"Oi Evans!"
"Evans!"
"Evans where are you going?!" This seemed to snap Finley from her mindless walking in the halls. She was holding a bundle of books, she looked like the normal Finley. But to Draco she was far from it.
"The library," she says, playing a smile on her face, holding up the books she had. As charming as Finley looked, she was even more suspicious at the moment, because for one. The library was in the opposite way she was walking in.
"This leads the way to the Astronomy tower," Draco deadpans, narrowing his eyes at Finley who now just realised her predicament.
"Oh! Silly me," she giggled before walking to the other direction, Draco meeting her half way, taking the books from her arms holding them for her.
"I can carry those you know," Finley points out trying to take at least half of the books, but Draco evades the attempt by walking ahead.
"Hey!"
"Come on now, you said you wanted to go to the library. I have class in half an hour so time is running," Draco says as he was now further from the dumb struck Finley. Books on one hand, Draco walked back towards Finley and held her hand and smiled at her.
"Well? Don't tell me you're falling for me, I haven't even asked you to date me yet."
Finley scoffs. "You've been asking me that since you came in our train cabin," Finley says rolling her eyes, releasing his hold on her hand, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"And, you haven't given me and answer yet."
"There's not much to say yes to," Finley snidely commented, still trying to at least grab one book to carry. Hand reaching to the book on the top and continuous evasion from Draco, it shortly turned in to a game of tag.
"Well you're missing so much of this, you're running after a pansy," Draco remarks now walking moderately, giving Finley a chance to grab one book from the bundle he carried for her.
"I was running after you, isn't that just the same thing?" Finley replies taking a good look at the book's cover that she had in her arms before opening it. It was a book about Hippogriffs, from their traits and skills to how to tame them.
As much as Draco wanted to slap that book off of Finley's hands, he couldn't. He knew that the girl still doesn't think so kindly of him for suing an animal, because as she said and he quotes. 'This is a whole new level of petty, even for a ferret faced toe rag like you.'
"You know, Hippogriff's are very prideful creatures. Narcissistic you can call them, they think they're very attractive," Finley reads as she walked beside Draco who merely rolled his eyes at her. "Sounds like someone I unfortunately had the pleasure to know," She mutters.
"Oh ha ha Evans, at least I wasn't the one who dated a narcissist fellow who spoke of his exes," Draco fires.
"To be fair, you weren't there to save me again," Finley muttered under her breath looking straight a head, not realising that Draco heard her.
"Come again?"
"Nothing," Finley quickly said, her cheeks growing red walking faster and instantly stopping when she saw the library doors. She looked down on her shoes and for a moment scolding herself, she was a mess yet why does she insist with these odd feelings for the blond boy. He was terrible. Was.
Even now, with the Hippogriff's death sentence and all that, him bullying Harry and his continuous verbal use of that horrible name. She was still harbouring the odd fluttering feelings she had to Malfoy, she didn't need it, did she?
She's convincing herself no, she has too much on her plate at the moment she didn't need anyone to shoulder her burden of horrific nightmares. And someone like Draco doesn't need to be bothered by her anyway, she was leaving at the end of the year, if anything was to happen it wouldn't be fair to anyone getting involved with her.
"You know, Zabini and Nott aren't the happiest people at the moment," she heard Draco comment, she looked to her side and Draco was looking ahead. And for some reason she didn't mind this brat walking with her, he was the one to see her in her vulnerable times as often as her friends do. She was comfortable with him enough.
"Did they do something for you to ignore them for two weeks?" She heard Draco ask again. She shook her head, they didn't do anything wrong, it was her that was the problem, but she won't tell him that.
"Things are complicated," she simply says avoiding Draco's eyes. For some reason she was afraid of the boy for seeing through her mask, when she was doing so well.
"Complicated? Or are you just stubborn?" He asks again making Finley grin. He wasn't right and yet he wasn't wrong either. Finley was stubborn to acknowledge that her best friends were onto something, and yet she was too scared to see it properly. The what ifs of their discovery was scary as it is, and what if they were wrong? She hated to get her hopes up about having a loving family such as Harry.
"Your silence means I am right," Draco grins, bumping her shoulder slightly.
"You're neither right or wrong," she remarks. She wasn't going to feel the blond boy's ego even more, she was simply acknowledging his conclusion of her being stubborn as hell.
"You're not making sense love," he retorts.
"Things don't always makes sense Draco."
"Now you're being cryptic," he says as he stopped walking once again. "Really Finley, what's going on?"
Finley fell silent, as far as she knew, Draco didn't need to know that she was leaving Hogwarts after this year. The only thing he knew was the consequence of that New Years party, her being taken off the team wasn't taken lightly by him that he demanded Snape to put her back. Two people in Slytherin knew her upcoming departure, she didn't need a third to know about it. Or she did.
"Talk to me Finley, what's wrong?" Draco asked softly. She didn't have the heart to tell him, but it was better to tell him now than be the last person to know right? She didn't like the idea of him hearing it from another source other than herself.
"I might not be here any longer," she simply said as she began walking again.
"What do you mean?"
