Weakness Guides The Heart

Chapter five

Concentration was a funny thing. It had the ability to blur everything around you; turn your dearest friends into distant mumbles, their words rendered useless; invalid, their opinions nothing more than a dull murmur.

It was like a spell. It could control your body, making it unresponsive; weak under the controlee; the murmuring lips of the man or woman not too distant away.

It was controlled by love, envy; a seething jealousy, confusion. Bewilderment.

It was an escape, a way for the mind to skilfully avoid the topic at hand; a mirrored reflection of what Draco was doing in that very moment.

His eyes were fixated on his teacher-his uncle, whose poignant words faded into a horrific buzz; a tedious whisper holding no secrets, only lies.

Or, so Draco believed.

"You're lying." His words were weak, weighed down by the blocks of confusing pummelling his mind; the memories, his thoughts, desperately trying to conclude; trying to find the man deep within his brain.

He wasn't there.

"You're lying!" Draco spat, malice spitting at the rambling man before him; his feet finding the floor, dropping with harsh certainty, causing the room to shiver; a trembling wave consuming the battered pages of haggard books.

"Now, Draco, have some sense-"

"Me?" The younger boy seethed. "You're the one who-who-"

"Please, Draco, enlighten me." The man was poised, his strong exterior towering the smaller male; his hands dropped, fingers interlinked before him, resting carelessly against his stomach.

Draco couldn't focus; he couldn't concentrate. He stormed out of the room, the dim holler of his uncle buried beneath the cheerful mumbles of the school, like sirens, racing around his mind uncontrollably; flashing lights blurring his vision; his memories and thoughts tangled, indistinguishable.

"Watch where you are going!" Spat a voice; one too hazy to attack. "Draco?" The same voice spoke, a quiet whisper lulling the blonde's eyes forward, focusing his vision; his view illuminated by concerned emeralds.

"Are you okay?"

"Why do people lie?" Came Draco's befuddled response, his eyes chaotically dancing around those eyes; greens, yellows and blues twisting, alluring; sending his head spinning faster and faster, yet not fast enough.

He could still feel.

"What-"

"Why do people lie? Why-why do they-how can they control us, when they don't even know us?"

"How do they control you?" Harry paused. The question hung helplessly in the air, left to dry in an icy winter with no sunshine in sight. He studied the boys frenzied exterior, watching the thoughts trembling within his eyes; like a million memories flashing in succession, overlapping.

Draco was used to this, but not like this.

"This-I-"

"Draco, relax." Harry hushed, his tone tender, caring, the palm of his hand evoking gentle warmth onto Draco's back; the touch controlling the blonde, guiding him into a room not so far away; the potions classroom.

Lean walls quaked, tumbling around Draco; his thoughts battered by the remorseless pounding of the stones; cement smearing his vision, casting a bleak shadow across his focus.

"You need to-to-focus your thoughts-" Harry tried feebly

"They-They're memories-I-I just want to, to find-to find him, to see if he's real."

"You're making no sense." Harry lightly pushed Draco down onto the seat slouched against the desk, his eyes unable to detach from the Slytherin's sickly skin; the flesh filling with tiny flecks of snow, flaking his winded cheeks; the rosiness consumed by a yellow tint.

He looked unwell.

"Because there is no sense to make! It's all-it's wrong; it's lies!" His eyes snapped up towards the scarred teen, a gentle fire burning within his icy orbs; eyelashes straining, the burden of his confliction weighing them down.

"Why do people lie?"

"Sometimes, more often than not in this school, they're telling the truth, but we're just too stubborn to admit it."

"But I can't find him in my memories." Harry lowered himself onto the chair opposite the blonde; a worrisome stare capturing his eyes. His hand reached forward, fingertips twitching, desperate to lay a comforting hand against Draco's knee.

His sense got the better of him, sending his hand limply back onto his lap; a beaten twirl pounding the determination within his eyes.

"Find who?" He pried; the words slipping helplessly passed his lips; a desire to help Draco overpowering his own thought; a helpless furrow bending his brow, mirroring Draco's eyes; the confused hope blinding, like ice set alight; it's smoke smouldering everyone who looked.

"You couldn't find who, Draco? Him?"

"He is always there...but, not him..." A sudden wave of realisation crashed against the beaches of his fingertips; the sun darkening, clouds swallowing the light he'd naively allowed to control him; to guide him, reassure him; help him.

Harry was that light.

With one swift movement, Draco stood tall; a familiar sneer snapping his lips downwards; a hopeless attempt to scare, to warn; a soft growl gliding into the air; a whimper, echoing the swelling sensation deep within his heart.

He didn't look frightening, he looked frightened.

"You know, It's none of your damn business, Potter." His words shot like venom, the name burning his lips; destroying the hopeless phlegm sewn to his tongue.

"Don't speak to me again, got it?"

"Draco-"

"What, wait? You want me to wait for-for-"

"I want you to talk." Harry spoke strongly; a large stride edging him closer to the halted blonde, whose own glance was low, dreary; determined to avoid the pitiful persuasion of Harry's eyes.

"Well thanks, that's very kind of you...but I want to do anything but talk right now-"

"You're lying." Draco scoffed, a sarcastic snort shaking his head, his eyes; his body, never once lifting to the height of his component.

"Like you said...maybe I am telling the truth, but you are just too stubborn to let me leave."