VIOLET
"And why am I not surprised to find you here in the library?" I started slightly, almost imperceptibly, at the suddenness of the voice, and looked up from the thick, heavy book that lay in my lap. "You're a bookworm, huh?" Seth stood in the doorway of the library, leaning his shoulder against the door frame, and with a grin, he walked over to the chair opposite me, sitting down with a heavy sigh.
His dark eyes swept the room, settling on the book I was holding.
"What are you reading? Fairy tales about little princesses?" One of his eyebrows arched in a mocking question, and as he met my gaze, he made a face of insight, "Actually no, it's more in the style of Adele, I guess. You probably read something about cold weapons, dark magic, or how to kill people without suspicion, right?" He almost croaked the last words in a whisper and chuckled softly again, running a hand through his shock of brown hair.
I felt uncomfortable when he was near me — a feeling that always coiled inside me like a snake, squeezing my insides, making it impossible to think about anything other than the huge red danger sign that said "get away from him, otherwise he will destroy you!".
"Why were you looking for me?" I forced the words out, frowning at his relaxed face and equally relaxed, even lazy, posture.
"I wasn't looking for you."
"Then what are you doing here?" I asked, and was surprised to find that my voice sounded impatient.
"I'm here for reading, of course, it's a library, isn't it?" He raised his eyebrows and reached for the nearest shelf, picking up the first book he touched without even looking at it, "But don't worry, if you just sit there still and silent, like a good girl, you won't bother me."
He buried his face in the book, pretending to be engrossed in reading, but I could see that his eyes were moving too fast, from top to bottom and diagonally, not from left to right.
"And after all, it's you who's reading fairy tales." I said after a few moments, pointing with my eyes at his book, which had "tales of the dark forest"written on the cover.
He frowned as he closed the book, then rolled his eyes and tossed it onto the small desk.
There was something wrong with him that day, I noticed right away. Usually, he either completely ignored my presence or was rude to me, pushing me with his shoulder when he passed by — and that day, he was... different. And it was suspicious.
In the back of my mind, I had all sorts of bad thoughts about what evil he was planning for me.
Seth opened his mouth to say something, but was immediately interrupted by the door slamming shut, followed by Draco's furious voice,
"I told you to stay away from her," He closed the distance between them with rapid strides, his jaw clenching as Seth rose from his chair and raised both hands in defeat, "What are you doing here?" His voice was low now, almost threatening.
"You and your girlfriend always ask such stupid questions?" Seth met Draco's gaze boldly, looking up at him, his face unreadable, "Don't worry, I won't touch your little diamond." He grinned then, and walked around Draco and out of the library, giving me one last look, filled with a kind of conspiracy, as if to say with his own eyes, "See what happens next." And something told me that these were not empty words.
"What did he want?" Draco asked with a sigh, sitting down on the chair where Seth had been sitting a few seconds ago, his pale hand running over his face. He looked tired, exhausted even, and it hurt that he had to worry about me as well.
"I don't know," I said, getting up from my seat and sitting on the arm of his chair, my hand resting on his shoulder, "Don't worry about him." I ran my hand gently over the fabric of his jacket, stopping at his neck, feeling his hair tickle the tips of my fingers. His tense shoulders relaxed a little and he turned to face me, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"He's up to something, I can feel it." Draco said in a lower voice, looking at me with eyes full of tenderness and sadness, "If he does anything to you, to my little diamond—" He broke off and looked away, but I could see the shadow of pain and fear in his eyes, even though his lips showed a faint smile because of the "name" he called me, as if even the thought of it — of Seth doing something to me, was making him suffer.
And I didn't know how to make him feel better, how to make him believe that I was going to be okay, that he shouldn't have worried — I didn't know, because I didn't believe it myself.
But still, I cupped his face in my hands, forcing him to look back at me, and whispered,
"Don't worry about it, nothing will happen to me."
And his sad, barely noticeable smile screamed louder than any words, "I can hardly believe it."
