Wonder // Draco Malfoy

81. Outbreak

"Occlu... what?" I ask.

Students are departing another Dumbledore's Army meeting in groups while Harry and I talk in the corner. He's been so secretive recently that I've asked what he's been up to. Now I'm utterly confused.

"Occlumency. Snape thinks Voldemort will read my mind, so he's teaching me how to avoid that," Harry replies. His eyes shift around the room yet again as if searching for someone. When I turn to look, all I see are the groups of students waiting to be told it's safe to leave. "Voldemort is a master at legilimency. The ability to read minds," he adds as my confused expression deepens.

"Why do you think Voldemort is inside your mind? Can you... can you even read someone's mind from that far away?" I question. Harry shrugs.

"I'm learning about it as we go," he states. "Maybe... I was thinking... well, it might be best for you to give it a go, too."

Harry shifts his gaze away once again and I finally follow it. Cho stands with a few of her friends across the room. She's playing with her hair and looks at Harry with a blush periodically. Ah, now I understand why he's been so distracted recently.

"We can talk about this later," I say. I smile and nod my head toward Cho in encouragement.

Harry gives me a thankful yet nervous look while he leaves to approach Cho. I take this as my cue to leave; I still have to study, anyway. I know I'm not the only one that wants to be taken out of that misery. Rue has already left so I wait until the last group is told to exit to leave. Marcus declined coming tonight so he could study more. Which is unfortunate since he's made so much progress in our meetings.

A group of Ravenclaws leave next and I follow them. We have to separate by the time we get to the staircase. We silently wave goodbye and stealthily walk away, no sound being made by any one in the group as we do so.

Hufflepuff commons is practically empty; someone is asleep on the couch with their textbook over their face, a young couple is in the corner showing a little too much PDA, and Marcus is at our usual table with messy blond hair and an unusually disheveled look about him.

"You okay?" I ask. I place my hand on his shoulder and he jumps lightly. He looked pretty distracted at dinner, but I had no clue he was this stressed. "I think you need to go to bed," I gasp as I see the dark bags underneath his eyes. His usually bright gray eyes are now a dull cement color as he yawns.

"You have no idea the pressure my father is putting on me," he groans. He sets his quill down and rubs his eyes with both hands. "I swear he thinks this is all easy. He doesn't understand. He didn't have the life I have when he was younger."

His unusual demeanor makes me drop by bag on the floor and sit in the chair by his side. "Marcus, what's wrong?" I ask. To be quite honest, I'm not sure I've ever seen him this stressed. This is entirely different than the months following the third task. It's like I'm sitting next to a stranger.

A sharp ping of terror rips through my body at the idea; the memory of the Draco imposter makes it almost impossible to comfort one of my best friends. Calm down, Valentine. There's no way someone from the outside could hurt you like this at Hogwarts. I take a deep breath and remind myself that Marcus needs someone to confide in right now.

Speaking of... where's Rue? Shouldn't he be with his girlfriend? Not that I don't want to help him, but she would be so much better suited to help him. They've studied together every night for the last few weeks. Even over holiday. "You need to take a break," I suggest. I pull his textbook away from him and close it gently with his notes tucked to the page he was on. He doesn't argue or try to stop me - instead he keeps his face buried in his hands as he breathes heavily. "I'll take care of your stuff. You should shower and sleep."