“But in the end, it ends.
New beginnings are
in short supply.”
•
I WAS SEETHING when I returned to the Gryffindor Common Room after visiting Harry at the hospital wing the next week. The Quidditch disaster had happened and despite my regular warnings to McLaggen about how he should mind his own business and be a Keeper, he still took the bat in the middle of the game and -might I say purposely -hit Harry point-blank in his face, causing him to crack his skull. Of course Madam Pomfrey was able to repair him, and Ron was on the verge of laughter at the commentatory, I was still seething with rage when I entered the gloomy, post-defeat Gryffindor Common Room.
"You!" I snarled at McLaggen who was sitting on an armchair next to the fireplace. "What is wrong with you!"
He stood up, way taller than me and way bulkier. "I'm not proud, but the match was a lost cause with the way they were playing," he said with contempt.
"Gryffindor always played and always managed to win," I said loudly. Hermione made to come towards me but thankfully Ginny stopped her. "And as I see it, you were the one who let Hufflepuff's score points under your watch!"
"Look, you don't play. You don't know how it works on the pitch," he sneered.
"But I sure know Keepers don't try to give orders to everyone when they're not Captain!" I shouted. "And Keepers sure don't attack their Captains!" He opened his mouth. "I'm not done talking!" I seethed. "We lost to Hufflepuff! No offense to them but they were never good at Quidditch! And you're oversmartness let them win so," I stepped towards him, and it would have been a comical scene to anyone watching, "if you ever try to come back to the team, after the nasty stunt you pulled today, I'd hex you so bad you'd have toenails growing from your eyeballs."
He squinted his eyes, probably imagining the hex. He opened his mouth to say something, but probably noticed the number of people who thought I was right at deeming him unfit for playing, pursed his lips and went off to the boy's dorm. I sighed, flopping down on my armchair.
"Serves him right," Ginny said. "Too bad you're not on the team. Why are you not on the team?"
"I'm scared of flying," I stated bluntly. "I tried once, in third year, kept calling off and I never tried again."
"I fell off multiple times too," Ginny said. "I didn't stop flying though. It makes me feel free. It's a good way to blow off steam," she said pointedly. "You should try again," she said suddenly. "We all were trained to fly first. But no one really trained you, because you joined late. If you have proper guidance, maybe you'd enjoy it."
I contemplated on the thought for a while. "Helps blow off steam you say?" I asked.
"Yeah," she shrugged. "With a temper like yours, you'd need to fly a lot."
I laughed. She was funny. She didn't sugarcoat the fact that I was ill-tempered. "Okay, but who will guide me?"
"I can," she said. "Not that you have to play Quidditch or anything. And Harry's too busy all the time, as it seems. . . "
I smirked lightly at the way she said the last part. She quickly shook her blush away and said, "We'll practice on the weekends okay?"
"Sure," I shrugged.
The next few days went exceedingly with boredom. Harry and Ron were both discharged by Monday and the aftermath was, that Hermione and Ron were friends again, and Harry desperately telling me about Draco having affairs.
"I see him with his two girlfriends all the time now," he said, as we walked towards transfiguration.
"Sure," I sniggered. For I knew the two girls were Crabbe and Goyle, and the only thing I was interested in was how he managed to sneak out potions from Slughorn's office.
"I'm serious!"
"No, you're Harry. Sirius is at home, reading the news," I laughed. He looked at me deadpanned. "No, okay," I said. "Malfoy's having affairs with two girls. I'm sleeping with Pansy. We're all seeing other people. Everything's fine."
"What -"
"It's a joke Harry," I sighed. "Laugh. If Draco was having an affair, he'd have Weasley hair for a week now."
Harry threw up his arms. I shook my head as we walked to transfiguration.
Lavender and Ron had a row and he was gloomy all day. Harry had his meeting with Dumbledore at eight, leaving me and Hermione to do his homework.
"I'm not doing your homework," I said to Ron, pushing his parchment aside.
"But I had a fight with my girlfriend," he said comically.
"So?" I asked. "Do I look like I care? Do your own fucking work."
Hermione sniggered lightly from the side, returning to her essay. When Harry returned from Dumbledore's he looked very depressed. I ambushed him into a corner.
