❝ Why can't we be more than friends, Draco?
-Why can't we be more than friends? Merlin Astoria, figure it out. I am fucking social pariah. Your friends, your family, your fucking parents who adore you, would never approve. ❞
ओह! यह छवि हमारे सामग्री दिशानिर्देशों का पालन नहीं करती है। प्रकाशन जारी रखने के लिए, कृपया इसे हटा दें या कोई भिन्न छवि अपलोड करें।
" L E T M E T A K E H E R . "
Draco jerked Astoria's motionless body away from Harry's outstretched arms, holding her close to his chest. He could feel the rhythmic thump of her heart against his body. He held her tighter.
"Like hell you'll take her!" Draco said scathingly. "She's my girlfriend, I can take her to St. Mungo's, I do not need you."
Harry bent to Draco and Astoria's level, lifting some of her hair that hid her face from view. He grimaced. "It's not safe to side-apparate with her, Draco. She isn't even conscious. You'd risk splinching her in half."
"I'll be careful!"
Harry dropped his hand and glared at Draco. "Malfoy. Your house was just fucking attacked and your girlfriend was tortured. I'm the Auror in charge of this case. I've done this thousands of times. Let me take Astoria."
"Don't— don't take her away from me."
A familiar twist tightened in Harry's stomach. Regardless of how he felt about Draco in the past, he couldn't help but pity the Malfoy heir, couldn't help but see himself in Draco, when he was losing all the important people in his life— Sirius, Dumbledore, Lupin...
Harry blinked rapidly. "I'm not going to let anything happen to her, I promise. I'm going to transport her to St. Mungo's and you can meet us there."
Draco shook his head, and despite himself, a few tears began to well in the whites of his eyes. Astoria's body began to shake in Draco's grasp, as his panic overtook him. "Please let me take her. Don't take her away from me, I don't know what I'd do without her. Please Harry."
Harry gripped Draco's shoulders, looking down on him sternly, as though he were chastising a child.
"Draco, no. Look at yourself. Draco, look at your fucking self. You're bleeding and you can barely hold her. She will be safer if I take her. I have the proper spell and can have her treated quicker than if you take her."
"Harry!"
"NO!" Harry's temper flared and he slashed his wand down in a thin line between Draco and Astoria. The spell electrified Draco's hold on Astoria's skin, burning into his fingers and scorching Astoria's delicate skin. He yanked his hands back, stumbling on all fours, away from Harry and Astoria, cradling his newly burnt hands.
In one whisk of his cloak, Astoria was held tightly, safely, by Harry. "I will see you at St. Mungo's. You will be able to see her after the doctors inspect her. Tell the Healers the cut on your cheek is cursed."
Draco stretched out his hand, reaching for Astoria's hidden body. "But—"
And then quite unexpectedly Harry was gone, taking his tortured girl with him. Draco's hand fell, and his body turned cold.
