were headed. 

The eighth and seventh year tables were almost dead silent, everyone too nervous about the exams to eat or talk to one another. We sat down at out usual spots and fell into casual conversation with out significant others. Lavender had begun to join us more and more at our table. She and Ron seemed to be hitting it off quite well. 

Ron and Harry seemed to be the only two people eating at our table. The rest of us just stared down into our tea cups, going over notes and wracking our brains in our heads. 

"Draco, please eat something you're scaring me."

"I feel like I'll puke if I ever touch food." 

"I doubt that, come on just a bite or two? A piece of toast? A glass of pumpkin juice?"

"...just for you." Harry smiled and kissed me on the cheek. 

I ended up eating a piece of toast and sucking down a glass of water. It surprisingly made me feel better as opposed to what I originally thought would happen. Pretty soon, everyone had finished their breakfast and we were ready to take our exam.