Garnet

Draco was trying to focus on classwork but he couldn't while keeping an eye on Harry. He kept bouncing his leg and stayed on each page of his book far too long to be convincing, flipping the pages almost as an afterthought. He looked as if he was staring into space, thinking deeply about something causing him distress.

His usually tan skin was flushed in a way that couldn't be played off as normal, his forehead had a slight shine to it that only came from illness. He was slightly shaking and shivers racked his body.

But he insisted nothing was wrong, that he was fine so there was nothing Draco or any of the others could do. If he didn't want help they would have to wait until it was unavoidable or he admitted something was wrong which was unlikely. Even the older years who typically only worried about the younger years trusting the olders to be able to take care of themselves were casting worried glances at Harry. He really looked awful.

Draco was about to suggest the group relocate to the boy's dorm when Severus walked into the common room. This was a common occurrence typically but was slightly problematic so early in the year as there were no new announcements that had to be made which would require Severus's presence. What was even more concerning was that he was making his way directly towards the group of fifth-years looking frustrated about something.

Of course, Severus walked until he was right in front of Harry. He tapped his foot impatiently and leaned over him while Harry pretended not to notice him. He got fed up with Harry's act quickly like Draco knew he would saying, ¨Mr. Potter, I know you can follow directions based on the result of your potion earlier today so why are you not in my office for your interview and health check?¨ So that's what this whole thing was about, Harry's health check. He should have anticipated this, no other house had health checks so Harry wouldn't be used to this. He had a well-known aversion to the hospital wing so there's no chance he will be happy about this resulting in him trying to skip his.

He's one of the smartest people Draco knows but to think he would be able to skip his health check with no questions? Stupid. Severus took them very seriously and there was no getting out of it for anyone no matter the circumstances. But Harry was certainly trying, like in class he and Severus were going back and forth insulting each other. Draco had learned to ignore their conversations since the first year, since really who has time to listen to two people argue about the same thing year after year?

That was until Harry suddenly stood up and began to sway. He looked like he was about to fall his eyes closed for so long Draco worried he had already passed out. Until he opened them and stepped away from the couch he had previously been sitting on, now standing more towards the center of the room where Severus had moved to.

Severus seemed to realize Harry wasn't in the best shape as he shot Draco a concerned glance. At this point, everyone in the room was watching their interaction, if Slytherins were one thing it was nosey. Their argument was exactly what you would expect, Harry didn't want to go with Snape to their appointment and Snape insisted he went. It was perfectly normal until it went wrong in a way none of them had expected. In the worst way possible. There was no time for any of them to look away and once you had already seen, it was impossible to look away.

Severus had dropped Harry's glamor no one knew he was wearing. In hindsight, it made sense, the off look about him and the slight shimmer to his skin that without knowing the cause looked like a trick of the lighting. If he thought Harry looked sick before it was nothing on the way he looked now. His face looked gaunt and sunken in, with large bags around his eyes making it look like he hadn't slept in years. His clothes seemed to deflate now hanging off of him. But the scars were maybe the worst part. They were everywhere. Harry was wearing pants and a short-sleeved shirt having taken off his robes earlier. His face was littered with more scars than the infamous lightning bolt running down the left side of his face. They littered his neck going down the the color of his shirt that if it was not blocking his chest would certainly show even more.

But his arms were maybe the worst part. There wasn't a patch of unscared skin left. There were hundreds of small and large cuts lining his arms which could have only come from one thing. Himself. It felt rude to look, to stare at something so blatantly that Harry had tried to hide. But it was impossible to look away.

The room was dead silent with no one daring to move or make a sound. Harry was shaking hard and his mask of composure had dropped the second Severus took away his glamor. He looked like he was a second away from being sick or passing out. He was a deer in headlights with all eyes on him waiting for him to make the first move. Draco felt a sharp stab of guilt at the sight of the clear years of abuse and hardship he had been through. It was clear the perfect life he had mocked him for was nonexistent.

There was nothing he could do to fix his past or erase all the hurt Harry had been through, but he was going to do everything he could to make sure no one else hurt him. With a glance at the rest of his house, he saw the looks of shock, horror, and anger and knew they would all stand behind the scared boy in front of them.

They had all known Harry wasn't doing well but no one knew it was to this extent. He looked like he should be dead, how had he been able to survive what looked like torture and still be here today? He certainly wasn't okay, but he was still here.

Harry was slowly backing away from everyone in the room, hyperventilating with a look of pure panic on his face looking like his world was crashing down around him. To be fair it was. Draco couldn't imagine how hard it must have been to hide the clear trauma and abuse he had been through and have no one notice.

