Living Death

- chapter twenty one

TW : description of violence and injury.

After Quidditch trails, Harry urged Ron and Hermione to meet him in the common room before lunch, Ginny and the twins tagging along too out of sheer curiosity. Most Gryffindor students had already made there way to the Great Hall for lunch and the common room would be relatively empty, or at least he hoped it would.

"I saw her. With my own eyes." Harry said as they sat, gathered in front of the fireplace, Ginny beside him, the twins knelt against a nearby table and Ron and Hermione on the floor in front of him. "She went into the Room of Requirement after Malfoy"

Hermione's eyes widened "Did she see you?"

Harry nodded apprehensively "I think so.. we briefly locked eyes and she looked a little frightened"

"Of course she's frightened, she went to extremes to hide and now you've seen her" Hermione hummed in thought, a look of concern on her features "But she was hiding from Draco?"

"Yes" Harry nodded, leaning back a little into the couch "She clearly didn't want to be seen"

Ron looked puzzled and Ginny bit her lip in thought before speaking. "Maybe she needed to confirm something.. or she simply wanted to see him?"

"Maybe" Harry looked at her, then back to Hermione "It's a stretch but what if they're creating a rival army?"

Hermione shook her head "I know you've got it in your head that Draco is a Deatheater but I hardly think Voldemort is foolish enough to create an army under this roof" She laughed a little at the suggestion, looking to Ron before speaking again, "And besides Draco and his Slytherin friends, who would actually join? I'm sure Voldemort is content with his Deatheater following.

Harry nodded and hummed "True. I don't truly think Y/N is capable of being like that either, she was so heavily involved in the army last year"

"And when Umbridge discovered the list of members, she was ostracised by some of the Slytherins. I doubt she would have gone through all that to turn on us now" Hermione added.

They all nodded and hummed in agreement.

Whilst it was true you had tried to conceal your involvement with the Army at the time, when it all came out that you were involved, you had been victim to a lot of abuse from some other Slytherins. Your close friends never turned their back on you but you knew even they were surprised, Draco especially but he was oddly, somewhat happy. Lucius was destined for Azkaban at the time and Draco had always been concerned that you would end up wrapped up in Deatheater affairs somehow, so maybe he was just pleased you had chosen the opposing side.

Still Draco now bore the mark himself, and no matter how hard he scratched at it, it remained, growing deeper and darker each day as Voldemort grew ever more powerful. He was afraid. He had no escape. This was his life now.

Pansy and Theo came into the dormitory as Draco sat crouched over on the end of his bed, causing him to quickly pull down his sleeve over his reddened forearm. Only Theo knew of his mark and he knew Pansy would flip if she knew. They looked at Draco with a sort of worry, as if they were worried as to how he would react to whatever they were going to say. They exchanged looks to each other and Draco glared at them furiously in frustration "What is it?" They blinked at his sudden outburst "Spit it out"

"There's rumours that Y/N is alive" Pansy quickly answered, cowering slightly behind Theo all of a sudden.

Draco pulled a face in sheer upset and disbelief "What?"

"Potter and his lot were overhear talking about her, he said he saw her" Theo added, rubbing his neck "A few Gryffindor students have been speaking about it, we overheard them on our way to the Great Hall and decided to come and tell you. We cornered them and demanded they tell us everything they knew but that's all we have"