𝒯𝒽ℯ 𝒫𝓇ℴ𝓂𝒾𝓈ℯ𝒹 𝒪𝓃ℯ | 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲 |

#25 The Contraction

On that day Maribel lost probably the love of her life, I lost my sister too. Not physical, not in the way she did lost her love, but she wasn't the same anymore.

On the morning before we would head back home, Dumbledore used the feast on which the winner of the tournament would've been celebrated to honor Cedric. The rows of students were aligned in a way the teachers and student would face the headmaster in front. It appeared and felt like Hogwarts' chapel, familiar in a way I never experienced the school before. Intimate with all the students not sitting in their house rows, but as a community with the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons between them.

It was hard to convince Maribel to attend. And once I got her up with us towards the Great Hall, as soon as the speech and the feast began, she didn't move a single muscle in her features. She cried, but silently with her eyes pinned on Dumbledore, then on Harry in the row in front of us.

She was empty. I knew that, because I was too.

On our train ride home she declined sitting with Blaise, Draco and me on one of the tables in the Slytherin department along with Daphne, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle beneath us. She declined sitting with Harry and the rest of our friends. My sister stationed herself in a carriage on her own - the same one she was sitting with Cedric on the beginning of this school year. All by herself which was pretty hard to accept for me. But as I tried to convince her, she snapped.

This was the first time she opened her mouth and said something. At least anything.

She didn't cry since she woke up the next day after Draco helped me carrying her to the hospital wing, expect for the feast.

She didn't talk either.

Not to me, not to anybody. Not even to our parents as they greeted us on the train station like they always did.

Draco asked me if I needed help to carry Maribel and my things to my family's direction, but since the last thing Maribel needed was her sister showing our parents the boy she started to develop something with, I already said my goodbyes to him before we exited the train. All by ourselves as Blaise took Maribel already outside along with the rest of the carriage. All by ourselves as he made me promise to write as soon as we're home and then kissed me.

The blonde boy was really understandingin our last days at Hogwarts. I spent the night with Maribel, even though heinsisted me to go get some sleep too. But I just couldn't let her alone, notfor a second even though she was asleep.

On the next morning he brought me coffee to the hospital wing as soon as the sun started to rise.

I refused to leave the dorm room while Maribel only sat on her bed, with her knees pulled to her chest and her arms around them. I didn't go to the dinnertimes, because I didn't want to without her. We didn't speak, we just watched the sun rising over the lake and sunk again when night fell over the grounds of Hogwarts. Even Daphne and Pansy stayed out long and sneaked in without saying a word at night.

Draco brought us food after every mealtime which he saved for us on two plates.

I couldn't bring her to do anything other than sitting on her bed, tracing her fingers over the necklace she was wearing, until the skin on her finger became tense, reddish and bleeding on the end of the day, but she didn't notice until I took her hand and intertwined it with mine.

I felt helpless, and Draco was there to check in on us every now and then.

If someone would tell me this at the beginning of this year, I would probably say the person's mental.

He even let El into the Slytherindungeons in a good attempt to lighten the mood a bit. But not even El with herempathetic and encouraging manner could do anything against the black curtainlaying on our room.