George and I leave the backroom both out of breath and a little sweaty. I've got my hood back up over my head so it conceals most of my face. George has got several hickeys on his neck that are going to be very hard to hide.
George sort of walks me to the front of the store where his family is. Fred looks up at him, notices the marks on his neck and shoots him a very dirty look. I move my hood for a second and look at Fred. We make eye contact and Fred smiles and rolls his eyes.
"George Weasley! What in gods name!" Molly says looking at her son, "You've just broken up with Violet and now you're- in your own shop! With customers everywhere!"
I move past her with a big smile on my face, "Ah mum don't get your wand in a knot." I can hear George say, "Violet and I are on much better terms as of late."
I push the shop door open and step outside into the cold air. I look over my shoulder and I make eye contact with Ginny. She's got one of Fred and George's pigmypuffs in her hand. She pokes her mum on the shoulder and Molly turns around to look. Molly's eyes go wide as she sees me. I wave a little. Molly spins back around to George and she hits him with her coin purse. I walk away from the boys shop and once I'm far enough away I take my hood off.
I look down the street and I can see Draco coming out of Knockturn Alley, Aunt Narcissa is nowhere in sight. I walk over to him my hands crossed over my chest, "And what the bloody hell do you think you're off to?"
Draco looks as if he was just caught shoplifting, "Don't act like you haven't been places that you should have been." Draco says defensively, "I don't see the book you went off to get? Bet you've got a pocked full of nosebleed nougat though."
I roll my eyes and pull the book I've bought out of my pocket and slam it into Draco's hands, "How about you tell me exactly what you were doing in Knockturn Alley of all places or I tell your mother where I found you."
"I was-" Draco starts but I put my hand over his mouth to shut him up.
Not too far away from us I can see the bottoms of three sets of shoes without anything attached to them. I pull out my wand, "Accio invisibility cloak!" I say pointing my wand at the shoes. Harry, Ron, and Hermione come into view. A cloak lands in my open hand.
I look at them with my eyebrows raised, very unimpressed with the whole situation. "You look lost." I say to them casually.
Draco looks at them with his mouth open slightly, clearly he had no idea that he was being followed. "So you're Death Eaters." Harry says matter of factly.
"So you're a nosey little boy that doesn't seem to know his place in the world." I say with the same air of arrogance that Harry is speaking to me with.
"I'll tell Dumbledore." He says, his nose pointing up in the air slightly.
"I'll take your tongue out of your head and beat you with it before you get the chance." I say back to him. The three of them look at each other, "Like what my aunt said, attack Draco... or harm him in any way and it will be the last thing you do."
"All talk and no bite just like your aunt." Harry spits at me.
I stalk towards him and his friends, my wand still in my hands. I bend down a little so my mouth is right beside his ear, "Trust me Potter, I am so much worse than my aunt." I drop his cloak back in his open hands and walk back to Draco. I put my hand in between his shoulder blades and sort of push him forward. I don't have to look back to know that the three of them are still watching us.
"You sounded like your mother just then." Draco says to me when we are far enough away from the trio.
"I know."
He stops and looks at me, "You didn't... you didn't like it did you?"
"I kind of did yeah. Watching the fear in their eyes. I sort of like having all that power."
Draco looks at me with a mildly impressed look on his face, "Ronald is going to run off and tell his brother what you said to him you know."
"He deserved it."
Aunt Narcissa comes out of Flourish and Blotts and sees us across the street. "Come now you two lets head back home. Violet did you get everything done that you needed to do?"
I look over at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes for a moment, "Yeah I've done it."
Aunt Narcissa nods, "Right I'll be off with all the shopping, Violet you take Draco." And with that she disappears into a big cloud of smoke.
I turn to look at Draco, "As soon we get back to the Manor you're telling me everything. No lies, no excuses."
Draco nods at me and takes my arm. As soon as he touches me I apparate and we land in my bedroom. I go to work putting up the sound sealing charm as well as a locking charm on the room so Draco and I can talk freely. I sit on the middle of my bed, my legs crossed, waiting for Draco to start talking.
"When you were off getting Ollivander, the Dark Lord pulled me into a meeting. Or what I thought was a meeting with how my arm burned. But it was just me, Aunt Bellatrix, and him in the dining room. He locked it so mother couldn't get in." Draco starts. He doesn't sit down or anything, just stands at the foot of my bed.
"He asked you to do something..."
Draco nods, "He asked me to find a way to get Death Eaters into Hogwarts this year. Then he told me I have to kill Dumbledore." He looks at me, fear, pain, anger, confusion, sadness, everything is on his face right now as he looks at me. "He wanted to get you to do it last year. Aunt Bellatrix wanted the glory of killing Dumbledore to fall on you but his army wasn't big enough."
"Draco... Oh God Draco..." I crawl off my bed and go to hug him but he pulls away.
"He said if I didn't do it then he'll kill me. Kill my family, everyone I love." He says in a shaky voice, "And I remembered that there is a vanishing cabinet at Hogwarts, the one that your boyfriend and his brother shoved Graham into..."
"It has a sister..." I say putting the pieces together.
Draco nods, "At Borgin and Burkes. I went down there to ask him how to fix the cabinet because the one at Hogwarts is broken, sending Graham into the toilet pipes and all." He takes a deep breath, "Borgin wasn't very keen on telling me what to do at first, so I showed him my Mark."
"And Potter and his friends saw..."
Draco shrugs, "I didn't know they were following me till you ripped the cloak off of them. Anyways, I told him that Greyback is a friend of the family and I'll have him in his shop in a second if he didn't help me."
"Fenrir Greyback is not someone you use as a weapon Draco! He's-"
"Dangerous yeah I'm aware thanks Violet. But it scared Borgin enough to promise not to sell the other vanishing cabinet. So if I can get the one at Hogwarts to work then I could use the two cabinets to get Death Eaters into the school undetected. Then all I have to do is kill Dumbledore..." He says the last past quietly.
We stand there staring at each other for a good, long time. Then Draco takes a deep shaky breath, "I don't want to do it. I don't think I can do it. Kill someone? I don't think I can handle that."
I practically throw myself onto Draco and hold him in a tight hug, he struggles for a moment then he hugs me back, "I know... I know how it feels to be forced to do something that you can't do."
"But you didn't know the people you've killed. This is Dumbledore! My Headmaster!" Draco says into my shoulder. "I need you there, I need you at Hogwarts."
I pull him away from me so I can hold his face in my hands, "You write to me whenever you need alright? Take Otis to Hogwarts with you and write to me every day. I'll respond as soon as I get it." I push Draco's hair back and he nods a couple times, "You tell me when the Hogsmeade trips are, I'll be there. I'll be in Hogsmeade whenever you're in Hogsmeade. You're not alone. I'll be there." I pull him back into my arms and his body shudders. "I'll be there Draco. I'll always be there."