It seemed Draco was playing Lone Wolf this Hogsmeade trip, since his girlfriend was off finding a new wand in London with the boy-who-lived-to-make-Draco-pull-his-hair-out. The blonde was beyond frustrated with the situation, and he had been sulking a bit ever since Sky told him her plan for the weekend. He had considered not even going to the village, but he thought he woud just be bored as all hell if he stayed in the castle, so he might as well go get into some sort of trouble. As long as he kept his promises to Sky, he was good. He could pick on some younger students or buy something stupid for the girl who had him so riled up in the first place.

Yeah, that actually sounded pretty good. He’d go to the village and get her something nice. Maybe a piece of jewelry or something. Something girly that she’d pretend to hate but would wear anyway. It would be fantastic. Maybe he could find her a necklace with a little snake charm. After all, she was his little snake. Though she might not like that, since it was very Slytherin, and she didn’t seem all that fond of their house.

The boy was still pondering this when he passed the path to the shrieking shack and noticed the disturbed leaves. Obviously someone had gone down toward the shack, where they technically weren’t supposed to be. With his luck it would be some young student who would get scared shitless down there and then not get back to the castle alright. He’d get in trouble for ignoring them, being a prefect and all, so he reluctantly set off through the woods.

It was quite a shock when he came upon his cousin, slumped against a tree at the end of the path. The boy looked like utter shit, and Draco cursed under his breath, knowing he was to blame for at least some of that. ”Hey,” he started, kicking at the other boy’s shoe. ”You aren’t supposed to be down here, you idiot.”

The blonde awkwardly stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around and shuffling his feet a bit. ”Look, I uh… I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of your drunken state. Using you like that was… well, it was low. Even for a member of our demented family.” Well, it was out there now. Somehow Draco didn’t think this was going to go as smoothly as he hoped it would, though.

The blonde ran his hands angrily through his hair. Why was Leyton so damned determined to make everything difficult? Didn’t he realize how hard it was for Draco to apologize in the first place? He growled, considered doing something about the boy being where he wasn’t allowed, then started to turn around as demanded, but stopped on a dime at the remark about his girlfriend.

Draco spun back to face his cousin, rage clear in his silver gaze. ”You don’t get to talk about her, you spoiled sod of a boy. What I did to you was nothing worse than what you did to me this summer! Yeah. I figured it out. You weren’t even going to tell me anything happened,” he spat with disgust, wanting to let his anger out on the stupid boy before him. Draco could hear the hurt in his cousin’s voice, and it only further angered him. What right did Leyton have to be angry? Draco had every right to be just as angry, and more!

”You have no idea what I feel or who I am. You weren’t even there to see who I became, so how would you know me?” He was referring, of course, to the summers spent at the manor without Leyton visiting. They’d been such good friends, and then he’d stopped coming. Draco was left to deal with the shit his father threw at him and the expectations of being a Malfoy without even having the support of his older cousin who was the closest thing to a brother he’d had.

He resented his older cousin for a lot of reasons, but mostly for abandoning him. Draco had needed that friendship. That bond. And Leyton had thrown it away with no explanation. It wasn’t fair. And now he was acting like he knew Draco better than anyone else? No. He didn’t know him. Skyler knew him much better, even if she’d only known him for a little over a month. ”You might have known me once, Leyton, but you have no idea who I am now. Get your arse up and out of here before I force you back to the village proper. You know you aren’t supposed to be here and you know I’m a prefect. You have to listen to me.”

The older boy was so infuriating, Draco could barely keep from lunging at him with fists blazing. How could he act like the blonde had never known pain? Draco had only known pain and fear and rejection his whole bloody life! Now the prat wanted to act like he was the only one hurt by anything in his life? That was rich. Yeah, Draco never got the short end of any stick. Oh, unless you counted never being able to live up to his father’s expectations. Yeah, that sure wasn’t something that could traumatize a kid or anything.

”You sure know how to accept a damn apology, you arse,” Draco muttered, glaring at the boy he was slowly coming to despise. He was starting to hate Leyton for so many things, most of which involved giving up on Draco, abandoning him. How could the boy expect Draco to sacrifice anything of himself for him when he couldn’t do the same for Draco?

The blonde glared coldly at his cousin, growling a bit at how stubborn the older boy could be. ”You really want to press your luck, don’t you? You don’t know me anymore because you left. You never bothered to keep in contact with me and then I came here and you ignored me like I was some leper. Well, you know what? That hurt. And now you act like I owe you something? I never owed you a damned thing!”

Draco didn’t really care about how he had left Luca. The boy deserved anything he got. He was an arse, he’d hurt Draco without even knowing it over and over for years. What did he care if he hurt Leyton once? He didn’t. He didn’t care at all, and since the stupid boy refused to leave even with Draco pointing out his prefect title, Draco decided he didn’t care if he hurt his stupid cousin again.

With a quick flick of his wand, the blonde sent a stinging hex at his cousin, smirking evilly. ”I won’t give you a black eye, but I will kick your arse in a duel. And then I’ll just levitate your unconscious body up to the damned village so you can be found by a professor and get dragged back to the castle. Turn you into an undignified heap. Seems fitting, don’t you agree?” With that, he flicked his wand a few more times, sending out three different spells in succession. Hopefully some might hit the boy and cause and interesting result or two…

OOC: You can decide what spells Draco cast based on what you decide hits/doesn’t hit Leyton.

"Yes well when I hear one worth accepting I will accept it graciously." he growled back.  All he wanted to do was tell the younger boy everything.  To spill all of his deepest darkest secrets but he feared when he did the boy would hate him forever.  Proving he was just as worthless as he had been told he was over, and over again.

