"Don't worry, Black, I already have your cousin for that."
-James' Pov-
The second I heard Del's name a rush of patchy memories flooded my head and I instantly groaned from the embarrassment, how the hell did I go from being jealous of Lily to kissing Del? Lucius' sister for crying out loud, the girl who was raised by Death Eaters and Blood-Prejudices', Merlin, the girl as probably one of them herself yet I let my idiotic, intoxicated self kiss her.
These were the things I've been telling myself over and over to try and knock myself back into reality but once I saw her plate empty, again, all those stupid and absurd thoughts left my mind as new ones entered.
I waited for a while trying to be patient and wait for her to finally begin to place food onto her plate but the moment never came, instead she tried to leave the Great Hall.
Fuck. No.
As she placed her broken down leather messenger bag over her shoulder and began to sit up I quickly yet sneakily snaked my arm out and grabbed her wrist from across the table shooting her right back down onto the bench.
Her eyes shot up to my covered ones and she looked at me confused, with my left hand still attached to her wrist I did a quick double check to make sure no one was watching before I used my free one to pile food onto her plate, I placed two fried Sunnyside up eggs, two thin logs of sausage, a triangle slice of toast, and a small scoop of beans in front of her, the perfect British breakfast.
"Eat." I whispered in a demanding tone making sure she knew that it wasn't up for negation, but of course her being her annoying and childish self she pushed the plate towards me and shook her head like a toddler as she mouthed 'No'.
I rolled my eyes not feeling like dealing with her games and shoved the plate back towards her as I mouthed 'Yes'.
Her annoyed demeanor only deepened as she huffed, quickly shot up from the table, and walked straight out of the Great Hall.
I ticked my tongue on the roof of my mouth as annoyance of my own began to bubble beneath my skin, I thought about following her but before I even had the chance to consider the idea she had walked back into the Great hall and sat back into her original seat again with a metal coffee mug.
"A bit dramatic don't you think?" I snarked, referring to her over exaggerated exit.
"Oh please, Potter, out of the both of us I am the least dramatic." She replied with attitude as she took a deep inhale and began to take small bites from her plate, after each swallow she would bring the mug to her lips acting as if it had been some sort of chaser.
Looking at her flabbergasted, I almost laughed at the lies that were coming out of her mouth. I was probably the least dramatic in all of Gryffindor if not all of Hogwarts, "Have you lost the plot, Malfoy? I am most definitely not dramatic."
"Really? So what was it that you were telling your mates last night? That I had saved your life wasn't it? Now you look me in the eyes and tell me that that's not dramatic." She said while she moved her plate slightly so she could rest her chin on the palm of her hand as she stared at me with a sickly sweet smile and raised eyebrow waiting for a response.
My face immediately scrunched up with cringe and it was only until then did I realize that all three, Remus, Peter, and Sirius had been completely engrossed in the conversation that the blonde and I had been having based on the silent laughs I heard coming from the lot.
"She got you there, Prongs." Remus reasoned as he gave the Malfoy a not so subtle wink from across the table.
"Prongs?" The girl asked with an eyebrow raised.
All four of us went quiet as the Malfoy stared at us with confusion and judgment.
"It's an inside joke." Sirius replied with confidence and we all held our breath until she finally shrugged and went back to drinking her coffee and eating small portions of her food.
When I was sure that we no longer held her attention I gave the three boys a quick warning glance sending them a sign to be more careful about the nicknames.
After a while boredom began to wash over me. Peter and Marlene were having a random argument and everybody was just mindlessly listening to the two but I was over the conversation after the first five minutes.
"Are you still meeting Sirius and I after lunch for quidditch?" I randomly asked the Malfoy trying to spark up any sort of conversation.
She paused her fidgeting as she looked up at me with shock in her eyes.
"Oh you were serious?"
"No I was still James?" I let the stupid pun slip out of my mouth before I could stop myself, she stared at me with an eyebrow raised as the annoyance was beginning to consume her once again.
"Yes I was serious about that, you don't have to if you don't want to but it might be fun." I shrugged as I went back to cutting into my food.
"So if you are still planning on trying out for the quidditch team for the Seeker position it might be best for you to get as much practice as you can today, with Sirius and I or not, it's your decision, but the competition will be tough tomorrow." I continued truthfully, I didn't mean this in a rude way but I highly doubt that she had much experience with quidditch.
She nodded as the conversation grew between us, it was weird, whenever I had a conversation between anyone else I would get distracted by the smallest things, well except when I talked with Lily of course, but whenever I talked with Del it was like time sped up like crazy.
Last night for example, we had been up on the Astronomy Tower for what felt like minutes but in reality was for hours.
I was barely even registering what I was saying, but it must've been funny since I broke out of my train of thought the second I heard her laugh, Merlin have mercy that laugh will be the damn death of me one of these days.
"Del."
And just like that the laughter stopped as she looked up to see her brother at the table.
I noticed as her face morphed into an expressionless one as her back straightened out making her posture perfect.
Lucius had not only snapped Del out of her happy mood since now everyone that was around us was staring at the intruder who was standing in front of us.
"Oi Malfoy go kiss a snake or something and sod off will you?" Sirius shot back, he had always hated Lucius the most out of all Slytherins since he was the one who influenced Regulus to stay away from such a 'Blood-Traitor'
His words, not mine.
