Juliette
I was silent throughout the entire dinner. Working on the task was not something that I particularly wanted to do. I hated the idea of killing Dumbledore and repairing the Vanishing Cabinet to allow Death Eaters into one of the few places, I actually felt safe in. When it comes to it, I know that I won't be able to kill Dumbledore. Even if it was on my parents's lives. It taunts me; to end another's life, not knowing whether they were ready for their end or not. It was too much. Albus Dumbledore has made a huge impact on me since I was eleven. I could never bring myself to kill him.
I ate dinner quickly, and went back to the common room, beginning my homework. It was quite empty, as most people were still in the Great Hall eating dinner.
After an hour, the common room began to fill as people entered.
A few minutes before eight, Draco came out of his dorm.
"Bring your quill and some paper. Let's go, Trails." I followed Draco out of the common room and up one of the magical staircases, and turned a few corners, and were left in an empty corridor.
"Where exactly are we going?" I asked in a hushed voice.
"To the Room of Requirement, of course," he gestured to an empty wall. I recognized the wall from walking through the door last year.
"Think about something specific. Why you need to go inside," said Draco.
I followed his instructions, I closed my eyes. When I opened them, a large gate-like door formed on the surface. He pushed it open and closed the door behind. The room was filled with several items. It looked nothing like it did the last time I was inside.
It was packed with old artifacts and old dusty sheets of fabric used to cover items. As we both walked through the room, I noticed that there was one of the sheets covered a fairly large cabinet like figure hidden near the back of the room. I assumed it was the Vanishing Cabinet.
I pointed my wand at the blanket, cast the levitation charm-carefully removing the blanket. I thought of Hermione and Ron, during our first year. Ron couldn't cast the charm so I practiced it for ages with him. Then, on Halloween, he successfully used it against a troll. I smiled at myself thinking of the memory. The good old days were the most memorable.
"I have three books which Snape gave me. Read this one, and I'll read this one," he handed me an old book with a flimsy cover which read Cabinets and Their Perks.
"If you find any useful information, write it down. Later on, we can put the information together and see what information we find," I flipped through the first few pages and began skimming through all of the information. Although, most of it was useless.
"Malfoy," I said looking up from the book.
"Trails?"
I cleared my voice awkwardly before speaking. "At the last meeting, he wanted me to do the curse first. Why'd you volunteer to do it?"
"You didn't want to do it. Really, I was just saving you some humiliation from the Dark Lord. I figured I might as well buy you some time to get yourself back together. Plus you actually have respect for stupid Mudbloods, so I knew you'd feel more guilty to do it," as he spoke, he didn't dare to look up from his book. I wondered if maybe he didn't want to look at me because he was scared of showing sympathy... it seemed like something Draco would do. He always felt so protective over his reputation, and any subtle action could put a dent in it.
"Well thanks," I said quietly. I read a few more pages of the book, then called his name again.
This time, he looked up at me, "Do you want to kill Dumbledore?" I asked, cringing at the thought.
"No. Can we ignore that part for now? I don't want to talk about it."
I nodded my head and continued reading Cabinets and their Perks.
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As I slept, I dreamt that I was being cruciated by Bellatrix Lestrange. She screamed at me and her cackling laugh ringed in my ears. After being tortured, she placed the Imperius Curse on me and forced me to kill students at Hogwarts. As I raised my wand at this first-year student (whom I passed by in the hall yesterday), I could hear yelling in my ears.
"Juliette! Wake up! Are you okay? You've been panting and tossing and turning all night!" Millicent shook my shoulders, and Pansy was by her side, both looking restless.
Groggily, my eyes opened, and I groaned, "W-what? Sorry I had a nightmare... I've kept you both up-oh gosh, I'm so sorry. I'm okay now, just go back to sleep."
They both went back to their beds without a word. I stared at the ceiling, and couldn't fall back asleep, so once I heard Millicent snore, I pulled on a jumper and grabbed my books and parchment. Since I was awake, I figured I should get some work done, and be productive...
