After the Yule Ball, Ron didn't avoid me, but he didn't talk to me either.
It was time for the Christmas holidays. Normally, I would have been excited, but not that year. I had to stay at Hogwarts, whilst most of the students were leaving. Hermione was going on vacation with her parents, the Weasleys and Harry were going to stay at the Burrow, and Chantry was going home to see her grandmother.
Only Seamus and Dean were staying here too, so we hung out together often.
'Did you hear anything from your dad?' Seamus asked when we were sitting in the common room with the three of us.
'No. Do you know if Draco's staying at school too?'
'No, why?'
'I want to talk to him.' I had got that idea just then. I stood up and walked to the portrait hole. 'Where are you going?' Dean said.
'I'll go and find him,' I said matter-of-factly.
'What? You just go out and search like the whole school?' Seamus stated.
'If I need to, yes.' I turned back around and climbed through the portrait hole.
I had just left when I heard footsteps behind me. 'Dora. Do you even have an idea how big Hogwarts is?'
'I do have a thought.'
'If you want to search the whole school, you won't be ready in three days.'
'I know where I want to go, thanks.'
'And where is that?'
We had stopped and I finally turned around to face Seamus. 'That's none of you business.'
'Really? I only try to help you, but if you're going to act like that...'
'I'm not doing anything wrong. I just want to find my cousin.'
'Well, okay, but don't go hang around in places you don't have to be.'
'I know exactly where I need to be. Why is it actually, that you are always the one to come after me?'
Seamus seemed to be at a loss for words. After a few minutes of staring at eachother, he answered: 'Because I care about you.'
'Thank you for being so overprotective, but I can look after myself perfectly.'
'Well, great. Enjoy your time with Draco,' he said sarcastically.
'Yeah. I will. Bye, Seamus.'
As I walked away I had the terrible feeling I had hurt him. I liked Seamus, but I hated it when people hung around me too much.
In the Entrance Hall, I hit left and went down the stairs to the dungeons. I knew the Slytherin common room was there, and as Draco had told me the password ("pure-blood") almost never changed, I had decided to take a chance.
At the end of the corridor, there was a big fountain, with ten snakes engraved. It was dark and cold in the dungeons and I didn't expect the Slytherin common room to be different. I took a deep breath. 'Pure-blood.'
It had worked: the water supply stopped and the fountain shove aside, revealing a passage. I could already see the green lights as I climbed through. I couldn't believe I was actually standing in the Slytherin common room. There weren't much students: only two older boys. One of them stood up and came to me.
'What do you think you're doing here?' he snapped at me with a smirk. 'Oh, excuse me. I was just searching for my cousin, Draco Malfoy,' I answered with a smile.
He laughed. 'You we've heard of! What makes you think you can enter our common room?'
'It's important. Do you know if he's staying at school?'
'Yes, he is. But what could be so important to break into a room where you shouldn't come?'
'Why would I tell you?'
He moved his hand and as soon I had figured out he was going to take his wand, I did the same and we pointed our wands at eachother. He grinned again.
'You think you can actually fight me? A little girl of fifteen years old. Don't let me laugh.'
'It would surprise you.'
'Let's see then.'
'Oi, don't go and fight her, mate,' the other boy yelled at his friend.
'I made a mistake coming here, as my cousin is not here. I think I'll go then.'
I backed away, we both lowered our wands and I climbed back through the passage. Why was I so stupid to think it would be okay for me to enter the Slytherin common room?
Up in the Entrance Hall, I decided to go back to Gryffindor Tower. I had enough embarassement for one day.
When I climbed through the portrait hole, I found Seamus sitting alone by the fireplace. I thought it was a chance to apologize to him, so I sat down in the armchair beside his. Neither of us said something, until Seamus stood up and wanted to climb the stairs to his dormitory.
Next thing I knew, I stood up too and grabbed his arm. He turned around slowly with a sigh. 'What do you want, Dora?'
'I just want to say sorry.' I let go of his arm and looked up to him.
There was a silence. 'For... saying hurting things to you. And - I actually was an awful person,' I said with a crooked grin.
'You're not an awful person. You just need to see that yourself.'
'I do.'
'You don't. Not always. I think you blame yourself for too many things.'