"Don't worry Black I already have your cousin for that." Lucius winked, obviously referring to Narcissa.
Sirius had never been close with his family but he was still a Gryffindor which was why he immediately tried to stand up but thankfully Remus was quick to grip bare wrist and pull him back down.
I had also noticed that Sirius wasn't the only one who was not humored by his sick joke, I looked up to see Del glaring knives at her brother.
Lucius was clearly amused that he had gotten a ruse out of Sirius since he had a sinister smirk plastered on his face but he soon returned his attention to his sister.
"I would like to have a word with you." His tone sounded like a fathers as his gaze became more narrowed, I noticed how his jaw clicked with annoyance as his nostrils flared with anger.
I felt Del immediately tense up next to me as she inhaled a deep breath like she had already known what the conversation was going to be about.
"Whatever you can say to her you can say in front of us." Marlene laughed as she glanced at her newly polished nails with a smile on her face.
"It's bad enough that she is associating with blood-traitors and mud-bloods like you lot so I definitely do not need such filth to know personal matters." Lucius replied back carelessly before he nodded for Del to get up.
Now the rest of the Gryffindor table was staring appalled at the situation that was going on, it was no lie that most muggle-borns, half-bloods, and "blood-traitors" were sorted into the grand house of Gryffindor so most, if not all had been majorly offended by the Slytherins words.
I looked over at Del, almost hoping she would say something as simple as a 'no' to him or try and defend her house but instead she closed her eyes shortly with embarrassment, shook her head, sighed, and then rose from her seat and walked away from the table.
Once she was nearing Lucius, instead of stopping and talking to him she had purposely shoulder checked him and continued her way, not to the Slytherin table where she was supposed to go, but instead out of the Great Hall in general, and I do not believe she will be coming back this time.
"Bloody hell, women." Lucius grumbled towards his sister before he shook his head towards the Slytherin table as he walked back towards them, Regulus' eyes immediately hardened as he watched the door and he said something to the Nott boy next to him before he finished his pumpkin juice and walked out of the Great Hall.
"You alright, Evans?" I heard Peter ask, I turned over to see what the issue was and I was met with a picture of my favorite ginger with an uncertain expression on her perfect face.
"Oh, uhm, yes I guess I am, it is no big deal." She laughed off as she rubbed the back of her neck, her response confused me, she knew that we wouldn't have taken an answer like that and she wasn't one who played the questioning game.
"What's up, Lils?" Alice asked.
"Well I'm just a little worried is all." She replied with a coy expression waiting for someone to play along and continue asking questions.
"About?" Mary followed.
"Well I've just noticed that Del has been having a lot of secrets lately and I don't want to have us all get mixed within something that would cause problems."
She was met with an awkward silence, no one really knew how to reply to that, or at least I didn't.
"Real rich coming from you, Lils." Marlene muttered to Dorcas yet the silence was so thick between us all it was as if she had yelled it out for us all to hear.
Practically everyone in our group's heads had popped up by the sarcastic comment, it was extremely rare for the girls to get into a fight.
"Marls, you can't possibly be mad over such a little thing." Lily attempted to reason with the girl but she was met with a scowl before her and Dorcas but dramatically stood up and stomped out of the Great Hall.
What is going on today?
-Regulus' Pov-
Even though it had been the next day none of us could believe what Del had said, I don't think we had all been so confused with her before, she had always been upfront and honest even when we wished she wasn't.
Once we heard that Del and Leo were no longer together we obviously had questions, we were all so set on the fact that the two would get married and then whatever had gone down over the summer of 1976 had completely wrecked that thought.
Even though it may had been too overbearing for her, we all began to flood her with our demanding questions, us thinking about our own curiosity over her anxiousness, and all of that lead to her completely shutting down and acting as if everything was okay, the worst part was, that if I hadn't known her better, than I would've believed her stable façade, but I do know her better, and I know that okay is one of the last things that she was at the moment.
When we all got to our common room we went to Del's old room which still held lots of her personal belongings and some of her clothes that she hadn't brought to Leo's with her, we all made our own conspiracy theories on why the two broke up, it went from the fact that the two might've just gotten sick of each other and needed time, to the thought that one of them had done something un-loyal to the other,Cal, the Carrow Twins, and I kept our own theories to ourselves and I knew that creating their own reasonings would help them sleep at night but I also knew that the true reasoning for their breakup had been none of those.
Even though we all knew that the last gathering hadn't gone the best and that we had promised to leave the situation be, we were already planning another one not even two days later.
I obviously set ground rules like if she wasn't comfortable then we would move on to the next question with no argument or that there was no yelling allowed etc. but knowing how our group was, mainly Cal and Bella, it most likely wouldn't go so smoothly.
During breakfast we sent Lucius for one job, which was to just bring Del over to the Slytherin table, regardless of what Professor McGonagall said, but of course his prejudiced arse had to start insulting people which led to Del getting royally pissed off and storming out.
Out of all of Slytherin, Del had been the least prejudice, even though she wasn't technically one of us she had been very close to it and made many bonds with different people in the house, she never let someone's blood or family origin define who they were, which most found disgusting and pathetic but I found it to be truly pure of her, it takes an immense amount of bravery to live by that mindset and still roam around a house like such, everyone was so confused how she made Gryffindor and not Slytherin but the only thing that confused me was how it wasn't Hufflepuff that she sorted into.