I slipped out of the dormitory and went to the common room, and began to work on my homework.
After a few hours, I dozed off, with my parchment and books scattered all around the table.
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I opened my eyes slowly as I heard someone yelling at me, "Trails, what the hell are you doing out here? Breakfast is-"
"Well, morning to you too," I said, groggily. I could feel this pain in my back as I began to sit up.
I looked up to whoever it was. It turned out to be Malfoy, who stared at me in disbelief.
He stared at me in shock.
"I had a nightmare. Tried to work on homework. Fell back asleep," his gaze shifted to the clock.
"Fifteen minutes until classes start. I guess I'll see you in Potions, then," after a few moments it sunk in.
"Fifteen minutes..." I muttered, my eyes slowly adjusting to the light. "Fifteen minutes!" I cursed loudly, causing first-year students to stare, and then gathered all of my things and sprinted back to the girls' dormitory.
I quickly changed into my robes and fixed up my hair. Then, I ran to the Great Hall and grabbed a piece of toast before rushing off to Transfiguration.
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Classes were finished for the day, but I was left with even more work to complete. Professor Slughorn assigned an essay in Potions, and Professor Flitwick told us to research non-verbal magic, so I began to prepare a page-worth of research after going to the library.
I walked to dinner alone at a later time. I was the only one that wanted to start my essay for Professor Slughorn's class. I was close to the Great Hall when I was startled. Harry pulled off his invisibility cloak, causing me to make a scream-ish noise of surprise.
"Harry, you scared me!" I put a hand over my mouth. Then, I remembered that I couldn't talk to him. I was doing such a good job avoiding them, I couldn't blow my cover now. If I began talking to him, I would probably let loose everything that happened in the summer.
"Juliette, why are you avoiding Hermione, Ron, and I?" He asked in frustration.
I bit my lower lip and remained silent, trying to get past him, but he kept blocking my way so I couldn't walk through.
"You completely ignored our letters over the summer, and you didn't give us any explanation on the train! The only thing that we heard was from-" he paused, "Seamus. Lately, you've avoided us during class, ignored letters, and you don't even look at us. To make things even worse, you've been hanging around Malfoy of all people. What's going on with you?"
"Harry, I know you guys are probably angry, but I really can't talk about it. Please just-"
"You bet we're angry! I understand that he's in Slytherin and all, but why won't you talk to us? What's so terrible that you won't even look at us?" When I didn't say anything, he said bitterly, "Fine. I see how it is. Have fun with Malfoy."
I felt guilty, but I just couldn't tell him anything. None of them would look at me the same if I showed them my mark. If anything, it would make them hate me even more.
"It's really, really, bad, Harry. If you knew, you would never-ever forgive me. It's best that you just stay out of my way. I don't expect you to understand, but I really do mean it, OK?"
Before he could say anything, I turned around in the direction of the Slytherin common room. I hung my head low since my eyes were glassy and my face was red.
Suddenly, I bumped into someone abruptly. "Trails? What are you doing-" It was Malfoy. I recognized his voice and tried to not make eye contact with him. I quietly apologized and walked around him quickly. He caught up to my pace and tried to stop me.
"Get out of my way Malfoy!" I bellowed, in hopes that he would move.
"Trails, what the hell happened?" He stared at me and realized that my eyes were glassy, "Are you-"
"Can't you see! I don't want to talk about it Malfoy! If you had some humanity in you, you'd let me go!"
When I stormed off, he kept trailing behind, so it was no use to continue to the common room, where he'd follow me. So, I thought of the closest female lavatory. As I picked up the pace, he followed, and then grabbed my arm making me stop.
"I can't do this anymore Malfoy! I can't go another day avoiding my friends, it's driving me mad! I've never kept a thing from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and the huge mark on my forearm won't change that. It doesn't matter what house their in, their my friends. I have to tell them! I never wanted to be in this huge mess anyway, so why should I keep it a secret? I might as well just go around and tell everyone what happened over the summer because I-I can't do this anymore!"
