The Malfoy Diaries (A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

t h i r t y - t w o 💛

After Hermione and Aria had left the library, they soon walked out into the hall again, only to find that Malfoy and Snape were only several feet away from them. Hermione swallowed in her uncertainty. She had been informed that Snape wasn't a threat to them by Harry, but that didn't mean that she didn't still have her suspicions about him. 

It didn't take long for Malfoy and Snape to seem to finish their conversation. Malfoy began to make his way towards Hermione and Aria once again. 

"Mudblood, half-blood," he greeted them, with a fake smile upon his face. 

"Leave it, Malfoy," Hermione said, as she brushed past him. 

When Aria didn't follow after her, she turned back to her with an expression of interest. 

"Are you coming, Aria?" she asked. 

"Yeah. Give me a minute or two," Aria replied. 

Hermione appeared a little reluctant to leave her friend there, but she was observant enough to know that Aria wouldn't ask to talk to Malfoy unless she had good reason to. 

"See you in a bit, then," Hermione told her with a kind smile, before she made her way back towards the Gryffindor common room. 

In the meantime, Aria turned to Draco with an expression of curiosity. 

"Hey," she said. 

"Hi," he replied, "What were you up to?" he asked her, with a glint of interest in his stony gaze. 

"Just doing some light reading," Aria said. 

Hermione and Aria weren't much closer to getting answers about the whereabouts of the Horcruxes just yet, but it had been a good learning experience all the same. 

"Why? What were you doing?" she asked Malfoy. She usually wasn't one to ask him what he had been up to, as she had a feeling that he didn't want to talk to her. Nonetheless, considering he had been open enough to asking her what she had been up to, she didn't decide against it. 

"Just some light reading," Malfoy replied, "I mean- I have to be realistic here. It's not as if I'm going to be allowed out of the castle grounds any time soon. I might as well make the most out of it." 

Aria nodded in her understanding. 

"Listen, Hermione's waiting for me. I'll see you around, Malfoy," Aria said and Malfoy didn't stop her from walking past him and back towards the Gryffindor common room. 

"Yeah. Later," Malfoy said but Aria was already out of earshot by the time he had uttered the words. 

Once Aria got back to the Gryffindor common room, she could already tell that something had happened. 

"What's going on?" Aria asked. 

They all turned to her then and sighed. Even Fred and George looked pretty disheartened. 

"A Ravenclaw boy was killed this morning by a death eater," Hermione whispered, with a sad expression upon her face. 

"McGonagall managed to get him but...she's considering closing down the school," Ron added.

"That means that we're going to have to stay here and anyone else...will be sent home. I'm not leaving. I have to stay here and fight," Ginny said decisively. 

Aria wasn't about to leave her friends, either. 

"I'm staying, too," she said. 

Hermione regarded Aria with warm brown eyes of admiration, then. 

"It's good to have you around, Honey," she told her, with a kind smile. 

"Well, I'm glad to be around," Aria replied simply. 

She really did mean it, too. She couldn't imagine spending these dark times with anyone else.

"We have to be realistic here. The castle is incredibly dangerous, especially considering a death eater managed to kill one of the Ravenclaw boys but...the defenses are still in place and the boy was a short distance away from the castle when it happened so..." Hermione trailed off. 

"What she means to say is this," George said. 

"Although it is tragic, we're much safer in this castle than we would be outside of it," Fred said. 

Aria nodded at that. That much was a little reassuring. It didn't take away from the fact that what happened to the Ravenclaw boy was incredibly terrible, though. 

Harry, who had been fairly quiet for the majority of the conversation, soon spoke up again. He could sense the heavy atmosphere of the room and decided that his friends could do with a spark of inspiration. 

"This isn't going to happen again. We won't let it. We just have to be more ready," Harry said decisively. "Let's be creative here- Fred, George, do you think you could make some defenses for the windows of this common room? We may need to keep certain Slytherins out of here, too." 

"Please, Harry," Aria spoke up then, prompting Harry to look towards her with an expression of curiosity. 

"What?" he asked. 

"The Slytherins are in as much danger here as we are," she said. 

Even Hermione was slightly surprised by Aria's words, then, but she supposed that she could agree with her friend on this one. The death eaters were out for anyone. They had goals of taking down the half-bloods and muggle-born wizards and turning anyone that was a pureblood onto their side. 

"Then we'll let the good ones stay with us. We've all noticed how close you've been to Nott of late," Harry said. 

Aria's eyes widened at this. 

"What are you suggesting by that? We hung out once. It's no big deal," Aria said. 

Harry smirked at that. 

"Right. Anyway, we'll sort things out," he said. 

Hermione had always admired her friend's imaginative ways. She knew that when Harry was in charge, things happened. That was why she had never doubted him. She had always believed that if they all worked together, they would be able to take down Voldemort. 

"Let's get started. Let's protect this castle and let's protect each other," Harry said, which ignited determination in the hearts of the friends that stood around him. 

With Harry's words in mind, the gang began to use defense charms around the common room to completely secure it from the danger of the death eaters and the Dark Lord himself. 

Aria really hoped that they would be ready for his return. She was going to do everything in her power to ensure that they were.