NOTE: I do not own any of the ideas or characters expressed in this story (except Cassie Jackson). All of these belong to J.K. Rowling.
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Draco P.O.V.
I’m in the Owlery, ripping up another one of my father’s letters without even reading it, when Blaise comes up from behind and scares the hell out of me.
“Jesus Christ,” I snap, jumping slightly as he seems to appear out of nowhere. I clutch the shredded letter in my hand, hoping Blaise won’t notice or ask about it.
“What’s that?” Blaise asks nosily, pointing to the torn letter that I’ve been trying to hide behind my back.
I sigh angrily and look down at it. “Nothing.”
“Right,” Blaise says. He goes to lean against the wall casually but quickly stops once he realizes it’s covered in bird shit. Ignoring the pointed look I’m giving him, he continues curiously, “Is it from Lucius?”
“No,” I reply hotly, then decide to change the subject quickly before he can press any further. “What are you doing up here?”
A jet black barn owl hoots loudly as it flies through the open window almost as soon as I finish speaking, a letter attached to its scaly leg. Blaise steps forward and accepts the letter from his owl, answering unnecessarily, “Getting a letter.” As the owl soars back out the window, Blaise tucks the paper in his pocket and gives me a small wave as he heads for the door, adding, “Anyway, I’ve got to go. Have fun shredding up your letter that isn’t from Lucius.”
Wondering why he’s being so cheerful, I glare heatedly at his back in annoyance as he exits the Owlery with a smirk. I turn to continue ripping up the letter once he’s gone, and when it’s finally reduced to little shreds, I toss the pile into the garbage bin by the far corner with relief. I’ve been ignoring my parents’ letters for weeks now, ever since I never came home for Christmas break. I’ve just been so busy trying to think up ways to get out of the marriage, and I don’t want to respond to their letters until I finally think of something. There’s no way I can marry Yaxley’s daughter, but refusing would mean basically killing my own parents—I can’t do that, no matter how much I hate them.
I turn away from the garbage bin with a heavy sigh, running my fingers through my hair. I’ll just ignore them for as long as I can, and then, and then…I don’t know what’ll happen. But then there’s the whole issue of not having told Cassie any of this…
Starting to get seriously cold from the openness of the Owlery, I quickly exit out the doorway and head down the stairs. Classes start tomorrow since it’ll be Monday, and I’ve unfortunately got a Potions essay to finish.
I don’t make it halfway down the first hallway before I see three guys in Slytherin robes heading my way. My stomach sinks as I see it’s Marcus Flint, Crabbe, and Goyle. By the look all three of them are giving me, it’s clear this isn’t going to be good; I find myself wishing Flint actually managed to graduate last year. I keep walking and look straight ahead as they come closer, so I don’t know if they’re watching me or not. But as they pass by, I feel Flint purposefully knock shoulders with me, so I stop and turn to face him angrily.
“Hey Malfoy,” Flint sneers, glaring down at me with a cool expression on his face as the three of them stop walking as well. He glances down the empty hallway and sees that I’ve just come from the Owlery. “Sending out letters to your lover?”
Fingering my wand in my pocket, I have to work harder than usual to keep my expression blank. When I don’t respond, Flint continues jeeringly, “We heard all about you and Yaxley’s daughter. Guess the Malfoy’s are so pathetic now that they’ll do anything to get on the Dark Lord’s good side.”
The anger boils up inside me, burning my stomach and making my vision darken. The way all three of them are smirking down at me like I’m an idiot makes me want to punch a wall. I swallow hard to push back the fury, but before I can say anything, Goyle adds with an annoying grin, “You move pretty fast, eh Malfoy? First the Ravenclaw and now a Death Eater.”
My fingers are starting to shake, so I move to push past them and snap furiously, “Get out of the way.”
“Just a minute,” Flint stops me quickly, pushing me roughly back away from them. I rip his hands off me and take a step back before I can lose it completely, but the three of them just press in closer. Flint leans in and sneers, “What’s the matter, Malfoy? We’d all love to hear why you dumped the Ravenclaw.”
“Back off,” I hiss, my knuckles surely turning white from clutching at my wand. The only reason I haven’t hexed them all to hell yet is because I don’t want to draw attention to myself with the Carrows. If they find out I got into a fight with some Slytherins, it won’t be good.
