Even Royalty Falters || Draco Malfoy

Chapter 19 - School Grounds

Draco's POV

"Repeat after me, Riddikulus!" Lupin said, waving his hands at us to speak in unison.

"This class is ridiculous," I rolled my eyes as everyone repeated after him. At least Lupin's way of teaching was pretty informal so far. Not that it mattered, I had gotten out of so much from my injury. Did I require the sling still? No. But when given the advantage, I was going to take it.

Lupin had Longbottom up for questioning. That coward, still don't know how he ended up in Gryffindor. When Snape walked out of the chest, I laughed. "That's his fear?" I snickered, nudging Crabbe. After a "Riddikulus" Snape suddenly wore Neville's grandmother's clothes. Hilarious, I had to admit, but something even more hilarious would be Snape's reaction when he heard about it.

After the demonstration, everyone quickly lined up to try it out for themselves. I held back, why would I want everyone to see my fear? I wished that I could say that I had none, but that would be a lie. I saw the boggart transform into spiders, into clowns, into dangerous creatures. When it was time for Crescent's turn, she nervously stepped up to it.

I pushed a student aside, wanting to get a better view of the whole thing. The boggart quickly transformed into a group of people, all of them hollow eyed and heavily injured. I scanned the faces: her parents and her three best friends. I bet no one was surprised at that. When the boggart spoke, the voices didn't beg her for help. Instead, they told her to leave, that they didn't need her, that she had been a let down.  So her greatest fear is losing her loved ones whether they had turned their backs on her or because of their injures. A gasp escaped her lips as she shakily held up her wand.

"Riddikulus!" she cried, repelling the boggart first try as it immediately flew back into the trunk. Her friends gathered around to hug her, reassuring it was fine and that it wasn't real. When she backed away to let Harry go next, our eyes met. The confident gleam in her blue eyes were back. That's what I like to see. I thought before realizing what I was just thinking.

At the front of the class, Lupin had jumped in front of Harry before he could even try out the spell. "Potter can't even face a boggart, imagine if he had to face the real thing," Goyle and Crabbe laughed along with me.

The boggart assumed the form of a white orb before Lupin forced it back into the trunk. Weird. Why would anyone be afraid of whatever that was.

~~~

Third years were allowed to go to Hogsmeade on Halloween. I handed my slip to Snape on the way out.

"Poor Potter doesn't have parents to sign his slip!" I called out to him as he stared out the window as we departed. He glared at my friends and I as we ran along.

"Mother's been fussing so much lately, she almost didn't let me come to Hogsmeade," Crescent complained to her friends as I neared them.

"I'd be worried if my kid couldn't fend for themselves too," I added, nudging her as I passed.

"Oh, look who's talking, Mr. A-bloody-chicken-almost-killed-me," she commented, rolling her eyes at me and pretending her hand was in a sling. Behind her, Granger and Weasley laughed at her micmic.

They had the audacity to laugh? I tried to think of something to say back, but I began to realize that our groups were not so different after all. Yea, we mocked them, we joked with them all the same.

"Let's head over and see what Halloween treats they've got," Weasley suggested, pulling the girls along.

Ugh, too bad I wanted to head that way too. Instead, Pansy whined to go elsewhere first and so we did just so she could shut up. When we finally entered Honeydukes, I immediately spotted Crescent, the Halloween pumpkin bow in her hair stuck out among the crowded store. She was casually listening to Lavender as she turned over the sweet in her hand to check it for imperfections.