Heroes at Hogwarts

fifty-one | fake memories and sons of Nemesis

draco

"Hey, can I talk to you?" Ethan caught up with Draco in the hallway, carrying loads from McGonagall's class. 

"Yeah." Draco slowed to accommodate him. "What's up?"

Ethan looked at the ground. "Well, first, are you okay?" 

Draco kept his eyes trained in front of him. That was their code, their way out. He, Blaise, and Ethan had always talked like this- considering none of them had the best childhood. They knew how to tread lightly around each other. 

Draco's voice dropped. "Why wouldn't I be?" 

Ethan kept his eyes forward too. "You haven't been sleeping. You've been quiet. You're not eating." 

I've had a lot to do, Draco wanted to say. But he couldn't do that without selling out the others, and as much as he trusted Ethan, only Percy really shared his views. Besides, according to them, Ethan was a demigod too. They just had to wait. 

"Not really feeling it," Draco said instead. 

Ethan hummed. "The professors aren't making you do the work." He noted Draco's empty hands. 

Draco eyed him. "If you were sleeping, you wouldn't know that I wasn't." 

It was true, every night that Draco stayed up looking over books for Annabeth and Leo, every night that he stared out the window thinking of his dad, Ethan had twisted and turned. Some nights he stayed up, too, though neither boy talked. They didn't mention it. Until now.

"Don't turn this on me," Ethan muttered. 

"It's true, though." 

"That doesn't mean I'm not okay." 

"Then it doesn't mean I'm not." 

"You're not eating, D." 

"Not hungry." 

"You're always hungry." 

Draco rolled his eyes. "Not true." But it was. He was always plagued with hunger. 

Ethan kept looking forward. Draco looked at him. They walked for a few minutes like this. 

Draco stopped the other boy. "Okay. What's up?" 

Ethan sat on the step, setting his books down. "I'm good." 

There were circles under his eyes, his skin was pale, and his hair matted. Draco knew he wasn't fine. Even though he was aware all those memories with Ethan were fake, pictures burned into their mind by an earth goddess, he wanted the best for his friend. 

"No, you're not." 

"Well you're not either," Ethan snapped, "and I let yours drop." Draco stepped back. He didn't mean to, but when Ethan got mad, it always scared him. Ethan sighed. "Sorry." 

"I'm not okay," Draco admitted. "That much is obvious. Tell you what...you give me the gist of it. I'll give you the gist of mine." 

Ethan stared at him, taking one of the books into his hands. It wasn't school issued, but Draco didn't dwell on that. "You first," Ethan said. 

"I've been doing research," Draco explained, "something to help my family out of their most recent...situation." Ethan understood. His parents, no matter how fake the memories were, had also been pulled into Voldemort's trap. Sadly, that wasn't the family Draco was worried about right now. It wasn't even why he was doing research. "I've been, worried, you could say." 

Ethan groaned. "That wasn't much." 

"That was kind of all of it." 

"That's been keeping you up at night?" Ethan snorted. "How noble, Malfoy."