PRECEDENT : Draco Malfoy II

35

Just like that, it is everything.

Umbridge is supervising all divination classes, and the new educational decree has teachers even more nervous. Professor Babbling won't let me in her room any longer. Mandy seems to find me in the Common Room, and Terry in the library, so I can never find somewhere private enough to practice work on the Sagum on my own. So, Draco will sit with me at night in the prefects' bathroom while I work on it, or he'll join me in the boat house by the Great Lake. Twice a week typically, but thrice one week, we are together.

When I say it isn't everything, I don't mean it is always. Some of our classes are separate, and now Hermione and I have taken to doing flash cards and pushing each other harder and harder. Still, it's everywhere. When I transfigure a kitten, three weeks into February, it might be because of Hermione but it is certainly because of Draco. When I extend the Sagum's reach another six inches it doesn't feel like much, but Draco is there and he captures my excited shrieks in his mouth with a kiss. It is at Hogsmeade, where I give him the money to buy a Remembrall from me since I'm still a bit too frightened to talk to the shopkeeper after the magical authorities went after him for selling me broken omniocculars.

The Remembrall is useful since it is relatively inexpensive and it doesn't require attunement. Anyone can have a Rememberall, and while they aren't meant to be shared and can break if they are passed around too frequently, you can switch ownership of a Rememberall. They access parts of your brain that are forgotten. They don't bypass memory alteration or obliviation, but they to some extent must know your thoughts.

I think I've realized part of the problem. The connection between myself and the Sagum is weak. My lifeline on my palm, or lifelines I should say, while they are carved into the flesh, they lack the attachment of many scars. I was born with them, so the process wasn't painful. The memory attached to them isn't strong, the reason behind it is unknown to me. I'd rather not engage in scarification, so I take apart the Rememberall, piece by piece, using books from the library and from Hogsmeade to do so. I learn all that there is in a memory and build it up.

It's easy when every day I'm making memories. I learn his cologne. The notes of mahogany and lavender. His warm fingers intertwined with mine, his hands wrapped in my hair, his body folding into mine, the feeling of my gasps leaving my mouth louder and sharper than I'd like. The heat of blood in my face when I blush, so ablaze that I don't feel myself blush but I feel myself redden, myself burning at his touch. The taste of warm apple cider he brings me in the mornings when I'm working as the sun rises. The smell of dew in the air. The depths of the Great Lake in front of me, eyes starring back at me through the dark water. The same line in my textbook read over and over again when I'm trying not to look at him in transfigurations.

"You should see a healer about the wrackspurts," Luna says one day when I am a second to late with the protean charm in the Room of Requirements. "My father says-"

"The Quibbler is banned from Hogwarts," Hermione's voice is stale. "If you're caught with a copy Luna, you'll get expelled."

I try not to laugh. We're all risk of expulsion here. I take more risks than expulsion on a daily basis.

At dinner later that evening, Mandy groans, "are you even listening, Marty?"

No, I wasn't. Of course I wasn't. I didn't even sit down with her, but an unfortunate thing about being to dinner earlier than the others is that sometimes they sit with me. Mandy is across from me. On one side of her, Padma looks at me with a head tilt. On the other, Anthony is brushing Mandy's hair behind her ear, revealing the red flush to her cheeks. He whispers something to her.

Terry is on one side of me, so deep in his book he doesn't notice. Michael is stunned into silence, as well as Lisa next to him. Stephen is doing a crossword, and Morag looks almost as angry as Mandy but she's not paying attention. I'm left to deal with this on my own, again.