Everlasting Bond

Chapter 9

Draco stared numbly up at the piece of paper Dumbledore held in his hands. Those two words. Two fateful words.

Harry Potter.

The bloody fool. If he had done it, he didn't realize the consequences of the tournament. If he hadn't... well, either way, he was in big trouble.

And if he got hurt, Draco was not going to be happy about what that did to him.

Well, Allysia thought, it always could be worse, injury-wise. If you were Bonded to him - or "worse", cared for him- 

Draco cut her off with a scowl, not missing the sarcasm in that last comment. Don't appreciate that, Ally. 

Ally is it, now? She asked. If she was sitting in front of him, she would definitely have raised eyebrows. I actually kind of like that.

Harry had gone up and gone into the room. Draco was still internally panicking. One, because - and he would never admit this out loud - he had slight feelings for the prat, and two, because if Harry got wounded - in any way - it would not be good for Draco's health.

Or mine, Allysia reminded him.

Right. Or yours, Draco replied, sarcasm dripping into his tone.

***

Harry lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. Taking out the Marauder's Map, with shaking hands, he traced a finger across it, hopefully, waiting.

There. A small dot, the name describing it reading: "Allysia-" and... that was it. A darker scrawl, something near impossible to read, was following it. A line was crossing neatly through it.

Harry frowned, his finger lingering on her name. What was her last name? And what magic was messing with the map? He'd never seen this before. The first letter was... a... M, maybe? Or an N... or maybe even a W.

He groaned and fell backward. It was like fate was against him.

***

Draco let Allysia take control, falling asleep quickly inside his little bubble. Allysia was tired, too, but for different reasons.

"Oh, Draco," she murmured. "Why does life hate you so much? No, scratch that-" she pressed her pale fingers against her throat. "Why does Harry Potter hate you so much? But he's in trouble, isn't he? You can't see it yet, but I remember that dream."

Allysia was rambling, no one there to hear. 

"Can't you just accept the bond? Offer him help, like you probably will? Not offer it outright - no, you're a Malfoy, and a Slytherin." Her eyes twinkled humorlessly. "You stubborn, stubborn Slytherins." She laughed. "You're so close to death, you know that?"

She put her head in her hands. "So close. I just want to curl up and die... suffocate in your ego." Another humorless laugh. "Now wouldn't that be ironic?"

Allysia took a deep breath, and lifted her head, determination set in her eyes. "We can survive. We will. I will accept his decisions, and hopefully, we'll live."

She rose to her feet, mentally waking Draco up and shifting mid-step.

***

Draco sat down blearily at breakfast, blinking at loud blobs for several seconds before realizing they were his friends, telling him to eat, that he didn't look good.

He realized that he was starving, and loaded his plate with food. He felt himself shift slightly, Allysia controlling his body.

She ate slowly, but as steadily as possible. 

Draco realized that Pansy was shaking his shoulder, and sent as much to Allysia, who looked over. "What?"

"Did you paint your nails?" she asked, eyes glittering with amusement.

Draco waited until Allysia looked down, and blinked. His thumbnails were both silver, index fingers green, middle fingers silver, so on. Allysia...

She smirked. Draco spoke through her mouth. "No, Allysia did."

Pansy nodded like this was perfectly normal, and went back to eating. Draco felt himself shift back into control and started eating as fast as humanly possible. 

"Woah, slow down," Blaise warned. "You're going to choke."

Draco mumbled something inaudible and continued stuffing his face. He got a few strange looks from the other Slytherins, but he didn't care.

Pansy leaned forward and murmured in his ear, "is it, Potter? Er- your bond?"

"We don't have a bond," Draco snarled. "And I plan to keep it that way." He took another bite of pancake.

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Malfoys. So stubborn."

Draco mimicked her, using her name, and continued eating. When people started leaving, he reluctantly started slowing down. He still felt hungry. 

Allysia had explained this to him. Apparently, if he left his bond for too long, his magic would suffocate him, or he wouldn't have enough magic to continue living. Eating high-calorie foods helped supply him with energy that could sustain him for longer.

***

After the dragon challenge, Draco felt like he was going to die. His friends kept him from stabbing himself, but he felt like he was suffocating.

Draco knew, that, at this point, skin contact wouldn't be enough to save him.

And Draco was not kissing Harry Potter. One, because he didn't have that Gryffindor courage to do it, and two, because Harry only knew Allysia.

Draco buried his head in his pillow. He had gotten a permission slip from Dumbledore to skip classes for a while to sleep, and had a house elf assigned to him so he could eat.

But when the last challenge came up, he knew he couldn't not come.

Draco showed up in the stadium, shivering and only half-awake. But he needed to see this. And he had an imminent sense of danger.

NOTES:

OMG OMG OMG OMG O MGOM OHGMOGJNGFKLSFJKGHRJGKSJKFHJDFJ

I AM SO HAPPY I AM GOING TO EXPLODE THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR ALL THE CONTINUED SUPPORT AND I'M SQUEALING *blubbers*

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I was planning to procrastinate some more on this chapter but then I saw that we hit 1K and I knew I had to do it today. (sorry it's so short, though)

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