Snatched; Draco Malfoy

thirty eight

Christmas holidays was right around the corner, only a couple days from now actually, but I couldn't be less excited. My sister Madeline had cane up to me last week to tell me some bad news.

Madeline looked totally different. She was 14 now, and her chest was not pronounced and her hair had turned darker with age. Her facial structure became more beautiful too. At first, I hardly even recognised her.

Maddie told me that our mother was ill. At first the doctors thought it was from stress with me being gone for so long, but now the doctors fear she might have leukaemia (a muggle disease.)

I felt as though I had been punched in the gut. I never though in a million years this would happen. My mother was the bravest person I'd ever met. 'She'll get through this,' I kept telling myself. Yet I was still unconvinced.

Seeing Madeline looking so different, made something inside me spark, and change. I suddenly felt cold, and guilty, all the time.

I had been away from my parents for a long while now. First back in January when we came back from the Christmas holidays, and I haven't seen them since. I was so busy with Draco, and Blaise and Blaire over the summer, I had forgotten about them.

It seems stupid. How could one ever forget about their parents? But it was true. They never wrote or made any sort of contact with me, so I guess I just slipped away from them- maybe a little too easily.

I felt sick with fear all the time now, my insides churning 24/7 like butter. It was horrid. Maddie and I decided to go home for Christmas, to be with mum, as we didn't know how much time she had left.

Today was the last day at Hogwarts before we left tomorrow morning to go home. Classes were over and Draco, Blaire, Blaise and I were sat in the Slytherin common room, a crackling fire in front of us.

I coughed lightly. "I'm going home for the holidays."

There were murmurs of annoyance from Blaire and Blaise, saying that we were going to have the best christmas all together.

Draco hugged me slightly. "Why's that, love? Is something wrong?"

I took a deep breath. "My- my mother is sick. And- and I want to be with her for a while."

Blaise and Blaire suddenly quietened down, and looked at each other awkwardly. "Sorry, Pops. We didn't know." Blaise said sheepishly.

I smiled at her. "It's fine. But yeah. I'm not gonna see you until January."

Blaire came over and hugged me tightly, "I'll miss you."

I squeezed her back. "Me too. But I need to be there with my mum. And my dad is getting a bit stressed about the whole thing too."

Blaire nodded. "I understand, love. Write to me?"

"Every day," I said.

~~~~~~

I got on the train the next morning, feeling somewhat lonely. I was sitting by myself in a carriage as, surprisingly, a lot of people had decided to stay at Hogwarts.

Parvati and Padma Patil were sitting in a compartment with Lavender, not saying a word to each other. Parvati had tears in her eyes and Lavender was looking very unsettled, picking at her nails.