Desolation Row | A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction

Chapter 6

Our Transfiguration lesson had just ended and we had a few minutes to spare before our last lesson of the day when I pulled Elisa into an empty classroom.
"E-el, I've g-got a-a v-very im-important ques-question to a-ask y-you," I said seriously, sitting down on a table, opposite where she was.
"Is everything alright?" asked Elisa, a hint of worry lacing her voice.
"I n-need to t-talk t-to you a-about b-boys."
Elisa snorted and moved slightly closer to me.
"Is that all?! Any specific boy?"
"I th-think you kn-know th-the an-answer to th-that." I prompted, smirking slightly at Elisa.
"Draco?!" shrieked Elisa, her eyes lighting up. "You like Draco?!"
"Shhh!" I hissed, my eyes flitting to the door. "B-but, y-yes and I d-don't kn-know wh-what to do!"
Elisa chuckled as she took my hand in her own.
"Ask him out, Lee!" giggled my Gryffindor friend, excited that I had come to her with something so seemingly important.
"I-I d-don't know. B-blaise as-asked me to Sl-slughorn's p-party w-with hi-him, I d-don't w-want th-that to g-give Draco th-the wr-wrong idea."
Elisa sighed thoughtfully, just as the bell rang.
"Look, let's head to Transfiguration together and we can talk about it more when we get ready for the party, okay?" she asked, turning to leave.
I nodded and followed her out the door and down the corridor, towards our lesson with Professor McGonagall.

After our Transfiguration lesson, Elisa and I were sat together in my dormitories (I had invited her in so that we could get ready for Slughorn's party). Since Draco and I were talking again, Blaise thought it appropriate to invite me as his date.
"Oh my goodness, Ophelia you look gorgeous!" squealed Elisa as I stepped out from behind the curtain of my four-poster bed.
My dress was deep emerald green and made of silk. Above and below my breasts sat lovely clear jewels. The dress hugged my curves and cascaded down my legs, falling to the floor in gorgeous waves. I smiled, hugging Elisa.
"Y-your turn. G-go get ch-changed."
I waited patiently for Elisa to change, pulling on my green heels as I did so. It didn't take long before Elisa emerged from behind the curtain. Her dress was a gorgeous baby blue with a corset adorning the back. The two of us made our way down into the Slytherin Common Room, everyone falling silent as we emerged. I made eye contact with Madeleine whose eyes sparkled and I heard Draco whisper something under his breath as Blaise stood up, my heels bringing me up to his height.
"Are you lovely ladies ready to go?" asked Blaise smoothly as Elisa chuckled.
"I've got my own date, thanks, Zabini but I guess you could take me to him."
The three of us laughed as we headed to the door, my arm in Blaise's. I mouthed a quick goodbye to Draco and he looked me up and down, inspecting my attire before smiling and mouthing his farewell to me.

"I'm just going to the bathroom," I called loudly over the din of voices in the room and Blaise nodded, letting me know he heard me.
I looked myself over in the bathroom mirror, smoothing down my dress. I smiled. I rarely liked the way I looked but in this dress I felt powerful, enigmatic, beautiful. In this dress Draco actually saw me, not as his best friend, not as the girl he'd known forever but as someone who actually had a chance. I took a deep breath, fixed my hair and turned to the door, once again smoothing down my dress - it was more of an anxious gesture this time than one of any vitality.

My heels clicked loudly against the stone floor as I followed the ever-growing sound of voices and music that were inevitably coming from Slughorn's party.
"Ophelia!" hissed a voice and I turned, startled to see Harry Potter with his ear up against the keyhole of a door.
He gestured towards me and put a finger to his lips. As quietly as I could, I hurried towards him and mimicked his position against the door.
"Listen." he mouthed and I strained to hear what Potter was so intently trying to listen to, then I heard them, a pair of voices, familiar voices - Draco and Snape.
". . . cannot afford mistakes, Draco, because if you are expelled —"
"I didn't have anything to do with it, all right?"
"I hope you are telling the truth, because it was both clumsy and foolish. Already you are suspected of having a hand in it."
"Who suspects me?" said Draco angrily. "For the last time, I didn't do it, okay? That Bell girl must've had an enemy no one knows about — don't look at me like that! I know what you're doing, I'm not stupid, but it won't work — I can stop you!"
There was a pause and then Snape said quietly, "Ah . . . Aunt Bellatrix has been teaching you Occlumency, I see. What thoughts are you trying to conceal from your master, Draco?"
"I'm not trying to conceal anything from him, I just don't want you butting in!"
"So that is why you have been avoiding me this term? You have feared my interference? You realize that, had anybody else failed to come to my office when I had told them repeatedly to be there, Draco —"
"So put me in detention! Report me to Dumbledore!" jeered Draco.
There was another pause. Then Snape said, "You know perfectly well that I do not wish to do either of those things."
"You'd better stop telling me to come to your office then!"
"Listen to me," said Snape, his voice so low now that Potter and I were leaning closer to the door. "I am trying to help you. I swore to your mother I would protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow, Draco —"
"Looks like you'll have to break it, then, because I don't need your protection! It's my job, he gave it to me and I'm doing it, I've got a plan and it's going to work, it's just taking a bit longer than I thought it would!"
"What is your plan?"
"It's none of your business!"
"If you tell me what you are trying to do, I can assist you —"
"I've got all the assistance I need, thanks, I'm not alone!"
"You were certainly alone tonight, which was foolish in the extreme, wandering the corridors without lookouts or backup, these are elementary mistakes —"
"I would've had Crabbe and Goyle with me if you hadn't put them in detention!"
"Keep your voice down!" spat Snape, for Draco's voice had risen excitedly. "If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres —"
"What does it matter?" said Draco. "Defense Against the Dark Arts — it's all just a joke, isn't it, an act? Like any of us need protecting against the Dark Arts —"
"It is an act that is crucial to success, Draco!" said Snape. "Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not known how to act? Now listen to me! You are being incautious, wandering around at night, getting yourself caught, and if you are placing your reliance in assistants like Crabbe and Goyle —"
"They're not the only ones, I've got other people on my side, better people!"
"Then why not confide in me, and I can —"
"I know what you're up to! You want to steal my glory!"
There was another pause, then Snape said coldly, "You are speaking like a child. I quite understand that your father's capture and imprisonment has upset you, but —"
Potter and myself had barely a second's warning to throw ourselves away from the door and hide around the corridor's corner before Draco threw the door to the classroom he and Snape were in open and stalked off in the opposite direction to us, his expression sour and his body language stiff - he was in a mood.
"T-tell B-Blaise I've g-gone b-back to the C-Common R-room, p-please." I whispered and Harry nodded, hurrying off back to the party as I followed Draco.
We didn't get far down the corridor before I stopped. Was it really fair on Draco that I was interfering so much, even if I thought he was in danger? Should I tell Draco that I heard him? He'd told me about how the necklace that fell into Katie Bell's possession was meant for Professor Dumbledore but how would he feel if he knew I was eavesdropping on his conversations? That I knew Snape was trying to help him? Surely, I should tell him that Potter knows something, he may not know everything but he knows something and that can't be good. I shook my head and turned back around, how was any of this fair? For now, I would return to the Common room and ponder what I knew.