分卷阅读4（2 / 2）

“Right,” Draco nodded. The feeling began to leach from his hands, which seemed to be his body’s go to reaction to anything Potter. He set down his mug.

“I only warn you because, as you know, Potter has an affinity for snooping and sneaking about, and I am not sure he’s grown out of it. You must be careful at night. Disillusion yourself until you are out on the grounds, and maybe even while you’re walking about, unless you’ve changed,” she continued.

Draco nodded.

“You’ll likely have to stop your work in the kitchens. He likes to take his meals there occasionally, if memory serves me right,” she added.

“Just tell him not to come between five and seven in the morning,” Draco asked, hoping it didn’t sound too desperate. He liked the kitchen, and he liked the elves. They were, afterall, the closest thing he had to friends.

“I can hardly make a rule that specific, Mr. Malfoy, especially since Mr. Potter seems to think rules are made to be broken,” McGonagall replied.

Draco snorted.

“He’s not been well, Malfoy,” she added.

“How do you mean?”

Not sick. Surely, he would have read it somewhere if he was sick. Even if they wanted to keep it under wraps, one of the less reliable gossip magazines would have gotten a hold of it and published it, and they would have been allowed to since so few actual think of them as a source of actual news. But there had been nothing.

“Not physically ill, so you can take that look off your face. You look as though you have seen a ghost,” McGonagall said. “He’s just not been himself. Not since y—well, since it all.”

“When are we expecting him?” Draco asked, swallowing around his heart, which had taken residence in his throat.

“He’ll arrive on the Hogwarts Express when it comes to take the students home,” she said.

“So this week?” Draco asked. His airways felt as though they had constricted to the size of a penny whistle.

“Yes, this week.”

Draco smiled and nodded. “Wonderful,” he choked. “The prodigal son returns.”

“Mr. Malfoy,” McGonagall warned, though she looked a bit surprised to see a smile on his face when she looked up at him.

Later, when he returned to the dungeon, he vomited.