Cordelia sighed as she gave another letter to Luella. Addressed to Remus.
It would be hurtful to admit that writing only to Remus wasn't satisfactory enough. She was missing the sophisticated, precise and elegant letters she used to receive with home baked cakes and sweets.
But things weren't the same. The sky seemed too dark to be enjoying a nice sweet cake under it.
Cordelia was really missing Narcissa Malfoy. And the approaching Yule was only adding to the agony. Her brain kept on replaying the memories of her and her godmother preparing for Yule, exchange of letters and advice on wardrobe and decorations.
But today, in particular made her miss the blonde woman more because it wasn't just any other day. It was Cordelia's birthday.
Days had been getting by faster, it seemed as if time was slipping like sand and the sand was clogging the drains and pipes she was used to. She needed to dig in harder to make a hole for her to slither around.
Walking back inside the castle, Cordelia decided to take a detour around the castle.
Outside was too freezing for a casual stroll.
Walking around, she mulled over ways she could maybe approach Draco or write to Narcissa about Yule..... but nothing seemed too approachable.
As she turned another corner, she was a grey figure gliding across.
"Wait!" She ran after the Ravenclaw ghost. Helena Ravenclaw.
The ghost stopped in a corridor with windows on both its side. Cordelia didn't know if Helena did it on purpose, but it was freezing.
"Why shall you always interrupt? Is it not clear that I don't talk to students" Helena said with a haughty expression.
"I was under the impression that you do that to Luna Lovegod" Cordelia fired back.
"Luna is different" Helena was being rather rude for a dead ghost with a dead ego.
"I suppose, very different from Tom Riddle" Cordelia nodded as she feigned innocence.
"Don't take his name!" Helena bellowed as she bared her teeth at Cordelia and zoomed through her.
"Why? So you do know who he is now.... perhaps you also know about where the Diadem is? No living being around has knowledge—"
Cordelia was interrupted by the soft tone of Helena.
"Just as strange and keen. I knew you would be not much different from him, you share a lot of similarities" her voice was soft and different from her usually rude tone.
"I'm well aware, I might be the next Voldemort in making but even for that I need him gone...... and I might need the Diadem for it. Gain knowledge by putting it—" Cordelia rubbed her hands together from the cold, her right hand in the sling.
"He did terrible things to it!" The screeching was back.
"So you know where it is..... well....?" Cordelia thought she was getting somewhere but the next words had her deflated.
"That was the problem, he thought he was the only one who knew..... his way around. That only he could discover the secrets...." and with that she flew away quickly.
"She did it on purpose then" Cordelia rolled her eyes as she hugged herself tighter.
Harry had given Cordelia too many sweets as a gift, saying he wanted to give her something else but it would have to wait. Something about it being with Sirius, who forgot to bring it when he had come over to see the match.
Cordelia kissed Harry sweetly before she went to sleep that night with a very familiar black sweater on.
Her sixteenth was one unforgettable birthday.
-
Cordelia was glad that her arm was now free of the itchy sling. She entered the common room the next day to see Harry talking to Granger rather loudly. But what was more captivating was how he was bellowing about him and Cordelia going to Slughorn's dinner together.
"There you are" He pointed out and ran over to Cordelia and took her hand in his as they walked out of the common room again.
"I wanted to—" Cordelia was cut of her Harry swinging his arm around her shoulder as he led them towards the hall for dinner.
"They wanted to give me love potion. In hopes that I ask them out for Slughorn's dinner......" Harry trailed off, he was slightly comforted by the expression of slight jealousy on Cordelia's face.
"Of course..... another perks of being the chosen one" Cordelia scoffed.
"But you're the Chosen One for me" he kissed her cheek quickly before walking off towards Weasley.
Cordelia shook her head before she sat down with her Protective Charms spell book in her hand. She had nicked it from her home back in Lurgashall. It of course, belonged to her grandfather.
As she waited for the food to appear on the table, something else surprised her.
Hermione Granger sat down in front of her with an awkward smile on her face. They sat in silence as Cordelia continued to read through her book which was kept on her lap. Away from any prying eyes.
"Can I sit here?" The muggleborn questioned as she served herself some dinner.
"You already are" Cordelia didn't look up from her book as she spoke.
"Well..... uh.... what are you reading?"
Cordelia didn't answer as she helped herself to some steak.
"I wanted to apologise for how I have been behaving ever since you arrived and I know it's wrong and I'm really embarrassed—"
Cordelia didn't know what the girl in front of her was up to, but she could feel Draco glaring at her from the Slytherin table. It was only making matters worse for her.
What would Cissy say!
Here, Cordelia was trying to come up with something that would help her connect with her cousin and godmother, and here was Hermione Granger, a muggleborn trying to befriend her.
There was a short pause after Hermione's apology, Cordelia looked deep in thought before she looked up at the girl.
"Great, I accept those words. But that does not make us friends, we can never be friends. Specially right now..... and when I know that the very reason you're sitting here is only because Weasle chose to snog Brown and not you...... I'm not a stop along the way" Cordelia scoffed before shifting away with her plate.
Here she was apologising and doing something that was totally contradictory of her actions.
Cordelia knew that Granger wanted friends now that Harry and Ron would sit together and she couldn't join them because of her feud with Weasley. She also knew that Granger would go scrambling back there once the feud is over.
-
Cordelia got dressed in a navy blue halter neck with sweetheart neckline velvet dress. It was long and slender. Her hair were tucked neatly behind her ears and small diamond earrings to match.
