Casualty of Love: Turning Tables

What Am I Going To Do Without You?

As soon as I had gotten home from Diagon Alley, I immediately went looking for Draco, only to find him in my bedroom waiting for me to return. "You have got to be more careful," was the first thing that left my mouth. He sat up more attentively instead of the lazy sitting position he was in before.

"What are you talking about?" Draco said with underlying curiousity in his voice.

"Today when I was with Harry, Hermione, and Ron in Diagon Alley, they saw you walking towards Knockturn Alley and they all went under Harry's invisibilty cloak together. Luckily, I was with them in that moment so they couldn't just tell me that I couldn't come. We followed you all the way to Borgin and Burke's and they had a pair of extendable ears with them. We heard everything you said."

"You're joking..."

"I wish."

He looked at his hands for a moment. "I didn't even know that Potter had an invisibility cloak..."

"Does that matter? The point is, you can't just go around in public and threaten people. I know you've got a task to take care of but you've got to be more careful. I couldn't stand it if something happened to you and Harry's already suspicious to begin with. This is just going to feed it. I don't think Ron and Hermione are convinced that something's up but Harry is smarter than that... At least when it comes to this kind of thing," I said, sitting next to him on my bed and lying my hand tenderly on his shoulder. 

"I'll be more careful next time," he said, looking up at me and smiling. He was putting on a brave facade but I could see the worry in his eyes. He kissed me on the forehead without meeting my eyes again and headed towards my door. "I've got to go back home for a little while. I'll see you later," he said, opening my door and leaving without looking back.

I knew he was just trying to hide his worry from me but it was still unnerving to see him resort to his former unemotional side. I took a deep breath and prayed that he wouldn't be like this all year.

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I was rushing to gather all my things for Hogwarts when I heard a knock on the door. "Come in," I said without thinking, still stuffing robes into my school trunk. I took one glance at the door to see who had just walked in and sent one quick smile in Nehemiah's direction before snapping my trunk shut. 

"You're leaving for school today, right?" he said, leaning against my door frame.

"I sure am," I said, sitting down on my bed to take a breather before having to take all my luggage downstairs so my father could apparate me to the train station. Nehemiah took this opportunity to come sit next to me.

"Are you excited?" he asked me tentitively.

"Of course," I said half-heartedly.

"No you aren't."

"Are you reading my mind again?" I said to him accusingly, knowing that he could see right through every lie I told.

"I don't have to read your mind to know when you're lying."

"Okay, okay. I just know that this year is going to be another year of sneaking around and always keeping my guard up and lying to my friends. It's not exactly the way I want to live," I confessed, breathing a heavy sigh of relief after finally saying what I was thinking out loud. 

"It doesn't have to be that way. You could tell your friends," he said. I began to protest but he interrupted me. "I know you don't think it's possible; that your friends will hate you for lying to them. And I'm not going to tell you that they won't be mad; they're only human after all... But, I'm telling you that it'll be better for your health and your friendship if you come clean. Do you remember when you told Ginny about you and Draco?" he asked, looking at me directly in the eyes.