DRACO
That August evening felt sticky and dirty.
Walking along the avenues, on the narrow sidewalks, on the curbs, constantly bumping into people was not something I was used to.
Amid the noise of cars and the incessant hum of voices, I could barely hear even my own thoughts, let alone catch the essence of the words spoken by Seth, who was walking a little ahead of me.
I was surprised that he had chosen of his own free will to accompany us on a "walk" around the Muggle side of the city, looking for any sign of Harry Potter or his pursuers.
This was the reason why we had to choke on the exhaust fumes and dust, walking almost blindly on the roads.
"I'm already tired." Adele groaned behind me, after a few moments, and I wasn't surprised that she was the one who would start whining first. "Can we stop for a bit?" She asked, raising her voice, and it sounded desperate.
Adele was hopeless, and I had no idea what she was doing there — anyway, she wasn't taking Potter's capture seriously, she was just getting on everyone's nerves.
"Hey, watch it!" She gave a sharp exclamation, causing me to turn to her just as some child almost drove into me on his little scooter, nearly pushing me out into the roadway.
"Sorry." A woman with a small pale yellow panama hat in her hand, who was probably his mother, mumbled as she ran past us after the boy, stopping him from running into people again.
I found muggles, and especially muggle children, terribly irritable and frivolous.
"We're not on a camping trip to stop at every fifth meter, Adele, so shut up and—" Seth broke off abruptly, his eyes darting around, and then his brows drew together, "Where is Violet?"
I turned around to see only Adele, who was looking around, blinking her eyes.
Violet had been at the end of our chain, and now she was gone, and we didn't even know how long she'd been gone.
"I don't know anything, she was behind me." Adele mumbled, looking around forlornly, and I could see the growing panic she was desperate to hide on her face.
And before I knew it, my own heartbeat quickened at the realization that Violet really wasn't with us, at the realization that she was out there somewhere, out there, among strange places and people, and she couldn't even use magic if she was in danger.
An unpleasant feeling crept up inside me, slowly beginning to devour all my common sense.
"Where could she have gone?" Seth asked, still looking at the people, as if Violet was about to appear there in some unknown and magical way, "We'll fail the entire mission because of her." With a heavy sigh, he walked past me, heading back the way we'd come.
And suddenly Potter and his friends fell into the background.
VIOLET
I didn't know I had no sense of direction until I found myself in the middle of an unknown street, surrounded by passersby who were hurrying in different directions.
The last rays of the setting sun had lost the fight against the coming night, and now I stood wrapped in the night air and the darkness, in which the street lights glittered, helping me not to lose myself completely there.
I didn't know where to go, where I came from, or what to do next. I felt numb, rooted to the ground, mesmerized by the vibrant nightlife of one of the London boroughs — but I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be.
Some unknown force, whispering in my head, pulled me into one of the alleys, sparsely populated, almost deserted, with eerie buildings that looked abandoned if not for the dim light coming from the windows.
The stone-paved road was lit by the yellowish light of lanterns, which helped me to see the right faces in the people rarely passing by. But there was no need to look at the passers-by on the street, because the right faces were in one of the small cafes on that street.
There weren't many customers inside, and at the table that was right in the center, they were the ones we were looking for.
In the flickering light, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat with serious faces, talking and looking around, and I thought how stupid it was of them to draw more attention to themselves by doing this. It was as if they had built a trap for themselves and had fallen into it, leading us there, as if to say, "Here we are, catch us."
And I didn't want to lose this opportunity if it meant that we were one step closer to the end of all the torment and suffering.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing standing here?" Just as I was about to step inside that cafe, a reproach flew from a man's mouth at my back.
I turned around slowly, facing a man with thick stubble on his sunken cheeks, his bright green eyes looked unkind. He was thin but short, almost a full head shorter than me, he was dressed sloppily, his hair was greasy, and he smelled of alcohol and cigarettes.
I winced unconsciously when he spoke again,
"Hey? Are you deaf or something?" He snapped his dirty fingers a couple of times in front of my face and whistled, tilting his face closer to mine.
