IN NOX, SUM VERITAS━━DRACO MALFOY

twenty. quisling

━━━━  · 。ﾟ☆ .☽ .* ☆ﾟ. ━━━━

(n.) traitor; someone who has lost
your confidence

DRACO LAY AWAKE IN THE HOSPITAL WING THE ENTIRE NIGHT, STARING AT THE CEILING. It hurt to move, considerably so after having been hit with some sort of spell meant to slash someone open by the sound of it. So he had laid there, stock still, a hand over his abdomen and feeling the scratchiness of the bandage with the tip of his finger.

He looked over to his left and there sat Louis, his head tilted back, eyes closed. Draco didn't know how long he had been there and if he had been there as long as he thought, he surely would have a crick in his neck by now. And if he did, he didn't seem to mind.

With the hand that lay over his abdomen, Draco inched closer to Louis's until the nurse came in. His hand dropped, not for the reason that he was afraid because that fear was long gone after what he had done in the Great Hall, but for the fear of being scolded by the nurse for wanting to hurt himself even more. So he let his hand fall.

"You know he was there all night," the nurse said, tilting her head towards Louis, who had opted for a more comfortable sleeping position (his head nestled into his shoulder, his arms crossed and tucked), "hasn't moved 'til now. The little bugger refused to go until Dumbledore sent him a pass."

So that's how he managed to not get caught sneaking up to the Astronomy Tower all these years, thought Draco. Dumbledore. That revelation shouldn't have surprised him. The old man always had a knack for do-gooders and Louis was the most do-gooder of the lot. How Draco fell for him, he would never know completely. Maybe it was the amount of compassion he held, which is what probably made his heart so breakable. All these promises made and strings tied, just for them to be broken and cut in the end. And yet he went on, still as compassionate as before, his smile all the same.

"You can tell he cares about you," the nurse spoke up, interrupting Draco's labyrinth of thoughts. When he shook his head, he realized he was still looking at a sleeping Louis.

"If you met him, you would know that he cares about everybody." Draco tried not to speak too defensively. Because after what I'm about to do, he's not going to want to care about me anymore.

"But it's different with you. I can tell. Out of all the people he's visited in the hospital wing—which wasn't very many—you're the one he's stayed with the longest. Other than worry, he had this look in his eyes. Some would see genuine content that you were okay, others love."

Draco shifted in the hospital bed involuntarily. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked, wondering what she would respond with because he technically already knew at this point, although he couldn't help but think she was guilt-tripping him into something. She didn't know anything, she was just someone with an outsider perspective of the two of them. But if anyone were to bother looking hard enough, they would be able to see everything. And it didn't help with the little display that Draco had put on earlier that morning. Everyone had known then. The stars had planned on telling them, but Draco beat them to it. He didn't say much, but he had said enough to shut them up.