I don't own any of the characters apart from Melanie Malfoy. All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
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"I can't do this." I told him. My hands were shaking and I couldn't make myself think straight. There was only one thing I was certain of; I couldn't do this.
"You don't have a choice Miss Melanie. This is what you get when you disobey me," the Dark Lord hissed. Against my will, I felt my right arm being raised and my wand being pointed towards his latest victim.
"I've done nothing wrong! Please. I can't do this," I cried. Tears had began streaming down my face but I couldn't bring myself to stop them.
"You either do it, or come to the same fate as your dear twin here," he screamed. I could tell that I was really starting to test his patience now, but I would do everything not to do this. The Dark Lord raised his hand and turned my head to look at the boy laid on the floor.
I tried to avoid looking in that direction. I had made sure to avert my gaze from him, but suddenly I couldn't take my eyes off him. His platinum blonde hair was matted and dirty; his body was covered in cuts where he had been subjected to many curses. But none of that caught my attention. I looked into his eyes, his normally welcoming, loving grey eyes, and for once I couldn't see my twin. The look of pure hate in them made my heart break and more tears stream down my face.
"Draco, stand up. NOW!"
Draco reluctantly stood up, his eyes never leaving mine. The look he was giving me was beginning to become unbearable, but I still couldn't take my eyes off of him. The Dark Lord was stood smiling between us, almost like he thought this was how all our family meetings went.
"Tell her how you feel Draco. Tell her how much she's let you down," he said, his voice to happy for my liking. But for now, all I could focus on was my twin.
"I can't believe you did that Mel. You let me down when I needed you most. You said you'd never leave me, but you did." he told me. The whole time I was spluttering out incoherent apologies and crying, but it made no difference to him. He carried on regardless. "That's not why I'm most disappointed though."
"Yes, Melanie. Why is Draco so disappointed in you?" he was gleeful, and it scared me. He sounded threatening and I felt like I was being closed in, with no means of escape.
"I swear, it isn't true. Drake please believe me, it's not true!" was all I could say. My eyes had dropped to the floor, which would probably make them believe me less. I couldn't let him do this over a lie though, it would break me.
"I don't think we believe you Melanie. You and that filthy mudblood were too close for my liking. You've broken my trust Melanie; you must pay for your crimes."
"DON'T CALL HIM THAT!" I yelled, anger finally taking over me. I saw red, but I wasn't proud of it. I could tell by the looks on both of their faces that I had definitely said the wrong thing.
"Well, well, well. It's true then, my daughter is in love with a mudblood." father said, finally speaking up for the first time. Him and mother had been so quiet, I had actually forgotten they were in the room.
"I'm not." I stated. I kept all of my anger out of my voice and tried to sound as honest as possible. I don't know why they were doubting me, I was telling the truth.
"Well I'm sorry Draco, but because of this you will be the one to suffer at Melanie's hand." the Dark Lord said. There was a finality in his tone that I knew wouldn't allow me to argue with him anymore.
"I'm more than happy to. I just want to get away from her." Draco said, looking me straight in the eye. A huge lump formed in my throat at his words. He'd never wanted to get away from me before; he'd always wanted to get closer to me. His words physically hurt me and I just wanted to run.
I felt my arm being raised, my wand pointing at Draco again. No matter how hard I tried to fight it, I wasn't strong enough. My emotions weren't under control which meant my mind was in overload. The Dark Lord continued to control my movements.
I looked up at Draco once more before I knew I had to face the inevitable task. There was only one emotion on his face and it was pure hatred. I had seen this look many times over the years, but never had it been aimed at me before.
"Say it, and face your punishment. Try to make your family proud and make up for the crime you've committed," the Dark Lord sneered at me. The tears continued to pour down my cheeks and I could feel the words get caught in my throat. Then it happened...
"Avada Kedavra."
**
"Mel, wake up. Mel!" I could feel someone shaking me awake. I slowly opened my eyes and came face to face with Dean.
It was then that I realised where I was. I wasn't in the dark room at the manor being made to kill my twin. My head began spinning again and that's when I realised that there was a wetness on my face. Seems like I wasn't only crying in the dream.
"What time is it?" I asked, my voice coming out hoarse due to sleep and crying. I tried to wipe the tears away discreetly but I think Dean saw me, but he chose not to comment on it. For that I was thankful.
"11. I was running slightly late, you must have fallen asleep while you were waiting for me. Are you okay? You seem a bit shaken," he asked, concern evident in his voice. I could feel my heart start to speed up when I heard him, but I was putting it down to nerves at him finding out my secret. Yeah, that was it...