Once I got the sign from Lucius that it hadn't gone as planned I narrowed my eyes at him, annoyed that he had failed such a simple task.
"Lucius shockingly messed it up so I'm going to go talk to Del." I whispered to Cal with annoyance and sarcasm in my voice to which he nodded with a chuckle.
"I told you that you shouldn't have sent him to that table." He replied to which I ignored, my pride too strong to let myself admit that I was wrong.
I quickly finished the rest of my pumpkin juice which held the smallest portion of Fire Whiskey, since my hangover had been bloody killing me, and then walked out of the Great Hall to meet up with the mysterious blonde.
-Del's Pov-
I could not stand my brother, or any of my prejudiced friends at the moment, of course I loved them all with my whole heart, but I truly hated their racist mindsets.
It was completely and utterly mortifying to be in that situation back there, but I get too scared to tell Lucius to stop his behavior, I didn't want to lose the last bit of my family and obviously I knew he loved me but I don't know if he would choose me over his set in stone beliefs.
Making my way to my classes one by one I would quietly enter and neatly place my missing assignments onto the teachers desk before moving onto the next.
Finally reaching my last class, potions, I made my way to Professor Slughorn's desk and placed the thin stack onto it. I was about to leave but something had quickly caught my eye.
Frowning at the random letter I checked to see if anyone was near before I let my curiosity get the best of me, picking up the worn down paper I flipped it so I could see what the writing was.
Dear Mr. Riddle,
Oh how great it was to hear from you again Tom, you had always been the brightest of your year, I will not lie, I was quite surprised by the request on information on horcruxes-
I jumped and immediately hid the letter behind my back, not being able to finish the rest of it once I heard the door to the classroom creak open, looking up I was met with a silhouette of two males, based on the view of there fluffy hair and healthy posture I knew it wasn't the Professor so I let out a small breath of relief before folding the letter tightly and stuffing it into the pocket of my sweatpants and making my way to the door, hoping that the two wouldn't ask any questions but once they walked closer into the light I froze with instant fear and nausea.
Once the two saw me they too stopped in their path as we all stared at each other with wide, uncertain eyes.
Cepheus Parkinson and Altair Avery.
It felt as if my feet were glued to the floor, my chest began to raise up and down faster by the second.
"Malfoy." Parkinson spoke with sincerity, I could tell he was going to say something more but I didn't think I would be able to physically handle it so using all the willpower in my body I continued walking to the door with my guard up just in case one of them were to try something.
"Wait Del!" I heard one of them call, but I kept walking, tears of fear threatening to leave my eyes.
It was only until I felt one of them grasp my wrist when I finally acted on my first instinct.
Turning around swiftly I was met face to face with a sympathetic Parkinson to which I immediately slapped him for even thinking about touching me.
"Don't you ever touch me again you hear me? And you do not own the privilege of my first name, it is Malfoy to you." I seethed, my vision almost turning red with rage, all emotion rising to the surface, fear, sadness, wrath, humiliation, and betrayal.
I had to ignore the cringe I felt on how similar I sounded to my brother or father.
A small part of me felt bad for how poorly I was treating him. I knew that his sister was at risk but at that moment I was too adrenalized and scared to even remember that painful detail.
His head quickly swung to the left from the impact and there was an already forming red spot on his right cheek.
He kept his head to the left for a small moment before his eyes went down to where his hand was still holding my wrist and immediately went wide eyed and released my wrist like it had burnt him.
"I am so sorry I shouldn't have touched you, but I, I mean we, really need to talk to you De-Malfoy." He rushed out.
I looked behind him to see Avery looking down with shame, I knew that I should say no, I really did, for not only my safety but also for my mental well being, but a part of me felt like I needed to hear what they had to say, maybe I would be able to get some sort of explanation on why they all so heartlessly and randomly chose to assault me in such a way, to see if I had done something wrong to earn such a monstrous act.
"Parkinson, I fear if that is not the best of ideas, I don't want any harm-"
"No, no, Malfoy I promise you none of the sort, Altair and I just truly need to speak with you, we can wait for when you are ready if you are not comfortable with speaking with us."
"I will think about it but please do not hold your breaths."
Parkinson went to open his mouth but once I saw Regulus walking up to us I quickly shook my head to signal for the boy to keep whatever he had to say to himself.
"Everything alright?"
Avery, Parkinson, and I all shared a small glance before I took a deep breath, looked back to Regulus, and nodded with a smile.
"Yes, everything is great."
Regulus continued staring at me with no emotion as if he were studying me before nodding as well.
"Just think about it, that's all we ask of, Malfoy." Parkinson said before him and Avery walked back into the potions classroom.
"What was that all about?"
My head shot back to Regulus who was still staring at me with his head tilted ever so slightly, I could tell he was biting the inside of the corner of his lip by the way it had a small indent in it, something he had always done when he was deep in thought.
"What do you mean, Regulus?" I asked, knowing he would follow right besides me, I began walking up the corridor to the charms classroom, it was about time I started actually showing up to my classes.
"What I mean is," He drew out as he finally reached side by side to me "One, why are you speaking with Cepheus and Altair, and Two, what was he talking about, what are you supposed to think about?"
I let out a relieved sigh, I don't know how I would even begin to explain my reasoning if he saw me slapping Parkinson.
"Why? Jealous that I'm speaking with other Slytherins that aren't you." I teased, hopefully drawing us away from his questions.
