The Tragic Tale of the Boy Who Lived and the Boy Who Wanted to Die [ON HIATUS]

Harry was just about to fall asleep when he heard a faint noise coming from across the rows of sleeping bags. His first thought was that Sirius Black had come back to finish Harry off, but Harry then realised that he most likely wouldn't've been able to get to them. Harry was still curious, however, so silently rolled over and put on his glasses.

He inconspicuously positioned himself so that he could clearly see what was going on, but could also make it look as if he were sleeping. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the dark, but soon he could clearly see Draco Malfoy sitting up on his sleeping bag, seemingly adjusting his arm bandages.

Harry remembered the conversation he had heard between Malfoy and Blaise during potions. ‘You know full well your arm is functioning’, Blaise had said. It was Malfoy’s response that Harry kept replaying in his head. ‘You know full well there’s nothing either of us can do about it’. About what? Surely he wasn’t being forced to pretend his arm was broken? It was just what Malfoy did, wasn’t it? Make things bigger deals then they needed to be.

But he had been so serious when he said it to Blaise, that Harry wasn’t sure that Malfoy was doing this of his own free will. Malfoy didn’t seem like the type of person who would let himself get pushed around easily, but then again, one rude look from Harry got him to attack a hippogriff. Harry hadn’t been 100% sure about that before, but he was now.

Malfoy had been avoiding him, something that had unexpectedly annoyed Harry. He was used to the stuck up version of his rival, the version that wouldn’t stop antagonising Harry, but now whenever they had class together, Malfoy would stay as far from Harry as humanly possible, and whenever he saw Harry looking at him he would move further away.

Malfoy had also been avoiding Snape, which was odd, since Potions had been Malfoy’s favourite class only a year prior. Harry had told Hermione his suspicions, but her reaction was almost exactly what he had predicted. ‘Oh, Harry, don’t worry about it. He’s probably trying to get your attention, just to anger you. You know how he is.’ Harry was determined to prove her wrong.

He turned his attention back to Malfoy, who had just picked up his wand. He was seemingly unable to remove the bandages by hand, and was now going to use magic to get rid of them. It was difficult to see in the dark, but the moonlight was shining just right to give Harry a slight boost in visibility. He watched as Malfoy pointed his wand towards the bandages, but was clearly unable to see well.

Harry could tell the shot would miss before he fired it. No sound came, but a faint pink light was followed by what could only be described as chaos. Harry couldn’t quite make it out, but he could see Malfoy flinch with pain and could make out what looked like blood pouring from his arm. Malfoy hastened to clean up the mess, but there was nothing to clean it up with. Harry couldn’t move, he didn’t want to watch but couldn’t look away.

He could see the panic in Malfoy’s eyes, along with what looked like tears. He was now attempting to wrap the bloody bandage back like it was before, completely ignoring the fact he was basically bleeding out through his arm. Harry could see the growing desperation in his face, as he failed to rewrap the bandages.

This, in Harry’s mind, was sound proof of his suspicions that Malfoy was doing this against his will. Why else would he be so intent on fixing the bandages he had just removed if not for somebody forcing him to play along? And ignoring a gaping wound in his arm?

Finally, Malfoy successfully got the bandages to stay wrapped, much like Madame Pomfrey had had them. He healed the cut on his arm, and he must have gotten rid of the blood, because Harry could no longer see any. Malfoy then laid down, and made it seem like nothing had happened. Then, he looked over towards Harry.

For a moment, Harry was paralyzed, and their brief eye contact seemed to last forever. Harry quickly shut his eyes to make it look like he was asleep. Harry knew, by the look Malfoy just gave him, that he could tell what Harry had just seen. And he looked terrified about what he would do with it.