I shot a quick glance in the direction of the cafe, hoping that no one had noticed us, and angrily slapped his hand, causing it to fall limp.
"Get your damn hands out of my face, or you'll find them far away from here. Maybe then you will have enough space to pass by?" I took a threatening step toward him, staring into his dilated pupils.
He met my gaze boldly, a grin on his cracked lips, and then he clicked his tongue, repeating the step forward after me.
"I like ladies with sharp tongues," His voice was low, and he probably thought it was tempting, but I just wanted to cover my ears, "That's my favorite type."
"But I have to tell you, ladies don't like the type of pathetic bumpkins whose best friends are bottles of cheap alcohol," I saw something flash in his eyes that indicated I'd hurt his ego, "Leave. This is your last warning."
"And what will you do if I don't leave, huh?" He shoved his hands into the pockets of his threadbare jacket and rolled from his heels to his toes a couple of times.
"I'm good with weapons. Do you want me to show you?" With a heavy sigh, I reached into the pocket of my leather jacket and pulled out my wand only halfway so that he could see the handle.
I was bluffing, but I tried to stop my fingers from shaking, because if my plan had failed, then everything would have failed.
I hoped that his drunken brain would get scared and he would leave me alone, because I didn't know how to deal with him otherwise.
And luckily for me, it worked.
"Okay, okay, I'm leaving." He raised his hands as if in defeat and walked around me, saying under his breath, "Freak."
My fingers were still firmly gripping the handle of my wand, and my eyes were following the man when I heard the bell ring as the door opened and someone came out of the cafe I was about to enter. It felt like my heart was skipping a beat, and my breath was stuck somewhere in the middle of the journey, my body tensed with fear that the people I had come for were coming out of the cafe.
If they had noticed me, it would have been the end of everything.
I turned my head slowly, my heart sinking as I met the retreating backs of the two girls who had been sitting by the window a few moments ago. Glancing at the glass door of the cafe, I was relieved to find that the trio were still there, and still hadn't noticed me.
I'd been standing there for a good ten minutes, in the middle of an dark street, just staring inside the place as if I really were a freak, and with all my willpower, I lowered my head to the floor and finally went inside, with a group of people, who very conveniently appeared there, letting me to get lost among them.
I walked slowly to the empty table next to the trio's and sitting carefully with my back to them, I tried to listen to their quiet conversation, which was drowned out by the monotonous voices of the other customers and the melody that seemed to come from everywhere.
And I knew it was stupid to think that they would be talking about something important or useful to me there, but still, I tensed, listening to their soft voices.
"...a little more...not safe...soon...what to do..." I could only hear snatches of conversation coming to my ears in Hermione's nervous voice.
It didn't give me anything, it was just useless to sit there and eavesdrop when I didn't even know what I was expecting to hear. All I — we needed was right under my nose, all I had to do was hold out my hand, but no, something in me told me to sit still and keep listening. And I obeyed.
"We need to go to the shores of the Baltic Sea." Harry's voice was a little louder for a moment than it had been before, making me almost flinch.
But here it was, the Baltic Sea. It was at least something. And now I had to decide what to do with this information.
"Can I take your order?" Suddenly, a young, pretty waitress appeared next to my table, smiling broadly, showing her white, even teeth. Her brown curly hair, which was spread over her shoulders, was pinned up on both sides. Her brown eyes seemed to radiate warmth as they searched mine.
I was taken aback by this, because I even forgot that in such places you usually have to order something.
My heart began to gallop, beating a rhythm in my temples, and I suddenly felt that it was hotter and stifler there,
"I—" I stopped mid-sentence, running my hands over my thighs, so much and nothing in my head at the same time that it took a few more seconds before I spoke again, "A glass of water... please?"
Zoe, so it said on her badge, tapped her pencil on her little notebook, looking a little disappointed, and letting out a heavy sigh, she nodded curtly and walked away towards the massive door that probably led to the kitchen.
