in the night,
i am the truth.
IN NOX, SUM VERITAS
[ A DRACO MALFOY FIC
DRACO MALFOY x
LOUIS NOX
EST. 2020 ]
a pulcherrius™ concept
( hbp ━ dh pt.i ━ dh pt.ii )
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
(v.) to bury something deep; to hide
"DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT?"
This was the first thing that Harper asked Louis after he was done eating his dinner the next night, finally working up the initiative to eat something after days of refusal to consume any sort of food. Louis stared down at his empty plate, picking at a tiny bread crumb with his fork before setting it aside and taking a breath, getting ready to speak. His mother sat across from him, waiting patiently for the story to unfold.
"I liked him," Louis started, taking the time to realize that he was actually talking about this to somebody, "I liked him a lot, actually."
Harper nodded, humming as she eyed her son. Louis seemed to be elsewhere, lost within the confines of his imagination, nervously bouncing his knee as he probably waited for this to be over.
"Did you love him?" Harper asked. That got Louis's attention.
"Hm?" Louis asked, eyes widening just a bit.
"Did you love him?" Harper repeated with the same, calm intonation to her voice.
Unintentionally, Louis's eyes brimmed with tears as all their past memories came to surface. It wasn't the moment of his saying I love you that made him realize he loved Draco but all the moments leading up to it that sealed the deal. He could so clearly remember all the times they spent together in the library and atop the Astronomy tower, albeit them being still rather fresh. But he could see them in a way that made him feel as though he were still there, standing, feeling the wind sweep through his ears as he was eye to eye with the boy that claimed to be so proud—the sky and the sea, tethered until the very end.
"I do," Louis confirmed in earnest. Present tense. Despite where they are now and the rift they caused, he still loved him. It was a little funny to consider the reason that Draco may or may not have wanted him dead. That brought Louis to wonder how others were able to go about their day after having broken up with someone the night, or months, before, how their bones didn't ache with the want and desire to settle into someone's embrace and keep still. Louis was, rightfully, still in the early stages, and receiving the letter only made him ache more. It didn't quite undo any of the process, however it did hinder at the sight of Draco's scrawly handwriting, spelling out the ways he missed him.
"I love him," Louis reiterated, licking his lips before continuing, "mum, he was wonderful. A little thick in the skull, but wonderful, nonetheless."
"'Was'?" Harper tilted her head, catching the hypocrisy in both the use of past and present tense.
"Maybe I still love what I thought he was, or the idea, rather," Louis sighed, hanging his head before looking back up, "it's just. . .I don't know. It felt real to me. It was real to me." Thinking about it unfortunately wore Louis down so he made his way to stand but his mother soon stopped him, placing her hand on top of his.