Respect the Name of Malfoy (A HP fanfic)

Chapter 7

Sorry this took so long to upload! Its not proof read or anything so sorry. If there is anything that really bothers you or is inaccurate stick it in the comments and I'll endevour to fix it. Thanks :)

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It was a few hours later and the sky outside was pitch black. I was bundled up in starched white sheets desperately trying to stop thinking over what had happened earlier this evening. After the fight Ron Hermione Harry and Neville had taken me to the hospital wing, which was thankfully empty, and had explained to Madame Pomfrey what had happened. The nurse had fixed my broken nose in the blink of an eye but, seeing the tear stains on my cheeks, had clearly felt sorry for me, letting me hide out in the hospital wing until I was ready to face my dorm mates. I thanked her profusely but in all honestly I didn't think I could ever look my brother in the eye again.

That was a point though, I couldn't spend the rest of my school career holed up in the hospital wing. At some point in the very uncomfortably near future I was going to have to go back to class and I would eventually need to sleep. I was mulling over these discomforting thoughts when the hospital wing door slowly creaked open. With a surprised yell I reached for my wand and aimed it at the empty doorframe.

'Show yourself!' I comanded, trying to gain a little control over the situation. There was a soft noise which could have been a snigger, something sounding suspiciously like a slap, and in a flourish four Gryffindors appeared in front of me. Potter looked fairly concerned, Granger smug and Weasley was blushing, a hand shaped mark burning on his cheek. I assumed it was he who laughed at me. I was surprised Granger had slapped him though and it gave me an odd warm feeling in my chest.

'Are you okay?'

I smiled despite my awful situation, of course it was Neville.

'All things considered,' I replied, 'I'm not doing too badly. Yourself?'

Neville looked surprised that I would ask and I frowned, surely my manners weren't that atrocious?

'I'm good, concerned I guess,' he said pointedly looking at me.

I flushed and stuttered, I honestly had no idea how to respond to that. It was rare that someone was genuinely concerned about my well-being.

'Oi get a room,' Ron grumbled good naturedly. I stuck my finger up at him but I was too emotionally drained to be properly angry.

'Uh, we actually came to offer you a preposition,' Harry said, stepping forward awkwardly.

'Oh yeah?' I asked, curious now.

Harry nodded. 'We figured that you probably wouldn't want to face Malf- I mean Draco after all...that.'

I chuckled darkly, 'you got that right.'

'So we thought you might like somewhere private where you can sleep and hang out after curfew without getting in trouble,' Hermione continued.

'What do you mean?' I was royally confused. 'If you're talking about the kitchens then I've already considered that option and its really not a good idea.' I had had a serious falling out with a few of the house elves the previous year and now I was pelted with left overs whenever I went in for a midnight snack.

'No, we're talking about the, um, Room of Requirement,' Ron finished.

I looked at the red-head in a way that suggested he needed mental help. There was no such room in the castle. Seeing this Weasley got very defensive and Harry had to step in to prevent a verbal war.

'If you walk past the wall on the seventh floor opposite the tapastrey of the knight teaching trolls ballet whilst thinking of something that you need a room will appear to fill that need.'

I must have still looked confused as Harry groaned irritatedly.

'Its basically a room that caters to the needs you have at the time,' Neville interjected. 'For example if you needed to hide something, it would turn itself into a room full of old bric a brac that would make it hard for someone else to find whatever you were hiding.'

'And if you needed a place to sleep it would potentially provide a bed and a small bathroom?' I asked.

Neville nodded and Hermione added, 'the only thing it won't provide is food, so you'll still have to go to the Great Hall for food, and to your lessons of course.'

I rolled my eyes but the effect was rather ruined by the fact that I had a huge grin plastered across my face. 'How many people know about this room?'

'Only us and the DA' Harry replied.

'Harry!' exclaimed Ron as I asked 'What's the DA?'

'Look he stood up for us against Malfoy and he is obviously against Voldemort,' I flinched at the name but apparently I was the only one. 'I think he deserves the opportunity to learn to fight as well.'

Harry and Ron then seemed to have a stare off which ended with Ron grudgingly agreeing to whatever Harry was trying to do. Harry then nodded at Neville who seemed happy to explain to me just what the hell was going on.

'The DA,' Neville started, 'is short for Dumbledore's Army. Its a select froup of students who want to learn how to defend themselves against You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters, seeing as Umbridge refuses to teach us anything.'

I gawped at them. 'Isn't that against Toad Woman's declaration 102 or something?'

Hermione cocked an eyebrow, 'you think that would stop us?'

I grinned. 'Count me in.'

Neville beamed at me and I felt my stomache do a little jig. I gulped and asked, so when do you guys meet?'

'Well there's a meeting in the Room of Requirement tomorrow night but otherwise we use this,' Hermione handed me a gold galleon which had numbers carved around the edge. 'When it grows hot the numbers will rearrange to show when the date of the next meeting. All the members have one.'

Neville flashed his before dropping it back in his pocket and I gave a small smile. 'Hermione has the master one,' he explained. 'When she changes hers, everyone else's changes to copy it.'

'Just like the dark mark,' I said, gazing at Hermione curiously.

She blushed and stuttered, 'yes, well, that is where I got the main idea...'

'But you'll notice she hasn't burnt it into the members' skin.' Ron interrupted haughtily. Hermione turned to beam at him and it was so obvious that they liked each other I almost pointed it out but a warning look from Neville kept my mouth shut.

I shook my head and asked another question that was bothering me. 'So if I use the RoR as a common room slash dorm wont it be impossible to use it as DA headquaters?'

'Nope,' Neville replied smiling, 'As long as no one is in there the room can change from one to another and back when you need it to and you can leave all your stuff in there.'

For the first time that night I felt I had a liitle more control over the descending spiral of chaos that was my life.

'Thanks guys, you're brilliant, you really are.' I don't know if it was my exhaustion that made me say it or what but as soon as it left my mouth the whole room was blushing.

Harry coughed gruffly, 'We should go or we'll get caught.'

'See you tomorrow evening.' Hermione gave a small smile and they all left. At the door neville gave me a little wave and I responded with a smile and a mock salute.

'Thanks.'

'You're welcome.'

And with that they were gone.

Truly exhausted now I closed my eyes and finally drifted off to sleep.