golden longings

IX

***

Through his closed lids Draco noticed a dim light. He was hesitant to open his eyes, he wasn't sure if there was gonna be something he didn't want to see.
Or if he was really awake.

His body felt drained. Everything felt rather normal, except for a dull pain in his right shoulder. He attempted to move the fingers in his left hand, just to check if his body still obeyed his commands, and it worked.
He tried to raise his shoulder up and felt a sharp pain, he must've fallen on that side.

"Is he awake?"
"Not yet, try again later."
"Okay. If he wakes up, tell me."

The voices still sounded like they were very far away. It pulled him out of his only half aware state, and now he wanted to wake up.
His eyelids felt heavy, but he finally blinked and opened his eyes.
The light was dimmed, so it didn't blend him.

"Draco?" The low voice was followed by Pansy's face leaning over him.
He blinked a couple more times.
"Oh I am so glad you woke up. How are you feeling?"
She made an effort to speak quietly, but her voice still was too loud in his ears.
He wasn't convinced that his voice would work, but he gave it a try.

"Terrible" he finally spit out. He felt tempted to laugh at that, but that would have cost too much energy.
"I am not surprised. What happened?"
That was a good question, but Draco barley had an answer to it himself.

The memory hit him, and it was like he'd just ran into a wall of cold water. Suddenly, Draco was wide awake, but all he wanted was to fall asleep again.
He remembered the circumstance under which he had passed out.
He wished to be able to just go back into the unconscious state.

How long had he been out, he wondered.
"How long have I been out?"
Pansy above him shrugged.
"Maybe an hour? Not too long, it's okay. "
He took a proper look around the room for the first time. Draco was pretty sure he was laying in his own bed, only one curtain was open, but he saw Weasley's clothes laying across the room.

"Here, drink this." Pansy handed him a glass. Less than a third of the glass was filled with a light pink liquid.
"What's that?"
She smiled down at him, while directing his hand with the glass towards his mouth.

"It's a potion that will sober you up. We've had some already. Drink."
He followed her order and drank the surprisingly not too disgusting potion, without asking all the questions that were going through his head.
At least, he thought, he hadn't been out too long, and not a whole crowd was watching him.

He sat up and leaned against the head of his bed. While he moved, his shoulder hurt a bit, but when he finally sat straight up, he almost didn't feel anything anymore.
He reached in his pocket for his wand, he wanted to just fly the empty glass back over to his bedside table, when he suddenly got an idea.

He groaned. Draco felt stupid for not realizing it sooner. The thought occurred to him that, had he thought about it, he would have easily been able to prevent it.
"Pansy?" He asked into the room, and she reappeared at the side of his bed right away.

"Is my wand over there?"
He pointed next to his bed, he hadn't felt it in his pocket before. He just wanted the security to know it was there.
"Are you sure you're in the condition to use it right now?"
Usually, that would have pissed Draco off, but Pansy sounded honestly concerned. And she had every right to be.

"No. That's exactly the point."
"Huh?" Even tho she seemed sceptical, she picked up his wand and handed it to him.
Already closing his fingers around the wand to hold it seemed to be drain in his energy. He closed his eyes and waved the wand while quietly muttering the words to undo the protection spells that he had put up.