I thought about my dad. When I was little, he always told me that Muggles deserved to be punished. Because they did things wrong. I didn't know what he meant with that. Now I do. And now the Ministry was tracing my dad. Because he had done things wrong. I didn't want to be like that. I wanted to be a better person. But I wasn't. I lied and kept things from others. I was just the same. Just the same.
'No, it's okay. I deserve it. I deserve to be blamed for things I've done wrong.'
'Who told you that?'
'Me.'
'You? Seriously? That's ridiculous,' he said with a grin.
'Maybe it is.' Again there was a silence, but this time it wasn't uncomfortable.
'I know you're blaming yourself about your dad. You don't have to.'
'I'm not. I'm just... disappointed. You know I don't agree with his actions. I actually don't really care what he does. But I would like to have a home during the summer holidays. That's all.'
'He'll be alright. I mean, we're talking about a Death Eater.' He grinned.
'Indeed, we're talking about a Death Eater. But even if he's still on the run, I can't go home. It would mean I will have to stay somewhere else.'
'With the Malfoys?'
'I think so.'
'Have you spoken to Draco yet?' Thinking about the embarassment in the Slytherin common room, I laughed.
'What is it?'
'No, I didn't. Guess it wasn't such a great idea to go to the Slytherin common room...'
'No way, Dora. You went to the Slytherin common room?'
'I did.'
'You are mad. What did you expect?'
'I honestly don't know what I expected,' I said with a crooked grin.
'Well, what did it look like?'
'The common room? Well, it was kind of matching with the identity of the Slytherins. A dark room, lots of black couches, green lights and no fireplace. It felt a little bit deathlike really.'
'Good you're not a Slytherin then.'
I laughed. 'Yeah, I would hate it in there. I mean, I think you can get used to it, but I like it here much more.'
'How does your family actually think about it? You being a Gryffindor?'
Seamus leaned against the wall.
'Um... They don't know.' He raised his eyebrows and I smiled and shrugged. 'They don't know? You haven't told them?'
'Well, it's just my dad actually. And because he didn't knew Dumbledore had suggested to put me in Gryffindor in the first place, I might not tell him ever.'
'It's your choice,' he said indifferent.
'Do you think he would approve?'
He laughed. 'Actually not.'
'Exactly. Are we going to do something?'
'Like what?'
'I don't know, just hang around a bit.'
'Alright. Where do you want to go?'
'I have no idea.'
'Um... I could show you the Room of Requirement.'
'The Room of Requirement? And what exactly is that?'
'I'll explain when we get there. Come on,' Seamus said as he walked towards the portrait hole and I followed him.
When we reached the seventh floor, we hit left and then right.
'Okay. We're here.' I examinated the wall in front of us. It just looked like a normal wall. Nothing special.
'So, what it is. The Room of Requirement changes to fulfill your needs. So if I'm looking for a spot to lounge for example, I walk three times past this wall, thinking about it. You'll see what happens next,' he explained as he started walking back and forth.
He stopped and stood beside me. A massive door appeared and I couldn't believe it. 'How's that even possible?'
'I don't know, but it's handy.'
Seamus opened the door and we both entered the room. 'So it doesn't always look like this?' I stated as I looked around the room. There was a fireplace with a big couch, and even a small fridge, like Muggles had.
'No. It could look different everytime you come in here, if you want to.' I walked across the room multiple times, whilst Seamus had already got two bottles of Butterbeer out of the fridge. 'Do you want some?'
I sat down on the couch. 'Yes, please.' He too sat down and gave me one of the bottles. 'Can we spend the whole vacation in here?' I said, leaning back and nipping from my Butterbeer.
He grinned. 'I knew you would like it.'
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the Room of Requirement, talking and drinking Butterbeer.
At seven o'clock, Seamus stood up. 'Dinner is almost over. We should go now if we want food.'
'Do we want food?'
'We do,' Seamus said nodding and smiling. 'Come on, lazybones.'
*~*~*~*~*
Oh my god. This is starting to get boring, isn't it? I really think I'm slowing down too much. I'll try to speed it up a bit after a few chapters, but I don't know yet how to do so. So it's possible the next chapters are a bit slow or there's not much going on.
Thank you for reading!
Loran