From the Stars to the Stars → Draco Malfoy

xxxii. Vulpecula

As usual, thank you to loml boa_hankockfor helping me with the French dialogues.

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     It was quite obvious that mortals hardly ever prayed to Hades, and when they did, it was usually already too late. Who would've wanted to pray to the God of the Dead? No mortals wanted his favour, besides he wasn't known as one with generous nature, he had always been known as the cruel and merciless king. No mortals were ever willing to whisper his name, like it was something taboo, after all, most of them were afraid of death, why would they pray to the God of the Dead?

     Orion would. She had always been fascinated with Hades, especially when her grandfather had always portrayed her father as the Hades of her mother. But now, more than ever, if she could, she wanted nothing to ask a favour from the God of the Dead, wanted to ask him whether it would be okay if she came down there to the Underworld to talk to her parents. Because all of the research she did led her to nowhere.

     On top of that, she hadn't been talking to Draco. The night he walked her back to her tower, they spent it in silence, none of them wanted to talk to each other, only nodding their heads when they finally parted. She wanted so badly to ask him to help her again, she knew he didn't care anymore about the research, especially after she scolded him. But for the first time in such a long time, Orion needed help.

     She had been thinking about asking Hermione Granger, but Orion did not feel like she could trust her. Hermione, Harry, and Ron; those three often follow and trust Professor Dumbledore blindly, from what Orion could see. Especially, Harry, he was fond of the old professor, which means Orion couldn't trust either of them.

     It had been five nights that Orion only got two hours of sleep, she knew Cho, Padma, and Marietta noticed whenever she woke up in the middle of the night, trying to read the books she got from the library in silence. She was grateful for the fact that none of them tried to pry or ask questions, they assumed Orion was trying to get the highest rank in her class this year. Cho, though, out of all them was the one person that voiced her concern, she was the one that would tell Orion to watch for her health, the one who would bring her back dinner when she missed it.

     "You need to start getting a full six hours of sleep, Orion," Cho finally voiced her concern over her best friend's lack of sleep at the breakfast table as soon as they sat down.

     Padma looked at Orion with furrowed brows before she poured coffee to Orion's mug which earned a nod and a lopsided smile from Orion. "You stayed up, again?" Padma asked, the tone of concern laced on her voice.

     "I couldn't sleep," Orion answered nonchalantly, putting a spoonful of scrambled eggs to her plate as she started to look around for another thing she wanted to put on her plate. "Can you pass me the mushrooms please?" she pointed to the bowl of grilled mushrooms in front of Padma.

     Cho leaned in to grab the bowl before Padma could, passing it to Orion harshly before she snapped. "Orion, listen to me," her tone was sharp and Orion immediately turned her attention to Cho. "This isn't healthy, love. When was the last time you practised ballet?"

     "Three days ago, I was busy with Umbridge's detention," Orion rolled her eyes. "She gave me the assignment to copy the whole Hogwarts: A History and told me to give it to her next Monday."

     "What a bitch," Padma muttered, widening her eyes to both Cho and Orion.

     "Tell me about it," Orion began to sip her coffee after she put her usual amount of sugar and honey in it. The coffee in Hogwarts was at least tolerable, but still horrible enough for her tongue, yet still she couldn't complain much about it.