The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.56 | The Boy Who Made a Choice

~ author's ramblings ~

Guess who finished this beast of a chapter? It's me. Hi.

Istg finishing this one chapter was harder than finishing the rest of this book and I think you'll understand why when you read it.

Don't forget to comment your thoughts so that my brain gets the ounce of serotonin it desperately needs! (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

-x-

There wasn't a shortage of miracles today, as Harry had been carrying both his Invisibility Cloak and the Marauders Map with him.

While Hermione chose to walk back to the common room with Hagrid, Harry was joined by Fred and George as he looked through the map.

"There," says Fred, spotting the two tiny sets of footsteps labelled 'Margaret Xenakis' and 'Draco Malfoy' on the top of the Astronomy Tower. He was tensed with anticipation. "Come on, hurry up."

Harry muttered "Mischief Managed" and pocketed the map, following the twins down the hall and up the spiral staircase of the tallest tower of the castle.

"We can't all fit under the cloak," he whispers to them.

"Don't worry about us, Harry. Put your cloak on, and," adds George, rummaging through his pockets and producing three flesh-coloured strings: Extendable Ears, "take one of these."

"Cheers."

The three of them slipped under the dark floorboards quietly and Harry cast a nonverbal Muffliato over them. A moment later, Draco Malfoy's voice came through the three sets of eavesdropping devices.

"Whatever you've done to it, undo it," he was snarling. "No matter what I do, I can't fix it! I don't have much time left!"

"I've told you," says Margaret, casually leaning back against the railing. "I haven't done anything in months, you'd have known."

"No. No, I know you did something. Don't you dare lie to me!"

"You can scream at me all you want, Draco. But if the help you want from me is not something I can do, then you're only wasting your breath."

"I could kill you, you know," he sneers. Unbeknownst to him, his words had prompted three wands to be pointed at him. "You don't know what I'm capable of, you don't know the things I've done."

"You won't," says Margaret quietly."It's not as easy as you think. Killing, I mean..."

For some reason, her words brought a familiar sense of déjà vu to wash over Draco, and this time he knew exactly why. She had threatened him with similarly months ago in Knockturn Alley. Mocked him about how he had no way out, that no one would help him if he made a mistake. She was never afraid of taking advantage of his situation. And the unfortunate truth was that she was right. He had nowhere to go. Nowhere to turn to. Nobody he could trust to help him.

He was all alone.

Trapped.

Isolated.

Alone.

Margaret had known this all along, hadn't she? She knew he would come to her for help. She had been so certain. Was she simply bidding her time all this time? Waiting for him to crumble and beg her for help?

But why?

Despite knowing well that Draco had never gotten along with any of the Gryffindors, not even Margaret, he hadn't done anything to actually harm her. At least, back when he had the choice to, back when people would've taken his word over hers. No. Instead he had tried to protect her, stopped her from getting expelled, stopped her from being sent to Azkaban! He had even gone as far as to stop her from hurting Dolores Umbridge without caring what would happen to him.