"Your truest friends are the ones who will stand by you in your darkest moments-because they're willing to brave the shadows with you-and in your greatest moments-because they're not afraid to let you shine." ― Nicole Yatsonsky
Draco's POV
"God damn it!" I swore loudly for the nth time in the past two hours. I was frustrated to the point where all I wanted to do was shove the bloody mission up the Dark Lord's atrocious arse and run for my shitty life. I'd grown up watching Father worship the Dark Lord and follow his trail like a puppy, tail wagging and all. But to be really frank I was never fond of his ways. But then again, I would've been a moron to think my opinion actually mattered. Whatever may the world believe of me, but I was just a mere spawn in a big bluffed plan of the Dark Lord and I could bet my Gringotts vaults my Father didn't really give a flying fuck about me.
Crouching by the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement for hours every day was a new past time for me. I knew for sure that the many hours spent in the closed room had started to mess with my appearance and somehow I'd caught the Golden Trio giving me the hawk eyes, but I just couldn't be bothered. If Potty's nosiness could get me out of this nightmare, I might actually give a damn about his existence- just a little.
Giving up my half-hearted tries of repairing the damn thing, I sat down by the corner, dropping the wand near my feet and sighed. I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn't realize until I heard shuffling footsteps that someone had managed to enter the Room Of Requirement.
"Fuck.." I swore under my breathe, grabbed my wand and made a silent dash towards the entrance but it seemed like fates were not happy with me. My foot caught into a magic clipper and I went sprawling on the ground, catching a huge pewter cauldron which came clanking down, right on my chest.
There was pin drop silence as I lay, in pain trying hard to force some air out of my bruised lungs,
" Whose there?" It was Crabbe. I was kind of surprised but I kept my mouth shut and only prayed the goon wouldn't come near to inspect. Thankfully, he didn't. I mustered up what little energy I had and slowly crept towards the exit and upon reaching it, made a wild dash towards the dungeons not stopping even once to look back.
Whoa, that was a close one!
Back in my dormitory I plopped down on my four poster, closing the curtains and shut my eyes. Pushing the pillow aside, I quickly cast a charm which made the pillow glow a faint gold color before revealing a stack of letters, which had been sent to me over the span of a week by my Aunt Bella.
I was torn between the urge to pull my hair out of my head or laugh over the absurd thoughts and logic of my dear old witch. If I didn't know any better, I'd have staked a bet on just how big of a teenage girl crush Aunt Bella seemed to have on The Dark Lord. I mean- it was absolutely disgusting at times to listen (or read, being the case frequently for a while now) about how much she wanted to become the apple of the Dark Lord's eye. And for that purpose she'd started this trend of writing to me almost everyday, inquiring about my mission's progress and dishing away irrelevant and wacky ideas to kill the "Bearded Boring Butt head" as she'd put it.
Sighing, I recast the vanishing spell and adjusted my pillow and lay down, staring up at the canopy.
It wasn't a matter of "Would I kill?"
It was now a matter of when.. which kept me on the qui vive.
*********
It had been almost a week since the nightmare fiasco in my Haven with Granger. The weather had gone chilly and dull, casting a mundane aura around the castle. The arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students only proved to be extremely irritating as flocks of girls could be seen following the foreign boys specially Krum around a lot and somehow Granger had stopped coming down to the Great Hall for lunches and dinners. Not that it mattered anyway, the less I saw of her bossy self- the better.
Since it was Friday which meant the First game of the tournament was only a mere twenty-four hours away, I decided to gather my team and have a pep talk. Walking into the Great Hall, I beckoned my team to follow me down to the Slytherin changing room.
After donning my Quidditch gear for practice, I waited as the team sluggishly followed, and sat down in a semi-circle waiting for me to start talking. From their expressions, I could tell none was too happy to see me mentoring.
It was going to be a long year. I sighed.
