Of Horn And Halo | Draco Malfoy

Chapter 9 | 1997

Maeve watched Professor Moody sweep the spider off of his desk, his words ringing in her ears.

Avada Kedavra.

Before she knew it, the class was dismissed and she was walking alongside Daphne and Theo silently. She knew they were all thinking it; their parents had used those spells.

Les Malédictions Impardonnables was the title they'd had in her mind until that class — just simple words. Defence Against the Dark Arts with Alastor Moody had made the abstract concept of the three horrible curses very real. Their destruction was obvious. The thought of killing with the flick of a wand, torture with a thought, and mind control with one incantation was real and awful.

Unforgivable.

Daphne exited the bathroom stall looking uncharacteristically green. Maeve didn't comment. She knew Daphne would just snap at her as the young witch had been more and more often.

They continued through the halls, ignoring the straggle of students who lingered around with the absence of classes leaving them aimless. It was a strange conundrum; there being nothing to do at Hogwarts, but the weekends were a time for blissful nothingness in every shape of the word.

Some went to Hogsmeade, some went to the library, some hung around their common rooms, but Maeve and her friends had always put in a concerted effort to find a new and interesting way to do nothing every weekend. Well, aside from Anthony. He suffered from an acute case of Know-It-All-Itis that required extended hours at the library and holed up in his room writing potions essays.

It was a pleasant surprise to find him laying on the cold ground along with Theo when Maeve and Daphne found them by the Black Lake. The weather was bitter cold, despite spring blossoming around them.

Maeve fell to her knees on the hard ground and let herself lean back on her elbows. She let her eyes dance around the courtyard for a moment, before they fell on her cousin. Pansy was sitting against a tree trunk, looking bored, as Crabbe and Goyle appeared to be arguing next to her.

"They have a striking resemblance to Tweedledum and Tweedledee," Maeve said to herself.

"What's a Tweedledee?" Theo snorted, "sounds like an illness. Like, you eat too much pudding and develop a Tweedledee."

Anthony just laughed.

"I wonder where Draco is," Daphne mused, "normally Crabbe and Goyle can't be found without him ordering them about."

"Why do you care, Daphne?" Theo raised a judgmental eyebrow.

"Watching Potter and his friends is only half the entertainment," Daphne said easily, "it's no fun when Draco isn't right there antagonizing him."

Maeve's thoughts went to the rumours that had been circling about Draco for months. Some said he was a Death Eater, some said he was more than that, some said that he was an assassin sent to kill Potter. The last was by far the moth ridiculous. Draco Malfoy had had years to kill Harry Potter, there was no reason to bother after six years.

She wondered if Draco even had the capacity to kill someone. She knew she didn't. The thought of pointing her wand at somebody, saying the words, and watching the light leave someone's eyes at her hands made her whole body shiver.

"I'm going to leave if all you talk about is how much you supposedly hate Potter," Anthony yawned, "I spent half the night working on a transfiguration assessment and I'd be happy to retire to the Ravenclaw dormitories."

"All I'm hearing is that you somehow finished the homework," Theo jostled Anthony with a wicked grin, "willing to share, Goldstein?"

"You can finish the assessment for yourself!" Anthony batted Theo's hands away, "I'll look it over for you when you're finished but that's it."

"Funny you should say that," Theo pulled a scroll from his rucksack, "I just so happened to bring my assessment."

Maeve turned her gaze away from her friends as they continued to bicker. She met eyes with Pansy, took in her cousin's distraught face and sighed. She stood and brushed the dry bits of grass off of her jumper, "back in a moment."

Pansy stood and met Maeve halfway between their two groups, "I think Draco's in trouble."

Maeve almost rolled her eyes, "I thought something much worse happened. You looked like you were about to cry!"

"I don't cry, Maeve," Pansy snapped, "but that isn't the point. He looks ill. He's been avoiding us. He's irritable-"

"When have you known Malfoy to not be irritable?"

"Stop it, Maeve! I know you hate him and everyone else, but he's my friend. The boys are no help and I just wanted to talk about it. I'm sorry I bothered you," Pansy turned to storm off.

Maeve instantly felt guilty. She grabbed at her cousin's arm and followed after her as Pansy strode past her friends towards the castle, "I didn't - I'm sorry Pansy. I shouldn't have brushed you off like that."

Pansy kept up her pace, forcing Maeve to nearly run to keep up. It was a moment before she finally spoke, "it's fine. I'm just tired of how everyone is acting."

Finally, Pansy stopped at one of the archways that opened to one of the open-air halls. She rubbed at her shoulders and blinked rapidly. She looked young in that moment. She looked frail. She looked like a skinny sixteen-year-old witch who had no idea what the world looked like anymore.

"The world's holding its breath," Maeve nodded.

Pansy tossed a quick glance around, before murmuring, "Draco is a Death Eater."

So the rumours were true. Maeve felt disappointed.

"Good for him."

Maeve was sure her disgust was obvious enough, but she wasn't sure if there was a proper answer to such a declaration.

Pansy didn't seem to be listening. She just continued to speak as if the floodgates had opened, "he seemed smug about it at the beginning of the year. But I think it's really gotten to him. He isn't meant to - I don't know. It's just all so wrong. We're not even of age yet and it feels like everything is going so fast. I know you hate our world, but for some, it isn't so easy to stand between and do nothing."

Maeve's fists clenched, her nails biting into her palms, "what would you have me do, Pansy?"

"I don't know. I just - I just feel like it's hard to do anything anymore."

With her cousin's non-answer ringing in her ears, Maeve nodded curtly and turned to leave. She didn't bother returning to the lake to sit with her friends and pretend to be perfectly happy to laze about. She let her feet carry her through the halls, turning away whenever she came across students.

She found herself at the blank wall that led to the room of requirement. The door didn't appear. She didn't require anything.

That was just it. Maeve didn't want to do anything, didn't want to feel anything. She just wanted the crashing storm of the world around her to calm.

There was an itch between her shoulder blades. Instinctively, she turned her head to the side. There, stood Draco Malfoy.