"Just had a really bad dream. A lot of things have been building up lately and it must have been playing on my mind," I replied, trying to avoid his eyes in case he saw I was lying. He looked over me one more time before accepting my answer and sitting down in the chair next to me.
"What are we doing tonight then?" he asked. I shook my head trying to get myself to think straight before telling him to turn to the same page as me in the textbook.
We had been meeting up for his tutoring for a over a month now. It was getting towards the end of February and we were nowhere near finishing our task. As much as I wanted to say I was getting somewhere, I was struggling more each day. I still couldn't bear to go along with the task, but I kept going; for Draco.
My dream was at the back of my mind while I sat with Dean and talked him through what he needed to know. He had started to learn more things over the time and I was enjoying our meetings that happened three times a week.
Many times we had finished quickly and just sat and talked for a couple of hours about nothing in particular. We had grown closer over this time, but it wasn't approved of. Draco especially didn't like it. He didn't want me hanging around with a 'mudblood'. Every time he said this, we had the same argument and I ended up walking out the room and not talking to him for days at a time.
I think that's what lead to the dream, I've been so caught up worrying about what my family would say, never mind the Dark Lord, about how close I've become to Dean. I know they wouldn't agree at all so I've kept it quiet from everyone.
Draco was the first one to bring up my 'feelings' for Dean. I had been certain at first that I didn't see him as more than a friend, but I was starting to become unsure. The more I learnt about him, the more I grew to him. I wasn't stupid though, I knew I couldn't afford distractions right now, and Dean would provide a huge one.
"Come on, I think we've done enough for tonight," I yawned, stretching my arms above my head. He nodded in agreement and closed his book before tucking it into his bag.
"I'll walk you towards your tower if you want. That way it'll be easier to make sure we don't get caught," he said, standing up and picking up both our bags in the process. I smiled and lead the way out of the classroom making sure to check for anyone on our way out.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Dean asked me as we started getting closer to the Ravenclaw tower. I turned to look at him, surprised he'd brought up the subject again.
"Yeah I'm fine. I told you, it was just a bad dream due to all the stress."
"Well you were screaming and crying in your sleep and it took me ages to wake you up. It didn't seem like you were okay to me," he pressed, walking slightly faster so he fell into stride with me.
"It's nothing you need to worry about," I told him with a soft smile. "I've just had a lot of trouble at home recently, which is what I think brought the dream on."
"You know you can tell me anything if you need me. I'll be here to listen," I could hear the sincerity in his voice and couldn't stop the smile from spreading out on my face. I nodded to let him know I could before walking over and taking my bag off of him.
"I'll see you later," I waved as he set off down the corridor to get back to his Common Room. I slowly made my way up to my dorm, finally letting the memories from my dream invade my mind. I wasn't skilled in occlumency, so I was starting to feel scared. For all I knew, it could be a trap.
The Dark Lord was well known for being able to get into Death Eaters heads. He used the power he had over us using our Dark Marks to channel our deepest thoughts. Cho had been mentioning some of the things that had come up in my dream, but I had pushed them to one side, trying to forget about them. The Dark Lord could now use them against me, and that made me feel even more threatened.
**
"You asked me to look it up; I told you exactly what you asked of me. How am I meant to tell you what you want if you keep cutting over me?" I shouted to Draco. He was yelling commands at me without giving me chance to answer any of his questions.
"Well actually do as I ask then! It's not hard to look something up in a book!" he yelled back. I just rolled my eyes and resisted the huge urge I had to throw the book in my hand at his head.
"I just told you! It is a lethal poison and it's common which means we can get our hands on it!" I said, not bothering to shout this time. If he really wanted to listen, he could come to me, I was fed up with the way he was treating me.
We were sat in the Room of Requirement (shocker!) and trying to think of another way to follow through with our mission. God, we're becoming so predictable...
"Oh, really? So how do plan on getting said poison?" he asked, cocking his eyebrow, obviously thinking he was the smarter out of us both in this moment. How wrong he was.
"We already have it. Did you really think I would leave something this important to you?" I reached into my bag and pulled out the small bottle. His mouth formed an 'O' and he was struggling to get any word out, so I thought I'd help him.
"As much as I hate him, Yaxley slipped it into my pocket when we left our house on boxing day. He said it could come in useful one day, and apparently he was right," I explained, slowly the confused look on his face started to disappear.
"Why didn't you mention it sooner?" he exclaimed. Again, I rolled my eyes and resisted the even bigger urge to throw my book at his head. He could be so stupid sometimes.