Harry's back hit the stone wall which only seemed to cause him to panic even more. He quickly shifted away leaving the wall painted in blood causing Draco and the rest of the room to realize his dark grey shirt was stained with blood which no one seemed to have realized until now. It wasn't just a bit of blood, it was a concerning amount which could have been part of the reason Harry had looked so sick the whole day.

Severus was slowly walking towards Harry who quickly put his arms out in an upsetting attempt to make Severus stay away, but he seemed to quickly realize his arms weren't covered and shoved them behind his back. Severus stopped an arm's reach away from Harry and said, “Potter you're not well, follow me to my quarters.” He was using a tone Draco had never heard before and he looked mad.

Harry's words were slurring together as he said: “Sir I'm fine, I think I'm going to—”. He never ended up finishing what he was trying to say as he passed out. He crumpled to the ground like a rag doll, Severus ran to catch him before he was able to hit his head on the stone wall. Draco could see Severus slightly panicking and he yelled at everyone besides the fifth-years to go to their dorms immediately. Everyone looked scared as they had only ever heard this level of urgency in their head of house's voice previously when a previous seventh-year overdosed. She wasn't able to be saved.

Draco didn't know what to do. Harry's body looked so small as Severus was leaning over him waving his wand whispering incantations as he went. Draco glanced at the rest of his year and they looked just as helpless as he was feeling. He wanted to do something to help, to fix the situation that had so quickly spiraled out of control, “Sir is there anything we can do to help, what do you want us to do?”

Without looking up Severus said, “How has he been acting today, anything out of the ordinary besides the obvious.” Pansy looked at him like she was disappointed in him and said, “Well, he's been flushed, sweating, and shaking all day along with spacing out and dizziness. But what the fuck professor, what were you thinking taking off his glamour in front of the full common room? Sure you didn't know what he was hiding but did you not take a second to wonder why he would feel it necessary to put on a glamor? To take away the thing he was relying on and expose his secret was an awful thing for you do to. You haven't had a great relationship with him in the past but I thought you changed, I thought you were going to treat him if not with kindness then at least respect but I guess I was wrong. I'm sorry for you professor, you can't take this back and make everyone forget what they saw and Harry's not going to forgive you easily for this.”

The rest of the group gave him equally pissed looks, all he looked was tired, “Pansy I don't have time for your complaints, I can regret my actions when Potter is stable. There's nothing more you can do for him, go to your dorms and get some rest before dinner.” With that, he rushed Harry away back to his quarters.

Draco couldn't move, this was their fault. They noticed something was wrong with Harry during their second year, they saw the signs of abuse. He never went home for holidays, he was always too small and shrunk away from touch. But they did nothing, said nothing. Even earlier today they should have said something about how clearly ill he was but they didn't. Now Harry's secret was exposed to everyone in Slytherin and he was in critical condition for injuries none of them realized he had.

What could they do to fix this, to make Harry feel like he could trust them when they so clearly had let him down? Theo was the first to break the silence, “We should go to dinner before it gets crowded and then we can go back to the dorms. We can sleep in my dorm, and try to find a way to help Harry.” They all unanimously agreed and started the long walk to the great hall.

They ate in silence, Draco couldn't find it in himself to joke around or even smile. How had they gotten into this mess, how could they fix this? He thought their situation couldn't get worse until he saw the Weasly twins walking over to them. He generally liked them, but they were fiercely protective of Harry and they would not like to hear about the incident in the common room.

They had sharp smirks showing nothing but danger, “Snakes do you often eat dinner split up? Where's our brother, have you lost him so soon?” The one who Draco thought was Fred continued, “If you hurt him you know what we'll do to you, we trusted you with him so you have one chance to tell us where he is and what happened.” They were terrifying if they tried and seemed much more Slytherin than Gryffindor on a regular day but now? This was full Slytherin.

There was no easy way to break this news to them, and they would be pissed either way. There was no way Draco would be the one to tell them what happened to Harry. The group of snakes all looked at Blaise, he was the best at breaking bad news anyway. Blaise glared at them all but nonetheless told the twins, “Harry's currently with Professor Snape. There was an incident about thirty minutes ago where Snape removed a glamor Harry had placed on himself in front of the whole common room. When Harry's glamor dropped it showed he was severely malnourished and had extreme scaring covering his entire body. He then passed out due to what we think was blood loss and Snape took him away to his quarters to heal him. Everyone saw but they won't say anything, Harry's secret won't get out beyond the snakes.”

The twins didn't say anything else to the group as they left to go to Draco assumed Severus's quarters.