Hyperventilate

"Hello Edmond, I'm Draco's mother, it's nice to meet you." Instantly Edmond looked at Joice and put on a bright smile. "Aurora had told me you were beautiful, but she wasn't doing you justice." Draco's mother blushed and slapped his shoulder. "Oh please, I have no daughter to win over so you may relax." Both Edmond and his mother started laughing. However, Draco noticed Aurora was staring at him the entire time they talked.

Draco thanked them for coming and walked over to the other guests. "Brutis." Instantly Brutis stood up, slowly sliding away from the kids currently hugging him and scratching him. He opened a gate and fell into it. He knew something was wrong from the tone of Draco's voice, so he was getting ready to spring into action. After a couple of minutes, people started noticing Edmond and they figured out he was a high-ranking member of Ouroboros.

Instantly people started flocking towards him to get his autograph and a picture with him, to which he happily obliged. Draco at that point had moved away from the party and was hyperventilating behind a tree. His mother noticed this and ran over to him. When she got there she was about to reach out for him, but something stopped her from getting closer to her boy. "Draco? What's wrong sweetheart?!"

By now his mother was crying, however, he couldn't do anything about it. He was having flashbacks to the time at Aurora's house, then he was reliving the months he had spent alone in that empty Door with nothing to do but go mad. Suddenly Brutis came out of the tree Draco was hiding behind and nuzzled up against him. After a few minutes, Draco's breathing slowly started getting better.

His throat was no longer closing up and he was able to gulp down breaths. He sat there for a couple of minutes before he spoke. "I'm okay now." to no one in particular. After he said that, and he was visibly better, the force holding his mother away from him left and she fell forward next to him, gripping his head in her hands. "Are you alright? Don't scare me like that ever again."

Draco agreed and she hugged him tightly for a couple of minutes before letting go and looking him in the eyes. "Was it Edmond? Aurora?" she asked with such anger in her eyes that he hadn't seen in quite some time. She had gone full momma bear, and she was willing to go to war if he said one of the names. He looked into her eyes for a moment before letting out a deep sigh and clasping his hand over hers.

"Neither, it was something else...something I'd rather not talk about it." his mother held his gaze for a minute longer before nodding and helping him up. Just like that she took his word and stopped talking about it. She knew it wasn't something else, however without him willing to talk about it she would have to just wait. "Honey, why don't you just head home? I'll tell them you were feeling under the weather, yeah?"

Draco thanked his mom and had Brutis open a gate back to the house. He jumped into it and arrived right in front of the fridge. Draco couldn't help but laugh at him. "Haha, I take it your thinking about food?" Brutis nudged the fridge door open then looked back at Draco. "You're getting spoiled, I hope you know that." Draco still took out two raw chicken legs and tossed them to him. In an instant, Brutis snatched the two legs out of the air and swallowed them down. Draco closed the fridge door and went into his room, shucking his shirt and pants into his inventory before putting on a pair of night pants and lying down with Brutis. Falling into a fitful sleep.

*Back at the party*

"Joice, have you seen Draco anywhere? I've been meaning to talk to him." Joice looked over to see Aurora, "Draco had to leave, unfortunately." Joice wasn't sure as to which one had set her boy off, however, she wasn't going to risk anything else happening today. "Awe, that's too bad, I needed to talk to him."

"Oh, well if it is important then you can tell me and I can relay the message if you would like." "Although that is very kind, I think it's best if I talk to him about it." Aurora smiled, giving Joice a hug before walking back to Edmond. Joice watched as she put her hand on his arm in a way that said they were closer than friends. Edmond looked at her, seeming to read her lips before his head rose to look over at Joice, after that they both said their goodbyes and left.