I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds, feeling my shoulders relax in relief, and focused back on the conversation between Harry and his friends, moving my hands from the sticky table to my lap.
"Oh no, Harry—" Ron said, and then I heard the sound of the chair legs scraping on the floor as they abruptly jumped out of their seats, drawing the attention of all the other people.
I didn't have time to understand anything, but I didn't even have to, because the next thing I knew, I heard a familiar voice, laced with poison,
"Look who's here," Seth took slow, predatory steps closer to us, grinning angrily, his eyes darting from Harry to me and back again, "I wanted to yell at you for getting lost and we should be wasting our time looking for you, but it turns out you've led us straight to the target, a pretty good job." He was talking to me, and that was the moment when I had to face Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"Violet?" Ron's voice was on the verge of breaking down, and I could tell they were in shock, as they were taking small steps back.
It hadn't gone the way I'd planned, even though I hadn't planned anything at all, and now I was even more confused.
"What is happening here?" Zoe — the waitress Zoe, with a glass of my water in her thin tanned hand, came up to us resolutely, her thin dark brows frowned, "What—"
Before she could say another word, Seth snatched the glass from her hand, causing her to gasp in surprise, and the next moment, the sound of broken glass filled the entire space as Seth threw the glass out the window.
He started flipping over tables where people were sitting, throwing chairs in different directions, and shouting for everyone to leave, including Zoe, the waitress.
And as the people ran screaming out of that cafe, emptying the space just for the seven of us, magic began to work.
I was blinded by the flashes of spells, deafened by the screams and the sound of furniture breaking, I was in a trance, almost blindly throwing spells in all possible directions, and it took me a moment to notice how the cafe began to fill with even more people.
"Violet, get down!" Draco's voice came from somewhere, and I obeyed it, crouching down as the wall cracked behind me, right where I'd been standing a second ago.
At that moment, I felt as if my heart was about to burst out, breaking my ribs, I felt as if all the sounds had become clearer, as if they were encircling me from all sides, very close to me, I felt as if the smell of coffee that was standing in the room became even more nauseating, because I hated coffee, and then all I felt was just pain — a stabbing, sharp pain that turned to aching and burning, causing me to writhe as I lay on the floor, feeling a pool of my own blood grow beneath my body.
How come I missed that hit and let someone cast a spell on me?
I didn't know, and it didn't matter anymore, because all of a sudden everything was blurred — the sounds, my vision, and with a final gasp of pain that cut through my flesh, I closed my eyes, hoping only that I would feel better.
DRACO
The second our feet hit the hot asphalt in the middle of one of the streets of London, I was sure that we would return to the manor with nothing.
It was a losing game, and so when Violet got lost, I didn't think, unlike Seth, that we would have wasted valuable time because of her, or that Potter and his friends would have escaped right out of our hands because of her, or that we would have been punished because of her — all I could think about was finding her safely and getting back home.
And the first part of my wish was fulfilled, which I could not say about the second one.
We walked through the streets, looking into the faces of every passer-by, looking into every corner and alley, into every shop and window, until Adele caught a conversation between two men, one of whom was talking about how he had just met some crazy woman with black hair and a dark spot in one of the irises, who almost killed him with a dagger.
It couldn't have been anyone else but Violet, so we followed that lead, and within minutes we were in the middle of some diner, exchanging spells with Potter and his supporters.
Everything was happening fast, there were still bodies lying around, the whole cafe was destroyed, and before the ministry employees could break in, we had to return to the manor, still with nothing.
I felt exhausted, and only realized it when my body relaxed in the cushioned chair, when my itchy limbs went limp and my head, which had seemed heavy and was still slightly dizzy, was thrown back.
And only when I sat down in this chair and heard the clock strike midnight I realized something was wrong.
I looked around the room, where there were only a few people left after everyone had returned, and I found that Violet was not among them. And what was even worse about this situation was that Seth wasn't there either.
