𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍 - 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞

❃ chapter seventeen

❃

Easter break ended as soon as it had begun.

The frozen grasses on Hogwarts' grounds had begun to thaw, the month of May in full swing as flowers began to spring from the moistened dirt. The weather was finally warming, every inch of snow washed away by sunlight and rain.

Maybelle's favorite season had always been spring.

Theodore was ill one evening, and despite Draco's knowing of his girlfriend's hate for mornings, he gently eased her awake anyways.

He didn't want to go to the cabinet alone.

She was quite grumpy as he'd awoken her so early, but accepted his request so long as they went to breakfast immediately afterwards.

Hand in hand they walked quietly through the corridors, her eyes growing in wonder as the room of requirement appeared before them.

He'd never taken her inside before.

She stared in awe at the stacks of furniture, when she eventually came upon a tall wooden antique, the frame surrounding it rusted with metal.

"Is this it?"

"Yes," he answered, taking a rustling cage from the top of a nearby chiffonier, "They've instructed me to use a bird."

He took it from the cage as the bird sat in his palm, staring up at Draco's stern expression with wide eyes. It hopped voluntarily inside, chirping once more as he shut the door with slender fingers.

Maybelle stalked in wonder from the floor, sitting crisscrossed on a couch cushion she'd found nearby.

"Harmonia nectere passus," he repeated the incantation three times.

When the door reopened, the white bird had disappeared. He shut it.

"Harmonia nectere passus," thrice more.

There was a struggle. Maybelle's brows furrowed at the sound.

Crack.

When Draco opened the door, he began to cry.

Maybelle was quickly by his side, staring into the cabinet where the white songbird rested dead on it's wings, neck fractured in half as a spatter of blood began to seep and stain into the mahogany.

"I — I didn't mean to-"

"She hushed him before closing the door, sitting him down on the couch cushion as he crumbled in her arms.

"I didn't mean to kill it, Flower, I didn't — I didn't know-"

"I know, Draco," she soothed him, wrapping her arms around his torso as he sobbed into her chest, "It's okay."

He never used another living being for his task again.

One morning, both Theodore and Draco absent from their morning breakfast, the remaining slytherins noticed the sudden reappearance of Katie Bell.

"What if she remembers?" Naevah looked up in worry, staring over to the gryffindor girl in curiosity.

"Draco is a perfectionist when it comes to obliviation spells," Maybelle exclaimed, her eyes glimmering with hesitation.