Pawns | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Invisibility Cloak

A couple weeks later I found myself saying goodbye to my dad back at King's Cross Station.

We stood a few pillars away from platform 9 3/4 while I made sure I had everything I needed. It was only a few minutes earlier, back in the car, that my dad had teased me about probably forgetting my wand back at home. I didn't - I've been better with that recently - but his joke made me anxious that I might have forgotten something else. But as I rummaged my hand inside my bag, feeling around for everything important, I could finally let myself relax.

I zipped up the bag and breathed a sigh of relief. I was so excited to head back to school. I missed it so much even though I'd only been away for a little over two weeks.

We hugged goodbye and as I turned to walk through the wall, he called me back.

"Bella," he said hesitantly. "You know I love you."

I laughed at him a little. "Of course I know, dad. Love you too," I said, bashful at all the emotion that seemed to have come out of no where.

He walked closer to me so I could hear him as he spoke in a hushed voice. "I want you to be careful, Bella," he whispered as be rubbed my arms up and down with his hands. These are dark times Bel and - no don't laugh, I'm serious," he interrupted himself, seeing the smile on my lips. "I know that I don't know everything, but I know enough. And you need to be careful who you trust. Keep your friends close. Stick together - now more than ever. Okay?"

I felt a little silly being given such a speech from my dad who was usually so light hearted. But I nodded. He gave the smallest of smiles and I returned one. He let go of my arms and I adjusted my bag over my shoulder before turning on my heel to run through the platform.

"Write me," I called as I jogged.

His reply was muffled since I was half way through the barrier - my ears were spit between listening to the Muggle side and the magic side. The latter grew rapidly louder as the sound of the high pitched whistle filled the air.

I made my way to the back of the train, just as I had done on September first. This time, instead of being empty, I saw Hermione's bushy hair through the window. I should have expected that she and Ron were probably not on speaking terms yet, but it surprised me nonetheless. It seemed like such a big falling out between the two of them. I slid open the doors and wrapped her in a big hug. Her curly hair engulfed my face and I spat it out of my mouth as I tried to tell her how much I missed her.

We let go and I threw my bag near the window, plopping down on the squishy seats while breathing in the sweet, crisp air of the compartment. After twenty minutes of catching up on our holidays, our compartment door slammed open. Ginny's piercing, happy scream, utterly destroyed my ear drums- but I was glad.

The three of us enjoyed a cozy little group hug and Ginny plopped down beside me, handing us some Fizzing Whizzbees.

"How's the family?" I asked her, taking a sip of my Exploda Soda.

"Not bad," she shrugged. "We had a massive feast and Fred and George showed us some of their new products from their store...but uh, Percy came back and mum got all excited to see him, but it wasn't really much of a reunion. He didn't really want to see us," she said, somewhat sadly.

"Why did he come by?" I asked.

"The Minister wanted to speak with Harry and he just came along. He didn't want to be there and he honestly shouldn't have come. Poor mum had to pretend it didn't bother her when her son didn't actually want to come home for Christmas."

"He still hasn't come around?" Hermione asked, concern on her face.

"Nope. Stupid git," she said, shrugging her shoulders as if that was that.