Bloodlines || A Draco Malfoy Romance Fanfiction

September 1, 1993 - 30

Author's Note: Hi! if you read the prior chapter 4/18 or earlier, I changed the end of the chapter just a tad, so you may want to re-read it. It's shouldn't change a lot. I just preferred that ending. Sorry for any confusion.

Draco

I kept a close eye on Aphrodite for the rest of the train ride. She'd seemed shaken up, but she wanted to hide it. The ashen look on her face nearly made me want to put aside my resentment toward her father and his ridiculous rule, as well as her for following it.

 But as the train neared Hogwarts, the doom that the intruder had carried on slowly dissipated, and that resentment roared to life once again.

Especially when Longbottom found himself right outside our compartment. We heard him talking to someone else about saint Potter passing out. I sniggered, as did Crabbe and Goyle.

Aphrodite, however, stood and opened the compartment door, "Neville? Sorry to eavesdrop. Did you say Harry fainted? Is he alright?"

My jealousy heightened at her concern. Of all people she could have been friends with, why him? Are there not enough Slytherins or something?

I listened in as she spoke to Neville, already thinking of ways to mock Potter for this. 

Of course, the first opportunity came at the feast. Dumbledore's speech didn't seem important enough to listen to anyway, and we were all seated fairly close to him.

"Potter. Potter!" I said, low enough to go undetected by the teachers, but just loud enough to get his attention.

He turned to me. "Is it true you fainted?" I mocked an expression of concern. Crabbe pretended to faint mockingly against the table as other Slytherins chuckled around me. "I mean you actually fainted." At this point, I couldn't help smiling in my amusement.

"Shove off, Malfoy," Weasley said, shoving Potter to turn him around.

I chuckled, turning back to several snickering Slytherins around me. Excepted, of course, one Slytherin girl with an annoyed, disappointed expression as she looked at me.

I finally paid attention to the Headmaster in an attempt to avoid her gaze. "...At the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the dementors of Azkaban until such a time as Sirius Black is captured." Murmurs erupted amongst all the house tables at the announcement. "The dementor will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds.

"Now whilst I've been assured that their presence will not disrupt our day-to-day activities... a word of caution. Dementors are vicious creatures. They will not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way."

I turned to look at Aphrodite to find that she had also looked at me. A look of fright was apparent on her face as she realized the severity of the incident she experienced on the train. I couldn't imagine what might have happened to her if I hadn't pulled her into the Weasley twin's compartment.

For the first time ever, I imagined my life without her in it in some capacity. My stomach twisted in knots. Amongst my dark, sterile, life of formality, she was there. An ember of hope in my structured existence that was already planned out for me.

I continued looking at Aphrodite, but as if Dumbledore knew what I was thinking, he continued with,  "But, you know, happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times... if one only remembers to turn on the light."

I couldn't control the small smile that I gave her, which she returned.