"Thank you, Blaise,"
~
Living in the Hog's Head, the tensions between Harry, Ron, and Draco grew everyday. It was rare if you ever spotted them in the same room for more than a couple minutes, and if they were, they were arguing. It was getting quite draining to be the middle-man for everything, and soon enough, I couldn't stand to be in the same room as the three.
Draco had also began to resent seeing me in the same room as Harry and Ron as well; everytime they walked into a room, Draco would take my hand and lead me elsewhere- if none of them started a fight before.
Because of this, most of mine and Harry's conversations tended to take place late at night, when Draco was asleep.
"Can't you guys just try to get along?" I asked one night, sitting at the kitchen table as Harry poured himself a glass of water. It was midnight, and we had been arguing for the last ten minutes.
"No," He snaps, leaning against the counter.
"Why do you guys even hate each other so much?" I ask, exasperated.
"You're joking," Harry scoffs, rolling his eyes. "We've only been enemies for the past 6 and a half years."
"It's childish. Why can't you both just drop it?"
"I will if he does."
"You know he won't unless you do," I begged.
"No."
I tilt my head back, groaning in frustration. "You both are impossible."
"Tell that to your boyfriend."
"Shut up, Harry," I snap.
Just as Harry was about to respond, Ron walks into the kitchen, slightly dragging his feet. His hair was messy and his eyes were droopy, as if he had just woken up and was in need of a snack.
"Hermione's asleep then?" He mumbles, reaching into the pantry and taking out a loaf of bread. Without even cutting it, he tears off a huge chunk, and begins helping himself. "I'm starving."
"As always," Harry remarks, stifling a laugh as Ron continuously stuffs chunks of bread into his mouth.
"What were you guys talking about?" Ron asked, his voice muffled from all the food in his mouth.
"Malfoy," Harry responds.
I roll my eyes, bracing myself for the offensive comments that would surely be coming from Ron in a minute.
"Gonna say it again," Ron mutters, gulping widely. "Don't know why you're still with him."
"Don't make me answer that again," I grumble.
"Oh, come on! You see how he acts when Hermione comes into the room!" Ron says.
"I've tried talking to him about it," I snap. "You guys know that."
"So he still chooses to stay an insufferable prick then?"
Harry laughs darkly, and I roll my eyes as they give each other a clap on the back. Ron stuffs the rest of the bread into his mouth, then clears his throat.
"I'm back off to bed then," He mutters, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
"Night," Harry and I call out in unison.
For a minute it was awkward, and Harry looked around the kitchen, as if he were searching for something to talk about.
"You know, Lupin told me about his son," I say, smiling a little as I think about the small photograph of his sleeping baby.
"Oh yeah..." Harry says, smiling a little as well. "He told me about making you godmother-just know he asked me first-to be godfather."
I roll my eyes, laughing. "I don't really understand why he chose me."
Harry comes and sits down at the kitchen table across from me, fumbling with his sleeves. "He says you remind him of-"
"Sirius. Yeah, I know."
Harry grins. "You kind of do. Same attitude."
"I'm sorry about him."
Harry's eyes go a little sad, and I could've sworn I saw him quickly wipe a tear from his face through the corner of his eye. "He was great."
"I know he was. I'm sorry I didn't have the privilege of knowing him."
"He would've loved you."
Harry seemed to have realized something fascinating, because his face lit up with a grin. "Hey- so if you remind Remus of Sirius, and I remind him of my dad..."
I smile sadly at him as he wipes his nose on his sleeve, my heart breaking into two.
"That means it's like he's got his old friends back."
"It does." I say, tears threatening to spill out of my eyes.
I must've sat there for another hour across from Harry, listening as he told me excitedly about the stories of his godfather for the rest of the night.
****
I hold my hands out to Draco, and he takes them gently, slowly undoing the previous day's bandages wrapped around them to replace them with new ones as he did every morning. I looked away slightly, not wanting to see the still fresh scars that branded my palms.
Draco grabs the roll of bandages and begins wrapping, putting all his concentration into my hands as to make sure they were on tight and wouldn't fall off during the day.