"You brought up the idea of poison yesterday. Plus, last night I was tutoring and then I had to check what the poison was. I know you're tired and irritated, but stop taking your moods out on me!" I stated, standing up and slinging my bag over my shoulder.
I tried to storm out the room, but was stopped when a hand grabbed onto my bag and tugged backwards. I was suddenly staring into the grey eyes that belonged to my twin. Before I could do anything else he just pulled me into a hug that I couldn't help but return.
"Sorry Mel. How're we gonna do this then?" he pulled out of the hug and looked at me again. Normally when he asked a question like that, there would be a sparkle in his eyes that meant he was up to no good. Not this time though.
I sighed deeply. "I don't know. We're gonna have to plant it somewhere like we did last time but make sure it's someone closer to him this time. Like a teacher, maybe?"
He nodded, taking in all my words and thinking them over. I didn't know what he was going to do this time; I just hoped we could make this work. As much as I hated the idea of killing him, I just wished it would be over. And the only way for that to happen was for him to die. I shivered at the thought, but Draco was too in thought to listen to me.
"I've got it!" was all he said before running over to his bag and picking it up. I was still getting over the shock of his actions when I realised he was practically sprinting out the door. I quickly gathered my stuff and followed him out wondering what his lightbulb moment was about.
By the time we reached the potions classroom, I was struggling to breathe properly. I had never realised how fast Draco actually was, and was cursing myself for not realising this sooner. He didn't seem to be fazed by our little work out (note the sarcasm...).
"We'll plant it with Slughorn!" he stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I really did feel like hitting the boy in the head now, it might actually knock some sense into him.
"He's the potions teacher Drake," I said slowly, putting emphasis on every word, almost like I was talking to a four year old. "He's not stupid, I'm sure he can tell a poison from a normal potion."
"Firstly, he'll be under the Imperius curse. Secondly, I'm not stupid... Don't pull that face at me!" as he'd said them words, I'd pulled my eyebrow up in a questioning gesture. I wasn't so sure about his smartness at this moment in time. "Anyway, I've got this."
He pulled a bottle out of his bag, and I have to admit; now I was even more confused. "This is a bottle of mead that I got from the Three Broomsticks. Okay, maybe I stole it..." I had cocked my eyebrow again. He really needed to start explaining things in a better manner.
"Give me the poison."
I handed over the small bottle I had shown him earlier and watched as he poured all the contents into the other bottle. Only when he started shaking it, did I realise what his plan was.
"Let's go then," I said, leading the way to Slughorn's quarters. We had to sneak through his office first, it felt like we were part of a secret mission and I was starting to enjoy it just as we reached the door.
"I'll go and put the 'mead' on the side next to his bed and then put the Imperius curse on him. Make sure to keep a look out for anyone coming and warn me if you see anyone. Just send a spark or something through the door. Got it? Good."
I felt like I was part of an army mission, so as he turned to walk away, I raised my right arm and saluted him. He rolled his eyes and gave a small chuckle before disappearing behind the door.
I slowly turned back to look down into the dark corridor again. I don't know how Draco expected me to warn him if someone was coming when I wouldn't be able to see them unless they were in front of my face. If I lifted my hand up I could barely see my own hand never mind a teacher or prefect. I didn't think it would be a good idea to light my wand either.
After 20 minutes, I started to get a bit panicky. Draco had been in the room for a lot longer than he should have been. Just as I was debating whether or not to go into the room myself I heard a glass smashing and a scream followed it. I was frozen on the spot, scared to take a look through the door.
Seconds turned into minutes before I finally had enough courage to go through the door. Then something else made me stop in my tracks. I had one hand on the door ready to push open and my right leg was raised to go take a step towards his room when I heard raised voices.
I recognised the voice of Draco straight away but I couldn't make out the other one very well. Draco seemed to be having an argument with the person whoever they were. Then it hit me. There were only two people in this school who could make Draco get that angry in a matter of seconds and that was Potter or Snape.
Just as I came to that conclusion in my head, I heard the low drawl of our professor mention the words that made my blood run cold.
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Hey guys! I'm sorry you've had to wait so long for this chapter.
I forgot I'd wrote this chapter in advance so I could post it just before my exams (so if you got my message the other day and were a bit confused, here's your answer). I probably won't be able to write a chapter for another couple of weeks now because of the rest of the exams so I hope you like this one
If you do like it, please vote and comment to let me know. If you think there's anything I could do to improve my story, I welcome the criticism, so yeah. I would appreciate it a lot
Until next time then (whenever that'll be...) C x