"What happened-"
"You told me not to bother with Slughorn's memory," he said. "But Dumbledore wants it. And there's no way I can get it."
It didn't quite register why Dumbledore would want the memory despite already knowing everything from the books. I shook my head slightly, as it was very confusing to think like Dumbledore did. "It's okay. You'll figure out a way."
He nodded feverishly seeing off to his room. I sighed at the fire before going off to sleep myself.
Harry racked his brains over how to get Slughorn's memory over the next week. I had returned from the grounds on Sunday after wasting nearly an hour of feebly attempting to fly on a broom higher than six feet. Ginny said it was baby steps. I said I was incapable.
When I came back, I finished revising my essay on Dementors for Snape. Of course he wouldn't like it because of my approach, but it was a good essay nonetheless. Hermione was scolding Harry about Slughorn's memories, and Ron was struggling with spellings, when there was a loud pop and two house elves appeared.
"Kreacher!" Harry said. My jaw hung open. Dobby appeared too.
"Master said he wished for-"
"Harry, you can't have possibly set them up to look into Draco!" I said exasperatedly.
"I have to know what he's upto, okay?" He snapped. "Neither you nor Dumbledore would tell me anything about why he's a Death Eater working for us or what exactly it is that Voldemort wants him to do. And there are attacks happening in school. Ron got poisoned!"
"More than one particular person you hate can be upto something horrid, Harry!" I snapped.
"Why don't you go and hide your boyfriend's secrets while I find them myself," he said and without giving me a chance to speak encouraged Dobby to speak.
He found out about the Room of Requirements and I wasn't shocked because he wouldn't be able to enter anyway if he didn't know what he was looking for. I left before Harry could tell me how bad my choices at love interests were.
The next day, Harry went to the room if Requirements and came to the DADA class late, making us lose points. I was sitting in a corner with Draco and Pansy, and merely rolled my eyes at Harry who looked disgruntled to see me with Draco. He sat down, cursing softly, and Seamus asked about the Inferi. I knew what was coming. It was one of my favorite moments from the books and I wanted it to play out.
"Let us ask Potter how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a Ghost."
"Er-well ghosts are transperant."
I sniggered, clasping my mouth so I'm not too loud.
"Oh, very good," Snape said, his lips curling. "Yes, it is easy to say that nearly six years of Magical Education haven't been wasted on you Potter. 'Ghosts are transperant.'"
Pansy sniggered next to me, causing me to laugh, as I held her for dear life. Harry turned around to give me a dirty look before continuing, "Yeah, ghosts are transperant, but Inferi are dead bodies. So they'd be solid-"
"A five-year old could have said as much." Snape looked around the class and his eyes landing on me, as I laughed quietly. "Perhaps Ms Firegold knows more, as she's quiet enjoying herself there."
"Yeah," I said, straightening up. "An Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark Wizard's spell. It's not alive, but merely used as a puppet. A ghost is an imprint of a dead person left on the earth, and are not transperant," I pointed. "Then we wouldn't have been able to see them all over Hogwarts. They're translucent."
Snape's lips twitched. "Ten points returned to Gryffindor for the making up of Potter's lack of knowledge-"
"Yeah, but when we're face to face with one down a dark alley, were going to check if it's solid aren't we? We're not going to be asking, 'Excuse me, are you an imprint of a dead person?'" Ron said defiantly. I sniggered again.
"Ten points from Gryffindor," Snape said coolly. I flopped my head on my table, still laughing ceremoniously at long intervals in the middle of the class.
The day passed on quick and the next day, I was in the Slytherin Common Room, wishing Pansy and Blaise luck on their apparating pre-tests. I wasn't going to be seventeen until December, and was quite bitter about it, unlike Draco,who was calm and pretty chill a out it.
"Don't forget the Three D's," I shouted behind them. "Dogbreath, Dungbombs and Dickhead!"
Pansy waved her hand with a cheeky grin, before leaving with Blaise and Tracey. I turned to Draco who was looking at me amusedly. "So," I grinned.
"You have that look on your face," he said, alarmed.
"What look?" I asked innocently.
