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.
When I get home, I expect my mother to strangle me for not responding to any of her letters. But all she does is hug me tightly and whisper repeatedly, “I was so worried, honey.”
Maybe it’s the tone of her voice, but I don’t pull away from her as quickly as I normally would. I just stand there for a moment while she clutches at me desperately, almost as though she’s unsure if I’m real or not, and then I slowly lift my arms up and hug her back. My chin rests on her shoulder, and I look behind her to see my father striding into the room. He stops dead at the sight of me and just stands there, his lips pressed into a tight line. We eye each other carefully for a long moment, and I’m suddenly scared he’s going to come over and hit me—not that I would blame him. But all Lucius does is give me a small nod, then blink several times as he crosses the parlor over to us.
He rests his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it gently as my mother pulls away to grasp either side of my face and look at me with watery eyes. The three of us just stand there together, no one saying anything. And for a moment, just a moment, it feels like we’re a normal family again.
But the feeling doesn’t last long.
“Draco…he’s here. He’ll want to see you,” Lucius says quietly, removing his hand from my shoulder and backing away slightly. “I’ll just go tell him you’re here, and then—“
“Wait,” I interrupt, and even I notice how hoarse and dull my voice sounds. “You have to at least tell me what happened.”
My father sighs, his body visibly deflating like a balloon. He wrings his shaking hands in front of him as he looks at the floor, absolutely refusing to meet my gaze. “Well…even though you weren’t responding to our letters, we were acting as though the marriage was still going to happen as planned. The Dark Lord didn’t know. But then…Yaxley’s daughter, she—she was seeing someone else. A mudblood. When the Dark Lord found out, he…he killed them both.”
I swallow hard, knowing my face must clearly show how scared I am just by seeing the looks my parents are giving me. Unsure of how to respond, I ask carefully, “Do I…did I know the guy? Did he go to my school?”
“No, honey. His name was Randy, he went to Durmstrang.” My mother is watching me carefully, her eyes still brimming with unshed tears. She reaches over and clutches my arm, whispering uncertainly, “Draco, honey…you need to…your father and I, we—“
“We need you to tell us if you really are seeing someone. Because if you are, and you walk into that room to talk to the Dark Lord, you—“ His voice shakes and his lip quivers for a second before he finishes, “—you won’t come out, Draco.”
My head is spinning with fear, but I set my jaw and reply firmly, “I’m not dating anyone. Let me see him, I have nothing to hide.”
There’s a moment of complete silence as my father tries to calculate my reaction. I do my best to keep my expression cool and my thoughts blank, and it must work, because he eventually backs away. Lucius turns around and tells me quietly to follow him, and I do so with my stomach churning.
My mother keeps her hand on my shoulder as we walk down the hall, and I’m trying desperately to ignore the fact that she’s sniffling as quietly as she can. I keep telling myself that I’m going to be okay, that I’ve learned enough to block off my thoughts from the Dark Lord. If I just bring the memory of when Cassie broke up with me to the surface, he’ll hopefully just assume we never got back together. Hopefully…
It seems like I’ve have no time to think when we stop outside the door to where the Dark Lord is waiting. I realize my palms are sweaty and my entire body is shaking slightly. Whatever I do, I have to keep my thoughts of Cassie from him. I can do it, it’ll be easy…
But I don’t feel so confident when Lucius gives me a desperate look before slowly opening the door, almost like this is the last time he’s going to see me alive. My heart feels like it’s going to rip its way out of my chest as I realize there’s no other choice.
I take a deep, shaky breath and step inside the room.
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Cassie P.O.V.
“And then you’ll need to stir counter-clockwise, so the scales really disintegrate in there. Don’t be concerned if it sparks, that tends to happen. Just try not to let your robes catch on fire, that’s the goal here, everyone—“
I shut out Slughorn’s words for a moment so I can just focus on keeping my cauldron from exploding. It’s been shaking ominously for the past ten minutes, and I’m starting to get seriously alarmed. Potions has never been the easiest class for me, but today it feels like I’m doing everything wrong. Even Cho’s been occasionally glancing over at me with worry, jumping next to me every time my potion sparks—not that I can blame her.
Stirring my potion as Slughorn walks around the room, I glance up from the cauldron to see that Cho is looking past me curiously. I twist in my seat to see what’s distracted her, and a hot wave of anger flashes through me when I realize Draco’s walking into the classroom. He avoids my heated gaze as he goes to the front of the room to talk with Slughorn for a moment, only making me more furious. The jerk stays at home for five days without writing, and now that he’s back he won’t even give me a simple glance. I’ve been worried sick, not knowing what’s happening with him or when he was going to be back.
But I feel a little guilty as I realize how haunted and broken he looks, and my stomach churns at the thought of what he must have gone through at home. I momentarily forget stirring my potion when Draco finishes speaking with Slughorn and walks over to his usual seat.
Making sure no one else is looking, I keep my eyes trained on the two of them until Blaise finally turns around. I give him a glare as if to say, You’d better not forget what I told you to do.