Goyle smirks at me and continues, “I bet it was because she couldn’t handle the Cruciatus curse. The great Draco Malfoy can’t date a weakling, can he?”
“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Crabbe adds for the first time, laughing at my livid expression. How the hell do they know about that?
The anger building up more and more, I spit furiously, “Shut the fuck up and get out of my way.”
The three of them take another step closer. Flint crosses his arms and says smugly, “Amycus told us all about what happened after she and those idiots broke into his office. Did the Ravenclaw tell you about that?”
“Flint, I swear to fucking God, one more word—“
He cuts me off easily, smirking down at me, “Did she also mention how much she screamed?”
Something inside me snaps. There’s a high pitched ringing sound in my ear, and my wand is out before I can stop myself. Maybe it’s because I’m so blind with rage that I can’t even think, but I faintly hear myself screaming some sort of spell and see Flint blasting away from me. He crashes into the wall on the left, and before his body hits the ground, I send another jet of red light straight for Crabbe.
I don’t see if it hits him or not—Goyle suddenly throws himself at me and slams me to the ground. Everything sounds muffled as I hit the floor hard, but I don’t seem to feel the cold stone on my back. I push Goyle off me furiously with strength I didn’t know I had and get to my feet, my vision so dark it’s difficult to see. Goyle’s lying a foot away, so I launch myself forward and grab him by the collar. I might have screamed some sort of insult first, but my fist definitely drives straight into his nose, staining his white shirt red.
“Sectumsempra!”
The breath catches in my throat as I feel a slice across the side of my chest, just under my right arm, and my hearing suddenly snaps back to normal. Goyle’s yelling something incoherent and clutching at his broken nose, and I can hear Crabbe moaning behind me. Losing my grip on Goyle’s shirt collar, I look down to see a dark stain spreading down the side of my jacket. I’m just reaching down to touch it with shaking fingers when someone slams into me from behind, sending us both crashing to the ground.
Flint pushes me roughly onto my back and punches me across the face before I even have time to realize what happened. Both our wands are forgotten as he hits me again, cracking across my jaw as I furiously try to throw him off me. His knuckle drives into the area right above my eye, and I feel the skin split under the impact. Blood already running down and obscuring my vision, I punch blindly for Flint’s face and finally make contact.
Feeling another burst of fury, I heave him off me and scramble painfully to my feet, clutching at my bleeding side. I see Crabbe reaching for his wand laying a few feet away, so I stumble over to kick it out of his reach. It spins off down the hallway, and I’m pulling back my arm to hit him when a spell blasts into me from behind, sending me crashing back down to the floor.
The cut on my side hits the stone hard, and I spit out a mouthful of blood as I struggle to get back on my feet. I’ve just gotten my knees up under me when Flint comes at me from the side, kicking my ribs violently and knocking me back to the ground. He strikes my side with his boot again, my vision dimming considerably—and this time, it isn’t from the anger.
Flint’s punching me again and again, and I’ve just decided it isn’t worth fighting back anymore when I hear someone yell, “Get the hell off him, you’re killing him—“
Before I can try to work out who it was, Flint is suddenly yanked off me and the punching abruptly stops. Coughing slightly, I roll to the side and wipe the blood from my eyes. I look up with blurry vision to see Flint fiercely shoving Blaise Zabini away from him, spitting something unintelligible. The gash on my side still dripping blood, I shakily get to my feet and look up to see Flint throw a punch at Blaise. The anger flares up hot again, and I rush at him without thinking twice. My fist cracks across Flint’s right cheek, but he barely even reacts to it. He turns to me with his face red with rage, and shoves me back hard, causing me to slam into the stone wall behind us. Flint grabs Goyle’s wand right out of his hand and points it straight at me, spitting furiously, “Cruci—“
“What do you think you’re doing?”
The spell dies in his throat before he can cast it, and all five of us turn to see Amycus Carrow striding towards us with a livid expression on his face. Flint drops the wand and takes a step away from me as Amycus stops in front of us, his face an angry red. Amycus points his wand at us, infuriated, and snaps angrily, “My office, all of you. Now!”
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse…