I don't own any of the characters apart from Melanie Malfoy. All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
*Read A/N at the end please!*
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"Melanie, right?"
Crap.
"Erm, yeah..." I answered wearily. I didn't know if I actually wanted him to know that. Mind you, he must already have known that if he asked me. "Harry Potter?"
I only asked to make certain I was talking to the right person. He looked a little caught off guard that I'd made his name into a question more than a statement. I guess he doesn't get that very often considering how famous he is. Well, there's a first time for everything.
"Yeah. What are you doing up here?" he asked, getting straight to the point. The second he asked that question though, my mind went blank. I know I'd told Draco that I had an excuse ready for if he came up here, but for the life of me I just couldn't remember what that was right now.
"I was...just...studying?" Great, that came out as a question as well...
"Why up here? Wouldn't it be easier to study in the library or in your common room?" he asked, clearly getting even more confused by the response I gave to him. I blinked at him a couple of times, trying to get the thoughts in my head together so I could come up with a good cover story. Suddenly, something Draco had told me over the summer popped into my head.
"The library always seems to be crowded and the Ravenclaw common room tends to be quite loud because most of our house use it to study. So I asked Cho if she could think of anywhere I could use and she told me about the Room of Requirement." I covered, inwardly proud of myself for not stuttering and messing up.
I noticed an uneasy look creep onto Potter's face when I mentioned Cho's name, making me remember that they had briefly been together last year. Cho was pretty awkward whenever he was mentioned in a conversation, and I was glad to know she wasn't the only one.
He cleared his throat before looking back up at me, "Were you alone in there while you were studying?" I felt like I was being questioned on something much more serious than just 'studying' the amount of questions he was sending my way.
"Yeah, I like the peace and quiet when I study. Otherwise I get distracted and don't get anything done," I answered him truthfully. I actually couldn't work with others around me. If I ever ended up doing homework while me and Draco were in the Room of Requirement, I made sure he was quiet before I started.
"Okay. Well, I guess I'll see you round," he told me, clearly disappointed he hadn't seen Draco and stalked off in the other direction.
I let out a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding in and turned back to face the doors that would let me enter the Room of Requirement. They opened quickly and I felt a hand grab onto the top of my robes and dragging me into the room.
"What happened? Did he do anything to you?" Draco asked, looking over me to see if I had any damage inflicted onto me. Highly unlikely, that something like that could happen in the middle of a school corridor, but Draco's mind was clearly not at ease right now.
"I walked into him when I left the room and we both fell over, he helped me up and we started talking. I think he bought my lie about studying in the end. I told him Cho had said that I should use the Room of Requirement to study in and that's when he left." I explained, trying to push him away from me. He was still trying to make sure I wasn't hurt in any way.
"Good. I don't think I have energy to have to go after Potter right now if he'd hurt you," he admitted, walking slowly back over to the chair he'd been occupying. It wasn't until he said that, that I realised how true his words were.
I had thought that I'd looked bad. I constantly looked pale, thin and like I had no energy, the black bags under my eyes were clearer than ever and nothing I did to cover them up worked. My hair was starting to look thinner now, and the once platinum colour had faded and it looked greasy and dirty. But Draco, Draco was a different story.
The bags under his eyes were a lot darker than mine. He had also become so slim that it looked like a small gust of wind could knock him flying, but he didn't look like he should be able to stand up anyway. I hadn't realised just how tired he looked until now. This sent a wave of guilt flooding through me.
"Why don't you go back to your common room Drake?" I asked softly. I had meant it to come out so it sounded like he didn't have a choice in the matter, but it just wasn't going that way for me today.
"I'm fine Mel. You sit down and I'll take over from where you were, I'm just gonna try and get this little bit finished today..." he stood up pointing to the bit of the cabinet we'd been trying to fix for the past week now, but I quickly stopped him and pushed him back down.
"No, you need to rest. The cabinet isn't going anywhere, I'm sure it'll still be in the same position as it is now tomorrow. Just go to bed Drake, you really need to."
I could tell he was going to protest but I shot him a stern look and he started to look for his school bag instead. Luckily, we had no lessons that day so we wouldn't have to make up a cover story for him.
With one last longing look at the cabinet from him, he quickly turned and ran out the room. As much as he wanted to get this cabinet finished, you could tell how much he hated being stuck in this room all the time. I picked up my bag and slowly made my way across the room without sparing the cabinet another glance.
No matter what Draco said or how much he protested I knew it was my fault that he was this tired. We wouldn't have had to put in extra hours on fixing the cabinet if I hadn't ran into it the other day, it was a stupid mistake even thinking about it. I ran my fingers down my left arm unconsciously tracing my Dark Mark.
I just wish this was all over...
**
"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?" I yelled at Snape.
It had been three hours since I'd watched Draco walk out of the Room of Requirement. I hadn't thought much of it, obviously, why would I. But two hours after that I got dragged out of my common room by Snape telling me that something had happened to Draco. I'd been arguing with him ever since.
"Patience Miss Malfoy. I don't think I should be the one to disclose this information to you. You shall hear from the person who was also involved in this incident. This way you'll know exactly what happened." I opened my mouth to shout at him even more but he just cut across me. "You should watch your mouth around this person though Miss Malfoy. We wouldn't want any secrets getting out, would we?"
I continued to glare at him, though I was sure that he could see my confusion from my eyes. He cleared his throat and pointed his finger to my hair just as someone walked through the door.
"Who's this?" Potter asked. I scoffed slightly, he only just walked into me this morning, surely he would remember... I then realised what Snape had been trying to tell me. I pulled a wavy strand of hair round from my back to realise that it had turned the fiery red that was associated with my anger.
"Oh." I could see Snape trying to hold back a smile, so I sent him a glare before focusing back on the platinum blonde colour my hair usually was. When I opened my eyes, Potter was stood staring at me, his mouth slightly ajar, clearly not believing what he just saw.
"This, Mr Potter, is Melanie Ma- Lestrange. She is Mr Malfoy's cousin. She seems to be very curious about your encounter with him earlier today."
I felt a rush of anger course through me again and went to stand up but felt a weight pushing me back down. Snape was aiming his wand at me and I realised that he was making sure I didn't stand up and attack anything.
At least I knew why he'd taken my wand off me now.
"What the hell did you do to Draco?" I growled, noticing the bits of hair that had fallen into my face were turning red again.
"It was an accident... I really didn't mean anything like this to happen..." he mumbled, getting quieter as he talked more. I was growing more impatient with him and I could feel the restraints Snape had put on me becoming loose. Seems I'm a lot stronger that I thought.
"Get to the point!"
I saw Potter open his mouth again, but he couldn't form any words by the looks of things. He hung his head low and looked over to Snape in a plea to tell me what happened.
"Mr Potter here used a dangerous dark spell on Draco called 'Sectumsempra'. I'm sure you know what that spell does to a person. I managed to stop the bleeding before it got too bad, but if I hadn't turned up then Draco could have been as good as dead."
I felt my face pale considerably. I could see my hair turning a dull white colour. Draco could have been killed. I could have lost my twin brother. I battled the restraints a little but more and luckily they came loose. Before Snape or Potter could realise what I was doing, I had grabbed my wand and was running through the castle to the hospital wing.
I had to see him. If I hadn't told him to leave the Room of Requirement then this wouldn't have happened. He could have stayed in there all day and he wouldn't have even ran into Potter never mind have nearly been killed by him.
I skidded to a halt in front of the hospital wing doors, debating whether or not to walk in. The voice in my head kept whispering that it was all my fault it happened and I had to agree with it. What if Draco hated me for what had happened?
My feet started forward slowly, taking care with each step I took. The second I walked in, I instantly regretted it. He was laid on one of the beds with Madam Pomfrey hovering over him, clearly using a spell or something to repair the damage done. His school shirt was laid on the chair at his side and I could see small patches of blood on it still.
"Drake..." I breathed, carrying on my slow walk over to the side of his bed. After a few minutes, Madam Pomfrey moved into her office and I could get closer to him. I felt a tear slip down my cheek as I looked at him again. This is all my fault...
**
I was stood in the Room of Requirement. After spending the past 14 hours stuck in he on my own, I thought I was starting to have hallucinations or something. I thought that I had finally completed the cabinet. But I couldn't have, could I?
When Draco had dropped by earlier, he left a couple of birds that we could test the cabinet with. We tried with other small things, like food, but it wasn't obvious what was happening. I took a deep breath before walking over to the cage and taking one of the small birds out.
I placed it into the cabinet and carefully closed the door over. I brushed a strand of hair that had fallen out of my messy bun out of my face and glanced down at the clothes I was wearing. I was just glad that I'd thought to change before I came here. The tank top and shorts I was wearing were covered in dust and bits of the paint that was peeling off the cabinet.
Thank god no one could see me right now.
"Harmonia Nectere Passus." I said, pointing my wand at the door to the cabinet. The sound of the floor moving and the birds chirping started to sound more distant. After waiting for a minute or two after the sound had completely disappeared, I pointed my wand at the door again and repeated the spell.
I had been working on the cabinet pretty much non stop this month. Ever since the 'coming together' between Draco and Potter, we thought it would be safer if Draco didn't hang around in the Room of Requirement as much. He only dropped by every few days to see what was happening and it seemed that Potter was becoming less suspicious of him, which was an added bonus.
I squeezed my eyes shut and crossed my fingers in the hope that it would work. In some ways it would come as a blessing to know all our hard work paid off, but at the back of my mind I knew what was going to have to happen soon. My stomach was in knots as I heard the floor of the cabinet set back in place.
I couldn't open the door though. No matter how much my brain was telling my to reach out and take the handle, my body fought against it. I hadn't heard any sound from the bird I had put inside, it was just like all the other times.
But then, as if someone was looking over me and wanted to send me a good sign, the small patter of feet against wood could be heard and a small chirp echoed around the silent room.
I had done it.
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Hey guys! I'm finally back. Sorry it took me longer than expected.
So, Harry Potter studios was the best thing I have ever been to in my life. I actually debated breaking into one of the houses they had there and moving in. When I got there, I was kinda expecting something of Mel's to be there, I don't know why... I'm just so used to her in the story now. I did see a lot of Draco's costumes and his wand though *_*
Now, I think there's only going to be 3 or 4 chapters left depending if I split one of them up, so I guess I wanna say this now, but: thanks for sticking with the story, I really appreciate all the reads and comments. It does mean a lot.
Just to clear up where we are in the story at the end, Mel has fixed the cabinet in the middle of June. That means the battle at the end is only a couple of weeks away for them.
I will try and be quicker in my next update, I wanna try and finish this story before I start in sixth form (:S) so in about two weeks time, I'll try my best.
C x