CURSED [D.M]

-(31) she has never been a saviour

ZILLIAH can't help but open her eyes as she feels Draco's presence approaching from where she was sprawled upon a couch in the common room with a book in hand. With a low groan, making her mind up to leave, she casts her glance upon his figure, frozen at that last stair from the boy's dormitories.

Even from the distance between them, she can recognise that something is really wrong. His eyes are almost.. haunted.

And when she sees him, bolting straight back down, nearly tripping over himself, she knows something is really really wrong.

She shouldn't care. She really shouldn't. Sirius' images flood her mind and she forces back the bile that rises in her throat, clutching the book in hand a little too tightly.

But this is Draco. He isn't like this. His steps are always careful and poised. Never this clumsy or hurried. His eyes are always cold and calculating save the moments he was alone with her, then they were warm. But never this wrecked. It has been so only that one time he broke down in front of her.

Before she even comprehends what she is doing, she is making her way down to his room- her legs moving almost on it's own accord.

There is something about Draco that draws her back over and over. There has been something right from the very start.

His door is closed but she finds that it isn't locked. Taking in a deep breath, she twists the knob and walks in to find him in the middle of the room, his hands on his head, his face tear streaked, his eyes tormented. He shakes a baby leaf in a vicious wind. And the figure of him, shatters the last ounce of uncertainty within her.

"Draco?", she calls out, soft and careful.

His eyes blink into focus, as though he was just seeing her even though he was already looking at her before. And as he does see her, he is quick to scramble to the bathroom, nearly tripping himself over again.

Quickly closing the door behind her, she walks upto the bathroom to find it shut. "Draco. I'm going to come inside, okay?", she mumbles out, drawing her wand to cast the unlocking charm.

"Don't", she hears a low croak from the other side, so low and weak that it wrecks her senses.

"Draco, please. Let me come in."

"No.. Do- Don't. I.. I don't want you.. to see- to see me like t-this."

The stuttering words. The hoarse sound. The troubled breaths. The trembling figure and the petrified eyes she saw before. She pieces it all together.

A panic attack.

"Okay.. Okay. I'm not coming in. I'm not", she is quick to mumble. "But I need you to listen to me, okay? Can you listen to me?"

A muffled sob.

"Draco, please."

"Ye-Yes."

With a quick sigh of small relief she sits down facing the door. She isn't going to force her way in when he is at such a fragile moment. She isn't going to make him uncomfortable. But she isn't going to leave him either, no matter that lump in her throat or the images threatening to draw over her mind. "Can you sit against the door?"

She waits a moment before jolting back as there is loud thud against the door but it only lifts her hopes. He is listening to her.

"Okay.. good. Can you hear me, Draco?"

"Yeah..", his voice is so fucking small so much so her heart aches at it.

"Can you hear my breaths?"

"Mmhm", a murmur.