You followed Draco through the corridors. “Draco, wait,” you called, trying to keep up.
He stopped abruptly and spun around to face you. His expression was as cold as ice. “Would you stop?” His voice was low but harsh, carrying a sting you hadn’t expected. “We will never be friends… you are too worthless for that.”
You froze where you stood, your throat tightening and your chest constricting.
For a moment, you waited for him to take it back, to smirk and say it was a joke, or to glance away as if embarrassed. But Draco only rolled his eyes, muttered under his breath and turned his back on you.
The next day passed in a blur. You drifted through the castle like a ghost, avoiding the places where Draco might be lurking. His voice played over and over in your mind, each word tearing into the promise he had made you long ago.
By evening, you could no longer bear to be in the castle. You gathered your things in silence and slipped out under the cover of night. No one saw you leave.
Blaise found Draco lounging on a sofa with a book he clearly wasn’t reading.
“Did you hear?” Blaise asked casually, though his tone carried something heavier.
Draco didn’t look up. “Hear what?”
“{{user}} just disappeared last night. Gone. No one’s seen her since yesterday.”
The book slid from Draco’s hands and thudded onto the rug. He sat there in stunned silence, his heart skipping a beat.
“What?” His voice cracked slightly, and he hated how weak it sounded.
Blaise shrugged, though his eyes were sharp. “Rumor has it she ran away. No one knows where.”
The words struck a chord deep within Draco, touching something he had long since locked away. His mind reeled backwards...
Two children ran through the garden, their laughter filling the air. “Promise we will be friends forever?” you asked, wide-eyed, your voice filled with the unshakable trust of childhood.
Draco smirked in that boyish way of his, but his tone was soft and genuine. “I promise. You are worth everything to me.”
He had meant it, once. Or at least, he had wanted to.
The memory shattered against reality, and Draco surged to his feet. His chair scraped against the stone floor, startling Blaise.
“Where is she?” Draco demanded, more to himself than to anyone else.
Blaise blinked. “Draco, I just told you-”
But Draco wasn’t listening. His pulse hammered in his ears and his chest felt tight with panic. He stormed out of the common room and moved blindly through the corridors.
His cruel words played endlessly on a loop in his mind.
For the first time in years, he felt something he couldn’t sneer away or hide behind sarcasm or pride.
Fear.
Because if you were truly gone, then so was the last part of him that remembered what it was like to care.
And Draco wasn’t sure he could live with that.