A cat-eye liner and dusty rose pink lipstick.
Harry did choose to wear a matching bowtie.
Due to Cordelia's high heels, they stood at the same height. Which made Harry complain a little that he won't be able to sneakily look down at her now that she was the same height as him.
They reached Slughorn's office and the Potions Master burst into a happy outburst upon seeing the two.
"Oh brilliant! Harry there are so many people I'd like you two to meet" he ushered them inside.
The office had drapes on the ceiling with made it look like they were in a tent, elves scrambling around with trays of wine and food. There were not only Hogwarts students but a few others as well.
Harry and Cordelia were being pestered about getting an autobiography written about them, but Harry saved the day by pulling the two away from the elderly men.
"What even...." Cordelia scoffed as they reached a slightly secluded corner amidst the chaotic party.
Harry was met with Hermione Granger lurking in the same corner. Cordelia couldn't help but pick up the words when she talked to Harry.
She was hiding from Cormac Mclaggen.
There was grunting and complaining that caught Cordelia's and also Harry's attention.
Filch came in holding Draco by his ear who seemed to be struggling to free himself.
"Found him lurking in the corridor upstairs. Said that he was invited, did you invite him Professor Slughorn?" Filch questioned with a nasty grin.
"Fine! I lied, I wasn't invited...... I was gate crashing, happy!?" Draco said angrily as freed himself from the caretaker.
“No, I’m not!” said Filch, a statement at complete odds with the glee on his face. “You’re in trouble, you are! Didn’t the headmaster say that nighttime prowling’s out, unless you’ve got permission, didn’t he, eh?”
“That’s all right, Argus, that’s all right,” said Slughorn, waving a hand. “It’s Christmas, and it’s not a crime to want to come to a party. Just this once, we’ll forget any punishment; you may stay, Draco.”
This was the first time in months when Cordelia and Draco stood face to face and only a few meters away.
And the sight of his cousin looking ill, with bags under his eyes and his face void of any colour, made Cordelia wonder how ignorant had she been? What was the reason behind Draco's such disheveled condition?
Lucius being thrown into Azakabn could not be the reason and suddenly everything Harry had been accusing Draco of came crashing in her mind.
It seemed appropriate..... her best guess.
Cordelia's grey eyes met Draco's briefly before Snape dragged him away.
Harry ran after the two before Cordelia caught a hold of him.
"I want to come as well" she whispered as she started taking off her heels.
Harry nodded before the two left the party under his invisibility cloak, they followed the two Slytherins' who went inside a classroom at the end of the corridor.
Cordelia and Harry crouched down with their ear against the door, trying to listen to every word exchanged.
“. . . cannot afford mistakes, Draco, because if you are expelled —”
“I didn’t have anything to do with it, all right?”
“I hope you are telling the truth, because it was both clumsy and foolish. Already you are suspected of having a hand in it.”
“Who suspects me?” said Malfoy angrily. “For the last time, I didn’t do it, okay? That Bell girl must’ve had an enemy no one knows about — don’t look at me like that! I know what you’re doing, I’m not stupid, but it won’t work — I can stop you!”
There was a pause and then Snape said quietly, “Ah . . . Aunt Bellatrix has been teaching you Occlumency, I see. What thoughts are you trying to conceal from your master, Draco?”
“I’m not trying to conceal anything from him, I just don’t want you butting in!”
Cordelia could feel her heart pounding wildly in her chest. Every word her cousin spoke, were conforming her suspicions.
“So that is why you have been avoiding me this term? You have feared my interference? You realize that, had anybody else failed to come to my office when I had told them repeatedly to be here, Draco —”
“So put me in detention! Report me to Dumbledore!” jeered Malfoy.
There was another pause. Then Snape said, “You know perfectly well that I do not wish to do either of those things.”
“You’d better stop telling me to come to your office then!”
“Listen to me,” said Snape, his voice so low now that they had to push his ear very hard against the keyhole to hear. “I am trying to help you. I swore to your mother I would protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow,
Draco —”
“Looks like you’ll have to break it, then, because I don’t need your protection! It’s my job, he gave it to me and I’m doing it, I’ve got a plan and it’s going to work, it’s just taking a bit longer than I thought it would!”
“What is your plan?”
“It’s none of your business!”
“If you tell me what you are trying to do, I can assist you —”
“I’ve got all the assistance I need, thanks, I’m not alone!”
“You were certainly alone tonight, which was foolish in the extreme, wandering the corridors without lookouts or backup, these are elementary mistakes —”
“I would’ve had Crabbe and Goyle with me if you hadn’t put them in detention!”
“Keep your voice down!” spat Snape, for Draco’s voice had risen excitedly.
“If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres —”
“What does it matter?” said Draco.
“Defense Against the Dark Arts — it’s all just a joke, isn’t it, an act? Like any of us need protecting against the Dark Arts —”
“It is an act that is crucial to success, Draco!” said Snape. “Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not known how to act? Now listen to me! You are being incautious, wandering around at night, getting yourself caught, and if you are placing your reliance in assistants like Crabbe and Goyle —”
“They’re not the only ones, I’ve got other people on my side, better people!”
“Then why not confide in me, and I can —”
“I know what you’re up to! You want to steal my glory!” There was another pause, then Snape said coldly, “You are speaking like
a child. I quite understand that your father’s capture and imprisonment has upset you, but —”
Cordelia and Harry quickly threw themselves off the door when they heard Draco's footsteps nearing the door.