Ortum Infernum [d.m]

Chapter Sixteen

It was a windy Monday morning, the weather was dreadful. Odette wrapped her cloak tighter around herself as she walked up the steep steps to the owelry. She found her family owl perched by an alcove, snuggled up next to Draco's eagle owl. The sight of them twisted something in her chest. She gave them both a treat then gently stroked the tops of their heads with a sad smile.

Odette adjusted the straps of Bathilda's little pouch; smiling lightly to herself as her family owl kept rubbing her head against her arm, trying to comfort her. She placed three envelopes into the pouch before securing it.

One for her mother, who will no doubt be reading it with her father later that evening, one to Corvux who was abroad at Amsterdam on Gringotts business and another for Alistair in London, undergoing his training to be an Auror.

She stepped back to watch Bathilda fly off. Draco's eagle owl spread his wings to join her on her long journey. Odette had sent the news to her family that she was invited into the Slug Club and that she was selected to be the Head Girl next year.

Being Head Girl was what she had worked hard for throughout her entire academic career. Everything she did had been building up to this moment. She thought that once she had reached her goal, she would feel a sense of elation that she hadn't felt since the beginning of the year, yet the emptiness inside her still presides.

Odette had half a mind to tell Draco the good news. He knew how much it meant to her. She used to have bouts of stress-induced breakdowns in the library whenever she had felt like she wouldn't be good enough. But Draco was always there to tell her that she was.

"You're more than good enough," he had said as he tucked her underneath his chin, rubbing his warm hand soothingly down her back. "If you aren't chosen as Head Girl for seventh year, I'll quit the quidditch team."

Draco's statement had roused a little laugh from Odette. She had looked up at him with residue tears in her lashes as she told him he wouldn't, because she knew just how important quidditch was to him. It was his escape from reality. He had once told her.

Being on a broom, flying high up in the sky, pumped with adrenaline in an arena full of cheers—it felt like a whole different world for him. It made him feel like he was part of the world for once, instead of feeling like it was pitted against him.

And he had said to her then, in the quietness of the library with the sound of rain drumming against the window and their breaths mingled in the cold, "You are far more important to me."

But things were not the same anymore. Draco was so distant now, he was practically a stranger to her. Would he still care if she told him?

It was as though reliving memories of him became a way to summon him. Once she was back in the castle, Odette noticed Draco disappearing around a bend. She contemplated for a moment before rushing over to catch up with him. She ascended a flight of stairs, weaving between students until the corridors became gradually empty. Odette had lost her way once but then made it to the empty level where she figured he would be.

She found Draco sitting by a bench on a deserted storey. They were so high above the crowded corridors that the sounds of the bustling students were barely audible. Draco had been sitting hunched over his knees with his head buried in his hands. He looked up, startled, when Odette approached.

It had been a few weeks since they last spoke to each other. Odette felt her heart drop at the state he was in. Draco's face was pale and gaunt. Dark shadows hung beneath his eyes like bruises as though he hadn't been sleeping. His hair appeared more white than blond, but perhaps it was just the lighting.

It was his eyes that broke her.

They were like frosted windows of an empty house. There was no light behind them, only a cold blankness. Odette had never seen him like this, so hollow and defeated.