"The let's-fuck-some-shit-up look, the one you have on when you make some poorly constructed, reckless decisions."
"Oh, shut up," I said, rolling my eyes. "Harry figured out a few days ago that you go to the Room of Requirements," I said as Draco's eyes widened. "But he couldn't enter because he needs to know exact what you're doing inside. So, he spends hours standing outside the Room thinking I want to see what Draco Malfoy's doing inside you," I said in a poorly mimicked Harry's voice. Draco's face looked incredulous. "Yeah, some might think he's in love with you. So I have a plan."
"I don't like your plans," he said.
"When has any of my plans failed?" I asked, folding my arm across my chest.
"It never fails, but it ends in you in the hospital wing at the end of every year," he pointed. I stared at him for a second.
"True, correct indeed," I nodded. "But it's a better plan that doesn't involve Dementors or Triwizard Tournaments or fighting of Death Eaters at the Ministry."
He leaned forward, folding his arms on the table,and raised an eyebrow. I continued-
"Harry's going to go and wait outside for you to come out, because well you were planning to go now to fix the cabinet right? And you were going to put Goyle on the lookout as a girl. So Harry will see Goyle and go, scare her - I mean him away, and wait outside till you come out."
"He really doesn't have anything better to do, does he?" Draco shook his head.
"He has a lot of things, but you, my boy, are his priority," I winked.
"Please don't ever do that again," he shuddered.
"Okay," I laughed. "We'll go there now, convert the Room of Requirements to a room that suits our needs, if you know what I mean" I said, going closer to him, alarming a few first years out of their armchairs. "And when he's outside, and waiting for a few hours, we'll come out."
"No," he said. "Are you insane?"
"A little," I shrugged. "But I really want to do this. This way, he'll think we use the Room, as he's too daft to notice that it's only you who disappears from the map sometimes and not you with me, and he'll also stop telling me off for going out with you."
"Why so?" He cocked his head to a side, smirking, clearly enjoying the plan.
"Because he's Harry. He'll know we had sex and he won't bother to do anything, hell he'll not even get on my nerves for days!"
Draco silently stared at me, with a smirk that made me weak at my knees, and then said, "You know I'd never drop an opportunity to shag."
-
I stood outside the Room of Requirements, with Draco, still no Harry in sight. Draco had said to Goyle to come for the look out twenty minutes after we come. A faint blush was etched on my face. "Are you thinking of the room?" I asked.
"I thought you were!" He said, a blush on his pale shite skin too. "Fine. But I don't know what kind of room it will be."
"Just think of a bedroom!" I said. "That sounds wrong. I don't know-"
"Shut up, let me concentrate," he said furrowing his eyebrows and focusing on the mundane wall in front of us. He closed his eyes and I watched as two high doors materialized in front of us. "Come on."
We pushed the door open and stepped in, letting the door disappear and close behind us. And my law hung open at this boy's imagination.
There was a huge, feathery canopy bed in the far end of the large room, by the fireplace, surrounded by an assortment of candles that smelled faintly like vanilla. There was a large sofa with a counter table in front of it on the far left, with a kettle of something boiling next to it. There were large vases with wild sugarcane flowers in them, and for some reason, despite the lack of windows, there was a faint breeze, making the curtains and the flowers away gently. I looked at Draco with an appreciative look, who only blushed faintly and looked away.
"Nice," I said, as I heard a tinkering of brass scales outside. "Goyle's outside."
"Then we should start," Draco said, looking down on his feet, avoiding my eyes.
"You're making it sound like a task," I said, stepping in front of him. "We don't have to do it, if you're nervous."
"Really?" He asked, his eyes alight. "God, I was having such performance anxiety-"
"I could see," I laughed. "Come, we can just talk."
We walked over to the bed and sat down under the canopy. Fe gave his wand a wordless flick and the curtains around the bed turned into an open sky, showing a constellation I recognized anywhere.
"Quite a narcissist, aren't you," I said, lying on the bed looking at the sky. "Is everyone in the Malfoy family named after constellations?"
"Not really," he said. "My grandfather was named after a demon. Abraxas. Suited him well."
