Oshun burst into his dorm and her heart jolted in alarm.
Draco's body was slumped against his dresser with his head lolled to the side. His eyes were closed and his hand was limp over his wound, his other hand limp in the pool of blood around him.
The clothing from his stomach and below were drenched in blood. Dried blood splatters were around his mouth, some blood dried on his chin.
"Draco!" she cried out, and slammed the door shut before running to him.
She slid onto her knees, right into his blood. Her hands cupped his face and she repeatedly called for him, but no response.
She felt his pulse. It was dangerously weak.
She gently removed his hand from his wound and she could tell it was deep by the amount of blood that spilled from it.
Her heart was jack-hammering in her chest and beating like drums in her ears, clouding her mind and preventing her from thinking.
The blood was rushing to her head and she felt suddenly dizzy. Tears blurred her vision. Her hands were shaking furiously from distraught and her sickness and the sight before her.
"Okay, okay," she said, exhaling shakily. "Okay." Her hands refused to steady as she placed them over his wound, one on top of the other.
Using your powers can worsen your health.
"I need to," she responded to the voice in her head. "I ne—" Her voice broke off. "I-I need to."
She pressed her hands tightly over Draco's wound and took a deep, unsteady breath. Every time she inhaled, the smell of copper swarmed her nose.
It's going to kill you, Oshun.
"It's okay." Oshun's voice wavered as she shook her head. A tear slipped from her eye and then more slipped down. "It's ok— okay. I can— I-I can do this. He has more— he has more reason to live. I'm already dying."
She closed her eyes and forced her bottom lip to stop quivering. A useless move, really.
You're shortening your life more than it already is.
"I know." She nodded and inhaled a sharp breath, telling herself to get her shit together. "But I need to. He— he needs to live."
She took deep breaths, the next one more wobbly than the first.
Focus, she told herself.
It'll kill you.
Ignore the voices, she told herself.
You'll die sooner.
Focus.
You're fucking up your health even more.
Focus.
You're killing yourself.
Focus.
Less time with Fred.
Focus.
Less time with your mates.
Focus.
Less time to live.
Focus.
No more laughs and smiles.
Focus.
No more I love yous from Fred.
Focus.
No more love.
"Shut up!" Oshun shouted in aggravation with a falter in her voice, nearly sobbing. "Come on!"
She inhaled and pressed her lips together, focusing all her attention to his wound. She ignored all the voices and the tremors in her hands and the feelings that were making her head spin.
Her shoulders rolled back and her eyes relaxed the best they could as she flitted them shut. She attempted to relax her hands the best to her ability and then she exhaled.
A dark silver shimmer gleamed under her caramel skin and ran down her veins to her palms. The shimmer shined bright under her skin as she focused on her intentions.
Under her palms, she felt his skin mend itself together slowly. She could feel the reluctance of his skin meshing together due to her lack of focus, but she was trying.
She was trying her best.
Exhaustion was pouring over her body as she finished and gasped out the breath she'd been holding in. She opened her eyes and ripped open his shirt to see his wound.
She brushed her fingertips gently over his healed skin, blood staining his pale skin and her hands.
Her head nodded, nodding more to herself. "Okay," she said out loud, though she didn't sound as confident as she wanted to sound. "Okay."
She stood from the floor before crouching down and grasping his hands. Moments from sobbing, she groaned as she tried to haul him up from the ground, but failed miserably against the limpness of his weight.
"Draco, please." A sob erupted her throat, but she was trying not to collapse onto the floor. "Come on, we need to go to the Hospital Wing."
She tried again, pulling him up by his hands, but they remained limp around hers and his body did not move.
She dropped to the floor, into his pool of blood.
She was so tired. She almost wanted to close her eyes and sleep. Sleep off everything.
Oshun was on the floor clutching onto the fabric of his shirt, sobbing and begging him to wake up. Her chest was stuttering in sync with her breaths and her sounds were incoherent.
"Please, please," she kept saying, tugging at his shirt as she blubbered into his chest.
Time was passing by too slowly in her mind and she didn't even know how many minutes had passed.
All she knew was that she was sobbing uncontrollably into his chest, telling him he needed to wake up, telling him she loved him, telling him she needed him.
She gasped and her sobs took an abrupt pause when she felt a large hand clutch the back of her head weakly.
