Emerald (Lazuli Book #2) Harry Potter Fan Fiction (Draco Malfoy)

Chapter Twenty-Four - The Departure of Lavender Brown

I wait for Harry before breakfast in the Clock Tower courtyard. We decided last night that it was best to meet early, before the first lessons and before we raised suspicions. I woke up and got dressed incredibly early, and thankfully I didn't have to try and work around Draco. He'd slept in his own room last night, as he always did when he came back immensely late and didn't want to wake me up.

I rushed out of the common room, thankfully running into nobody, and crept through the castle as stealthily as a cat. It was only just the end of curfew, and hopefully there would be nobody out this early, except perhaps the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, who had booked the Quidditch pitch this morning. But they would be in a completely different part of the castle, and so the only person I really had to worry about bumping into was Mr Filch, or worse Professor Snape.

By some miracle, I don't see anybody the entire time. The castle is eerily quiet at this time of the morning, and I've rarely ventured out this early before. The way that the mist is still settled on the surface of the Black Lake, the tweeting of birds as they awaken from their night of slumber, and the gentle tapping off my shoes on the stone floor, it all has a rather mystical feel, as if the castle is entirely my own and there is nobody else here. It's like I'm a Queen, and Hogwarts Castle is my very own. Was this how Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor and even the great Salazar Slytherin felt when they first decided to start a school here? The castle must have been young then, newly built. I couldn't imagine Hogwarts was ever new - it seemed to me as if it had been here since the dawn of time.

Magic tends to have that effect. With magic and spells, muggle things like age seem to lose their point when you can travel back in time with a simple time-turner. Hogwarts is timeless - it has seen so much in it's long life, and yet despite its age I doubt it could ever fall. It is as constant as the sun, as real as the dark and as strong as the wind. Hogwarts has housed and cared for so many over its life, and yet I doubt you could find a witch or wizard who said that Hogwarts wasn't their true home. The place they dreamt about in their sleep, the place they reminisced to when they saw old school friends in the street. So many memories, a home to all.

How ever did people manage to leave when their 7 year turn was up?

I arrived at the Clock Tower courtyard and found a bench that was slightly concealed from the view of the main doorway. At least if a teacher walked through, they wouldn't see me and ask what I was doing out of my common room so early.

From my bag I took out a potions book that Mother had lended to me, and opened it to where my emerald green Slytherin book mark was waiting. I wrapped my cloak a little tighter around my shoulders - it was cold this early in the morning after all - and began to read as I waited. The time must be ticking past, but at Hogwarts, it was gone in the blink of an eye and everything seemed to be lost in the mystery of time.

I looked up from my book and gazed out at the spectacular view of the Black Lake, perfectly calm beneath the layer of fog that was beginning to lift. On the horizon, the sun was beginning to rise into the sky, sending shoots of golden light out in all directions. I held my breathe as I marvelled at the scene - I'd never seen a sunrise so spectacular - and watched as the sun slowly shifted upwards, the reflection of it causing the water to twinkle. The surrounding mountains turned from a dark brown to a vision of gold and orange, springing to life as if they too were waking up from their sleep. I sighed at the magnificence, wondering if I were the only one to have witnessed the spectacle. It seemed far too perfect for one person, and yet I didn't want to share this moment with anyone.

The sun was in the sky by the time Harry arrived, his face red as if he'd been running, and he sank down beside me. He fixed his red and gold Gryffindor tie which had come loose from the running, and gaze me an apologetic grimace. "Sorry I'm late - I got held up by Hermione." I shook my head and grinned. "No need to apologise, I was just watching the sunrise. It's strange how a place can be so peaceful and then half an hour later, full of life."

I blush and look away from Harry. "You probably think I'm strange" I said with an awkward laugh. Harry moved so that he was sat facing me. "Actually Li, I think you're the most normal person here. You don't pretend that everything is ok when it isn't, which is more than I can say for anybody else."

I smile at Harry warmly. "You're the only person here that understands me, I think, and can sympathize in a way with how I feel," he elaborated.

I rested my head on his shoulder and sighed deeply. "I'm sorry Harry, I know that I don't say it often, but everything you've been through, you don't deserve any of it. I'm sorry that you have to go through it all."

Harry sighed with me and put his arm around my shoulder affectionately, in the way that one would to a favourite sibling. "I suppose that being the Chosen One isn't all laughs" he joked mournfully.

We stay in utter silence for a few moments longer, watching the last blissful moments of the sunrise before the morning turns to day and the first few students begin to rise from their various dens. It is only then that Harry turns to me, and taking a deep breathe, begins to recount the events of the night before.

"I went to him in his classroom first - he was teaching an extra potions class to some third years. I said it the exact same way that Riddle did when he was a student - that I'd been doing some reading in the restricted section, but he wouldn't buy it. He told me that I needed to be careful and stick to the right path, and I kind of asked if that was what he'd told Tom Riddle when he came asking questions. Stupid, I know."

I inhaled deeply as Harry grimaced. "He guessed that it was Dumbledore who encouraged me to do it, and completely shut me out. He looked so betrayed Li, and I couldn't get anything out of him. He just left me there.

"When I returned to the common room I found that Ron had eaten a box of chocolates meant for me. They had some sort of love potion, and he was going crazy, professing his love for Romilda Vane."

"The Ravenclaw?"

"Yep, Hermione tipped me off just before Christmas that she was interested in me. She must have found a way to get them into our room - given them to one of the Gryffindor girls. Anyway, by the time I got there, Ron had eaten them all."