It had gotten a bit embarrassing- everyone living in the Hog's Head had asked me why I still wore my bandages, as my wounds should have been fully healed by now. And no matter how many times they asked, I still couldn't answer, because of how ridiculous it sounded. And it seemed that no one would ever fully understand- except Draco.
I studied him as he worked; he was wearing his usual black button up, his hair was neatly combed today, and his foot tapped gently on the floor, making rhythmic thumps on the ground. His sleeves were pulled up, and his Dark Mark was visible, along with the scratches and scrapes that he himself had placed there. Except, it looked even worse than before, as there was little drops of blood around fresh scratches that I hadn't seen before.
"Draco, you've got to stop trying to take that off," I frown, looking at the skin on his arm- it looked seriously painful.
He pulled down his sleeve and shook his head, choosing not to respond. Then he tied off the bandages onto my hands, giving them a small squeeze. "Finished," he whispers, planting a kiss on my forehead as he stands from his chair and holds his hand out to me.
"Wait," I call out, not moving from my seat on the bed. I gesture for him to take a seat.
Draco sits down again, confused. I grab the roll of bandages and his left hand, pushing back his sleeve again. Draco's confused expression still etched onto his face, he watched me as I unrolled a strip of bandage, and began wrapping it around the skin that bore his Dark Mark.
I tied it off tightly, and he smiled, but he looked at me a little concerned, as if I had gone mad. "What was that for?"
I smile, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Now you don't have to be reminded of it either."
He looks at me for a while, then down at his arm, studying it. Then, he grinned widely, laughing softly as he wrapped me into a tight hug. "I love you. Truly."
"I love you, too," I grin, giggling as he pecked kisses all over my face.
****
"Oh please," Harry scoffs at Draco, who's eyes were glistening with amusement. "You were the one who hexed her in the first place."
"Aren't you the one who almost killed me, if I recall?" Draco scowls. "I wouldn't say you've got such a clean slate yourself."
Hermione and I look at each other wearily at the kitchen table. The three of them were at it again. Their arguing had become a nightly routine, and it was rare that you ever got a quiet evening without hearing them trade insults now.
"QUIET, YOU LOT!" Aberforth bellows down the staircase, as he always did when he heard them arguing. And, as always, Harry, Ron, and Draco chose to ignore him.
"You don't want to keep testing us Malfoy," Ron says angrily, his face growing red. "You're lucky enough we haven't convinced Aberforth to throw you out..."
Ron crosses his arms in annoyance before continuing. "You can't afford to be such an insufferable dingbat all the time."
"And you can't afford anything," Draco said coolly, the same hint of amusement flashing in his eyes as he watched Ron's face turn an even deeper shade of red.
"That's enough," Lupin snaps, just as Ron was getting ready to charge towards Draco. "Not another word out of you three. I mean it!"
"He started it," Harry grumbled, crossing his arms. I roll my eyes at their immature manner.
"I don't care who started it, you lot are grown! Stop acting like children all the time!" Lupin retorts, obviously extremely annoyed by their constant bickering, as we all were.
Harry and Draco glared at each other with such hatred in their eyes, that for a minute I thought that they were going to fight.
Harry reached up and touched his scar tentatively. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he catches sight of me, then shakes his head, brushing it off. No one else in the room seemed to have noticed.
An awkward silence filled the room, as it always did after the three argued. I run my fingers along my bandages hands, trying hard not to picture the ugly scars that lay beneath them. Next to me, Lupin sighed.
"You lot need to start learning to work together," He says, running a hand along his tired face. "Doesn't matter if you-"
Lupin's lecture was interrupted by a painful gasp from Harry, who had shut his eyes tightly and was putting a hand to his scar.
"Here we go again," Draco mumbles, crossing his arms.
"What? What is it?" Lupin asks, standing and making his way to Harry.
Harry ignores him, and stumbles backwards a little, holding his scar. Then, his eyes open widely, as if he was looking at something terrifying in front of him.
"He knows," Harry blurts, looking frantically around the room. His eyes find Ron and Hermione. "You-Know-Who. He knows we broke into Gringotts. And he knows we stole the cup."
"What?" Hermione gasps. "You let him in? Harry you can't do that!"
