The Only Thing Left is the Emptiness

The Only Thing Left is the Emptiness
By LadyDiablo


Pairing: Ron/Draco Slash. Don’t like, don’t read.
Disclaimer: This is not mine. Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 2


It was Saturday morning, almost noon, and Ron and Harry were still lying in bed when there was a knock on the door.


“Hey boys, are you decent? Can I come in?” It was Hermione outside the door. She had learned, quickly and embarrassingly, that she should really learn how to knock.


“Come on in, Hermione!” Ron shouted, looking up from his Quidditch magazine. Hermione opened the door and walked into the room. She sat down on the edge of Ron’s bed and scowled a bit at the magazine. She looked over at Harry who was still buried deep within the blankets and pillows and she could hear deep slow breaths of sleep.


“Is he still asleep?” she asked in disbelief. Ron looked up from his magazine and over at Harry. All he could see from the other boy was his trademark shaggy black hair and one of his hands, though he couldn’t figure out in what position ha laid, because the hand looked decidedly twisted in a very uncomfortable way.


“He’s been dead asleep all morning. He had another nightmare again, woke us all up at around three thirty.” he looked at his best friend in concern. They both knew that there was nothing they could do to comfort him, except wake him up when he had the nightmares. Sometimes he would let Ron comfort him and other times he drew away from contacts altogether and lay down again without saying a word. Ron did not even think Harry was aware at times like that.


“Well, we can’t do anything to help him before he wakes. He needs all the sleep he can get.” she said as she got up from Ron’s bed. She then picked up a piece of paper and a pen from his bedside table.


“What are you doing?” Ron asked, though she was busy writing and ignored his question. Soon she was done and placed the note on Harry’s bedside table on the other side of the boy’s bed and turned to Ron.


“We are going to visit Malfoy in the Hospital wing. I‘ll be waiting for you in the common room.” she stated matter-of-factly before turning and heading out the door before Ron could question her.


He sat in the bed for a second, his mouth opening and closing in confusing. What did she say? Malfoy? He had told himself that he had forgotten all about the Slytherin boy, although that wasn’t quite the truth of course. He hadn’t forgotten about the boy at all, all morning long he had wondered how Malfoy was doing in the Hospital wing and if he was better yet. He couldn’t decide on what emotion to settle on. One big part of him was irritated, as he always was in the presence of Malfoy no matter what, while a small part of him was quite worried about the boy and what had happened to him. Another part of him, though he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why, was annoyed with the guilt he was feeling. After all it was entirely his fault. If he hadn’t dumped their potion on Malfoy when he did, none of this would have happened and he wouldn’t have these problems.


After he had showered and dressed, and thought about this for some time, he decided to settle on being irritated at Hermione for even dragging him to where Malfoy was. Though he couldn’t help put notice that he wasn’t putting up much of a struggle.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Draco had been awake since half past seven in the morning and he was bored. Madam Pomfrey had finally left him alone about an hour ago, after discovering the scales on his wrists and neck. She had done extensive tests on them, prodding and touching and what else, and consequently he was not in the best of moods.


He was now lying in his pajamas, rolling his thumbs, and looking at the wooden ceiling. Madam Pomfrey had refused to let him out before she was absolutely sure that he was okay and that the scales were the only side effect of the potion. Even Professor Snape had been up to try to convince her that he was fully capable of looking after his god-son, but she was having none of it. So he was stuck here for at least another day.


He was surprised when he heard the doors to the Hospital wing creak open and he bent his head to look in the direction. Other the Pomfrey, and Professor Snape, he had not seen anyone else there. But he had of course been asleep a lot of the time. Ha had a vague memory of seeing the golden trio standing at his bed right after the incident, but he had chalked it of as a dream. A very strange dream that had involved touching and smiling. Oh, well, he did not need to be thinking about that now. Or maybe he did.


Two of the said trio had just walked through the doors, the bushy-haired girl in lead. She walked up to his bed and greeted him stiffly although politely. The redheaded boy lagged behind, but soon stood at the bottom of the bed. The three looked at each other in silence for a very long awkward moment.