Slowly, she peeled her face from his chest and through her blurry vision, looked at him. "Draco?" she whispered.
The boy's eyes were fluttering, weakly so. A dragged out grunt drew from his lips before he coughed fraily.
Her hand palmed his jaw softly, running her thumb across his cheekbone. "Draco," she said before she was sobbing in his chest again.
"Hi, my sweet girl." His voice was so raspy and weak that it only made her cry harder.
She pulled back after a beat or two and cupped his fragile face in her hands. "You're alive," she said through her sob, tears streaming down her blotchy cheeks. "You're alive."
The very edge of his lip lifted into the faintest, but cockiest smirk. "I couldn't let Weasley have you that easily, could I?" he said unevenly, blinking slowly.
She laughed.
She actually laughed.
A tearful one as she shook her head. "I suppose not," she said as the relief allowed her bones to ease up from their tension. "I love you. I love you. I love you." She inched in to kiss his forehead repeatedly, her tears smearing between her lips and his skin.
His dead eyes lit up and his smile grew shy. "You love me," he beamed, fragile.
She nodded vigorously at him, smiling through her tears.
Draco's smile soon faded as he slumped against the dresser. "It was Theo," he whispered, but barely.
"Save your breath," she told him softly. "I know it was. But save your breath, okay?"
He nodded slowly and kept his nearly glassy eyes locked with hers.
_____
Oshun sat in the chair by his cot in the middle of the night, fingers threaded through his and her elbows resting over the edge of his cot.
She held his hand to her lips, kissing his skin softly and breathing warmly against his skin.
Draco slept peacefully in the cot after a long day.
She'd brought him to the Hospital Wing after he gained the strength to stand. Pomfrey was quick to assist him and get him in a cot.
"What happened to his wound?" Pomfrey had asked, puzzled, as she checked the boy for any wounds.
"I used a spell on it to stop the bleeding and heal him when I found him," Oshun had replied, hands still shaking with blood all over them. Her legs were covered in blood and her uniform as well. "My parents taught me when I was younger about the right spells for certain scenarios."
"Impressive," Pomfrey had said, and nodded as she scribbled on her parchment. "But there should've been a scar left behind."
"My mum taught me well," was all Oshun had said.
Pansy and Blaise had come earlier to check on Draco, and then left soon after. After ensuring their friend was okay.
Theodore was brought to Azkaban for questioning earlier that day after he was found going after Mavi Singh with the murder weapon from every "suicide."
He hadn't come back to Hogwarts—he wasn't allowed. He was sent home instead and the updates on his arrest and sentence were to be determined.
Mavi was okay, not hurt or anything. But probably distraught. Oshun checked up on her before going to see Draco when he was needed to answer questions.
Mavi was going to stay with Da'Shylah in her dorm for a few days for comfort—insisted by Da'Shylah herself.
Authorities were contacted and they took a look at the crime scene of Seamus. They'd ask to question Draco as well after he was checked on by Pomfrey since he was also stabbed by Theodore.
By the way Draco answered the questions, she knew he was leaving certain details out about what happened between him and Theodore in his dorm.
But no one else knew he was lying.
She knew when he was lying.
She knew he wanted to protect his best friend.
Draco had demanded Oshun stay with him during questioning, and they allowed it.
"She loves me. She needs to stay," he had demanded, gripping her hand tighter. "She can listen, it's fine."
So then the same man that took statements for Romilda's death asked his questions.
"He has it bad at home," Draco had answered firmly. "You need to put Nott Sr. away. He's horrible. He hurts and manipulates and gaslights Theo."
"My best friend needs to see someone. He needs help," he had said quickly. "You need to get him help and get him away from his father right now."
"He stabbed me by accident," he had said. "I tried to grab the knife from him and he accidentally stabbed me when he was fighting me back. It was an accident. He didn't mean to."
But no matter what Draco said, Theodore was still arrested for the murders of Hermione Granger, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Colin Creevy, and Seamus Finnigan.
Classes for the rest of the week were cancelled for everyone's sake, even the professors. Everyone needed the time off after the events that had happened.
Now, Oshun watched as Draco's chest rose and fell smoothly each time he breathed softly in his sleep. She was mesmerized by this because he was alive.
He wasn't dead.
