Muddy Green Waters || Draco Malfoy

22 - Confessions of a Slytherin Prince

I made it, and taking a deep breath, I stepped inside.

***

Draco Malfoy was not having a good day.

He was feeling desperate. The Vanishing Cabinet was still just a cabinet - he was getting nowhere with it. And so he had come up with this wild and rash idea of giving Dumbledore a cursed necklace. Except that his plan fell through and now one of his classmates had been cursed and he had no idea if he had killed her or not.

Earlier that day, he had been in detention with McGonagall for not handing in his Transfiguration homework yet again when a fourth year had burst in, frantically telling McGonagall that Katie Bell had been cursed and she was needed right away.

Draco had been dismissed, as McGonagall fled, and he had gone back to the common room. Upon finding it empty, he had broken down out of guilt and self loathing and fear.

And then Rosie had walked in on him. He flushed with anger and humiliation when he remembered the look on her face. Pity. He hated that.

When she had mentioned Katie Bell, the guilt and self loathing had crashed down on him in an instant. He was glad of the interruption from the other Slytherins so that he could escape into his dormitory. He couldn't hold it together in front of her. He didn't trust himself in her presence.

He breathed a sigh of relief at the solitude the Room of Requirement now offered and felt himself calming down somewhat.

Draco wandered over to the where the Vanishing Cabinet stood hidden under a large black cloth and hastily removed it. He supposed he had better get back to work on it since his other desperate plan failed so miserably.

As he opened the cabinet door, he heard a soft noise behind him and he had the sudden, cold, feeling that he was not alone.

Very slowly, he reached for his wand from inside his jacket pocket and then spun around.

He found himself pointing his wand directly at Rosie Carter's bewildered face.

***

Rosie

I stood watching as Draco uncovered what looked to be a large sort of cabinet. I could not for the life of me work out what he was doing in here and what he wanted with that cabinet.

Before I could let him know of my presence, he had turned around, aiming his wand right at me.

"Carter?! What the hell are you doing here?" He roared furiously, his eyes glinting in anger.

"I- I was worried about you, Draco." I suddenly felt very foolish and also a little afraid. He looked so angry.

Draco sighed and finally lowered his wand. He did not say anything.

"What are you doing in here? What do you need with that?" I asked, nodding towards the cabinet.

"You can't be here. You need to turn around right now and forget you ever saw me in here." His voice was steady, as he looked me straight in the eye, ignoring my questions.

I didn't move. Instead I took a deep breath and said, "You cursed Katie Bell, didn't you?" My voice sounded calmer than I felt.

He blinked. "No, I didn't curse her." But then, to my horror, he added, "She wasn't meant to touch it."

I gasped, clutching the wall with one hand to steady myself. Even though I had already kind of known, his admission still felt like a blow to the stomach.

Draco didn't attempt to come any nearer to me, instead he just stood, taking in my reaction.

"Why?" Was all I could splutter.

"I needed her to deliver it to somebody."

"I don't understand, are you saying that- that you tried to kill someone?" My head was pounding, horrified at what I was hearing.

Draco didn't answer and as I looked at him, I saw tears start to fill his eyes and his bottom lip started to quiver.

"If I don't do this then He's going to kill me." His voice was strangled and I could tell that he was trying desperately to hold back the tears.

"Voldemort." I whispered, suddenly understanding. His father getting captured at the Ministry. It was a punishment.

Draco flinched and then slowly nodded as the tears that had been threatening finally fell down his cheeks. He sank down to the floor in a crouching position, covering his wet face in his hands and wept.

I didn't know how to comfort him, or if he even wanted it. So I too sat down on the floor and waited silently for him to recover.

He eventually lifted his head, sobbing subsided, but he wouldn't meet my eyes.

"The cabinet...?" I asked, breaking the silence, sweeping my hand over to the towering object behind Draco.

"It's a Vanishing Cabinet. It's broken. He wants me to fix it."

"So this is where you have been disappearing to every night." It wasn't a question.

He nodded, still not meeting my eyes.

I sighed, trying to get my thoughts together. I didn't know what to do. I realised the implication of what Draco had told me and it changed everything. I couldn't walk away from this anymore. I looked at Draco's tired, pale, tortured face and my heart clenched at the thought of everything he had been going through. He didn't have a choice. But I did.

"Let me help you, Draco. You don't have to do this on your own anymore. You've got me."

I watched the frown lines disappear from his face as his eyes searched mine questioningly. After a moments hesitation he answered.

"OK."

***