addiction - draco malfoy

fifty four

i leant my head on lily's shoulder, helping myself to another handful of popcorn that we'd snuck into the kitchen again to make. it was a friday night, and me, emma and lily were watching 'ten things i hate about you' on lily's muggle dvd player that she'd smuggled into school. emma yawned and closed her eyes and i smiled. she never had been able to stay awake for an entire movie.

lily smiled at the slushy part, the same way she always did in movies. i grinned at them, pulling the covers up to my chin and smiling contentedly. i easily had the best friends in the entire school. i honestly can't think of a single other person in this school that would have helped me through a whole drug addiction recovery and not just dumped me. maybe lily was insensitive at times and maybe i got annoyed with emma's uptightness occasionally, but i knew i didn't deserve friends like them.

'do you feel bad?' lily asked suddenly 'just sitting up here watching a romance movie and eating popcorn, while everyone else is panicking and losing sleep over these murders?'
'who says we haven't lost enough sleep already' emma mumbled sleepily, not even bothering to open her eyes. 'i don't feel bad' i shrugged 'and neither should you. it's not like we're responsible for them. why shouldn't we have a night off from worrying?'.
'true' lily whispered, and i watched the reflection of the screen in her eyes as the credits rolled. 'i know you think i'm stupid, but i genuinely promise i won't let anything happen to either of yous. i swear' i promised, wiping a tear away from her cheek. emma had already fell asleep and was snoring gently into lily's other shoulder.

we were silent for a moment before i spoke again. 'do you not think it's weird? that the bodies haven't been identified? i mean i know it's because they were killed so brutally, but those students obviously can't have been seen since they were killed. why has nobody noticed that they're not coming to class anymore. do none of those seven students have friends at all? are they just so quiet in class that the teachers haven't noticed their absence? the whole thing is so weird'. lily shot me a look out of the corner of her eye. 'i didn't realise you'd thought about it so much. but you're right. it is weird'. she paused for a minute, sighing. 'maybe the teachers are keeping it quiet from us?' i suggested 'but it doesn't make sense how the students haven't let slip that someones missing. the people missing must be sharing a dorm with other people, so how come none of them have talked about it?'.
'unless the teachers have told them to keep it quiet?' lily suggested, rubbing her head. 'but gossip in this school is like wildfire. you know that. say every person missing shared a room with two others. that's fourteen students they're relying on keeping it quiet. that's not even including the people in their classes who might notice their absence. there's no way we wouldn't know who was missing by now'.

lily shrugged. 'i have no idea. i don't really wanna talk about it. like emma said the other day, it's morbid'.
'okay' i whispered, lying down on the pillow next to her. her hair was tickling my face, but i didn't bother to move it.