𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐈𝐂𝐄 | Draco Malfoy

32 ✧ BLACK MAGIC

Narrator POV

The students arrived back at Hogwarts, begrudgingly, once the break was over. A couple of years back this would've been a relief to Aria, despite having to return to a building full of bullies, because her stay with her mother was over. Days full of unending abuse were over─for a few months, that was.

But this time she did not want to return. Although the awkward tension between her and Fred was still fresh, what she was dreading most was having to face Draco. They weren't an official thing. Hell, she wasn't sure if they were a thing at all, but there was something between the two, and that something was activating her guilty conscience.

She's seen him from a distance here and there but ran away before he could notice her. But from what it looked like, hiding out of his sight did not seem too hard. The boy looked as if he had trouble keeping up with his surroundings, drowsily dragging his feet as he walked. His eyes were sunken and empty, dark rings engulfing them. His normally paper-white skin was more ghostly-looking than usual─he looked ill.

Interrupting her thoughts, Aria's wand flies out of her hand in a familiar manner. Crap.

"Expelliarmus." The voice of Severus Snape chanted the disarming charm. She stood there defenseless facing her professor who was pointing his wand towards her threateningly, "Congratulations, you just gave the enemy an upper hand because you were too busy in la-la-land. Now you're dead," he narrowed his eyes, unimpressed.

Aria rolled her eyes and bent down to pick up the ten inches of black walnut wood that her personal dueling trainer had magically knocked out of her hand, her hair that was slicked back in an athletic ponytail swishing beside her. "Fine, you got me this one time."

"Will it be the first of many? You've been getting rusty lately, Ms. Wanderlust," he got into stance after his student picked up her wand and she did the same after adjusting her powder blue spandex workout leggings.

"One slip-up doesn't mean I'm getting rusty," they began firing spells at each other, taking turns dodging the other's hit.

"Well one 'slip-up' on the battlefield could mean the end of your life," he snapped.

By the way Snape has been acting lately, the urgency in his voice as they went through their usual dueling lessons, made it seem as if he was preparing Aria for something. When she made a mistake during the training sessions he'd usually correct her and encourage her to get back on her feet. But lately, he would scold her for small mistakes, stressing that they would cost her her life on the "battlefield". As if he were protecting her from something.

"Is something on your mind?" The professor pried as they mimicked a fight. "Trust me you'd be opening Pandora's box," the girl quipped. "Try me," he answered.

Aria racked her brain for a moment, trying to find something else to speak about in place of the boy that was actually on her mind until she settled on a topic that has been consuming her thoughts lately.

"Professor, what do you know about the dark arts? And I don't mean the basic pyramid of Unforgivable Curses or poisonous potion cocktails, I mean real black magic."

"Why is this of interest to you?" He eyed his student curiously.

"I've just been reading up on it a lot lately for...Defense Against the Dark Arts class. You know, extra credit and all."

Severus paused his spell-throwing for a moment, watching her suspiciously before continuing on with the magical sparring. "Dark magic is a ticking time bomb to whoever uses it, like a drug. A witch or wizard gets curious learning about it and their naive intrigue eventually leads them to try it out for themselves. They ensure that they have it under control─stupid they are─but they don't. Expelliarmus!"