"Actually, yes I am, it was like ever since you moved to Gryffindor I barely even see you anymore."
"I-"
"Which is why." He drew out once again with a hoping smile on his face. "You should spend the rest of the day with us, bugger what Professor Gon Gon says."
"Reg, I already know how this is going to go, it will be all fun and games when we are in the public eye but the second we enter the common room I will be flooded with questions that I don't want to answer."
"Okay I will admit, we are all extremely confused on why the two of you are no longer together, but if the topic is that sensitive then we won't bring it up, deal?"
I knew who our friends were, which is exactly why I knew what he was saying was a complete load of rubbish, they would never stop until they got the answers they wanted, which in this case, they would never receive.
The roll of my eyes gave Regulus my response but after his annoying bargaining I had finally caved to, in his words, 'have a Slytherin day.'
"Del where do you think you are going?"
I turned around confused to see him still at the main dungeon intersection which led straight to the common room.
"To the charms classroom, that's my next class."
"It's Thursday, Del."
I was surprised I hadn't gained a headache from the amount of times I have already rolled my eyes today, Lucius Malfoy, Evan Rosier, Calloway Nott, Severus Snape, Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Regulus Black always ditched classes on Thursdays since they believed it was the day of the week where nothing counted, if something happened only once, and it was a Thursday, then it was as if it never happened at all.
To them it was hands down, the best day of the week.
But of course that was just their excuse to just ditch a day of classes.
"Reg, I have missed almost this entire week of classes, there are some that I haven't even stepped foot in yet." I began to try and reason but the look on his face proved that my whining was getting nowhere with him.
"But that's the best part, it's Thursday, so it doesn't matter." He smiled, I never understood how people found him intimidating, he was literally a toddler in a fifteen year old boy's body.
Except for when he was mad, then it would be in their best interest to be terrified.
Apologizing to my future self, I broke out in a small smile as I began to shake my head and walk back towards the 'T' shaped intersection.
Once we finally reached the Slytherin common room he turned away from the door and stared at me
"Turn around and cover your ears."
I stared back at him confusingly before I finally gasped with betrayal once I realized what he meant, the bloody wanker didn't want me hearing the password.
"That is low of you Regulus Arcturus Black, I believe that you've forgotten that I lived with the Slytherin house for five years?"
"Key word Del, lived, now you're a Gryffindor and cannot be trusted, what if you got mad at us and gave our password to your little besties so they could all prank us, I will not be taking any risks. Now turn around and cover your ears unless you would like us to be stranded outside this door until someone opens it."
I gave him one of the dirtiest scowls I could manage before reluctantly turning around and 'covering' my ears.
"Pure-Sang."
Really? Pure-Blood in French.
So original.
"Okay you may enter."
"Shut up Arcturus." I grumbled before I walked into the common room to which I was met with all the faces that I had been avoiding lately.
"Bloody hell, Regulus, what'd you do to make you and her on middle name status." Cal laughed as everyone had gotten up so we could begin moving to our designated spot, my old room.
"I didn't let her hear our password." He replied as he began to ruffle up my hair.
Other than the small encounter with Cal the walk up the stairs near the boys dorms had been completely silent.
Finally and thankfully reaching my old room at the end of the hallway we all entered slowly and I was immediately blasted with the strong stench of muggle-marijuana and Fire-Whiskey.
"For people who hate muggles, you lot sure do love their drugs." I snarked as I walked in with my hand covering my mouth and nose, anger soon began to bubble beneath my skin once I saw small bags with random multi-colored pills, white powders and grains, dried out mushrooms, and random colorful square shaped substances which looked to be paper, but knowing how they all were I was assuming it was the hallucinogen, Lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as LSD, or to put it simple, acid.
Once Lucius heard what I said his eyes quickly followed mine to the small coffee table near the fireplace, he immediately grabbed the drugs and hid them in the small nightstand next to my bed, real smooth.
"They aren't ours." He nervously laughed while looking around, meeting everyone's eyes but mine.
"Lucius, I don't care what you dumbarses decide to snort, shoot, inhale, or swallow, just as long as you lot are being safe I won't have a problem with it." I lied, I absolutely loathed what they did to themselves but it was their choice and I didn't feel like having an intervention with seven ruthless druggies.
"Wow, being in Gryffindor really switched you up." Bellatrix said with a mix of a shocked and happy face, referring to all the times before this year that I had rained on the drug party.
That wasn't being in Gryffindor, it was becoming tired.
Thankfully the conversation between the all of us flowed smoothly, not that I would admit this to them since their immature personalities would only let it inflate their ego, but I had missed them tremendously, what Regulus had said earlier was true, after Professor McGonagall gave me the orders to eat at the Gryffindor's table and sleep in the lion's den it felt as if I barely saw my family anymore, and when I did it was never the best of conversations, yet that part had been my fault, but for now it is best that they do not know about Summer of 1976.
"Del?"
I quickly registered that I had zoned out of the conversation and snapped my head to Evan while humming in question.
"Sorry, could you repeat that?"
"I asked what you've been doing lately, you always get bored at this school and have to find some sort of entertainment."
I pondered on the the question for a second, it was true that I was known for getting quite bored at Hogwarts, this year I plan on having my new distraction on quidditch, but I know that if they found out I was trying out for the Gryffindor team they would not be too happy about it.
