familiar ; draco malfoy

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

He could see nothing but darkness as he opened the door further and a pillow flew his way.

"I told you I was fine, Blaise," a voice choked out, tired and raspy. Draco close the door and walked towards her bed, acting purely on instinct, and stopping dead in his tracks when her wand lit up the room.

Ramona stared at Draco; her eyes were puffy and red, dark circles making them seem even larger than usual. Her cheeks were wet, eyes a large pool of darkness that enveloped him and swallowed him whole. Such sadness crawled up to his heart at the sight of her that he had to touch her,  had to be near her.

Draco wiped her tears away with both his thumbs, sitting on her bed before she could even register who she was seeing. Ramona was still slightly shaking, body buzzing from the pain. He wiped her cheeks with his sleeve, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

Even he himself was shaking, from anger or sadness he didn't know, but a gaping hole opened in his chest at the sight of her. Something about her pain was so agonizing to him that he couldn't even comprehend it. As he kissed her forehead he could feel himself having done it before, having seen her so desperately sad he felt it within himself.

And so he sat there, holding her as he tried not to cry himself, feeling a pain so strong he was sure he'd felt it before.

Against his better judgement, he let himself get lost in the moment.

"I know you," he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers. Ramona's eyes only spilled more tears.

"I've known you, this pain-" he stopped, swallowing, "-this pain can't be just... I can't... This can't be just my pain. Something isn't right, I don't..."

He struggled to find the proper words, overwhelmed by her sadness. Ramona took his hands from her cheeks and kissed his palms with her tear-soaked lips, kissing each palm many times softly. Draco only stared at her dark, wet eyelashes.

"Why can't you just shut up?" he asked. "Why can't you just ignore him? Or anyone? Why do you have to do that?"

"I can't stay silent," she said, "I can't, I'm so angry."

"You're only making it worse," he said. They were whispering even though there was no reason to do so, they were whispering even though the room echoed. They were speaking over each other even though they heard all the other one said.

"I can't be quiet," she said. "I used to always be quiet. I was a mat everyone wiped their shoes on whenever they wanted to. I can't, I can't be silent anymore-"

"Then leave," he said. "Leave, don't be around them."

The way he said it made it seem easy; his words made it seem as if what he was asking was no more than a simple spell, one you could do in your sleep. The desperate tone of his voice indicated that he meant it as such.

"It's easy for you to say," the witch said desperately. "You don't know-"

"I do know."

"No you don't, Draco," she argued. "I can't stand by and watch that tosser talk about me like that. I hear the crude things he says when he thinks I'm out of earshot. And Pansy-"

"Pansy is jealous. So is Nott. They're-"

"They're cruel," Ramona said. "They're horrid people, Draco."

He could not find it within himself to explain to her that she was getting what she deserved for being so responsive to their taunts; if she only kept silent they'd piss off. Though Ramona was not one to let herself be stomped on, Draco knew that what had happened tonight never would have if she kept silent.