Draco Takes a Mark

Chapter 15

On the train steaming away from Hogwarts for Christmas holidays, Pansy Parkinson lay back across two seats with her head in Ron Weasley's lap as he stroked the sleek black hair off her forehead, smirking as he did so, as though anyone would have loved to have been in his place.

"Flagrant enough for them?" Ron beamed down into her face.

"Plenty," Harry answered from the opposite seat.

If he was to be frank, Harry preferred that his friends be in secret relationships. In fact,he thought, secret relationships should be the only ones allowed at school. It would have spared him having to see Ginny Weasley with Dean Thomas all term. At least Hermione and filthy Malfoy were still underground. He shuddered at the thought of what his social life would be like if she showed up in the compartment with Malfoy draped all over herself. But at least then it would be easier to keep an eye on him.

Harry was trying his best not to keep an eye on Ron and Pansy, but as far as being stuck alone with a teenaged couple went, they could have been worse company. Maybe it was thanks to a lifetime as Ginny's older brother that Ron was comfortable relating to Pansy in a way that was more fun than it was cringingly romantic. At the moment, he was weaving tiny plaits into her fringe, teasingly raving about how stunning they looked as she complained and tried to undo them.

They were just getting loud and grabby about it when Padma Patil slid the door of their compartment open. "Up you get, fellow prefects," she said. "Hermione and I have been on duty since Hogsmeade. We're done."

Pansy was sitting up, shaking Ron's handiwork out of her hair. Padma looked the pair of them over with open distaste before she tossed her head and left.

"Good friend of Lavender Brown's," Harry explained.

Ron started to shrink into the corner of his seat but Pansy huffed and said, loud enough for Padma to hear from the corridor before the door clunked shut, "Oh honestly, that was ages ago." She was on her feet, slipping into her robes, leaving, Ron following.

Alone in the compartment, Harry sat with his back against the chilly window pane, fingering the bridge of his nose, wondering if there was any point in getting up to look for Malfoy. Based on the conversation he heard between Snape and Malfoy outside Slughorn's party, Malfoy was definitely working on something -- something so awful he was hiding it from Snape himself.

If it was that bad, then Hermione couldn't possibly know anything about it either, otherwise... How did those two keep it all straight?

Relieved of her duties, Hermione was making her way down the train, back to the compartment where she'd seen Harry and Ron, bracing herself for making conversation with Pansy, the only other person of her acquaintance who shared her knowledge of what Draco's mouth tasted like. She bowed with relief when she found Harry alone.

"So where is he?" Harry began, meaning Malfoy, of course.

She was easing a very irate Crookshanks out of his cat carrier. "I haven't seen him since he took me aside and said -- something very nice to me at the station." Whatever it was, she still seemed a little flustered by it, smiling into the top of Crookshanks's head. "He'll be sitting with the rest of Slytherin sixth years now, I suppose. The train is closely watched. You know that. Best to just ignore each other and act normal."

Harry snickered darkly at Hermione's concept of normal. "And he's heading back to Malfoy Manor?"

Crookshanks turned in a circle on her lap. "Yes, of course, Harry. He's going home for Christmas like everyone else on the train." She flushed red with regret, remembering too late that Harry was not technically going home. "Sorry."