"Yeah," I laughed. "Draco why do you think my parents named me Skylar?"
He looked at me, his blond hair falling on his face. "I don't know," he said.
"It's such a muggle name," I scoffed. "I don't have anything against muggles, I spent a fairly good portion of my life thinking I was a muggle. But two purebloods, with crazy purist mindsets, you'd think they'd name me something more regal."
"Well, the Firegolds weren't that crazy about puricism," he said, quietly. "The Potters even less."
"What do you mean?"
"Your father was named Alakay. It literally translates to Mighty Lion," he chuckled. "For a whole family full of Slytherins, you'd think they'd want to settle for a more Slytherin name. But the Firegolds did have some crazy names," he said.
"Like what?" I asked, my eyes alight. "Do you know what my grandparents were called?"
"Yeah," he said. "Father talks about them a lot, they were good friends with my grandparents."
"Well?" I edged him on.
"Your grandmother was Cassiopeia Firegold and your grandfather was Arcturus Firegold."
I blinked at him. "I'm glad I'm not named like them. Arcturus," I laughed. "What did they do, do you know?"
"Cassiopeia was a homemaker, as far as I know; or even if she was anything she wasn't significantly into it. Arcturus was a renowned Spell-Maker. He created half the spells that guard Gringotts."
"Wow," I said, leaning on my hand, staring at him. "I am so muggly compared to them."
"I think your parents named you Skylar, because it's a muggle name," he said. "They were purists, but they defected in order to save you. And Voldemort only knew them as purists who were anti-muggles. To give you a muggle name was just a small way to hoodwink him. He'd never suspect, the heir of the Firegolds to be named Skylar."
"You're so smart," I said leaning in to kiss him. "What did I do to deserve you?"
"Ah, well," he smirked. "You threatened to pour icecream on me and then scared me with a muggle contraption in Florian's icecream place. I don't know what you did to deserve me, but," he laughed. "That threat did hook me to you in a way."
I smiled. I looked at him, his icy-grey eyes reflecting the light of a thousand stars above, talking about things like he knew all the secrets of the universe; his skin was paler and his eyes had shadows, but he was still beautiful, god-crafted. And he was all mine. I could think of a million things to say to him, but the tricky thing was that the most important things were the hardest to say, for words diminished them.
I heard a falling if brass scales outside and Draco sat up. "Your brother's here," he said with a smirk.
"Seems like it," I muttered. I loosened my tie and untucked my shirt slightly. "How do I look?"
He put his fingers through my hair, and messed them up slightly, so they were knotty. "Thoroughly shagged."
"Oh, shut up," I laughed, proceeding to loosen his tie,and unbuttoning his shirt lightly. He, surprisingly, took my tie off completely, shoving it into his pocket, letting it hang out slightly.
"Souvenir," he winked. I rolled my eyes. I walked towards the general direction of the door, pressing my ears. I heard Tonks walk away and I willed the door to appear again. Draco was far behind me , still on the edge of the bed. I opened the door and saw Harry, midway through putting on his invisibility cloak, so it looked like his head was floating.
"Oh," I said, feigning a blush on my face. "What are you doing here-"
Harry looked at a loss for words, and then saw Draco walk out with a smug expression, his neatly combed whiteblond hair now messy and sticking in all directions, yet looking tamed somehow. Harry's eyes went to his pocket where his tie hung, and looked up at me looking violated. Draco licked his lips slightly, and I could see him resist his temptation to burst out laughing, and walked away with a final wink at me. Harry stood there looking at the direction Draco was walking, as I pretended to be fixing my uniform.
"You-he-what were you two doing in there?"
"What does it look like?" I asked innocently.
"You shagged Malfoy!" he hissed stepping towards me. "Malfoy!"
I shrugged, running my hands through my hair,taming it. "Been doing it for months," I said.
"Ah," he squeaked, looking distraught and more violated than ever.
"This is why I told you to stop tailing him," I said. "I'm sorry you had to see this brother, but you brought it on yourself."
"What do you mean brought it on myself!" He snapped. "You'd be. . . shagging him whether I found out or not!"
"Yeah but," I said, tucking my shirt in. "What you don't know shouldn't hurt you, right?"