“What are you doing here?” Draco decided to ask as none of the others seemed inclined to say anything more then Hermione’s rather uncomfortable greeting.


“Uh, well w-we just wanted to see if you were all right after what happened. Kind of.” Ron stuttered as he inspected the thumbnail on his left hand.


“Do you truly expect me to believe that?” Draco sneered with disdain as he looked at the others in disbelief. Granger gave him an indignant scowl as she answered him.


“Not really, but it’s the truth.”


Draco didn’t know what to say to that, so he stayed quiet and looked at them in suspicion. Why were they here? Why would the Gryffindors come to see him when none of his Slytherin classmates had been to see him yet? His mind was going in circles and he tried not to let his confusion show on his face.


He noticed only now that the Granger girl was holding something in her hand and it looked like a bag of Bernie Botts’ Every Flavor Beans. How did she know they were his favorites? Apparently she noticed him glancing at the bag and promptly held it forward to him.


“It’s for you.” she said simply.


He looked between them again, not believing what he was seeing. He slowly reached out to take the bag from her when she suddenly grabbed his arm in a solid grip. He was so startled he nearly jumped, but as it is, Malfoys do not jump. Not at any occasion.


“What’s this?” she said as she turned his arm over, exposing the silver-shining scales on the inside of his wrist. He shuddered in aversion as she stroked her fingers over the scales slowly. She looked quite fascinated with them and he didn‘t know how to stop her from touching him, so he simply wrenched his arm away from her grip. He felt the ache in his body return when he did that, surprised that he was not as well as he had believed. He realized that he hadn’t stopped the look of pain from flashing on his face as both the Gryffindors looked at him in concern.


“These are the effect of the potion. I don’t know why they appeared or anything else about them. Other than that I’m fine, just a little muscle-ache.” he didn’t know why he told them the truth, it was out before he even had the chance to think about it.


He showed them the scales on his neck, and barely managed to stop a shudder as Granger brushed her fingers over them too. Why was she so fascinated with them? It wasn’t like it was anything special. He found it quite disgusting in fact; it was fish-scales for Merlin’s sake! Granted, they were not slimy or anything, but the mere thought of it still made him shudder.


The undying thirst he had felt to and from all day started to come back with vengeance. He couldn’t believe it! He had already been through four pitchers of water, why would he need more. He poured the last of the water left in the pitcher into the glass and drank it greedily.


“Do you want me to get some more water?”


Draco looked at her contemplating letting her get him some more water. The thought was very tempting and in the end, he couldn’t deny his newfound craving for water. When she had left, there was an awkward silence between him and the Weasel. Try as he might, he couldn’t seem to ignore him; he had never been able to ignore the red-headed boy.


They sat quiet for a while, but Draco noticed Weasley sneaking furtive glances at his neck. At first, he didn’t think much about it, the scales felt so natural that he had forgotten about them. They followed his every move as if they were an extra layer of skin, which he supposed they actually were.


“Do they hurt?” Weasley asked when he noticed that Malfoy had seen him looking at the scales covering his neck. Draco was surprised that Weasley actually sounded concerned.


“No. I don’t even notice them. It feels like they’ve been there all the time, except I have newfound craving for water.” Once again, he found himself spilling thoughts to the Weasel as if they were actually friends.


He was interrupted from his thoughts by the doors to the Hospital wing opening. However, it was too soon for Granger to be back with his water. He was surprised to see his fellow Slytherin Blaise Zabini standing there. His dark hair was pulled back with a hair tie and his tanned skin was flushed from being outside in the cold weather. Though he was quite tall, taller than Draco, he looked small outlined by the immense wooden-doors guarding the hospital wing. He stood in the doorway, light-brown eyes darting suspiciously between Draco and Weasley. He opened his mouth to say something to Weasley when Draco decided to interrupt him.


“What are you doing here, Zabini?” instantly his eyes locked with Draco and they had a small staring contest. They had never been that close in the Slytherin dorms. They had only ever exchanged polite small talk, nothing else. Though Zabini was one of the Slytherin’s he actually didn’t mind. He was sharp minded but quiet. Nevertheless, Draco had somewhere along the line discovered that he had a wicked sense of humor.