"I can't always help it!" Harry snaps. "Or... maybe I can, I don't know."
Lupin looks at Harry, a shocked expression plastered against his face. He had gone completely pale as Harry continued. "There's more. One of them is in the castle. I saw it."
"In the castle?" I gasp. Where?
"Yes..." Harry says. "I think it has something to do with Ravenclaw..."
Draco was watching the entire scene before him with an alarmed and confused look on his face, as if we had all gone mad. But, thankfully, he didn't say anything offensive.
"We have to get into the castle." Harry states, making his way to the portrait hole.
"Wait!" Lupin interjects, his face pale. "We can't just go running inside, Harry."
"I have my invisibility cloak." Harry said quickly, anxious to get inside the castle and start looking for the horcrux.
"I want to go," I say, standing. Draco scoffs loudly.
"Like hell," He snaps. "You have a habit of almost getting yourself killed all the time."
"All of you should go," Lupin says softly. "Tell the others in the Room of Requirement. Tell Neville to call me in case there's trouble, and I'll alert the Order."
"You're not going to stop us?" I ask in disbelief. I had been fully expecting Lupin to interject and refuse to let me leave. He shakes his head.
"It's faster if all of you go. You'll find it sooner with all five of you looking," He says, running his hand over his face again. "All you need to watch out for are the Carrows."
"Snape too," Draco mumbled.
"I doubt it. Neville said he rarely leaves his office." Hermione responds, leaving Draco looking at her with disgust.
"Yes but he'll come running out when he hears Potter is in Hogwarts, no?" Draco fires at her, rolling his eyes. "Use your brain, Mud-"
"Draco," Lupin warned.
"Enough of this, can we go?" Harry said impatiently, tapping his foot and looking at us, annoyed.
"All right, quickly now," Lupin says, and we all stand, making our way to the living area and stopping in front of the portrait. It swings open automatically.
Harry climbs inside, eager to get looking for the horcrux. Hermione follows, then Ron. I look to Lupin, and he wraps me into a hug. "You be careful," He turns to Draco. "You too. Look after her, make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."
Draco merely nods once, then holds his hand out for me, as we make our way into the portrait hole. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were already way ahead of us, and I caught a glimpse of Hermione's bushy hair already making it's way down the ladder on the other side.
"I don't think you should go," Draco mumbles.
"And let you go alone with the three of them? Not a chance," I respond, rolling my eyes.
He sighs. "I know there's no stopping you. So stay at my side by all times, please," He begs, and even through the dark, I could tell he had a slightly exasperated expression on his face. "No running off."
"I'll behave," I promise, as we reach the other end of the tunnel to the portrait hole. I slowly climb down the ladder, hopping down on the ground next to Harry. Everyone was watching him.
"We think it'll help us defeat You-Know-Who. It has something to do with Ravenclaw... It'll be small, easily concealed... Anyone any ideas?" Harry asks to everyone in the Room.
"Well... there's Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem," Luna chimes. Everyone stays silent, watching her. "Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem? Hasn't anyone heard of it? It's quite famous."
"Yes, but Luna," Cho Chang interjects. "It's lost... for centuries now... there's not a person alive who's seen it."
Harry's hopeful look on his face is replaced by one with disappointment.
"Excuse me," Ron says. "Can someone tell me what a bloody diadem is?"
Next to me, Draco rolls his eyes.
"It's like a crown... a tiara," Cho explains.
"Okay... well... we better get going," Harry mumbles, looking defeated. "Meet back here in twenty, yeah?"
Draco takes my hand, leading to me the doors. As we walk through the Room, I feel people's eyes glued onto Draco and I as we make our way through, and quiet murmurs as Draco pulls open the door, looking outside cautiously. They were undoubtedly whispering about how strange it was that a Death Eater was now working alongside Harry Potter- for the most part.
"We'll be in Ravenclaw common room," Harry says behind us, and I nod. Draco ignores him, and leads me out of the door, alert with his wand out.
The trio headed down the hall opposite from us, heading for the stairs. Draco leads me quickly down a corridor, and hand in hand, we take long strides down the castle.
"Where should we look?" I ask, constantly taking glances behind my shoulder to make sure no one had seen us.
