flower crowns | drarry

thirty three

draco turned on his heel, resolute in his decision now. he walked the path to the gryffindor common room, keeping the light of his wand low as to not disturb the grouchy paintings.

he left his mortification for tomorrow, the inevitable humiliation that would come from sneaking into harry potter's bed in the middle of the night.

no, that could wait for later.

right now, he needed to see harry, needed those forest green eyes on him, seeing through every barrier he'd built around his wounded soul. he needed to feel his warm hands caress his cheeks, brush against his unstyled curls and settle against the nape of his neck, needed his tight embrace, the sensation of his heartbeat fluttering against draco's chest. needed his chamomile and vanilla scent and his emanating heat and the shape of his lips around his name.

it felt like all he needed, all he'd wanted, everything. his lungs felt tight with it.

he was sure he'd never navigated the castle so quickly, ignoring the sleep heavy slurs of confused portraits and the low humming of wandering ghosts as he climbed the moving staircases and speed walked down the cold halls, rushing hasty and mad, as though he were on some sort of undignified rampage.

he soon found himself in front of the fat lady, and perhaps he should have been more courteous about waking her, but truthfully, he didn't care.

"honeysuckle," he breathed, growing increasingly impatient as she blinked her eyes open and looked at him curiously.

"you better not be causing any trouble young man," she slurred sternly, squinting at him with distrustful eyes. "i will not hesitate to call headmistress mcgonagall down here should you try anything funny, and have you expelled—"

"yes, yes," draco huffed, exasperated. "honeysuckle."

the fat lady scoffed an irritated, "how rude!" but quietly swung open anyway, and draco stumbled through.

he smiled as soon as the familiar set up greeted his eyes, the warmth curling from the flickering hearth smoothing over his skin and whisking away the remaining tendrils of clinging cold that had followed him from the dungeons.

he bounded across the common room, embarrassingly giddy for some reason, and was just about to begin his trek up the stairs when something broke the quiet.

screaming.

draco stopped cold.

violent, terrified screaming echoed down the staircase, and it was blood curdling, absolutely chilling. draco was frozen at the foot of the steps with his lips half open, his fluttering breaths struck still in his chest as the shrieking grew louder, more frightened, so frightened and...merlin, draco...draco knew those screams.

those were harry's screams.

he didn't know how he knew, sure he had never heard harry scream before, but something about the fear shuddering through them reminded him so distinctly of harry that suddenly he was nauseated and frantic, and he was running up the stairs in fright as the sounds of panicked footsteps and confused exclamations resounded from the dormitory.

through the ringing in his ears, draco heard several voices rise at once.

"get hermione, quickly!" the distinct sound of ron's voice boomed from the other side of the door.