In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*Holidays

The holidays at Hogwarts this year were empty, and it was no surprise given the attacks on the muggle borns this term. The only people really left were Briar, Henry, Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Harry, Hermione, Draco, Crabbe, Blaise, and Goyle

This made for an interesting holiday season as the Gryffindors and Slytherins avoided each other at all costs. This was normally easy when the school was packed full of other students, but when they only had each other to see it was harder

So Briar had been avoiding the tension by spending most of her afternoons in the library with Henry and Ginny, but the other two were on their way to the owlery so Briar was on her own, nose buried in a book

But when she suddenly heard thudding loud, heavy footsteps storming towards her, she jumped up, whipping her wand out and holding it up in front of her

So when she saw it was just Draco Malfoy, she rolled her eyes and lowered it again and he stopped quickly, looking surprised and amused

"What were you going to do, hex me?" He chuckled and she sighed

"Can't I have 5 minutes alone in here without you interrupting me?" asked Briar, sitting back down and opening her book again

"No" He snapped and snatched the book from her. Briar glared at him. "I'll give it back once you tell me what you and your little friends are up to"

"What do you mean?" She asked

"Last night, why did I have a weird conversation with Crabbe and Goyle and then this morning found them asleep in a broom cupboard?" he asked

"I don't know, because they're as thick as planks" she shrugged

"What did you do?" he asked again

"Nothing!" she snapped "Now give me my book!"

"If I find out that you're up to something-"

"Your father will hear about it," Briar finished and Draco flushed "Now my book!" Draco didn't know if she was telling the truth or not, but he did know that if anything was going on then it was probably done by her other friends so she may have been telling the truth

So he reluctantly handed it back to her and then rushed out of the library before anyone would see them together

Briar continued to read her book, finally having the peace and quiet to do so. But after a while she realised she hadn't been understanding a word she read since she was so distracted with wondering what her friends had been up to

So she bookmarked her page and hurried out too, heading to the Gryffindor common room where to her luck she found Ron and Harry, sitting around the fire

"Alright," Briar said, catching their attention as she sat down with them "Malfoy just confronted me in the library about something to do with Crabbe and Goyle, so what are you guys up to?"

"Malfoy confronted you?" Harry asked "What happened?"

"He just said he found Crabbe and Goyle asleep in a broom cupboard and thought I or you guys had something to do with it," Briar explained "So, what's going on?"

The two of them looked at each other, as if having a telepathic conversation, before Harry nodded and turned to her "We brewed a polyjuice potion to turn into Crabbe and Goyle and find out anything we could about the Chamber of Secrets from Malfoy"

Briar's eyes bulged. She didn't even know where to begin "You brewed a polyjuice potion?" she exclaimed

"Hermione did," nodded Ron

"And what did you find out?" she asked

"Nothing about the Chamber" sighed Harry "But Malfoy did tell us his family have a secret chamber under their drawing room so Ron wrote to his dad to tell the Ministry to raid it"

"Wow" she gasped "And you think there might be something in there about the chamber?" he nodded "I hope there is. But where's Hermione?"

"Well...for the potion we each had to take hair of the people we would transform into and she was going to use Millicent Bulstrode, but it turned out the hair she took was a cat hair and the potion only works for humans...so now she has a cat face and ears and is in the hospital wing" Ron explained

"Oh my gosh" Briar gasped and she didn't know if she should be worried or laugh "Is she okay?"

"She's fine" Harry chuckled

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud grumble and immediately Harry and Briar looked to Ron, who had a sheepish look "I'm hungry" he whined

So the three of them decided to head down to dinner, but as they were on their way they bumped into Draco and Blaise emerging in the entrance hall from the dungeons

"Alright, Potter?" Blaise called 

"What do you want?" Harry asked

"Not much, just wanted to know how it feels to be Slytherin's heir" Malfoy joked

"Shut up," Ron snapped

"Oh don't worry, your secret's safe with me," he chuckled "Got to say, I'm jealous, Potter. Wish I had the ability to have a monster that could kill mudbloods at my command. Speaking of, where is Granger? You gone after her now?"

"I said, shut up!" Ron exclaimed "And how do we know it isn't you? I mean look at you, evil dad who was here when the chamber first opened, dark family history, hates muggle borns, and thinks he's better than everyone else. You fit the role perfectly"

"You're not one to talk about family issues, I mean yours live in a barn and poor Potter and Lupin haven't got anyone to complain about" Draco sneered

Ron lunged forward as though going to attack him for insulting his friends, but Harry and Briar held him back while Blaise and Draco pulled out their wands in preparation

"What is the meaning of this scene?" They all turned to look at Professor Snape entering the hall and immediately realised how bad the situation looked

"Weasley tried to attack us professor, we're unarmed but he thought to do it anyway" Blaise lied "he made fun of Draco's family professor and called him the heir of Slytherin"

"No-" Ron began but Snape cut him off

"Silence Mr Weasley! You, Ms Lupin, and Mr Potter will have detention with Mr Filch for a week starting tomorrow.  Now I suggest you all make your way to dinner, before I take 50 house points each from Gryffindor" He threatened

Draco and Blaise made their way into the hall, cackling proudly, while the three Gryffindors glared at Professor Snape as he walked away. 

"I'm not so hungry anymore" Ron sighed