The Astronomy Tower < #wattys2016 >

Spectumsempra!

June 9th, Friday, 1996

Over the past month Draco and Hermione had started spending more time together. It's almost as if they knew that not before long, they would be separated for a very long time.

Hermione found that she was getting no time to herself to just... breathe. Between Draco, homework, classes, their approaching exams, and helping Harry find out more about horcruxes, she had no time to enjoy her sixth year at Hogwarts.

She still hadn't told anyone about her and Draco. She intended to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Over the last month, she had noticed things about Draco were changing. He was loosing weight, and fast; he had become much more irritable, more than usual anyways, he snapped at the smallest of things; And he couldn't focus on anything, his mind always seemed to be somewhere else, like he was never truly with her.

She missed her old Draco... A lot. She couldn't help but wonder if things would change over the summer. She hoped not.

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Overwhelming anxiety hit Draco like a bus. He had only one month left... Time was slowly ticking away. He couldn't take it anymore.

To take his mind off of it, he went down for Breakfast.

There was an unusual commotion in the great hall, that seemed to be coming from the Gryffindor table. The crowd split and in the center of the scene stood Katie Bell.

Oh no...

Draco suddenly felt the urge to throw up. Seeing Bell just reminded him of the upcoming deadline, and how he was failing to meet it.

What if she knew that it had been him who had cursed her? What if she told Hermione?

Now Draco knew that he was going to be sick.

He headed for the nearest bathroom, and flung himself at the sink. His tie suddenly felt very constricting, He clumsily untied it, and threw it on the ground. He then proceeded to splash water onto his face.

He was shaking from head to toe, then the tears fell.

Draco saw something moce out of the corner of his eye. Potter!

Forgetting about Hermione, he through a jinx and the other boy.

Harry dodged it and threw on of his own, which Draco also Dodged. Water was spraying everywhere, one of their curses had broken a cistern.

Then Draco heard Harry cry out a curse in which he had never heard before.

"SPECTUMSEMPRA!"

Excruciating pain filled Draco. He was knocked off his feet. The last thing he saw was red... red everywhere.

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It killed Hermione to not be able visit Draco in the day, since their relationship was still a secret.

So that night she snuck out to see the Slytherin after everyone had gone to bed.

Luck appeared to be on her side, because she ran into no problems on her way to the medical wing.

She opened the doors as quietly as she could, and crept over to where Draco slept.

She say that most of the cuts had been healed, due to some concoction that Mme Pomfrey had given him.

She sat there, watching him with a worried expression upon her face.

"You're going to develop wrinkles at a young age if you keep holding your face like that.' said Draco with one eye partially opened.