Someone to save me | Harry Potter

Chapter Fifty-Two

Hogwarts seemed different, yet the same when I walked back inside after Christmas break. The portraits all were in their same spots, all gently nestled against the castle walls. The ghosts still passed gracefully down the halls. The food was still incredible, every morsel would make you moan in delight. But I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, there was just this feeling in the air and this chill that ran down my spine that had me walking on egg shells. 

Classes weren't due to start for a couple of days, so after eating lunch with Harry and the rest of Gryffindor house I told them I was going down to the dungeons to borrow a book from my brother. But really I needed to find Draco, and I already knew where he would be. Harry never was great a guarding his treasured map. 

The door to the room of requirement  creaked loudly as I slowly made my way inside. "Who's there?" I heard Draco call from inside. 

"It's me." I called out to him. Draco quickly appeared at the end of a row of abandoned picture frames. I immediately knew he wasn't sleeping any more than I was, the large purple bags under his eyes seemed to grow since the last time I saw him. His shoulders slouched forward, his posture giving off the amount of weight he had lost. He was still broken, only more so. 

Just seeing him standing here, knowing the same pain that was brewing behind his pale grey eyes were flowing through mine. Made me break down. Before I had been so strong for him and I. I had been the one holding us together when everything around us seemed to be breaking us down, but looking at him and knowing how stupid I had been, I just couldn't hold it in anymore. 

"I should have stayed here." I whimpered, falling to my knees in front of him. "I should have stayed here and helped you." 

Draco walked over to me slowly before falling to the floor in front of me. He cupped the side of my head before resting his forehead against my own. "I'm so sorry." His voice quivered softly to me. 

"I was so stupid. I don't know why I thought I could be happy one last time before this war really began." I wrapped my arms around Draco's lean frame and clutched at the back of his sweater as if it was my only lifeline keeping me grounded. I could tell Draco didn't really know what to say to me, heck I wouldn't know what to say either. 

"Did you see her? my mother?" I whispered, pulling my head away from him gently. Draco nodded slowly, but his eyes told me there was something more. 

"What is it? Draco I know you're keeping something from me." I was now pleading with him. 

"I saw your father too." He mumbled, looking away from me. 

"Well he does work at the ministry," I said, wondering why seeing my father was such a big deal. Our fathers have worked together all this time. 

"No, not at the ministry. He was at my house. He was sitting there, right beside you-know-who and my father. I was kicked out of the room before anything happened, but he was there. He was sitting right there while your mother was still laying in the dungeons floors below us." 

My eyes widened at the thought of my father actually joining Voldemort's side. No he wouldn't do that, he would never turn against the ministry and everything they believe in. He would never join the dark lord, especially after everything that has happened with me. 

"That's not possible." I mumbled, pulling myself off of the dusty floor. "It had to have been someone else."

"Ali, it was your father. I spent enough time with him two years ago to know him. Voldemort even called him by name. I'm not saying he's joined Voldemort's side, but there was definitely something going on there. " Draco told me. He grabbed my arm gently and started guiding me in the direction of the cabinet.