So that's exactly why I chose to tell them.
"Well today I'm going to be practicing for a little bit with James and Sirius, and then tomorrow I am trying out for the quidditch team," I smiled before looking straight at Regulus who already looked appalled "For the Seeker position of course."
"Absolutely bloody not." Lucius deadpanned.
As I told Marlene and Dorcas last night, Leo had never wanted me to try out because he was concerned for my safety, but the reason Lucius and Regulus, or literally any other Slytherin didn't want me to try out was because they all know that if I am on the team, all of Slytherins wins will go out the window. I was the one who taught Regulus, the best Seeker in Hogwarts, meaning I know all his tricks, secrets, strengths, and weaknesses, so if I were to make the team and it came to us both chasing the snitch one on one then it would be an easy win on my end.
"D, that is an absolute load of tosh, if you truly loved us you would not do this." Cal added with a genuine concerned frown plastered on his pretty boy face.
"Del, we are concerned for your safety, what if you were to get seriously hurt? Are you sure you have thought this through?" Evan added while nervously rubbing the back of his neck, obviously trying to scare me out of playing, bloody snakes.
"Yes. I am trying out and it's final." I laughed while shaking my head, Narcissa and Severus were the only ones who looked like they couldn't give a care in the world, they had never been one for quidditch.
After what felt like a lifetime of more bargaining and complaining they soon realized that I was going to be selfish for once and continue my own path.
"Wait." Regulus randomly blurted with a growing smile on his face, "You said you were practicing with my brother and the Potter boy."
"Yes?" I asked confused.
Cal and Lucius seemed to be catching onto what Regulus was thinking as their own annoying teasing smiles grew on their faces.
"Oh, Del, Del, little naïve Del." Regulus laughed as he shook his head slowly.
Now it seemed as if everyone had caught onto the joke yet I had never been so confused.
"D, you do realize that if they asked for you to practice with them they are just going to try and teach you how to play quidditch right? Honestly no one except Slytherin knows your skill in the sport."
"They are going to act like Professor Hooch and treat you like you're a first year, Del."
"Oh I have got to see this." Narcissa laughed to which I immediately covered my face into my hands, if they even dared to try and teach me how to mount a broom stick I would quite literally pitch myself off the Astronomy Tower.
"Merlin, I preferred you lot when you were all high." I mumbled sarcastically to myself, but as if Lucius had heard me he finally stood up with a sigh and walked towards the nightstand.
Everyone's faces seemed to light up once he came back with a small clear bag filled with the light green herb.
Sitting back down he reached for the small coffee table in front of us, opened the drawer, which I didn't even know existed, and pulled out a glass rectangle.
I watched with curiosity as he emptied a few of the nugs from the bag onto the glass tray and began to separate the herb from it's stems, it's malodorous aroma already filling the room, yet the part of me that had wanted to leave was drowned out as astonishment began to pour in once he pulled out another odd glass object, this one almost looked like an enlarged beaker that we would use in potions class.
I would usually always leave when they had chosen to smoke around me since I could never stand the pungent scent so this was my first time seeing how the process had happened.
Once all the herb had been separated from its stem Lucius had reached for the water pipe and picked the bowl piece out from the down-stem before nodding at Regulus towards the oddly shaped glass to which he casted a quick 'Aguamenti' charm to fill it partially with water.
Lucius soon began to pluck the already separated drug from the trey and pack them in the small hollowed out sphere, after Regulus had decided the object had enough water he passed it back to Lucius who placed the small bowl snuggly back into place, it was only until then when he finally glanced up at me.
"Are you okay with this?" He asked hesitantly.
"Lucius, I already said this, you all can do whatever you'd like to, I'm not your parent."
A small victory smile formed on his face as he shrugged.
He brought the water pipe up to his lips and set the tip of his wand on top of the plant until it began to glow red hot, I watched mesmerized as the glass began to fill with the white, almost yellow opaque smoke until it soon came to an end once he picked up the bowl piece, the smoke disappeared as the satisfying sound of the water bubbling filled the room.
His face twisted with what seemed to be pain as he blew out a hefty amount of smoke with coughs in-between, the smell only growing more prominent to where I almost felt the need to cough as well, with the light shining through the window you could see the different waves of the clouds flowing throughout the whole room.
I felt as if I were in a trance of some sort, I couldn't keep my eyes off of the bong as it was passed around the room, after it had only passed three people they had to re-pack the bowl, the stench had become so fluent that I could no longer smell it.
I forced my eyes to finally train off of the fascinating piece of glass and let them roam back to Lucius who was engrossed in the group conversation, his lids now only half way open while his eyes were now tinged with a light red color bringing out his bright blue irises, his pupils looked like they had expanded in size while his lips were framed with a lazy smile as he laughed at something that Evan had said.
My train of thought was broken once I realized that everyone was now looking at me, when did they even stop talking?
"Well?" Cal asked with his head tilted and his bottom lip slightly caught between his teeth as he tried to hide an eager smile.
"Huh?"
"Del we promise it won't hurt you, and if anything were to go wrong then we have a ton of sobering potions." He continued yet I stayed looking at him with furrowed eyebrows, what in the name of Merlin is he talking about?
"Cal, you have got to elaborate, I have no bloody clue on what you are speaking about."
"Merlin, you have been spacing out a lot today." Narcissa laughed before she sat up more straight, moving out of her slumped posture "What he asked was, would you like to try some."
