Blood Traitor || Draco Malfoy

Chapter 70

As soon as Su went to tell the girls upstairs, Kit sprinted to find Draco.

He was in the Slytherin Common Room, and he clearly had no idea what had happened.

"Kit," he said brightly, though there was an anxious undertone in his voice. "How was it with Flitwick?"

"It was fine, he gave me Sugar Mice," she answered hurriedly. "Can we talk? Please?"

He noticed immediately that something was wrong. He sprang up and followed her out, and they remained silent, side by side, until they reached the Room of Requirement.

"We fucked up," murmured Kit shakily when he closed the door. "Katie Bell touched the bloody necklace!"

Draco went very pale. "W-What? Is s-she?"

"She's alive but she's not doing well— she's in the Hospital Wing now."

He grasped his temples. "But— but how did it go wrong? We— we took every precaution—"

"Su told me that they saw it happen— Rosmerta must have given Katie the package but Katie's friend Leanne noticed that something was off. They were arguing and somehow, the package ripped!"

"Fuck," hissed Draco, staggering back into the wall. "Fuck— fuck— FUCK!"

He grabbed the nearest thing— a lopsided vase atop a stack of books— and threw it across the room. It shattered, and he let out another frustrated groan, hitting himself in the head.

"Draco," said Kit fearfully, her voice small. "Draco— please, don't..."

But he couldn't control it. He couldn't suppress the anger and paranoia that was flooding into his mind. His natural instinct was to get it out violently— to break and ruin anything in sight until he felt some sort of grasp on reality, some sort of authority over his mess of a life. He swiped his hands across the nearest table, sending books and knick knacks clattering to the floor, pages folding all over the place and some materials breaking or cracking.

"DRACO!" Kit cried, though she was scared to get close to him. "Draco— breathe— stop it, please!"

The terrified look on her face was what made him falter, which led to him stopping. It was the same fear that he'd seen in her face the day her father had tortured her. He could imagine it was the same fear that she'd felt when she had to watch her mother die.

He sank to the floor and sat onto his hands, keeping them from doing anything else. She came down beside him, though not touching him yet. "This... this isn't our fault," whispered Kit. "It... it isn't..."

But it certainly felt like it was. Kit felt helpless. She wasn't supposed to let anyone get hurt. How could she have been so stupid? There should have been more nitpicking to keep anyone else from getting hurt. She should have done something— anything else to stop it from happening.

When Kit had started to cry, Draco hadn't been able to hold his own tears in. She looked so vulnerable and frustrated, and she covered her face so that he wouldn't see, feeling ashamed of her own incompetence. He'd released his hands in order to remove hers, looking her in the eyes so that she could see that he was crying as well. He'd pulled her into his arms and cradled her as gently as he could, listening to her sob uncontrollably. He couldn't imagine how she must feel. She wasn't meant to get involved in this, and now someone she knew— someone who she'd spoken to on occasion and befriended a bit, was hurt, and could have actually lost their life.

"I'm sorry," said Draco hoarsely in a moment where she wasn't sobbing quite so loudly. "I'm sorry— this is my fault— if you don't want to do this anymore... I-I get it—"