A chill of fear ran through my skin when Adele, who had not yet left due to a leg wound, said that she had not seen Violet leave that cafe with everyone else to apparate to the manor.
"She might still be there, injured, or even worse—" I didn't allow myself to finish the sentence, running my hands nervously over my face as I tried to think straight.
"Draco," My mother's hand was on my shoulder, pressing me harder into the chair as I tried to get up, "I'm sure she's fine, it's only been a few minutes—"
"It's already been a few minutes, mother," I interrupted irritably, still getting up from the chair, ignoring her pursed lips, "And why isn't she here yet?"
I glanced again at the people in that room, at their emotionless faces, at the way they avoided my eyes — and I chuckled, because it all looked like they were hiding the fact that something was really bad. It was like Violet was dead and they didn't know how to tell me.
"I'm going back there." I muttered as I turned away from them.
I wasn't going to just sit there and wait for something when there was a chance that Violet wasn't okay, that she needed help.
An anxiety that was a frequent visitor, or even a permanent resident, crept up inside me — settled somewhere between my ribs, in the area of the solar plexus.
I had to find her so I could breathe freely again.
"Draco, wait—" My mother's voice trailed off as Seth appeared in our drawing room with the sound of an apparition, Violet in his arms.
I had to find her so that I could breathe freely again, it was supposed to be like that. But the moment she appeared in front of my eyes, lying in Seth's arms, her hair and hands covered in blood hanging in the air, her pale face frozen in agony — at that moment, I felt like I couldn't breathe at all.
"What happened?" I sprinted forward, kneeling next to Violet as Seth laid her on the floor. Instantly, a pool of blood began to grow beneath her. She was wounded, everywhere, and her blue lips didn't bode well.
"She seems to be losing her skills." Seth said, collapsing onto the couch with a tired sigh.
The skin of his face, neck, and arms was also covered in blood, Violet's blood, and I realized with horror how much blood she had lost.
"How do I fix this?" I mumbled, wide-eyed, staring at her face, which seemed to have already erased the slightest hint of life, at her scarlet blood that was on my hands — I didn't even notice how I put my palms on her body, trying to stop the bleeding even a little — I was numb, not knowing what to do, "How can I fix this, how can I help her?"
Was this really the end? Was it really supposed to end like this — in blood and pain? Was I really supposed to lose a part of myself, leaving my hands in streams of blood soaking into the wooden floorboards?
The realization didn't want to reach me, and I just kept sitting there, pressing my hands against her stomach as hard as I could, and time seemed to flow incredibly slowly, unlike the blood leaving her body.
"Draco, move." The cold, deep voice snapped me out of my stupor as I felt a slight push on my shoulder, and I looked up to meet Snape's dark eyes. His wand was gripped tightly in his hand, pointing at Violet, and there was a determination in his eyes that gave me hope. A small hope that she would be saved, that she would be all right, back with me.
I obeyed him, moving to the side, reluctantly removing my hands from her body, and watching her face with a sinking heart as Snape muttered some spell.
I didn't see what was happening around me, I didn't see what was happening with her wounds and the pool of blood, because all my attention was focused on her face — I didn't want to miss a single change in her face, I didn't want to miss the moment when her face regained its vital hue, when her parted lips returned to their pinkish color, when her face smoothed out the wrinkles between her eyebrows and it took on an expression of serenity. I didn't miss the moment when her chest started to go down and up more clearly — she was breathing calmly and she was okay.
She didn't wake up right away, but I knew she was okay now.
Holding her small body in my arms as I carried her into the room, I felt like I was coming back to life, too, because the moment I thought I'd lost her, everything inside me seemed to turn to stone.
"I don't want to be dramatic, but don't you dare forget me." She said a few minutes later in a low voice as I laid her on the bed, covering her with the blanket; there was a faint smile on her face, but her eyes quickly closed because she was still weak.
"It's impossible." I whispered as I lay down beside her, her face looking pale in the moonlight, but her fluttering lashes told me she was still alive, she was fine.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it was impossible — to forget her.