"Try some of what?"
"Del." Regulus laughed as he picked up the water pipe and moved onto the bed next to me, "What we are wondering is, would you like to take a hit off this magical creation?"
My eyes immediately widened with alarm as I stood up from the bed, "Regulus, you know how I feel about all of this, I don't think this is the best idea." I spoke as I tried to convince myself that a small part of me did not want to try it.
"D, no one here is forcing you to try anything that you don't want to, but all I want you to think about is do you really think we would offer something that would bring you harm?" Regulus quickly reassured before nodding me to sit back down, all the conversation had died down as everyone's eyes were now fixated on me.
I took a deep inhale and mentally cursed myself for my intruding thoughts, it was true on what he had said, they had all been over protective so I know that they would never force me or introduce me to something dangerous, and I couldn't even lie, I was extremely curious on what being under the influence had felt like.
I had never felt this much temptation in my life before.
"You guys have sobering potions, correct?" I asked hesitantly which Regulus nodded enthusiastically knowing that he was slowly but surely convincing me.
And that was when I made once again, another decision I would regret.
I nodded.
The room was filled with gasps and laughs as I was flooded with questions like 'Are you serious?' or 'Are you sure?'
To which I nodded again.
Regulus quickly gave me the rundown on how it worked, but he said he would help me for my first time and all I had to do was inhale and then give him the thumbs up when I wanted him to stop.
He quickly emptied the ash on the floor, how sanitary, and packed the bowl to the brim.
Everyone had concerningly large smiles on their faces as they soon surrounded the bed like children.
"Whenever you're ready, love." Regulus soothed.
Giving myself a quick and shitty pep talk I released a small exhale and slowly placed my lips on the rim of the glass, I saw the tip of the wand reach the marijuana and once it began to glow red I began to inhale.
At first it felt like I was just breathing air but once the milky smoke reached and embraced my lungs was when I began to feel the slight burn, not knowing what my limit was I continued to inhale until it felt as if I couldn't go any longer which was when I gave Regulus the thumbs up and as he promised he immediately removed the bowl piece.
I didn't even register the photo that was taken by Evan as I began to exhale, my face twisted with pain as it felt like my lungs had caught on fire, once I started coughing it felt like I couldn't stop until my eyes were watering.
Once I finally had calmed down I looked up to see them all looking at me with the largest of grins, even Severus was laughing.
"Holy fucking shit." Bella whispered with a laugh.
"I have waited so long for this damn moment." Lucius followed.
Everyone seemed to be stoned out of their mind and filled with a certain amount of Euphoria which I was envying majorly, I didn't feel a damn thing.
"What's wrong?" Regulus asked as he put his arm over my shoulder, concern quickly growing on his face.
"I don't feel shit." I grumbled.
Regulus pursed his lips as he tried not to smile, "Love, you do realize that it takes a while to hit right?"
"I don't think it worked, can I take another?"
Objections immediately filled the room, as well as their teasing laughs.
"I remember saying that my first time too." Severus laughed.
"Del, you took a pretty large hit for your first time, so just wait it out and if you still don't feel it within the next ten minutes then we can reconsider that idea." Narcissa commented to which everyone seemed to agree on, I shrugged with disappointment but agreed.
* * *
It hasn't even been ten minutes, maybe three tops, and holy fucking shit.
I think it would be fair to say that I was finally feeling it now, euphoric, relaxed, amused, giggly, hungry, and more sensitive to light, color, sound, touch, taste, and smell, that pretty much sums it up.
My body felt as if it were tingling and my eyelids felt as if they were five pounds heavier, after every little joke someone would say it felt like I could be laughing for hours, my mind was surrounded with an uncharacteristic amount of happiness, happiness that I have been longing for, for what felt like years.
"Bloody hell, D." Lucius laughed as he sat next to me on the bed, he placed his arm over my shoulder to which I instinctively snuggled into his body for warmth, it was absolutely freezing in this room.
"It's freezing in here." I murmured as I snuggled closer into my brother, the others seemed to agree and had the brilliant plan to light the fireplace but of course no one could find their own wand.
Rolling my eyes on how long it was taking I focused on the fireplace and bloody prayed it would miraculously light.
It did.
No one really seemed to care or notice how it lit, even I didn't ponder over the thought. I was just bloody grateful once warmth began to cover us like a blanket, someone must've found their wand and it was just a simple coincidence.
"How are you feeling, D?" Severus asked with a lazy grin.
"Exquisite." I laughed, but then I began to think about the single downfall that had been driving me mad.
"Why is my mouth so bloody dry?" I complained as I tried to find any type of moisture but it felt like pure sand.
"That my dear is what they call cotton mouth, here, catch." Evan said as he threw me a glass water bottle, but of course his aim was majorly off, so to avoid the upcoming mess I jumped up and caught it right before it touched the ground.
"Seeker skills." I laughed as Regulus rolled his eyes and sent me the middle finger, to which I winked in return.
"What's that?" Severus asked, I turned back around to see a folded up paper. At first I was also confused as I picked it up but once I opened it the realization hit me, it must've fallen out of my pocket.
Tom Riddle
I don't know how to explain it but I felt like I had heard this name roaming around the Slytherin common room, maybe they have heard something about this.