"I had to, I didn't have a choice." Leyton couldn't go bacK and changed the things he had done.  He wanted to make up for them in the future  but the way the things were going he would never had tHe chance.  It was just easier to suffer the rest of the year in silence.  But it wasn't that easily.  They were family and would always be family.

With his wand tucked in his back pocket he didn't have enough time to reflect the stinging hex and as it hit him in the chest he couldn't hold back the yelp that escaped over his lips.  It had been a long time since he had been hit with the spell and it was like being stung a 1000 times over . Dropping to his knees he rubbed his chest furiously with a growl.

"Thats it Draco, treat me like I worthless.  Like I didn't get enough of that growing up."  Before he could continue on, first he was struck with avis, langlock, and the last Everte Statum causing him to fly backwards landing with a hard thump on his back.  As he stared upward at the sky he breathed deeply ignoring the birds pecking at his arms and legs.

Unable to speak he rolled onto his side trying to dig his wand out of his back pocket hoping the hell he hadn't snapped it during his fall.

Damn him! Damn Leyton for making Draco feel the least bit sorry for him! Damn him for getting any sort of regret to sink into the cold heart the blonde was trying so desperately to portray. Now he had let himself feel concern and he couldn’t close his heart off again. So many emotions were flooding in as he watched his cousin get pecked relentlessly even as the older boy ignored them and tried to grope for his wand.

He saw the hopelessness in his cousin’s eyes and it broke Draco. How could he be as cold to the boy as the rest of their family had? As his own father had been to him? He was a monster. The blonde fell to his knees and a tear slid down his cheek. He waved his wand, silently dismissing the birds and unlocking Leyton’s tongue.

”I’m sorry. I’m a weak piece of dung and I’m sorry,” he whimpered, dropping his wand and his hands to his sides, chin resting against his chest. Draco felt like a royal arse. He just kept going back and forth, hurting the two people who meant anything to him one after the other. Maybe he was just doomed to sabotage himself over and over again.

Draco took a deep, shaking breath and looked back over at his cousin, wondering how badly he’d managed to hurt the other Slytherin. ”I don’t think you are worthless. If anyone is worthless, it’s me. Look at me. I destroy everything that makes me happy. I’m worse than my arsehole father.”

As Leyton layed upon the hard ground a million thoughts ran through his head. Draco could never be as bad as his father, not even on his worst day. Lucius had done unspeakable acts, things that were unforgiveable. He was even sure if his own father knew the things that Lucius had done to him, he was sure he did on some level. Who could not know that something unspeakable was going on.

Finally as the fog begin to clear from his brain he frowned as he saw the tears in his cousins eyes and it broke something even more inside of him. Pulling himself up he staggered slightly with a wince and dropped down to his knees beside his cousin pulling him into a tight unfamiliar feeling hug. They weren't supposed to show any emotion but how could he not. This was Draco, and he knew that he would understand better than anyone.

Letting out a deep breath he finally dropped all of the way down the frown never leaving his face. "You are not weak Draco, if anything you are the strongest out of us all. And believe me from personal experience, you are not worse than your father. It would take numerous unspeakable acts for you to be like him...to be worse than him. You are kind, even when you don't want to be...even when you should be hating me for the things I've done... for leaving you when I should have stood by you." As he spoke he could feel tears of his own beginning to form.

Even though the hug was something unfamiliar, it felt natural. Nice. Comforting. Draco melted into the embrace, not caring about anything else but the feeling of actually having a single family member who cared enough to show real emotion to him. Sure, his mother had showed him emotion when he was younger, but lately all her love had been spent on Lucius. The fact that she still loved the man even knowing what he’d done to his own son made Draco respect her a lot less.

”We’ve both made our fair share of mistakes. Merlin, look at us! Broken and clinging to each other like little boys again. Leyton, I can’t handle you hating me. I just can’t.” The blonde looked into his cousin’s blue eyes with love shining in his own grey orbs. This was so hard. ”Right now I just… I need her. I don’t know why, but something pulls me to her and I can talk to her like I’ve never talked to anyone before. Like I used to talk to you. And it feels so good. I’m finally starting to figure out who I am.”

Draco reached out and touched the older boy’s cheek, brushing away the dampness there and offering him a sad but sweet smile. ”It’s high time we stop fighting though, don’t you think? There’s too much working against us without turning on each other.” His mind was on the Dark Lord and the threat of the boy before him taking that horrible mark, of it marring his own pale flesh. They had to avoid that. He couldn’t even imagine his cousin so defiled. Leyton might be damaged, but he wasn’t that far gone.

”Please come back to the village with me? I need to get some chocolate and a present for the other love of my life I keep mucking things up with. I… I’d really value your assistance.” The blonde got shakily to his feet and offered Leyton a hand, hoping the boy would accept and join him for the day.

When Leyton felt his cousin relax into the hug he felt some of the tension release from his own shoulders. At least he seemed to be done hexing him, at least for now anyway. It had been a long time since he had actually felt comfort from a hug and it was an amazing feeling to be honest.

"Yes, well it could always get worse I suppose," he said with an honest sigh still staring up at Draco, "I don't hate you Draco... I don't know if I ever really did. I just hated myself for what I allowed to come between us." Nodding with a sad smile he didn't say anything for a long moment. He could understand where Draco was coming from, he really could he just did not have to like it and he didn't.

The gentle contact against his cheek was almost enough to set him off again but he pulled himself back together locking his emotions down tight. "I think I can do that moving forward. After all, with what the Dark Lord has in store for us I am going to need all the help I can get moving forward."

Taking his hand he pulled himself up a bit sorely and dusted his pants off again. He would be a bit sore for the rest of the day but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. "I suppose I can do that instead of heading straight back. Maybe I will even get something for myself," he said as he started walking back up the path and towards the sweets shop.