I began to take deep breaths as I spoke. Tears were streaming down my face. Gradually, I built up the courage to carry on. "I get looks in the halls because I haven't explained myself to anyone... one day I'm friends with Harry, Hermione, and Ron, and the next I've completely ghosted them. Those who were In Dumbledore's Army as well knew that I went to the Ministry to fight with them, and all the sudden I'm gone... it doesn't take long to connect the dots that my parents were obviously involved with the Death Eaters, and decided to hide me from the others so that no one else would find out that I was fighting for Dumbledore!"
Malfoy stared at me blankly, unsure of what to say. He knew I was right... about everything.
I ran my fingers through my hair,"It's a lot, OK? I've never been on this side. I was always there to help Harry, Hermione, and Ron through all of those tasks. I was always the one defending Harry, but now... it's the complete opposite."
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When I woke up the next morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and I noticed that there were dark circles under my eyes. I wasn't able to sleep at all last night, and I really just wanted to skip classes.
The fact that I want to skip, means that things are terrible... because normally I quite enjoyed classes. I slowly got out of bed and brushed my teeth. I changed into my robes and combed my hair.
I figured I'd ditch breakfast, and work on my potions essay instead. I was mid-way through my essay when I looked at the time. Crap, two minutes until classes began.
I gathered my things and sprinted in the direction towards the Transfiguration classroom. I sat down in front of Pansy and Blaise and put down my books.
Pansy watched me as I propped my books on the desk and asked me curiously, "Why weren't you at breakfast?"
"Wasn't hungry. I was working on my potions essay instead."
"Where were you last night? We didn't catch you and Draco during dinner and I didn't see you at all until this morning."
This caught Blaise's attention, and he watched me as I tried to think of something to say. Great.
The last thing I wanted was Pansy Parkinson questioning my whereabouts along with Draco's.
"Slughorn asked me to help clean out some cauldrons after dinner, I decided to get an early start on it so that I could work on my potions essay in the library. I dunno about Malfoy, why?" I lied nervously, hoping that they would buy it. I was born a good liar. The only person that could tell when I was lying was my mum.
"Seemed a little odd that you two didn't show up at dinner, that's all..."
I knew that Pansy and Malfoy were on this on and off fling, so that was probably why she was concerned about Draco's whereabouts, but it was a little weird of her questioning mine.
I was glad that Professor McGonagall began her lesson because I really didn't want to talk about last night to Pansy of all people.
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Almost half of the day went by, and I was on my way to Potions. I did consider skipping Potions, but then I would have to explain to Slughorn why I did skip, and I wouldn't have a good reason.
I made no eye contact with anyone, and I just sat beside Millicent as Slughorn began his lesson. I could feel the three Gryffindor's eyes watching me, but I ignored them. Draco kept on looking at me as well, but I avoided all of it.
When we were dismissed, I made my way as fast as I could out of the classroom and went to my next class.
Before I knew it, I made it alive to charms. Last class of the day, thank Merlin! I sat down in my usual spot, and Draco sat down beside me.
He looked at me and asked, "Are you alright?"
"I've been better," I avoided all eye contact with him because last night just made it really awkward for me. Draco Malfoy is not someone who I sought for comfort, yet I did last night.
Professor Flitwick explained to us in depth of what non-verbal magic was, reminding us that the research papers were due tomorrow. During the summer, Snape had taught Draco and I how to use non-verbal magic. I was only able to do simple spells with it, and Draco could perform almost any spell non-verbally.
When class ended, I left and headed straight towards the dorm. I sat back in the same spot as earlier and re-read my potion's essay.
Afterwards, I took out my wand and did basic magic, levitating my quill without saying the spell verbally, which seemed to have amazed many first and second years. The quill began to float in the air.
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I approached the Great Hall when I was pulled into a corner by someone.
"What the hell!" I faced the person who had grabbed my arm, to see Malfoy.
"Room of Requirement, after dinner." I sighed, and nodded, walking back to the Great Hall.