I gave myself another night. Telling myself I needed more time to figure out how to talk to Wren and what to say. Though, I was still just as clueless the next morning.

And I figured the only reason I really didn't do it was because I was stalling.

Now, just after breakfast, I caught myself thinking things like: I could've already had it over with. The worst part would be done by now if I had just talked to her yesterday.

Of course, I'd regret my own damn decisions mere hours later, I thought and decided it was now or never.

"Can we talk?" I asked out of nowhere, stopping in my tracks in the middle of the hallway. It took Wren a second to realise, and she came to a halt a few steps after.

"Sure?" Her face scrunched up in suspicion, and she dragged the word out for longer than she needed to. At first, she just threw a look over her shoulder, though she turned her body as well to face me fully at the realisation I wanted to talk.

"Somewhere more-" I paused in my sentence to glance around the semi-busy corridor. "More private?"

"Sure?" She said again. "Where would that be?" My rather unusual behaviour seemed to have sparked an interest in her now, and she looked at me with a hint of amusement as well as curiosity.

"I don't know. Where are you comfortable?" Though I mumbled the words merely for myself to hear, she definitely picked up on them, too, as her eyebrows shot up in surprise right after.

And then she laughed. I wondered how long it would take for me to hear her laugh again after telling her the person she admired most was a death eater.

"You're not trying to seduce me, are you?" She joked, her voice dripping in irony. "Because that might have worked four years ago, but not so much now!" She lifted a finger as if scolding me before a singular laugh cracked her pretend-serious demeanour.

"Fucking hell, Wren," I sighed, though amusement was prominent in my voice, too. Of course, the traces of it were quickly wiped off my face at the memory of what I was actually trying to do.

And as I dragged her along towards our dorm, simply hoping the rest of the girls were literally anywhere else in the castle, I wondered if it was really the right choice of location.

Let's see; 1. Though unlikely, she could hide under the covers and cry it out right away. 2. She could yell at me privately without the whole house hearing her. 3. She could kick me out in hopes it would make her feel like she had some kind of control over the situation I was about to throw her in.

All in all, it seemed half-decent. So, I stuck with my choice.

I was pleased to see Pansy, as well as the rest of our dorm, sit in the common room. It didn't seem like they were going to head back any time soon, either. Though just in case, I cast both a Muffliato and a Colloportus at the door after we stepped through it.

"Okay, but you're not actually trying to-"

I rolled my eyes at her insinuation, quickly cutting her off before she was able to finish her sentence.

"You did the same thing like a week ago, and I don't think you were trying to fuck me, either," I shrugged, gesturing for her to sit on her bed as I sat down on mine.

I had a feeling she might need her space more than anything soon.

"Oh," She exclaimed, her mouth staying in the O-shape for a second longer as she drew some conclusion up in her head. "So this going to be a serious conversation, is it?"

I took a deep breath before nodding. "That's putting it lightly," I huffed.

At that, her brows perked up just for a moment before her whole demeanour slowly turned serious. It wasn't at all the way Draco snapped from one mood into the next; instead, a gradual process as her brows and mouth relaxed, and her head tilted slightly.

"Are you okay?" She asked, a hint of concern in her voice now that she knew this was more than serious.

I nodded quickly, almost brushing the question off completely.

"Yeah, don't worry about me-" It was right then and there that I decided I'd tell her about my torturous summer some other time. Maybe right after, depending on how she took it.

I simply didn't feel like she should be worrying about me when she had enough to worry about with her own mother.

After all, she did say I didn't have to tell her about me if I didn't feel comfortable. That had to be enough for now. "-No, I'm fine," I stressed once more, shaking my head slightly. "This doesn't concern me. Not really, at least. It's you it concerns."

Her eyes were widened a little by now, and she was closely listening to every word coming out of my mouth.

Like a band-aid, Draco said.

Like a band-aid.

"When I first got to Malfoy manor at the beginning of summer, their security measures weren't exactly thought out, yet," I began. "I had the chance to sneak around, not that that was a necessarily good idea, and I, kind of accidentally, stumbled over, uh, one of their meetings." I fidgeted with the necklace around my neck, twisting and turning Draco's ring in between my fingers for some sort of distraction.

