Draco Malfoy and the Girl Who Hid

21

Draco waited until the next class session had started. The corridors of Hogwarts were practically deserted, with only the occasional student hurriedly running past.

This was his time to walk.

He paced the corridor building up his nerve. Only when he was ready did he approach the looming wall. Almost immediately the stone was transforming, and large doors materialised.

He pushed them open and was overwhelmed by the musty smell. He weaved in and out of the piles of tat that the Room of Requirement had unveiled to him, In search of the wretched cabinet.

It felt as though he had been searching for hour, although in reality it, had only been a few minutes. He was ready to give up already fatigued when his arm began to burn. It brought him back to the ceremony, when the mark had been imposed on him. It was a reminder that they owned him now and that he would need to become resilient to the pain. He cringed as he remembered the cold touch of the Dark Lord's chalky hand as his forced his arm closed to him and stabbed his wand against Draco's shaking flesh. And the way he cackled as he cast the Morsmordre incantation, that began to sizzle and sear Draco's skin. And that wretched lime green hue the sparked form The Draco Lord's wand. Draco had always had a soft spot for the colour green, but he had never hated it more in that moment. He had also never hated his father more for allowing this to happen to him. And the way his mother flinched and looked away, unable to bare seeing her son crying out pain.

Draco was able to look up long enough to notice the sheet the swayed as if there was a stormy breeze just in that spot.

He knew that was it. He ripped off the dusty sheet. In one instance he was relieved to have found the Vanishing Cabinet on day one of his search. On the other hand, he was riddled with anxiety. He had no idea who to fix the cabinet. He had heard many horror stories about the cabinet, and it scared him, and no amount of reading gave him the foggiest idea how to fix it.

At the same time across the grounds, in the owlery, Yn was stood petting her owl, Hunter. In her other hand she clutched the letter that she had written. After 13 attempts, the best she could come up with was;

Hi Dad,

I miss you.

See you soon.

Love YN

She stroked Hunter one last time before placing the letter in his claws and flinging open the nearest window to allow him to leave.

"What a surprise seeing you here."

Yn was startled by the voice the crept up behind her.

A head of dark curly hair emerged from the maze of plants that housed the Owls.

"Theodore," Yn flinched again as she let go of the window and crashed shut. The owlery was darker once again. "Sending an owl?" She asked. Yn trailed her fingers over the table, petting an owl or two as she travelled around the edges of the owlery, never getting close to Theodore.

"No," he shrugged travelling the room parallel to her.

"Why are you here then?" She scanned the room, but there was no way to leave without passing him.

"I saw you come down here." Theodore propped himself against a tree.

"Stalker much," Yn joked, turning her back to Theo to pet an Owl that she knew belonged to the Weasley's.

"I thought we could talk."

Yn turned back around, eyebrows furrowed. "About what?"

"Well," Theodore, pushed off the tree and took several steps towards Yn. "I was thinking...."

There was nowhere for Yn to move back to, instead she leaned into the table behind her. "yes?"

"I was thinking that you should come out with me this weekend."

Yn straightened her back. "what?" she scoffed. But then she saw he was serious. "... um... no!" she began to walk past him.

Theodore grabbed her arm, pulling her into his chest. "Why not?" he spewed through gritted teeth.

"Because I don't want to."

"Come on Yn," Theodore grinned. "It's not like you have anything better to do. Besides you don't know anyone and I could make your life here very hard. But if you give me a little something," He stroked Yn's hair. "I could be gracious towards you." Theodore trailed his finger over her jaw. "I'm partial to a bit of charity work."

Yn resisted his touch, but that only made him grip her arm tighter.

"Think about it Yn. Me and you together. We would be the talk of the great hall. With your sob story, my pedigree, people will be drooling. Moreover, we don't look too bad together, do we?" He used her arm to spin her around and held her arm behind her back and pull her entire body back against his front. Then he used his other arm to take her face in his hand and position it so that she could see both of their reflections in the glass.

Yn wandered why men, oops sorry, boys always thought that they held someone power over girls. If Theodore was going to take it upon himself to feel entitled to roughly grab her arm she would take some liberties of her own. Yn mustered all her strength and elbowed Theodore directly in his gut, followed by a punch to his nose and a kick to his groin. Within seconds Theodore was keeling over. Yn grabbed him by his hair so that he would look at her. "What made you think that you could follow a girl until she was alone and then try it on with her. I don't know how many times you think you have gotten away with this kind of behaviour before but you messed with the person now. If I hear even a measly good for nothing rumour about you, you'll wish you were dead. Do you get that?" She pushed him back to the ground and swiftly exited the owlery.

Outside a group of boys were wrestling with each other. They stopped when the saw Yn huffing as she left.

Behind her Theodore crawled out.

"Shit Nott," Crabbe called out running over to him. "What happened to you?

The other boys remained stoic in shock.

Yn called out over her shoulder. "He forgot that he was speaking to the daughter of the psycho who once showed Voldemort, in her naivety, how to keep surviving by killing. It might be best for you to remind him of that."

"Oh, Shit," Goyle spluttered in laughter. He jogged over to Theodore he was bracing himself against the wall. "I told you to leave it man." He thumped Theodore on his back.

"Shut up," Theodore seethed, wincing in pain. "That little bitch." He wiped the trickle of blood that was dripping from his nose.