"Hey, random question, do any of you know who Tom Riddle is?" I asked, completely ignoring Severus' question, but once I had received no response I looked up from the letter to see everyone with color-drained faces.
Cal quickly stomped up, everyone, including me, sobering immediately, and snatched the tan paper out of my grasp.
"Where did you find this, Delphinus?" His voice was shaky with either rage or fear, by the use of my first name it had filled me up with an uncomfortable amount of adrenalin, not the good kind.
"Mr. Slughorn's classroom. Why? Do you know what he is referring to?"
"You shouldn't have taken this, promise me you will never wonder or do research on this name ever again."
"I-"
"Promise me, Delphinus." He spoke sternly, cutting me off in the process.
"Okay! Chill, I promise."
Lucius soon walked up near Cal to see what had sparked my interest in the cursed name and once he read the letter fully he quickly grabbed the paper and sauntered over to the fireplace before finally throwing it inside.
We all watched as the paper began to shrivel up and burn into ash.
"Del, Cal is right, we cannot explain much but please just trust us on this one and stay away from this information."
"Lucius, how is it fair that everyone in this room obviously knows more information about the topic but the second I ask about a silly little name you freak out? You know how I am, if you tell me not to do something or keep it away from me my curiosity will only grow."
"Enough with the complaining Del, just drop it." Lucius shot back as I stared at him appalled, if he thinks this is me complaining he has a lot coming his way.
"Complaining? You think that this is complaining? Lucius, just stop getting so bloody defensive and tell me who Tom Riddle is. It simply cannot be that hard."
"Oh please, out of the lot of us you are not one to start preaching about us keeping shit from you or getting defensive, how about you tell me what really happened over the Summer and then we can discuss matters later."
And just like that, the euphoric high had disappeared.
I immediately grew quiet, I couldn't lie, he was correct, I had no right to start babbling about hiding secrets or getting defensive.
"Lucius, we all agreed we wouldn't talk about this." Regulus murmured as he ran a stressful hand through his curly hair.
The room fell into an uncomfortable silence before Lucius let out a sigh.
"Listen, I'm sorry I freaked out on you. I am just worried about you Del. First you come back with injuries, then you and Leo break up, and now you are worrying about things that are too dark for your well-being, the reason we are not giving you the answers you are looking for is to protect you, I swear that is the only reason."
Not knowing how to reply I just simply nodded and sat back down, the room was so thick with unsaid words that it reminded me of the first day of school when we all sat in the compartment.
Beginning to feel, or more like realize that I was the problem, I sat up and made my way towards the door to try and fix the awkward tension, for not only mine, but for their sakes as well.
Behind me I could hear one of their sighs of defeat, most likely Regulus', I did feel bad, really bad, I knew they all just wanted things to go back to normal, to where we could all just hang out like old times, but how could it? I had no clue when Leo was coming back and I knew that since the lack of information they had that once he arrived they would want us all to become a group again.
I wouldn't be able to live like that, I wasn't strong enough to have him by my side daily acting as if nothing had happened.
"Please don't leave again." Narcissa's voice echoed in the silent room causing my hand to pause in place, my fingers were inches from the door knob and I soon fisted them and brought it to my side as my mind had one of it's famous battles.
Finally shutting up the left side of my brain I gave myself I quick pep-talk which consisted of rules I would now follow,
-Stick with my story, I can't continue adding more lies or switching it up.
-Never remove the Concealing Charm, they are not to see those ruthless scars.
-Do not bring up who-shall-not-be-named, he seemed to make them all very defensive.
-I shall not engage with any Leo talk, I will make it seem like I am still sensitive over the breakup.
-No more unnecessary arguing, we are all too stubborn and it might find it's way to bring up the Leo situation.
-And lastly, I will possibly continue partaking in some of their devious acts, this one has no reasoning really, it was just fun.
With my new six reminders I turned around, and thank Merlin I did since these Slytherins had always had the gift of making awkward silences disappear, well most of the time they did.
* * *
After we miraculously broke through the uncomfortable tension we talked for what felt like hours more, mainly since we smoked more of the magical muggle herb which had made time feel like it was going by slower.
It was only until we realized it was nearing lunch when we finally decided to start packing up the conversation, and one last bowl.
I had never been one to be hungry all the time yet right now I felt like I could eat all the food on the Slytherin table.
"Should we give her some sunglasses?" Severus asked Evan as they both stared at me.
Everyone's gaze fixated onto me and they all tried to hide their snickers.
"And here we are now viewing the curse of having the Malfoy genes." Lucius chuckled.
Confused, I stumbled off the bed and walked to the large mirror and I finally realized what they were talking about.
I looked absolutely baked.
My eyes seemed to be blood-shot red, pupils had seemed to enlarge in their size to where you could only see the dark ring of my iris, lids were half way down, and my cheeks were completely flushed with a light pink tint.
There was no bloody way I could leave the dorm looking like this.
Panic began to flood in as I felt my heart race even more, what if a professor saw me? Surely I would be expelled, and where would I even go after that?
It seemed like Regulus had noticed my uncertainty as he quickly rushed over to attempt and calm me down.
"Del you'll be fine, we can give you a pair of shades and you can just say that you have a headache if anyone asks."
"Should we give her a sobering potion?" Cal asked hesitantly to Bella who shook her head with pursed lips.
"That potion will only take the mental effects away, not the physical ones, so then she'll just look stoned without the feeling of it."
