Choices

Help from a Friend

In muggle films, characters would often show their emotional distress by driving away, ignoring their surroundings as they speed down a conveniently deserted road to somewhere they could clear their thoughts and come back with a sound mind. But Draco couldn't do that.

He had no car, not that it would matter if he did as he had no license to drive it, so he was left with the much less dignified option of having an emotional breakdown on a bus to Little Haven after leaving his dignity at home.

Draco sighed, in a few hours Ginny and Harry would wake up to a note that only explained he would come back later in the day, he hoped she would not hate him for it but after the day before he needed just a moment to think, some space between him and what he had to do afterward, whatever that would be.

Stuck.

That's how Ginny had described being with him.

Being stuck.

They were nothing but stuck.

He let out a self-deprecating laughter, garnering him the disapproving looks from his fellow passengers and if he wasn't buried in his thoughts he might have told them to stuff it but none of them mattered as much as what Ginny said.

She was stuck with him and if it wasn't for that then their feelings would have never happened...

Therefore...

Even if she did love him, it wasn't... real... she'd just be performing based on him being the only one she could have, possibly not even for long if she realized she could just, well, leave. They didn't need to be together to raise Harry and he just realized how much that scared him.

Trying to distract himself with the sights of the city didn't work, he watched a few houses pass by, imagining if any could be home, and all it did was bringing him back to Ginny.

Draco wanted so much more, maybe even the stupid things he used to make fun of in others, he wanted to hold her, to kiss her, to love her.

How could he tell her if those feelings would only turn into a cage?

Iwan greeted him at the bus station, Draco had used magic so the letter would arrive faster, he needed someone to talk and the man was the only person he knew that might actually listen to him.

"Gotta say, I did not expect to hear from you now," the man said with a grin, looking relaxed as usual "You okay?"

"Confused, mostly," Draco answered, it was strange letting someone else know about his thoughts, his mind should be a well-kept secret but at that moment he felt it's absolute silence to be more stifling than reassuring, he'd go mad if he was left alone.

"A drink then?" Iwan offered and Draco thought of refusing but he needed something to be able to open up for once so he agreed.

Iwan looked at the teen, every time they had met before it was clear that he was someone very closed off and Iwan had a hard time believing that someone could receive a scar like his in just a normal school, he had heard from his mother about how jumpy they looked when she first met them, so for someone like that, talking, even something that would otherwise be simple, would feel very invasive.

Iwan handed the boy a beer and watched as he looked over the drink with questioning eyes before actually drinking it, and from his face, he was clearly not used to it, Iwan almost laughed.

"So, what's the problem in paradise?" Iwan asked, drinking his own beer.

Draco looked around, unsure of what to do with his hands he stuffed them in his jacket, hoping that it would help him calm down, "How long have you and Ceri been together?"