Lazuli - Harry Potter Fan Fiction (Draco Malfoy)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I'm sorry for not updating for ages, I haven't had any internet and I almost went insane (which shows how shallow I am that I almost went mad from the lack of internet.) But anyway, I'm back now and here's a new chapter of Lazuli! Hope you like it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm perfectly on time, reaching the portrait of the Howling Witch with several minutes to spare. I'm glad to see Fred waiting for me, leaning casually against the wall and tossing a small ball into the air. He straightens up when he sees me coming, suddenly becoming rigid, as if he's no longer relaxed, like my presence has disturbed his peace. I sigh, if what Charlie says about my siblings is true, then the love that Fred bears for me must be buried deep, deep down. But I smile when I reach him and in return he beckons for me to follow him. I do as I'm told, because I don't doubt for one second that he would consider leaving me.

We weave through the castle, Fred's eyes always looking cautiously, making sure that we're not being followed. There's something in his face that tells me he's incredibly wary, maybe even slightly afraid of the consequences if we're caught in this rebellion against Umbridge and therefore Fudge and the rest of the Ministry.

The illegality of the situation begins to set in. If we're caught, it won't just be the regular punishments. We'll wish that we'd been sentenced to spending hours with Filch, repairing the castle and doing whatever it is that Filch likes to punish people with. No, instead we'd face much more severe punishments. Exclusion, expulsion, Azkaban. The possibilities were endless, and it all depended upon Fudge's mood whether it was ignored or we spent the rest of our lives in prison.

I crash into Fred's back and almost topple over when he stops in front of me. He glares, but then turns his attention back towards the domineering wall in front of us. "This is it," he declares. I recognise the location - the seventh floor left corridor - and imprint it into my brain, not wanting to have to ask Fred to show me again.

"Shut your eyes," he barks in a dark whisper. I chuckle helplessly. "You're not going to ditch me, are you?"

Fred shakes his head, his red, shaggy hair flying everywhere. I think about how he's already in desperate need of one of Mum's kitchen haircuts. Ginny and I stopped letting her blunt scissors butcher our hair years ago, but the boys still let her cut their hair rather than pay a couple of galleons to have it cut and styled properly at Madame Belles Cheveux in Diagon Alley, the same place that most of the female wizarding population of Great Britain have their hair done.

"No," he growls, "I'm not going to ditch you. Imagine the Room of Requirement, it'll know your true intention for being here - to learn or to betray us."

I feel slightly hurt that they still don't trust me, but I say nothing to Fred. I won't let his see that I'm hurt by the hardness of his words.

I lower my eyelids slowly, worried that he lied and intends to run the second my eyes are shut. But determined to build bridges and bring the reunion that Charlie believes in forward, I shut my eyes fully and picture Dumbledore's Army. I loosen the reins on my thoughts and with their newfound freedom, the run wild. I'd spent months building the defences to stop my innermost emotions escaping, afraid that I wouldn't be able to cope with them, but now those walls are beginning to crack.

Harry fills my mind and the anger I feel towards him for his opinion on Draco and I. But also the desire to apologise, to do well and make it up to him. I don't like arguing with Harry.

Cedric too, my last memories of him, the words we exchanged and the naive belief that he would come back. The brief moments we had in his tent. I can still feel his arms around me, him laughing as I ran through spells he could use for the hundredth time. So certain we were, that he'd emerge victorious and I'd be the first to hug him, before Cho and even his father.