" Tomorrow, First up against Durmstrang's Team Black Fiend. I'm sure you all have been through with the introductions. Since its the first match, the most important task at hand would be to observe their signature tactics. First base defenses and team work. The good players and their styles." I paused, staring at everyone hard- feeling the adrenaline flow through my veins. " That's pretty much it for starters. Now the last thing and the most important thing, rock this game off. Dismissed." And with that I walked out, my Sleeze Core 5 (The fastest broom up to date) in my hand.
The vastness of the pitch seemed to ease my breathing, which I hadn't even noticed going slightly fast back in the Changing room. Inhaling deeply, I mounted my broom and took off, the chilly wind slapping my face. The cold soothed my nerves and cast a tranquil effect on my head which had gone into over-drive. Doing a quick spin, I turned around to see my team already in the air. With a quick start we proceeded to the actual practice.
It was well after dinner time when I managed to shoo my team back towards the castle. Despite the tight-lipped attitude of the team, we had been able to get into the usual Quidditch spirit, going as far as to calling each other by our team nick names.
I was the last person to leave the changing room. Walking slowly through the dewy grass I cast a glance towards the lake. Calm and quiet, it had always attracted me. Not just because it was one of the biggest assets of Hogwarts in all its glory but also because of the affinity it held towards my character. I had often categorized myself as a composed and cold person, no matter how bad of a time I might be going through, I'd always exhibited a steel-front. But deep down, it was an ataxia of thoughts and emotions. Just like the Lake. Who knew what went down in the depths? There might be a tidal current down there, wrecking havoc but the surface played lip service.
Lost in my thoughts, I'd blocked the world out until I heard a faint rustling coming from some nearby bushes. War-mode kicking back in like an instinct I quickly grabbed my wand.
"Whose there?" I called out in a firm voice. No reply came, but I could hear faint footsteps, shuffling behind the bush nervously. Frowning, I stepped forward cautiously, wand drawn and cast "Lumos". I was met with two bright orbs staring nervously at me. It was one of the Ponies which had come with the Durmstrang people. On closer inspection, I figured it to be Rainbow Dash, the blue thing. I could recall Granger telling something to Potter about its powers.
It stared at me for a moment, trying to gauge my reaction. It felt like it had been following me for sometime now.
"What do you want?" It sure felt like a stupid thing, asking questions like that. But since, I didn't have any idea about what kind of powers the little thing possessed, I felt compelled to find out. It just stared at me more intensely it seemed. After about five minutes of continuous eye contact, I started to get bored.
" Well, I guess.. Good Night?" and with that I resumed my slow trek up towards the castle.
" Vit eva yo deed, Yo deed eet outs ov loyahlty.. I gan see dat.." It was soft, almost like a purring sound. But the sound wasn't what had me frozen on the spot. It was what it had said. What it had implied. Swerving around I gaped at the pony, who seemed to be retreating from me, inconspicuously- probably startled by my odd reaction.
" What did you just say?" I demanded dumbly. It drew up to its full height, which suddenly reminded me of Granger right before going off on a long spiel about something. A part of me seemed to think I was just being over dramatic and there was no need to pay mind to whatever the strange creature was blabbing about. What was it even trying to say? What loyalty? What can it see? Although I knew the answers, I knew what it was referring to, I simply refused to acknowledge it. And so, I ignored it and broke into a run, sprinting towards the Castle, running away.
Away from more things than I clearly liked to admit.
I slowed down to ease the stitch in my sides, after having shut the Oak doors. The clock chimed just then, and I had only about five seconds before the entrance hall was swarmed with students, mostly stalking masses of girls following the Durmstrang students towards their Dormitories. I stood in a corner beside the stairs which led down towards the Dungeons when I saw Granger's bushy head making its way towards me.
"Malfoy." The incident in the Room of Requirement was still fresh in my head, so I only managed to nod stoically, trying to quench the embarrassment and awkwardness I felt within. She studied me for a moment, as if afraid I'd fall to the ground any minute and start thrashing about like a retard. As much as I wanted to inflict some kind of violence on the bint for putting me on line, I couldn't.
" We need to talk." she stated.
" I'm busy Granger." I replied coolly.