"I may not be staying here in school anymore."
"You're transferring?" Draco finally asked as he got the pieces together, Finley never doubted the boy's common sense. "Why?"
"Just because?" This wasn't really a just because type of situation, Draco knew that much. Something seemed incredibly wrong, and it didn't seem to answer why the girl was ignoring Blaise and Theo. It was certainly something else, but the news of Finley transferring was shocking.
"You can't give me that reason Finley, why are you transferring? Is it Snape? Do you want me to ask my father to rethink his decision?"
"Heavens no," Finley exclaimed, Mister Malfoy shouldn't be bothered by her as she was technically nothing to him as she is a half-blood. "It was bound to happen really, I disobeyed him and this is what I get. It's not a big deal," she adds.
"But—"
"It's fine really."
And that was where the topic ended, Draco didn't know what to say to Finley. He certainly didn't want her to leave, but what could he do? Even if his father intervened, his family didn't have a hold on Finley as she wasn't someone from his family.
"Here's the library," Finley voiced as both of them stopped at the two large doors to the library.
"If you could give me the books, you have class in ten minutes," Finley muttered taking the books from Draco. And he let her, gently handing her the bundle of books and straightening his robes properly. Finley turned her back and slowly walked towards the library doors.
"Evans."
"Yes Malfoy?"
What was Draco going to say? Was he going to tell her that it was going to get better? How would he know, he wasn't the one with a teacher as a guardian so he doesn't know what to say. And yet every time he looks at Finley he always didn't know what to say. He should say something. But what?
"Go to Hogsmaede with me?" He wanted to slap himself. After her revelation of leaving Hogwarts, he still had the audacity to ask her out? Was he an idiot? Yes, he may as well be. But the smile on Finley's face said otherwise, the smile on her lips and the relieved look on her face made him praise himself even more for some reason. He made her smile.
"Maybe," Finley says before turning her back once again, entering the library, leaving Malfoy outside in shock. 'Maybe?'
On Finley's way in the library returning the books she took out by Hermione's request, she still felt bad for not helping the Hippogriff.
'I should've kicked him in the sopranos earlier.' Finley thought as she returned the Hippogriff books one by one. She felt her cheeks heat up from her earlier encounter with the boy.
She said 'maybe'. Was she mad? Why tell him that?
She thought long and hard, trying to get herself to ignore the bothering waves of pain on her shoulder. It still wasn't healing, the session with Dumbledore might just made it worst.
"You are not trying hard enough."
"But I am!" Finley gritted as she felt Dumbledore break through every mental wall she created while the pain on her shoulder worsened. If not for the silencing charm casted in the head master's office, she would've caught the attention of everyone in the castle.
"Try harder miss Evans!" Dumbledore yelled, his voice not only echoing outside to her ears but also in her head and it costed her another pain in the head.
Dumbledore's mind travelled in to the deepest parts of her mind, from her every fear to her deepest anger. Finley could feel that he reached the darkest depts of her mind that even she was scared of diving in to. Hearing screams and laughs and hissing, a flash of green and red. Golden hair on the red stained floors, terrified her as if she was standing right in front of it.
"Is this how you defend yourself from your assailants Evans?" The headmaster snaps as soon as he let go of the legilimens spell, rendering Finley exhausted from rebuilding broken walls.
"It's rather sloppy and poor," he spoke, Finley dropped her head in shame. This session went in too deep for her liking, she felt violated as the head master saw her inner most rage and secrets.
"Being a Potter is not a secret."
"But we don't know that for sure Professor, it was just a theory my friends made," she snaps at the headmaster, not liking how he voiced a thought she buried deep in her subconscious.
"Being able to hear the screams of the past isn't a liability either," Dumbledore said ignoring the comment she made about being a Potter.
Finley looked up at the man, confused. "Screams of the past Professor?"
"It is a rather odd name to it, but it is the only thing I can describe your predicament. The three headed snake in the Peverell vaults stand for something, it might help you."
"The dreams don't stop," she says, trying to see reason to how the head master knew about the three headed snake in her vault.
"And it follows me sir, what does a three headed snake have to do with me?"
"I guess you have to open that gift now," Dumbledore remarks before dropping the silencing charm in the office.
"Now off to bed with you, look for my owl for your next session."
The night she got back out the head master's office, she wen straight to her dorm and opened her trunk. Under all the gifts she received she took the odd box she received on Christmas that she wanted to open with her friends. But seeing as her friends and her were not on speaking terms, she opened it herself.
Finley took out a chain from her robes, holding it up to her eye level and sighed. Inside the box was a sigil of a three headed snake, and somehow it helped tame her dreams. She's had a good sleep for two days, but not in a row.
A three headed snake could mean anything, Peverell's family were related to the Gaunts and the Riddles. Maybe it was a long line family heirloom and had just came to her possession, or maybe it wasn't but who knows.
Shoving the last book in its shelf, Finley was done for the day. She needed to go and relax, her world would be better is if relaxing was so simple. Sadly it wasn't all simple, she stepped out the library and went to class. Her next session with the Headmaster was after dinner, she needed to prepare herself.