LITTLE MISS MUDBLOOD | draco malfoy

81 ; the leaving feast

It took Harry speaking for everyone to notice that they were awake, when he said, "You've been reading Rita Skeeter, Mr. Fudge."

Fudge reddened slightly, but a defiant and obstinate look came over his face.

"And if I have?" he said, looking at Dumbledore. "If I have discovered that you've been keeping certain facts about the boy very quiet? A parselmouth, eh? And having funny turns all over the place —"

"I assume that you are referring to the pains Harry has been experiencing in his scar?" said Dumbledore coolly.

"You admit that he has been having these pains, then?" said Fudge quickly. "Headaches? Nightmares? Possibly — hallucinations?"

"Listen to me, Cornelius," said Dumbledore, taking a step toward Fudge, and he seemed to radiate an indefiable sense of power. "Harry is as sane as you or I. That scar upon his forehead has not addled his brains. I believe it hurts him when Lord Voldemort is closeby, or feeling particularly murderous."

Fudge had taken half a step back from Dumbledore, but he looked no less stubborn.

"You'll forgive me, Dumbledore, but I've never heard of a curse scar acting as an alarm bell before. . . ."

"Look, I saw Voldemort come back!" Harry shouted. Y/N glanced over at him, ready to agree with him, but she kept her mouth shut. "I saw the Death Eaters! I can give you their names! Lucius Malfoy —"

Draco's hand clamped tightly around Y/N's and she glanced over to find his and his mother's faces reddening in anger, both of their eyes narrowing in warning. The room briefly glanced at them before quickly averting to Fudge, who was now speaking.

"Malfoy was cleared!" he said, visibly affronted. "A very old family — donations to excellent causes —"

"Macnair!" Harry continued.

"Also cleared! Now working for the Ministry!"

"Avery — Crabbe — Goyle —"

"You are merely repeating the names of those who were acquitted of being Death Eaters thirteen years ago!" said Fudge angrily. "You could have found those names in old reports of the trials! For heaven's sake, Dumbledore — the boy was full of some crackpot story at the end of last year too — his tales are getting taller and you're still swallowing them — the boy can talk to snakes, Dumbledore, and you still think he's trustworthy?"

Y/N couldn't believe her ears. She had always thought of Fudge as a kindly figure, a little blustering, a little pompous, but essentially good-natured. But now a short, angry wizard stood before her, refusing, point-blank, and blatantly disrespectful to those in the room.

"Watch your words, Fudge," she said raspily but coldly, and she saw his face drop as she spoke. "Some of us aren't as forgiving as you may think."

A month swiftly passed since then, and Y/N found that she had very little recollection of the sequence of events. All she could remember was Mr. Lucius Malfoy guiding her to the cup so she could be taken back, as well as the painstaking memory of Cedric's murder right before her eyes. The morning following the third task was a blur too; she recalled refusing the reward money, and Harry offering it to the Diggory's for compensation of their lost son. They refused.

Y/N returned to the Slytherin Dungeons the following evening. From what Daphne, Theodore, and Blaise told her, Dumbledore had spoken to the school that morning at breakfast. He had merely requested that they leave Harry and herself alone, that nobody ask either of them questions or badger them to tell the story of what had happened in the maze. Most people, she noticed, were skirting her in the corridors, avoiding her eyes, everyone except for her fellow Slytherins. Some whispered behind their hands as she passed. She supposed many of them were coming up with ridiculous rumors. Once, she thought she heard a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor say she had been helping bring back Voldemort. She found that she didn't care too much of what the others thought of her. Y/N found that she enjoyed her time best when she was down in the dungeons, surrounded by her closest friends and away from the gossiping Houses. She decided that the ones who weren't her allies weren't worth her time.