Mint Tea
Pouring rain. That was the forecast for the day. It was all you could hear in class. Draco could barely focus on the lesson Remus was teaching with all the thoughts running through his mind.
He doodled on his paper, feeling empty. Thank God Harry wasn’t in this class, it would only make matters worse. Draco looked out the window, the droplets of rain making it hard to see the outside atmosphere. The trees rustled in the blistering wind, dark clouds filling the sky.
Draco thought back to his encounter with Harry the other day, the way he pressed him up against the tree. It sent a shiver down his back, the memory constantly flustering him. And then he had to ruin it by choking on a fucking flower.
He hadn’t coughed up another petal since that day, and he hoped the symptoms had died down for now.
Pansy passed him a piece of crumpled paper, before returning her attention to the lesson. Draco unfolded it, reading the small scribble written in ink. We need to talk, meet in the astronomy tower after class.
Draco whispered to her, “What about the rain?” Apparently his whispering skills were poor, for Remus decided to call on him. “Malfoy, what’s the answer to number four?”
Draco gulped, looking down at his paper, he had no clue. When Remus took the hint, he smirked. Professor Lupin had a soft spot for Draco, he knew the boy struggled with social skills as he had a rough life at home, and understood he was trying to be better. “Do try to pay attention.” He said, and continued with the lesson.
After class, Draco followed Pansy to the astronomy tower, where Blaise was waiting for them. The tower was covered in water, wind whipping Draco’s perfect hair into his face. He clung his robes to his chest, the cold air giving him chills.
“What is this about?” He asked, shouting over the rain. “Maybe you were right,” Pansy yelled back, “This isn’t the best place to meet.”
“We better tell him to meet us some place else.” Blaise said to Pansy as they began to walk back down the stairs.
Tell who? Draco wondered, who was meeting them? Harry? Oh God no, his friends wouldn’t force it right? Draco’s mind raced as he followed them down the corridor.
Instead, they went to the room of requirements. The room was filled with a warm fire place and four velvet chairs centered around a wooden table, with a tea pot and tea cups. “Not bad.” Blaise chuckled as Pansy took her seat, relaxing into the chair.
Draco took a seat as well, his nerves heightened. Who the hell was meeting them here?
The three sat in silence, with only the noise of the fire crackling and the occasional sip of tea. It was mint, Draco’s favorite. It eased his nerves slightly.
“So who is meeting up here?” Draco finally said, breaking the silence. Blaise exchanged a look with Pansy. “You’ll see soon enough.”
The answer only made Draco upset, his stomach twisting in a knot. His nerves mixed with anger, pissed that his friends refused to fill him in on their plans. Quickly he was taken aback by a coughing attack, His hands gripping onto the chair as he tried to stable his breathing, to no avail.
Pansy rushed to his aid, holding onto his shoulder as he choked on what didn’t feel like a petal, but a whole flower, catching it in his hand. He was right, an actual flower.
Draco swallowed his tears, the pain in his throat swirling with the pain in his lungs. He placed it in his pocket, feeling Pansy squeeze his shoulders in a way to reassure him.
“We need to explain this to you, there’s more to the sickness than we thought. A coughing fit can happen at any time, but they mostly occur in the presence of big emotions, resulting in larger flowers. We need someone to help monitor you when we can’t, since we don’t have every class together.” Blaise explained.
“I don’t need monitoring, Im not a damn child.” Draco huffed, a little insulted. “Draco, a large asthmatic attack like that could have you hospitalized or dead, this is just to keep you safe.” Blaise insisted.
Draco paused. They were right. He had no way of making sure he wouldn’t spiral out of control. “Fine. Who is it?”
“Before we tell you, there’s another symptom of the illness that we need to discuss. Once the sickness spreads throughout your body, you may-“ Blaise was cut off by a sound from across the room.
One of the large oak doors opened, and in stepped Neville Longbottom. Draco starred at the Gryffindor, starstruck and confused. “Longbottom?”
