XL
"Where is she?! Where the fuck is y/n guys?!"
For some reason everyone seemed oblivious and too distracted to even take notice of my panicked attempt at shouting over the music.
There was so much going on that I could barely focus, eyes scanning all around the room looking for y/n. Horror overcame me when I quickly recognised the shape of the body that was sitting against one of the walls. And another was right beside it, leering over it.
I stormed over and found y/n completely out of it, makeup smudged, hair tangled, no sense of presence in her eyes. She looked hollow as if nobody was inside, and her limbs lolled around when she tried to move but ultimately was unable. Only able to roll her head from side to side in an attempt at communicating with Higgs to say that something wasn't right. His fingertips slid up and down her neck and through her hair.
Oh I do not fucking think so. "What have you done to her?!"
He froze at the sight of me, before trying to get up and run. I warned him to stay away, I fucking warned him and at the first opportunity he still tried to interfere; in the worst possible way.
The fifth floor hideout looked exactly as it did the last time I was here, but this time it was busier. So catching him in the crowd proved to be a little difficult. But eventually I got my hands around his collar as Luna crouched down to try and check y/n over.
Pulling him nose to nose I felt him tremble. "What have you done to her or what have you given her?!"
"Nothing, she actually took it herself, she asked for some."
"Higgs that wasn't my fucking question, what was it?"
I was kicking myself internally for not noticing him absent in the common rooms after dinner, ignorance is bliss I suppose. "Either you tell me what she's taken or I'll kill you right now. Not with a wand, with my bare hands instead."
"I didn't know it was going to make her act all weird!" He was heaving through grit teeth as I began to lift his collar upwards from the ground. I'll choke the truth out of him if I need to. "It's sleeping draught and Amortentia! She just had a little bit in her drink.. she'll be fine if she just sleeps it off!"
"What did I tell you? The first day back after Christmas? What did I promise to you Higgs?"
"Oh come on Malfoy," he narrowed his eyes to mine, curling a lip and arching a brow; giving up his innocent and scared act finally. "You didn't think for one minute that I thought any of that was real did you? Besides, it's not that deep. We all know you lose interest after a couple weeks."
Wow, this fucker really took me for a fool. He genuinely thinks I was lying and the mark was fake.
"Then you really are as stupid as you look. She is mine, and it'll be staying that way."
A barrage of screams erupted the second I felt my knuckles connect with the bridge of his nose, and then the edge of his jaw; and he fell back against the ground hard enough to make the crowd scatter. I followed down, climbing on top of him and striking again, and again, and again.
"Stop it!" Someone shouted from behind me, but the noise was obscured by the fury filled tunnel vision now consuming me. So I kept hitting him, and hitting him, and hitting him. Now I could see blood, rolling down his face. So I continued punching and punching. "Stop please, stop!!"
I was out of control with no way to pull it back. His blood was smeared across his cheeks now and he'd given up trying to fight back and hold his hands in the way of my punches. And still, I kept going and going and going until I couldn't feel my hand or arm anymore.
"Enough you idiot!!" I felt myself get dragged backwards and away from Higgs who rolled on to his side to cradle his face. A ring of people formed around him trying to help or protect him, when in reality they're just as complicit in this as him.
If they hadn't been so busy thinking about themselves then they would of noticed something isn't right.
Now I'm no expert but I think the general consensus is supposed to be girls looking out for girls. "He's lucky he's still breathing, because that wasn't even nearly half of what he deserves."
Unfortunately for McClaggen, I was already knee deep in to being a menace and I spun to yank his hands off of my shoulders; jack knifing my forehead in to his nose and making them a bloody, broken nosed pair.
I might have known McClaggen would of been a part of this somehow, his reputation toward the female population is less than desirable. They're both predatory. And they fill me with rage.
"You'll regret that.." He muttered to me as he pressed away the blood dripping on to his lips. My ego saw me leer forward, come right up close to his face and whisper.
"Come on then, do your best. I'll give you one free punch, but if you don't put me down the first time.. I highly suggest you start running, because I will fucking destroy you. Don't think that I won't use the very next minute to do it either."
The music stopped and lights came on, disorientating every single person in the room with the sudden brightness. The party was well and truly over.
"Draco!!! Help her!!!" Luna's shrilling scream sent an electric shock up my spine calling my focus to them, I'd never heard anything so blood curdling in my life. And I turned to see y/n convulsing violently, her lips were turning blue and she sounded like she was choking.
Poor Lovegood was trying everything she could think of to help support her head so that it didn't hit the floor. "What's happening? I don't understand what's happening!"
So I took to my knees and cradled her, desperately stroking her face to rouse her, rocking her body but she still continued to arch and jerk. Only the whites of her eyes were visible now, and everyone had gathered around to witness the terror, shouting and pacing themselves in to a frenzy until we had a full audience.
"Come on darling, you're going to be okay you just need to get better and wake up now.. come on y/n.."
Nothing invoked a meaningful response or reaction from her, and I could feel the tears of pure fear starting to jewel on my lash line. I was utterly terrified. I had no idea how to fix it.
"Just wake up and I'll take you back to mine so I can look after you, all you have to do is snap out of it. Please."
The convulsions stopped abruptly, but she went limp. "Y/n, are you okay now? Darling?"