She was tired, so fucking tired. Beyond. Her life span might have been shortened more.
Though it was okay because he was alive.
She knew Draco was a bit sour over the fact that she killed for Fred. But for Draco, she shortened her own life. He just didn't know it.
Fred had come earlier to check on Oshun—and Draco, which surprised her.
"Just want to make sure you guys are okay," the ginger had said softly, kissing her head as Draco slept.
He'd also apologized for getting mouthy with Oshun earlier and she forgave him of course. She'd told him she was going to stay with Draco and he agreed it was the best option, so she could be there for the blond.
Oshun did not want to leave Draco's side anymore. She wanted to be with him. Stay with him. Protect him.
She found that her eyes were no longer able to stay open, eyelids slowly drooping. She was about to rest her head on the cot when she felt his hand twitch in hers.
"Takahashi, come." Draco's roughened voice was thick with sleep as he shifted over in the cot and lay on his side. "Sleep here."
"Are you su—"
"Come here."
She rose from the chair and slipped into the cot next to him. He lifted the thin blanket over her before pulling her in closer into his chest.
Her head rested upon the inside of his bicep as she curled into his chest. His strong arms held her tightly, securely. He kissed her head chastely, one hand tangled in her silky curls.
Silence.
Oshun almost fell asleep when she remembered something she wanted to bring up with him. Tearing through the silence, she said, "You didn't tell the man everything."
"Not everything is relevant," he responded quietly, mouth buried in the top of her hair.
"Can you tell me what you didn't tell him?" Her voice was just above a whisper.
"That's going to be a lot then." He kissed her head and left his lips to linger.
"Please, Draco," she whispered with her forehead pressed into his chest.
Silence emitted.
Then he softy breathed out into her hair.
"I've known Theo was the one that killed those other students for a while. Which was why he hadn't killed anyone in a while, because I was trying to get him to stop," he whispered.
She stayed quiet and listened.
"He told me his father was putting all this pressure on him about being a man and taking control," he went on. "Theo thought he could help his father by getting rid of the Halfbloods and Muggle-born from Hogwarts."
"He said his father was angry about something a while ago." His voice hushed, barely even a whisper. "He said his father was looking for something called a silver lilac that was turned into a serum or something. But then he found out it was gone, so he got angry and started taking it out on Theo."
Oshun tried her best not to tense up in his arms.
She did not know that Theodore knew of the reason his father went away at the end of the holiday. She didn't know Theodore knew what the silver lilac was.
He just didn't know the silver lilac was pumped from her heart continuously throughout her body.
"Theo's father wanted to wipe out everyone in the Wizarding that wasn't pure and apparently the silver lilac could do just that, but there was only one," Draco explained, massaging her scalp softly with the tips of his fingers. "So Theodore wanted to make his father proud and he took matters into his own hands by... well, killing students that aren't pure-blooded."
She made sure not to make any reflexes to show she already knew all of this. She peeled her face from his chest to meet his eyes through the moonlight winking through the window, deliberately scrunching her brows together in intrigue.
"He threatened to kill you if I ever told anyone—which was why I needed you to stay away. I knew that Weasley would keep you safe if I wasn't with you and I knew your mates would too," he confessed. "But then I found out Theo was just bluffing because he could never hurt me like that."
His hand came to the side of her face to brush his knuckles down her temple. "Theo's not a bad guy," he whispered with a wistful smile.
"I know," she whispered back, smiling faintly. "I know he's not. He just got raised wrongly by his father."
"He's my best friend," he mumbled so quietly, she nearly didn't hear him. "He's got a good heart. He made a mistake."
She kissed his forehead softly.
No one knew that the silver lilac was used for her and her family. It was best for it to stay like that.
"How long are you supposed to stay here again anyway?" Oshun murmured, combing his platinum locks of hair from his eyes.
"Pomfrey says I need to stay here for a few days," he answered thinly. "I don't understand why because quite frankly, I feel fine."
She chuckled amusedly under her breath. "Listen to her and just stay here until she lets you go."
"You saved me." Draco's pale eyes were gentle and dimmed with sleep as he gazed appreciatively at her. "Thank you. I owe you the world, my sweet girl."
She smiled demurely. "I would risk my own life a million times for you if needed, Draco Malfoy."