?

He returned to his dorm and put on proper clothes. He tried to focus on the task at hand but found his mind wandering. Wandering towards those eyes that made him want to stop the seconds from ticking on, the minutes from passing so he never had to look away again. Those curls that made him think of how they might feel around his fingers, his hand gripping them. That small mouth of hers that made him want to turn into the sweetest taste known to wizardkind just so there was a chance that he might be allowed to be consumed by her. He already was.

Luckily he hadn’t woken anyone in his dorm so he could get going without having to explain himself to one of his nosy roommates.

As he stood at the stairs to his headmasters office he caught himself thinking of her again. Was she alright? She was probably still sleeping, after all it wasn’t even an hour ago that she’d fought off a werewolf all by herself -while also dragging her useless classmate behind her so he wouldn’t get ripped apart. He hoped she was still peacefully asleep because he doubted she was ready to deal with the aftermath.

If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t prepared either. What was he supposed to say?

`So actually, headmaster, this big fucking castle of a school isn’t as safe as one might think because your wards are shit. How so, you ask? Well I’ve just had a lovely encounter with a werewolf, his beheaded body is in the library. Have a nice day.´

That was certainly not how he should tell the old oaf that he now had to deal with a student in shock who had passed out because she couldn’t handle the fact that she had to slice off the head of a lethal creature in order to avoid being mauled to death by it.

He took a deep breath and began ascending the stairs.

He wasn’t any calmer by the time he stood in front of the door to Dumbledore’s office but he supposed he didn’t really have a choice. And besides, he wanted to sort this out for her, he felt like that was the least he could do.

He’d given up on hoping that his heart rate might slow down to healthy again, so he just knocked and willed himself to believe he wouldn’t fuck this up. For Granger.

Dumbledore’s voice sounded from behind the door "Come in, Draco"

Malfoy almost rolled his eyes. How come he knew who was at his door at 6 in the morning but didn’t notice his wards were crumbling right before his eyes? Whatever. Draco opened the door and stepped into the room.

"Good morning professor Dumbledore."

"Hello Draco, what is so important at such early hours?"

Did his headmaster think he was going to apologize for disturbing him so early? He should’ve known the youngest Malfoy better, really. "There’s a dead werewolf in the library."

To his credit, the old professor seemed less shocked by this statement than Draco himself, who really wanted to deliver that information a bit gentler and perhaps more elegantly than whatever the fuck that was.

"Is that so? How did it get there?" Dumbledore asked with surprisingly little suspicion in his voice.

Draco laid out the events of the past 2 hours, praying to Salazar that his headmaster wouldn’t deem the Gryffindor girl who’d been sobbing in Malfoy’s arms because of what she’d had to do responsible for any of it. He thought that if anyone, he was the one responsible for this mess. He should’ve had his wand with him. He should’ve been the one to kill the werewolf. He would have handled it a lot better, or he ought to, considering what he knew he would have to do in the foreseeable future was a lot worse than that. His soul was already dirty, soiled and would soon be even more with all the blood that will be sticking to it, with all the darkness swallowing it till nothing but evil was left, nothing of him visible anymore behind all the agony that he’d have caused.

He willed those thoughts away, now was not the time for them, they would have the stage all to themselves soon enough anyway. When he lay in bed, waiting for sleep to finally show mercy on him and take him away from all this, the thoughts were usually faster, dragging him straight to the hell of his own making.

What he actually meant by all this, was that he was the reason she’d had to stain her pure soul. He’d have killed a hundred werewolves if it meant he wouldn’t have to live with this, but she had to now, because she saved him.

As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t change what’s happened, but he could deal with the aftermath.

Dumbledore spoke after a long silence "I will deal with it. Thank you for telling me"

That’s it? Draco eyed him suspiciously.

"Is there something else?" Dumbledore said softly.

Draco hesitated "Just...just make sure Hermione is alright. And tell her she doesn’t have to worry about anything"

His professor nodded at him, not missing that he called Hermione by her first name, and Draco left the office.

On the way back to his dorm his mind once again started to wander. He hoped Granger was okay. He also hoped she didn’t hate him. That was odd.