" It's important. Meet me at our spot in five minutes." Her words took me slightly off-guard. Our? Excuse the fuck me! It was, it is and will remain MY spot. How dare she think it was hers? Pissed at her implication and her never ceasing attitude to boss everyone around, I started off towards MY spot.
The first thing that I noticed when I entered the room of requirements were the bright lights. Shielding my eyes and walking quickly towards my arm chair, I sat down. Now practically fuming, I turned around towards the bookworm to give her a little piece of my mind, only to stop as my jaw fell all the way down to the floor.
Before me, floating in the air it seemed was a huge black box. But that wasn't the reason of my astonishment. It was the continuous swirls of colors which were changing movement every second and the headless voices which seemed to be softly echoing in the room.
I was busy gawking the weird object until Bushy head turned towards me with a rectangle shaped thing with numerous buttons on it and managed a weird smile. Another thing to make me feel way more awkward than necessary.
Godfuckingdamnit, Malfoys just didn't do awkward.
" Can you pass me that book Malfoy?" Confused at to which book she was referring to- seeing as there were a hell lot of them spread meticulously on the table, I raised a brow at her,
" Oh umm.. the Plasma Manual.." she corrected. I looked through the books and found a small booklet which had a still picture of the black box on it with labels and such.
" Thank you." she smiled again, taking the booklet from me. Now completely weird-ed out by her behavior I sat back down and waited for her to be done with whatever the hell she was doing. After about ten minutes of continuous prodding and clicking, she finally put the thing down and sat in the chair facing me across the coffee table. As much as I wanted to know what the hell she was doing with a black box with weird pictures on it, I refrained as it went against my nature to be so blatantly curious. Curiosity was as much vulnerable a state as being naked.
" It has already been a week. And we haven't began any work. I've been looking around, asking people. I haven't been completely open about it of course." She looked at me straight, and again her brown eyes struck me with a force. Startled, I nodded absently. But it seemed like she didn't notice my lack of attention as she continued,
" From what I've gathered, there are three groups of people. The ones who were actually practically a part of the war, ones which were present but in hiding and then the ones who were not present here at all."
Faces of people flashed in front of me as if my mind had begun to categorize people on it own. Blaise, Theodore, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Daphne..
These all were practically a part of the whole sham the Dark Lord had created. And most of them had died. And the rest had fled. Sometimes when I cant sleep due to the nightmares, I sit and wonder where Pansy might be? What had become of her family? What about the Greengrass' ? I shifted my attention back to Granger as she seemed to be still talking.
" - I can not obviously tell who belonged to which category. That is our first task. " She paused and looked at me. There was a long silence as we stared at each other, both trying for the other to surrender. This battle of silence thus seemed never ending but someone had to break the ice and so I did.
" You want me to go up to random strangers and ask them, " Hey Pal, did you by any chance play hide and seek with the Dark Lord?" - If you think that, then Granger by all means you may aswel call it quits because I am certainly not doing any such thing and if you haven't noticed already, nobody is quite willing to converse with me." By the end, I found myself leaning across the coffee table, dangerously close to the bookworm, my eyes alive with a burning fire and anguish which seemed to crackle asphyxiating me in the process. Breathing heavily, I averted my eyes and stared into the fire place, feeling quite disoriented.
" I-I.." there she went again with her stammering.
" I know Malfoy. But.." she trailed off yet again. I glanced at the clock in exasperation and realized it was well past midnight. Which meant I only had about six hours of sleep to me which might also get disturbed with the nightmares. Standing up, I turned towards her again.
" I have a match tomorrow." with that I walked out of the room, leaving her behind glaring at my retreating back.
Back in my dorm, I lay awake for another hour, trying to shut my brain off, which for the matter refused to stop conjuring up gruesome possibilities of what could have had happened to my once a fortunate group of elite friends. The sky had turned bright and the birds had starting chirping by the time I finally closed my eyes and welcomed sleep.
A/N : Early update cause I'll be busy tomorrow. How was the chapter? Quick question : what's your favourite quote from Harry Potter?
Anyways, Vote, Comment & Share.