inflicted [h.p]

06*

this is hella long and overdue and probably not worth the wait but here we are ;))

it's also not edited.

It was Friday now, and Harry felt awful, physically and mentally fucking drained. The previous night had been particularly worse than usual and Harry swore he'd only slept thirty minutes, his nightmare taunting him.

It was Ginny this time. Writhing in front of him, the twist of her face as she looked at him in pure agony. The floor had been drenched, the carpet matting as her blood pooled around her seeping into the floor. The metallic smell still played with Harry's senses as he pictured it. And merlin her screams. Those fucking screams.

He walked to his last period alone, miraculously, Ginny's screams echoing off the walls in Harry's clouded mine haunting him. Ron and Hermione never seemed to leave Harry's side if they could help it. It was suffocating having the two people who knew-well used to-with him. It just reminded Harry of how much he'd changed whilst the pair had relatively remained normal.

He walked into the potions room, some how late, granting a quick apology to Slughorn who course dismissed it.

"No apologies necessary Harry, I'm sure you had your reasons. Take your seat now."

Harry kept his head down, not looking at Ron as he made his way to take his seat besides Malfoy, refusing to greet him. Their last encounter had pissed Harry off, to put it nicely. The discomfort caused by his shirt fabric catching on the scabs of his wounded wrist intensified at the memory.

His mind drifted elsewhere, allowing Slughorn's words to dwindle into mindless background chatter. He tried to think of anything, anything but Valerie to mute the sounds of Ginny's screams. But of course, nothing else worked. Valerie seemed to be the only person, thing, that Harry could use as a distraction. The raw sound of Ginny's screams slowly faded into the satisfying sound of Valerie's whimpers, the sound she made when he had tugged her hair, or traced her inner thigh. He could practically still feel her pulse under his thumb. The power and control he felt having her laying on the desk for him, still surged through his body in a rush, a rush that wouldn't go away. He had hurt her, and depraved her of a release, something he knew she was desperate for. Harry hoped she was angry. Angry at him or angry at herself for relishing in his vile treatment of her, he didn't know.

He allowed himself to relive memory, only drawn back to reality as the students around him began to talk. Slughorn must have stopped talking at some point.

"What are we supposed to be doing?" Harry asked Malfoy in confusion, forgetting his adamance to greet him. "Malfoy."  The last word was harsh.

"I'm sorry are we talking again now?" Malfoy dropped his quill and turned towards Harry, looking him up and down.

"Oh shove off Malfoy. Since when have we ever talked?"

"Must've been imagining our conversation in the library, my mistake." Draco sneered, returning to his work.

Again, Malfoy didn't look up. Harry twiddled his quill between his fingers, still unsure what he was supposed to be doing. A part of him wanted to talk to Draco still. Their back and forth sneers and taunts being rather entertaining sometimes. At least the ones that didn't run too deep.

"I saw you with Valerie." Harry said, watching for Malfoy's reaction. The other boy tensed slightly. "In the hallway the other day."

"Yeah what about it?"

"Just didn't realise the two of you were mates." Draco finally looked up at Harry.

"We're not really. We talked over summer some." Malfoy must have noticed Harry's dissatisfaction with his answer because he continued. "Merlin. I met her right after the battle on the school grounds. She helped me through some shit."