Eventually Zabini gave into Malfoy’s stare and he averted his eyes. He wasn’t actually certain to what he was doing in the hospital wing anyway. He felt another’s gaze on him and looked over at the red-headed boy. He couldn’t get around his head why the Gryffindor was there alone. Just as he thought this, Granger came through the doors, carrying a pitcher of water and a plate of large sandwiches. She stopped when she saw the scene in front of her and looked between the three boys. She said nothing as she walked passed the dark-haired Slytherin, towards the bed Malfoy was in. The plate of sandwiches was placed on the bedside table beside the pitcher of water.


Draco tore his eyes from his fellow Slytherin and reached out towards the pitcher and poured himself a large glass of fresh, cold water. He gulped it down quickly and did the same to the second and third glass. The fourth he was content to drink from in a more sensible pace.


Finally Zabini deemed it necessary to ask what the Gryffindor’s were doing there. It was Hermione that answered him, which didn’t surprise him the least.


“It was our fault this happened, so we thought we should at least se how he was. That’s more than I can say about some of the Slytherin’s.” She seemed quite indignant on Draco’s behalf and Zabini was quite surprised that the Gryffindor’s were doing something like this. Zabini looked at Malfoy.


“Draco, I would have come, but-“


“Yes, I know.” He did not say anymore than that and Zabini did not elaborate his awfully poor excuse. There was an uncomfortable pause for a few seconds and everyone shifted restlessly.


“So, where’s Potter?


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Harry was still in bed when Ron and Hermione got back from the hospital wing. There was a motionless bundle buried under the covers and Hermione felt as if she was checking on a small baby when she carefully pulled the covers away. His eyes were closed and the mouth was open slightly as he breathed. His face was unusually relaxed in sleep and he was breathing normally.


“He’s still asleep.” She said to Ron, who was on his knees, one arm under his bed searching for his Potions essay. She looked at him with a small amount of contempt and thought of telling him off. Eventually, she only rolled her eyes and let it slip for this time.


Ron looked up from under the bed and looked over at what he could see of Harry, which wasn’t much from his current position. He gave up looking for his essay; he hadn’t gotten more that three or four sentences on it anyway, he could always start over.


“Do you think we should wake him? It’s not good for him to sleep the whole day; he won’t be able to sleep tonight.” His brows furrowed as he stood up and walked over to stand beside Hermione. He mused that Harry would be really irritated if he knew what they were doing right now.


“Maybe. But you said he had an extremely bad nightmare last night, right? Maybe we should let him sleep one more hour. If he hasn’t woken by then, we’ll wake him up.”


Ron agreed that they would let him sleep another hour and they went down the stairs to the common room in the meantime.


They sat talking to the others; even Hermione had taken a day off from her studying. After almost forty-five minutes Harry came stumbling down the stairs, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He crossed the common room in a daze and fell rather ungracefully into an empty armchair to the right of Hermione and beside the couch where Dean, Ginny and Ron sat. Seamus and Neville sat in a smaller couch on the other side of Hermione.


“Thanks.” He said simply, but they all knew what he meant. They knew it was not simple thanks for letting him sleep, but for so much more than that.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Sunday started out with a clear blue sky and a big yellow sun that shined down on everyone in Hogsmeade. Ron and Harry strolled a little bit ahead of Hermione and Ginny. The girls were gossiping and laughing and the boys felt if best to avoid that sort of talk. You would never know when you might get involved in something that was way over your head. They had just stopped in front of the one of the large tempting windows to Honeydukes when Malfoy and Zabini walked by them.


The two boys stopped abruptly when they saw Ron and Harry. They stood in silence taking in each other warily. They did not know how to act after they had been almost civil in the hospital wing. In the end it was Malfoy that nodded his head in a vague greeting.


The girls had by now caught up to them and stood beside the Gryffindor boys. It was Hermione, as usual, that made the first move.


“Do you want to come with us to the Three Broomsticks?”