The look on her face told me she was still following, so I continued. "At first, I only listened. But then it was like something within me forced me to take a look, see who's sitting there... with Him." I swallowed thickly, knowing the next sentence was going to be the crucial one. "And I saw Voldemort, and Bellatrix, and the Malfoy's, and... Delphia."

For a while, the words just lingered in the air, and it was hard to see any kind of reaction in Wren's face or her posture.

Though, then it seemed to fall all at once.

Her breath was suddenly a lot heavier, her breathing loud and filling up the otherwise entirely silent room. The defined features her face held fell, just like I had imagined. Her brown eyes were dull.

Her shoulders slumped down, as her hair fell into her face a little.

All of a sudden, she seemed to hollow. So fragile.

"I'm sorry-"

The way her head shook sternly cut me off, and I swallowed thickly at the motion-the only motion in her otherwise completely still body.

And then I noticed the way I looked at her; the way I didn't want anyone to look at me, ever. It was pity, and I wiped it off my face as soon as I noticed.

"Maybe-" She began after a long pause, though her voice cracked after the first word. She cleared her throat and shook her head at herself. "I think-" She didn't manage to finish that sentence either. Instead, she took a deep breath in an attempt to regain her composure.

Her eyes previously admiring her hands fell on me now; an intensity of emotions in them I've never seen before.

Contrary to what her eyes were saying to me, her words were telling a completely different story. "I think I'd like to be alone right now."

It was obvious those nine words alone were a struggle to get out coherently. And the longer I looked at her, the more obvious the signs of her obvious distress were.

"Are you sure? I would love to stay, Wren," I assured, my voice quiet.

She nodded. "Yeah- Yes, I'm sure."

"Do you want a hug?"

Now it was a mere nod of her head she communicated with; forming coherent sentences when her mind was running overtime way too much of a challenge.

My arms were wrapped around her neck just seconds later, and I don't think she's ever embraced me tighter than this. Her arms shaking as they squeezed the air out of my body.

I didn't complain. I just let her.

And I didn't let go until she did. And I didn't leave the room until her eyes were begging me to do just that.

She started pacing around the dorm before I even closed the door, and I would've wanted nothing more than to stay and be there for her. But I knew how precious alone time was to get a clear head.

I closed the door behind me softly. I didn't think it even made a sound.

Just as I was about to leave the dorms' corridor into the common room, the door popped open to reveal both Pansy and Daphne, clearly on their way to our dorm.

I didn't move to pass them, instead taking them by their shoulders and pushing them back out into the common room with me.

"What the fuck, Potter?" Parkinson sneered, though the more than stern look on my face made her brows furrow in confusion.

"The dorm is off limits for a while," I stated, my voice making sure there was no room to debate it. Daphne tried to get a word out, though swallowed it thickly when I spat once more, "The dorm is off limits!" The second time a little louder.

They both exchanged a confused look before Pansy opened her mouth once more. Again, I cut her off before she could get a word out. "I don't think it's hard to understand, is it? The fucking dorm is off. limits. for. a. while. Yeah?" I said bluntly, shoving the brunette a little as I walked through the pair.

Daphne Greengrass had never really been mean to me before, and though it was obvious she wasn't very fond of me, she had always been civil enough. The fact alone made me turn towards her only to shoot her an apologetic glance, mouthing a 'Sorry,' before I turned back around.

I heard Pansy complain from the other side of the common room for quite a while after that, but she didn't attempt to get up again for the next few hours.

And that was all that mattered for the moment, really.

A/N: poor baby

For anyone confused, wrens mum didn't arrive with the other death eaters at the wedding, (and wren didn't see her arrive in the first place)+ when she apparated them she did it for her daughter's protection and even came back to get luna and her dad to safety as well lol (which is why wren didn't know before)

this was all explained in that one chapter but somehow people are still talking about it in the comments so I'm just clearing it up now lol

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this one <3