when they became villains [draco malfoy] {book 2}

Year 6 - 160

It was funny how the first thing Astrid heard when coming to her senses the following morning was the chirping of birds. Sparrows, blackbirds, robins and all the other small birds that loved coming to ask for your food while you picnicked outside on the school grounds. A bright sunbeam shone right over her closed lids and everything looked red instead of black with her eyes shut. A soft bleeze brew at the top of her head and Astrid could feel the smell of petrichor wafting inside through the opened windows above her head.

Painfully squeezing one eye open and then the other, Astrid felt her head pounding and by the bandage over her head, she concluded she was in the hospital wing. The sunbeam still shone straight into her eyes and, finding it entirely too bright, Astrid turned on her side, trying to recall how she had gotten there.

There had been a storm - hence the smell of the air she loved so much. Then there was rushing down a hallway. A bathroom. "I can't do this anymore." And then Potter. Sectumsempra and then... 

Astrid felt herself beginning to shake even in the pleasantness of the morning. It was ironic almost. The tears flowed down freely cooling her otherwise burning cheeks. Was there anyone else in the Hospital wing who could've seen her, she truly didn't care.

"What is you weeping like a just-born baby all about?"

Astrid scoffed. He had always been just that insufferable. "Piss off, Mal-"

In a heartbeat, Astrid whipped around, her watery eyes wide in surprise. It was a movement that sent a sharp pain through her skull but she couldn't have possibly cared less about it because he was there. He was there, watching her with a somewhat of a suppressed smirk, being very much so alive.

Without thinking much, Astrid jumped out of her bed and onto the boy where he had been laying in the bed next to hers. Malfoy winced and even let a small whimper loose before chuckling softly as she wrapped her arms around him, pressing the boy against her as tightly as she possibly could. Ignoring his surprised eyes, she sat up and took his face into her hands, inspecting the scars that littered his unusually pale skin and concentrated on the way he smiled. The way the very much alive and breathing Draco Malfoy was smiling at her because he could and had not died.

"You're alright," Astrid gasped out breathlessly and fell back over the lad to hug him again, just barely catching the way he rolled his eyes. She nuzzeled her face into his neck and inhaled the soft smell of his skin, breathing in the reality of the situation, still in disbelief he was real. "I thought you had died."

"I'm glad to know you would've missed me."

Astrid sat back up and slapped him over the chest gently, earning another deep wince as he scrunched his eyes close. Realizing she was probably hurting him, Astrid quickly scrambled off, though she had to admit, the way he had held onto her waist had made it look that even if it hurt, he hadn't wanted her to leave at all.

"I almost killed Potter because of you," Astrid scoffed at the boy, judging the way he was smirking when she still had her cheeks stained with tears. It was ridiculous. All until, of course, Astrid realized what she had just said and the reality of that set in. Her eyes widened in horror and her mouth fell agape as she turned to look away from him. "Holy cow," her hand flew to hold her forehead, pushing her bangs out of her face. "I almost killed a guy!"

"Aww..." it looked Malfoy thought she was joking, "you'd do that for me."

I would've killed him if I hadn't been knocked out. I would've taken a life. Wait- who the hell knocked me out?

Astrid fell back in her hospital bed, a look somewhere between shock and anger prominent on her face.

I mean, Potter deserved it... but I also almost killed him... Am I really that out of my mind? She gripped at her hair in despair. I want to go home.