"Regulus, feel my heartbeat, am I dying?"
It was obvious he was trying to hide his smile as he brought a hand up to the outer skin of my heart, but once he felt the rapid thumps his smile faded.
"I think she might be greening out." He said with concern.
What the fuck is greening out?
"No she's just not used to the feeling, just let her calm down, you don't usually green out on your first time."
"D, do you feel nauseous at all?"
"No?"
"See she's fine, just get her some water and we'll be dandy, we don't have to leave for another twenty minutes."
Severus handed me the water bottle and I quickly downed it all, I gave myself a small reassurance while reminding myself of Regulus' words, they would never give me something to harm me.
And just like that I felt like I was fine all over again.
After they all realized I was now okay and no longer tripping out we all made our way to the bed and couches, Lucius picked up the bong that still contained a little more of the drug and quickly cleared out the bowl.
"We need to meet up with Landon soon, we're running low." Lucius said mid exhale.
"Del, do you want to come with us?" Narcissa asked
"Sur-"
"No." Lucius, Cal, Regulus, Severus and Bellatrix all said in sync.
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I glanced at the five, "Why not?"
"Del the only thing you are allowed to do is weed." Lucius demanded sternly.
"Lucius, I was already hesitant to try this. What makes you think I'm going to go on some drug rampage now?"
"D, what we mean is, Landon does everything, you think it he's done it. He's a drug dealer and if you're there he might try and sell or let you experiment with something." Cal explained.
"And what? You think I won't be able to say no?" I asked almost offended.
"That's not what they mean, Del, we just don't want you around something that heavy." Regulus piped in.
Opening my mouth to try and argue I quickly shut it and took a deep and relaxing inhale, rule number five was all I reminded myself before I gave up with a simple nod and 'okay'.
With a victory smile Lucius stood up and grabbed a pair of blackout shades and tossed them to me before we all made our way to the Great Hall.
Walking down the corridor we all got multiple stares and murmurs, before this year we had all stuck by each others sides like we were glued together, so once I was no longer seen in the group rumors had begun to spread amongst the Slytherin house, but now, we looked like we were the stereotypical popular kids in some muggle movie as we walked through the wide hallway, Regulus and Cal acted as if they were the jocks, laughing obnoxiously loud as they would randomly use one of the others shoulders to help themselves jump into the air, Bellatrix and Narcissa looked like the popular girls as they sauntered with there hips swaying and hair flowing behind their backs, Severus and Evan gave off lots of 'The Brains' energy as they were in their own conversation about potions, and lastly Lucius and I, to be honest I don't know what stereotype we gave off, but all I knew was that we looked fucking wicked.
Lucius and I walked in sync with his arm over my shoulder, we both carried lazy smiles as I rocked blacked out shades and he had his red tinted eyes. It was quite obvious we were both bloody stoned but I couldn't care less at the moment.
I couldn't even describe in words how amazing I felt right now, it was like all worries had been completely 'Avada-Kedavra'd', and I was loving it.
Once we reached the Great Hall we realized we were a tad late meaning once we opened the door all eyes went to us, yet that didn't cause any of us to give two shits.
Continuing my way to the Slytherin table I couldn't stop myself from looking at the Gryffindor table, James and I immediately made eye contact, not that he could really see my eyes but it still felt like he could tell I was staring right back at him.
Moving my gaze to the professor table I could see Minnie looking at all of us, mainly me, with pursed lips and disapproving eyes, she almost looked sad?
Finally settling in our seats I immediately reached for the pumpkin juice and biscuits.
I had been so engrossed by the food in front of me I hadn't even realized the two boys who sat right across from me
"Del."
My head shot up to see both the Carrow twins, Atlas was glaring while Kenji was smirking.
"Yes?" I asked, trying to hide a smile of my own. I don't know why but the sight of Atlas so seriously made me laugh.
"Remove the shades." Atlas quickly demanded.
I could hear Lucius' snort by my side, and once I didn't remove the glasses his hand that was still over my shoulder had lifted them up and removed them for me.
I quickly squinted, not used to the light, but once they adjusted I looked back up to see Atlas absolutely appalled while Kenji was holding his hand in front of his mouth attempting to hide his large smile.
"Oh my fucking Merlin you're high!" Atlas yelled to which all my friends rushed to shush him, but it was too late, all the Slytherins around us turned to look at me with wide eyes, it was no secret that I hated drugs.
"Wait what?" I heard a specific voice say that made me shudder.
It took not even three seconds for Corvus to now also be sitting next to the Carrow twins.
"How dare you not invite me to this?" Atlas pouted not caring that he just informed half the table about my involvement with drugs.
"Don't worry I got a picture." Evan laughed as he slid the live photo to the twin who watched it with narrowed eyes before he passed it to Kenji who then passed it to Corvus.
Atlas looked completely 'heartbroken', Kenji looked proud, and Corvus only held a concerned frown before he looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
I knew it didn't look good in his perspective, I always loathed drugs and now after the incident I was trying them.
We need to talk.
The voice I heard felt like static in my mind, I hadn't learned Occlumency meaning he still had free range in my head.
I gave no response, like I hadn't even heard him and I could see his frustration only grow once he received silence.
He soon finally stood up and left the table.
"My ears better be deceiving me, Fab." I could hear Gideon say
"Mhm." Fabian hummed with annoyance.
Well shit.
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