Blaise shrinks away from my heated gaze like he’s afraid I’m going to throw my cauldron at him, but gives a small nod and turns back around. I exhale angrily; he’d better tell Draco to meet me tonight, or I’m going to kill the both of them.
Cho suddenly pokes me hard in the ribs, and I glance down to see that my potion is bubbling up in a murky black haze. Muttering a furious, “God damn it!”, I frantically resume my counter-clockwise stirring before the stupid thing can overflow all over the classroom floor. I tactfully ignore Cho’s quiet laughter as I grumble angrily to myself, the potion slowly swelling back down to normal.
I have last period free, so I head straight for the Room of Requirement. Draco has an open period too, and I’m hoping Blaise will talk to him right away so he can get here soon.
While I’m waiting for Draco, I try lying down on the couch, but I immediately get restless and stand back up. I pace in front of the empty fireplace, the spring air making the castle too warm to light a fire. The period must be at least halfway over by now, and there’s still no sign of Draco. I run my fingers through my hair angrily and try to think of another way to intimidate Blaise into telling Draco to come see me.
But then the door opens, and Draco steps inside.
The first thing I notice is that he looks incredibly guilty. He completely avoids my heated gaze as he shuts the door behind him, and his head is bent low when he walks over to me. I can tell he’s getting ready to hug me, so I quickly cross my arms in frustration.
Draco stops at this, and he looks over at me meekly. It’s easy to see that he’s treading as carefully as he can when he says, “Um…hey?”
I press my mouth into a thin line and don’t reply. Draco lets out a tired sigh and runs his hand over his face, then says pleadingly, “Okay, okay, I know you’re mad. And I don’t blame you—I really don’t. I just—I don’t know why I didn’t tell you everything, alright? I thought I could handle it.”
“What do you mean, ‘you thought you could handle it’?” I snap incredulously. I don’t notice as Draco immediately shuts up and shrinks away from my angry glare. “This was serious, Draco. That girl got killed by You-Know-Who, and you’re trying to tell me you could’ve handled it yourself?”
“That’s not—look, Yaxley’s daughter got killed because the Dark Lord found out she was—um, dating someone else.”
“What?” I say, staring him down while he looks around uncomfortably. “If that’s why, then you’ve got a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”
“I know,” Draco replies quickly. “You’re right, okay? Just—the reason I never told you about the marriage was because I thought it wasn’t going to happen. I thought that if I ignored my parents’ letters, they would just give up on it. But they didn’t, and then I didn’t find out how serious this all was until Yaxley’s daughter was dead. They—they found out she was seeing someone who wasn’t a Death Eater, and You-Know-Who, he…he just sort of lost it and killed both of them.”
There’s a moment of stingy silence before I say in a quiet voice, “That could have easily been us, Draco.”
He looks me directly in the eye for the first time all day, then says carefully, “I…I know.”
Neither of us says anything for another moment. But then the anger flares up hot again, and before I can think, I put my hands up and give Draco a hard shove. He stumbles backwards, muttering in shock, “Bloody hell, Cassie—“
“I trusted you,” I snap, giving him another furious push as he tries his best just to get out of my way. “I trusted you, but you lied to me. And I had to hear all this from bloody Zabini, how do you think that made me feel? I could have helped you, but you decided to keep it a secret. Did it never occur to you that I might actually want to be involved in your life?”
“Jesus Christ, Cassie, of course! Will you just let me explain—“
“No,” I bite back coldly, smacking his shoulder hard and hitting him every chance I can get. “You had months to explain, but you never did. Didn’t you think I might want to know about your arranged marriage with some other girl? I’m supposed to be your girlfriend, for fuck’s sake—“
“You think I don’t know that? I wanted to tell you for the longest time, but I didn’t because I knew you would flip out like this—“
“Bullshit, Draco Malfoy, I’m pissed because you lied to me, that’s not even a good excuse—“
“I—“
“Just shut up, I don’t want to hear it!” I snap, giving him one last shove before furiously crossing my arms. My head is spinning and the anger is making me feel dizzy. “We’re supposed to trust each other and tell each other everything, but you can’t even do that. What else have you been keeping from me?”
Draco keeps a safe distance from me, and I expect him to be angry at me for pushing and yelling at him. But he just looks really, really guilty. “Um…I, uh…”
“Look, you’d better tell me, whatever it is,” I hiss, knowing there’s something else he’s been lying about.
“Well, er…I guess—“ He pauses to swallow hard, fixing his gaze on the floor. “—I guess I should tell you that the fight two weeks ago, it was because…I attacked them because they were insulting you. And Amycus caught us, so I had detention with him for the past week before I went home. I…I think that’s it.”
I press my mouth into a thin line as I realize just how much he’s really been shutting me out. Turning for the door with a small shake of my head, I flatly reply over my shoulder, “I’m leaving.”
“Cassie, wait,” Draco pleads hastily as my hand curls around the doorknob. I hesitate at the desperate note in his voice, and he says quietly, “I know you’re mad, I know you are, but—you and me…we’re still okay, right?”
Tears form in my eyes, but my voice holds its angry tone as I snap back, “I don’t know”, and slam the door behind me.