In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*The Room of Requirement

Something good finally seemed to be happening for Briar, when Harry announced that they had discovered a place for their Defence Club to practice. On the seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmybeing clubbed by those trolls, there was a wall which each member of the club had to walk past three times to reveal a door to a secret room.

The walls were lined with wooden bookcases, and instead of chairsthere were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the farend of the room carried a range of instruments. Once the meeting spot was decided, Ginny announced her idea that the group should be named "Dumbledore's Army" so they had written it on the sign up sheet and pinned it to the wall

However, it was hard to decide on a fixed date for practices, so Hermione soon came up with a method of announcing a time and day for practice. She gave each member of the DA a fake galleon, and the numerals around the side would change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting, which would cause the coin to get hot so each member would feel it when it changed

Meanwhile Briar was beginning to feel the stress of all her work piling on her. She was sitting her potions O.W.L this year, she had extra potions, Occlumency, and Defence to learn with Snape, she had to attend every D.A meeting, and was at every quidditch practice, on top of all her regular work

As the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor versusSlytherin, drew nearer, their D.A. meetings were put on hold becauseAngelina insisted on almost daily practices. On the cold November morning of the match, everyone on the team was buzzing to go, except for Ron who was nervous.

Angelina gave her team a rousing pep talk before they made their way out onto the grass

"Captains shake hands," ordered Madam Hooch so Angelina and Montague joined hands "Mount your brooms..."

Madam Hooch placed her whistle in her mouth and blew.The balls were released and the fourteen players shot upward; 

"And it's Johnson, Johnson with the Quaffle, what a player that girlis, I've been saying it for years but she still won't go out with me -" 

"JORDAN!" yelled Professor McGonagall. 

"Just a fun fact, Professor, adds a bit of interest - and she's duckedWarrington, she's passed Montague, she's - ouch - been hit frombehind by a Bludger from Crabbe...Montague catches the Quaffle,Montague heading back up the pitch and - nice Bludger there fromGeorge Weasley, that's a Bludger to the head for Montague, he dropsthe Quaffle, caught by Katie Bell, Katie Bell of Gryffindor reversepasses to Briar Lupin and Lupin's away - dodges Warrington, avoids a Bludger - close call, Briar - and the crowd are loving this, just listen to them, what's that they'resinging?"

Briar knew Slytherin were singing their infamous chant for Ron, but she had to focus on the game ahead

Briar passed the quaffle back to Angelina, who shot, but it was saved and the quaffle went back to Slytherin. The game continued to get violent as Slytherin continued to get ahead until the score was 40-10 to them

But their luck seemed to turn around finally, when after a few more minutes Harry was able to catch the snitch, just before receiving a bludger to the back, causing him to land on the ground, so the rest of the team hurried to land

"Are you all right?" Briar asked him 

" 'Course I am," said Harry grimly, taking her hand and allowingher to pull him to his feet. 

"It was that thug, Crabbe," said Angelina angrily. "He whacked theBludger at you the moment he saw you'd got the Snitch - but wewon, Harry, we won!" 

There was a snort behind them so they turned around and saw Malfoy there "Saved Weasley's neck, haven't you?" he said to Harry. "I've neverseen a worse Keeper...but then he was born in a bin...Did youlike my lyrics, Potter? We wanted to write another couple of verses! But we couldn't find rhymes for fatand ugly - we wanted to sing about his mother, see -" 

"Talk about sour grapes," said Angelina, casting Malfoy a disgustedlook. 

"- we couldn't fit in useless loser either - for his father, youknow -"

"Leave it," said Angelina at once, taking Fred by the arm. "Leave it,Fred, let him yell, he's just sore he lost, the jumped-up little -" 

"- but you like the Weasleys, don't you, Potter?" said Malfoy,sneering. "Spend holidays there and everything, don't you? Can't seehow you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged upby Muggles even the Weasleys' hovel smells okay -" By now it took the combined efforts of Angelina, Briar, Katie, and Harry to stop Fred and George leaping at him "Or perhaps, you can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and Weasley'spigsty reminds you of it -"

A second later both Fred and George were sprinting at Malfoy, and Harry had planted a punch to Malfoy's stomach

"Harry! HARRY! GEORGE! NO !" 

Katie and Angelina were trying to break up the fight but Briar was standing frozen in her place. She couldn't take her eyes off of Draco in pure hurt. She knew her job was to get close to him, but she couldn't stomach the thought of speaking to him again. So she spun on her heel and began to make her way away from the brawl behind her

Even when Harry, Fred, and George told the team that Umbridge had banned them from the team, she couldn't find it in herself to feel upset or angry. And worse, that evening in her defence lesson with Professor Snape she was struggling to keep up. Today they were doing a Patronus charm and Briar was finding it really hard.

"Focus, Lupin!" He sneered as he put the boggart away

"I'm trying," she panted

"Not hard enough," he snapped

"Can we just take a break?" she asked

"The dark lord isn't" He said "If you intend to successfully carry out your jobs for Dumbledore and the Order then taking a break is not an option"

"Fine," Briar sighed and pulled out her wand again. Snape opened the cupboard again and the boggart took its figure of a dementor once more. Briar raised her wand to it and tried to focus. She thought of Remus, of finding him again, spending Christmas with him and Sirius, spending the summer with him, finally having a dad. She also thought of Sirius and the way he was the only one who made 12 Grimmauld Place lively. "Expecto Patronum!" 

A bright silver light burst from the tip of her wand and it expanded larger than it ever had before. The light covered the dementor, and Briar had a moment of relief, but as she did, the width of the light suddenly began to drop

So Briar focused her mind again on the mission of getting rid of her dementor, so she squeezed her eyes shut, and forced all her energy into this spell. Suddenly there was an even brighter light so Briar's eyes opened and she was amazed to see a large silver wolf running circles around the dementor

It forced the dementor away and then looked over its shoulder at Briar, and the young girl immediately noticed that it was a perfect copy of her dad's wolf form. And with that it disappeared into thin air

Briar turned to Snape, expecting maybe a word of congratulations, but she was met with a stony, horrified expression

"Dismissed for tonight, Ms Lupin" He said with a finality to his voice, so Briar nodded and hurried out of his classroom in fear. Unaware of the blonde Slytherin lurking at the end of the corridor, watching her with a curious expression