“Uhm, you said you wanted to see me?” Neville asked Pansy shyly. In his truth, he was intimidated by the women. “Yeah, come take a seat, hope you like tea.” Pansy smiled.
In her truth, she had a huge crush on the boy, looking his timid personality. The moment she met him, she was attached. Draco and Blaise constantly pestered her for it, to which she’d simply smile and say “He’s just cute, I can’t help it.”
Neville sat in the seat across from Draco, examining the blonde’s stature. He was puzzled to see Malfoy so disheveled.
Pansy had stood up and cupped her hand near Draco’s ear, whispering. “We need to explain to Neville what’s going, meaning we’ll need to tell him about Harry. But I want to know if it’s alright with you first.”
Draco felt a punch in the stomach, the last thing he wanted was anyone finding out about his crush, especially Harry himself. But Neville was trustworthy, Draco had always been observant of him. After making up his mind, he nodded.
Pansy then whispered Draco’s approval to Blaise. He placed the book that the three had read a few days ago onto the table in front of Neville, the pages about Hanahaki disease on display. Neville’s eyes widened as he read the title, before asking worriedly “Which one of you has it?”
Pansy and Blaise looked at the blonde in between them. Neville was rather shocked, “How? Who is it that you have feelings for?”
“Harry Potter..” Draco murmured, his cheeks reddening.
“Oh that explains it, it was a bit obvious.” Neville said softly, taking a sip of his tea. “What?! What do you mean obvious?” Draco scoffed, rather embarrassed. He heard Pansy snort, Blaise chuckled under his breath.
“Wait, you don’t think Potter knows, do you?” Draco asked nervously. Neville shook his head, “No, sadly Harry is completely oblivious to this sort of thing.” Draco couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or not.
“Listen Neville, most of your schedule matches with Draco’s. We don’t have many classes with him, and we need someone to monitor him and make sure he’s alright. Would you be up for it?” Pansy asked.
“Certainly, I’d love to help.” Neville smiled. Draco noticed Pansy starting at the boy, head over heels. God, just make a move already, Parkinson.
Draco had begun to fall asleep in class, the first feeling of sleepiness he’d had in days. After the little meeting in the room of requirements, the hours of the day slowed down.
Snape was no where to be found, so Draco felt no shame in falling asleep at the potions table. That was until he was jostled awake, turning over his shoulder to see Neville. “Mind if I sit here?” He asked.
Draco was still drowsy, but nodded. “I haven’t slept in days, just my luck that the moment I finally feel tired is when I’m sitting in class.” He chuckled, rubbing his eyes.
“Did Blaise inform you, on any other symptoms of your condition I mean?” Longbottom questioned. Other symptoms? What the hell.
Draco felt someone’s gaze set upon him, and he looked over his shoulder. Seated a few tables away was the golden trio, clearly appalled to see Draco’s new acquaintance.
“Bloody Hell.” He groaned, flipping open his potions book. “What is it?” Neville asked.
“They’re obviously talking about us, can’t they just get a life.” Draco sighed, feeling his stomach boil with frustration.
“Think of it this way, Harry’s completely invested in everything you do. That has to at least make you feel a little better.” Neville said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Not because he cares about me, just because he thinks I’m a prick!” Draco spat. Harry wasn’t wrong though, Draco was a prick. Was, not is, he thought. He used to be a real jackass, but he just wanted to leave that behind.
The frustration and overstimulation from his condition left him lightheaded. He had so much racing through his mind all at once, and no way of quieting his thoughts.
“Neville I- I need to leave. Now.” Draco stuttered quietly, gripping onto his bag. Neville saw his body tremble, and quickly helped him out of the room.
“That was odd,” Hermione stated, before sprinkling more herbs into her potions experiment. “What?” Ron asked, clearly not paying attention.
“Draco just left with Neville, what do you think they’re up to?” She said, turning to Harry.
“Whatever it is, I doubt it’s any good.” He said, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose.
“They left in such a hurry though, do you think something could be the matter?” Hermione pushed on, too focused on the pair that had left the room.
Harry thought for a moment, “We can ask Neville about it later.”