When I held my ear to her mouth, her breathing was shallow and raspy; almost as if it was rattling or drowning. "No, no, no, we need to find someone to help!!"
I scooped her up in to my arms, holding her close to my chest as I ran, it had passed the point of where we could deal with this by ourselves. We needed proper assistance.
Several other people followed me and I almost ran straight in to Blaise who had come out looking for me to check. "What the fuck Malfoy?!"
"There's something seriously wrong and she needs medical attention now. Get out of my way man!!" He broke in to a hurried jog with me whilst Luna stayed behind us; she only has little legs so keeping up with us was twice as hard. "Y/n, y/n!"
All I could do was keep repeating her name as we bounded through the halls and on to the staircases. It's all I was capable of, I was practically fucking useless and if anything happens to her I'm almost positive it'll be my fault.
"Please run ahead and get someone in the infirmary to get ready.."
"Of course mate hang on," Blaise nodded before taking off in to a sprint. He's fucking fast, although nothing felt fast enough in this moment. "Just two more minutes y/n, and then they can cure you or give you an antidote or something."
Dumbledore was already there when I barged in, likely summoned the very second Blaise raised the alarm. I didn't even think twice about thrusting her in to his arms and letting them place her on to the hospital bed. If he could fix her then I wasn't going to argue.
My personal vendetta's weren't even an afterthought. This was bigger than me and what my plans were.
"Back! You need to get back right now!" Blaise and I were pushed away, a curtain drawn around y/n's body as Professor's all gathered around. It was only once I was given a split second to think did I realise that my own head was spinning, and it felt like I had an iron weight on my chest that was stopping me from taking in a breath. "I think I'm gonna collapse, no joke."
"You won't mate, you're just freaking out you need to try and calm down."
"I can't calm down Blaise, I can't!" I clutched at my throat, hunching over to try and steady my balance. I'd not had an anxiety attack before but I was pretty certain that was what was happening to me. The floor seemed so far away but so close, and the numbing pins and needles crept through my entire body. "Absolute fool!"
When Luna arrived, she was just as scared and breathless as me, if not worse. "I need to make sure she's okay."
"You're not allowed!" Zabini tugged at my arm, restraining me from charging through the blockades. But I broke free and ripped the fabric back. I was greeted with the sight of y/n sprawled out, head turned to the side and eyes wide open; but her gaze was vacant and pupils the size of a sickle. "Malfoy, listen!"
Pomfrey had a needle to her arm injecting some sort of potion whilst another nurse began to pump on y/n's chest. I opened my mouth to shout and scream, but I couldn't even hear my own voice.
Everything seemed to slow down in to slow-motion, her body shifting upwards with each forceful push on her ribcage.
Everything I touch turns to shit and I realise that now.
Everything is so easily breakable, I don't know why I allow myself to keep ruining everything. I should of just fucking walked away that night, then this wouldn't of even happened.
Terence wouldn't of seen her as a prize in a competition.
"I always do this, I'm a walking fucking curse."
"You need to pull yourself together and stop feeling sorry for yourself.." Said Blaise, shaking me like a ragdoll. "This isn't about you, so stop being so selfish and self deprecating. She's fucking ill in there. And if you guys really are together then you need to keep your head straight so you can be there for her."
Always the voice of reason that one. It never gets any less irritating, even if he is always right.
My body fell hopelessly slack against the cold, hard wall before I sank down to sit; hanging my arms over my knees and hanging my head. I was broken, I'd finally cracked and couldn't keep my frustration to myself anymore.
So I sobbed a little, quietly and in to my chest so that no-one could watch me.
I've always been the suffer in silence type, but that wasn't about to happen with Lovegood coming to crawl up beside me; just sitting again, quietly. Blaise just stood aside, as silent support.
All we could do now was wait, and wait we did. "She's breathing and the potion will be working it's way in to her system now. I think she'll make a full recovery, but you should still send a message to the parents, just to be on the safe side. And this will prompt a full enquiry in to how something like this has happened for the second time in less than two weeks. This isn't acceptable."
The muffled voices agreed that she was stable, and eventually the Professor's filtered out looking as exhausted as we all felt; it was late now; almost midnight. "Are you going to come back with me to the dorms then or what?"
"No, I'm not moving Blaise."
"Fine mate, just come and get me if you need me. I think you can go to her now, Pomfrey just gave me a nod and gestured to where she is."
"Yeah, I'll see you in a bit. There's no way I'm leaving her by herself again."
Lovegood and Zabini left quietly. Utterly tramatised by all accounts, as was I. But that wasn't even important anymore.
Y/n looked just fine when I took refuge beside her bed, as if she had just simply fallen to sleep normally. And I curled my hand in to hers, just so she could feel me and know I was there.
I fell asleep there that night, on the chair beside her. And she didn't have a fucking clue until about three days later of where she was, why, and that I refused to move.
The side effects wore off eventually and she returned to her spritely self, but god, she seriously scared me that night; it wasn't the last or only incident either. And I was beside myself with guilt the entire time.
And I was still no closer to figuring out why she was coming back and forth to Pomfrey in the mornings, even after I snuck through her drawers in search of some sort of list the minute she disappeared for a break or a snack.
There was nothing to indicate that there was any underlying issues at all, but I had a gut feeling something contributed to a reaction that severe.
Funnily enough I was right, but we'll discuss that further on.