Summary: The Chamber of Secrets is opened. Slytherins and Gryffindors gather. Draco calls Carina for a chat after not speaking to her for some time.
The students are all in the Great Hall having dinner, well, almost all of them, since I strangely realise that Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny aren't here. I have dinner with my other roommates, and then when dinner is over I leave with the other Gryffindors in the direction of the common room, when we find the corridor floor wet and a commotion in front of us. Then I see a cat hanging on the wall, it's Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat. Next to her is something written in what looks like blood... A voice that I recognise very well draws my attention to the students.
"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mud..." Draco starts to say, but when his gaze meets mine, he immediately falls silent.
Curiously, I don't receive any letters or even visits from my father about the fact that I punched Draco. Not even Mum says anything about it in her letters. I wonder if my brother might not have told them anything about what I did...
"What's going on here? What's going on?" we hear someone say, approaching us. Then I see Filch. He gets close and when he sees Mrs. Norris, he puts his hands to his face in horror. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he screams. He turns to Harry, who was already here with Hermione and Ron when the rest of the students arrived. "You!" he shouts. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll..."
"Argus!" we all turn towards the voice of Dumbledore, who walks past the golden trio and approaches the scene, followed by some teachers. "Come with me, Argus," says Dumbledore. "You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."
Professor Lockhart steps forward. "My office is nearest, Headmaster, just upstairs, please feel free..."
"Thank you, Gilderoy," says Dumbledore.
The other students and I move aside to let them pass.
"There's nothing for us to do here. Students, everyone back to your respective common rooms." I hear Percy Weasley's voice.
Draco gives me one last look, as if he finally wants to talk to me, before turning round and following the Slytherin prefects.
When we arrive at our dorm, I notice Ginny, who wasn't with us, already sitting on her bed, looking paler than usual. We each sit on our bed, facing each other so we can talk.
"Ginny, are you all right?" Amber asks before me.
"Yeah, you look quite pale..." I say.
Ginny, who seemed to be almost in a trance until now, as if her gaze was lost in thoughts, seems to be pulled back to reality and focuses her gaze on us.
"Ah, yes..." she says, her voice weaker than usual. "I think I've got the flu, you know, a lot of people have been a bit ill lately..."
"Where were you?" Lydia asks. "I mean, you didn't go to dinner..."
"I was in the hospital wing." she replies quickly. "Then I came straight here."
The four of us fall silent and then disperse. I go down to the bathroom in the common room to shower before putting on my pyjamas and going to bed.
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I'm in the library, doing this week's homework with a group of first-years, with Stella, Aster Diggory, a Ravenclaw girl called Luna Lovegood, Colin and my roommates, when we hear some Slytherins arrive.
"Do you mind if we sit with you?" Emma asks.
We look at each other, surprised to see Slytherins wanting to interact with people from other houses. My surprise obviously isn't for Emma, but for her roommates, who I know very well come from families like mine. Plus, I know them from various events my family attends.
"Only if you don't mind sitting with a bunch of half-bloods and Muggleborns." Stella replies defensively.
Now that we're no longer living with Slytherins who come from families like ours, and since we were both basically disowned (well, I would have been if it hadn't been for my mum), we're no longer afraid to admit that we don't share our families' supremacist ideals. I can see that Cassia Flint and the other two, Megan Avery and Melia Rosier (who is a distant cousin of mine), are a little taken aback by Stella's response.
"Of course we don't mind." replies the only girl there who I don't know who she is. She seems to realise this, because she extends her hand to greet me. "I'm Zoe Accrington, nice to meet you."
Her accent is very noticeable, even if it's faint. I shake her hand. "And I'm Carina Malfoy."
"We can still be friends, can't we?" Megan asks Stella and me.
I smile lightly at her, not expecting her (or any of the three) to want to be friends with me and Stella after we were sorted into other houses and after Stella was disowned. The group of Slytherins then joins us and sits down to do their homework with us. We sit there for a while when I hear someone calling me. I look back to see who it is, and raise my eyebrows in surprise at seeing my brother.
"What do you want?" I ask a little harshly.
He seems to have a regretful look on his face, his head down, staring at his feet.
"I just want to talk to you." he replies quietly.
I sigh and turn to the group sitting with me. "I'll be right back."
I get up and follow Draco to a less crowded area of the library. When we get to a quieter place, I lean against the wall and cross my arms, waiting for him to start talking.
"Mum told me you were upset about the way I treated you that day you came to try to talk to me at the Slytherin table." he begins.
"And?" I say, a little impatiently.
He takes a deep breath before continuing. "And Mum scolded me for treating you like that. She said that's no way to treat any girl, especially my own sister. She said she raised me to be a gentleman, and that she was disappointed with me."
"So you're only here because Mum told you to apologise to me? You're not here because you are sorry and to apologise for the way you treated me?" I know I might be being a bit rude to Draco, but I'm upset with him so at the moment I don't care.
"No, no!" he says quickly. "I'm really sorry for the way I treated you, Carina." I look him in the eye, trying to see if he's lying, but he doesn't seem to be. "Mum was just another incentive for me to pluck up the courage to come and talk to you."
I arch my eyebrow, curious. "Who else have you been talking to about us?"
"Well, Theo also came to scold me about the way I had spoken to you and..."
I chuckle, it's obvious that Theo has spoken to him about us. "And...?"
"And I've been talking to Emma too. You know, she may be able to understand a little since Potter and she are in different houses too."
I'm surprised to hear that my brother is making friends with someone who isn't a pureblood, especially Harry's sister.
"I bet Harry didn't call his sister a blood traitor..." I whisper.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Draco says, I can see a few tears forming in his eyes. "I was afraid of Father... You know I don't like disappointing him."
I chuckle. "I'm just picking on you, I accept your apology." I say, pulling him into a hug.
He finally seems to relax when he hugs me back. When we part, he looks at me and says, "I forgot to tell you something during the time we weren't exactly on speaking terms."
"Tell me what?" I ask curiously.
"I think Mum thinks you and Theo could be more than friends... At least in the future." Draco says with a chuckle. I turn red, but not for the reason my brother thinks. Draco looks at me with raised eyebrows. "Is it true then?" he says in a surprised tone. "You and..."
"No!" I say quickly. "No... Theo and I are just friends, I swear."
I'm definitely not ready to tell my brother and my mum the truth, in fact I'm not ready to tell anyone the truth about why Theodore and I are so close. Draco doesn't seem to believe me completely, but seeing that I'm not going to go into any more detail, he decides to change the subject.
"Whatever, in fact I think Mum also thinks I like Emma." says Draco. "She seemed strangely curious when I told her that Emma had not only got sorted into Slytherin, but that she and I were becoming friends."
"Maybe it's because Emma is a half-blood... Mum might have been curious that you were interacting with a half-blood girl." I say, trying to find an explanation.
"Yeah, maybe..." says Draco. "Carina, I've missed you during the time we haven't spoken." he admits the last part shyly.
I smile at him. "Me too, Draco."