"Dungeons," Draco mumbles, as we head down the long flight of stairs. "There's more places to hide stuff down there, Ravenclaw common room is too obvious. Besides," he continues. "There's a lower chance that our housemates will turn us in if we're spotted."
A sinking feeling of doubt grows inside me as I remember the night I had gotten captured in Hogsmeade- and how eager Pansy had been to let me die, even attempting to use one of the Unforgivable Curses on me...
After a couple minutes we were panting slightly, we had finally reached the bottom of the long flight of stairs. We quickly make our way down the corridors and onto another flight of stairs- the ones that lead to the dungeons.
It was late at night and everyone would most likely be asleep by now, but even so, we walk cautiously down the stone steps, careful not to make too much noise as we're greeted by the familiar cold, dark atmosphere of the dungeons.
We walk quickly down the thin halls of the dungeons, the tips of our wands illuminated as we began to search room through room, opening random doors in the halls and doing a quick sweep around each of them.
"I don't think it's down here, Draco," I say after what might've been twenty minutes, frustrated that we hadn't yet found it. "Maybe the three of them had some luck in the common room."
Draco nods once, looking exhausted. He takes my hand again, and with a quick glance over his shoulder, we head for the stairs leading out of the dungeons.
"Malfoy? [Y/L/N]?" I hear a voice say behind us. I snap my head back to see Blaise standing there in his school robes, looking at us in disbelief.
"Blaise," I say, looking at him. He had grown much taller over the year, and he looked skinner and more tired, and the usual energy that twinkled in his eyes once were gone. He looked as if this seventh year had drained some of the life out of him.
"What... how," he sputters, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wand.
"Watch it, Blaise," Draco says in a low voice, taking out his own wand.
"How did you get into the castle? Where have you been all this time?" He demands.
"Nothing you need to be worried about," Draco snaps.
"They say you're wanted, [Y/L/N]." Blaise says slowly. "My mum says they've got 10,000 galleons for your head."
Draco pushes me behind him protectively, his wand pointed towards Blaise. "Don't even try it, you and your whore of a mother-"
"Don't say a word about my mother!" Blaise snarls. He looks at us in annoyance and betrayal, then slowly, his features soften. "You know I wouldn't do that to you two." He adds sadly.
"Thank you, Blaise," I say softly, as he puts his wand down.
"So it's true then. You two have been... hiding out together huh?" He asks. We nod.
"Listen, Blaise, you can't tell anyone you saw us-" I start, but Blaise shakes his head.
"No, I won't," he assures me. "I wouldn't go down there, by the way. I think I saw Filch walk down there a couple minutes.
Blaise spoke to us in a firm and stiff tone, nothing like the cheery, friendly one we were used to when we were students. But I couldn't blame him; if I were him, I'd be disappointed in us too. And I knew there was no friendship between us and Blaise anymore, and it was now replaced by a feeling of mutual respect.
"We were just leaving," Draco says, taking my hand and leading me out of the hall. As we pass Blaise, Draco stops next to him. "Hold it down, Zabini." He says in a soft tone, which sounded a bit sad. He gives him a friendly clap on the shoulder, and we were off.
I glanced over my shoulder at Blaise. His eyes were full of sadness as he watched his two former friends leave him behind in the dungeons. I wave a quick goodbye to him, a small sinking feeling of sadness and nostalgia rushing through me as we pass the stone wall guarding the Slytherin common room. My mind goes back to two Christmas's ago, when Draco and I would spend all our time there. It all seemed so long ago now.
After several minutes of panting and enduring a burning sensation in my legs, we had made it up to the seventh floor again. Draco's eyes seemed a bit sad ever since we had passed Blaise, and I knew he too had been reminded of how easy life used to be.
We make it to the iron doors of the Room again, which had formed after a couple seconds of Draco muttering under his breath. Draco opens the door, letting me inside.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were already back. Harry perks up when he sees me, his eyes looking at me expectantly. I shake my head, and his face falls.
"No luck," I mutter, standing next to Draco against the wall.
Ron opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Ginny came sprinting into view, her eyes wide with fear and anxiety.
"Snape knows," she says in a shaky voice. "Someone spotted Harry in the castle."