Love & Death (The Poisonous Princess Book 4)

Pace

Summer break have felt strangely slow and short at the same time. As if it was an eternity that I was alone, but not long enought to enjoy it either. Mourning was maybe making a time distortion. I wasn't sad because of the loss of Diggory... But facing his ghost in a corridor really made my point of view change.

It was few days after his burrial (I read about it in the news paper but didn't attend it) near the kitchens and Hufflepuff's department, his ghost fund me and took a great joy to scared the hell out of me with his misty appearance.

"I'm sure you're glad to see me like this, Poison girl !"

At first I didn't recognise him in this transparent form. Though, after this sentence I understood that he naturally came back to haunt me one last time.

"You wished me dead, so here I am ! You can thank your dark master for that !"

I shivered.
"I didn't... not seriously wish you dead. It was just... we all say stupid things. Because of Quiddich..."

"Anyway, now you're little hex won't work on me anymore. And I will be able to report your cheats and evil plans !"

"Leave me alone ! I'm not responsible of what happened !" I screamed out.

This confrontation just lasted a minute but freaked me enough to avoid this area of the castle for then on.

His death let me insecure, more than anything. I was worried about Voldemort's return, and having no mother and father left...became painful.
My feelings changed into sorrow, to have no family to be conforted.
I do have a relative... But strangely, Severus was often absent as well. He never gave explanations of corse, it's not like I needed to be informed, me the Hogwarts' pupil.
Only Dumbledore explained that my teacher had important duties to accomplish, things that I shouldn't be involved in any way.

I was kept ignorant. I'm sure they all tried to prevent my fall into evilness by doing so. Because, yes, that what they were all concerned about. I was reminding them of young Tom Riddle : untameable.
So they counted on me to stay that lonely but quiet little girl.

From my point of view, my professors wanted to drive me, to mold me into the right shape.
I was glad to be mature enough to understand that.

At least, I was left in peace this summer.
Trelawney was asocial, Minerva was called to duties in London... Even Hagrid went on vacation, so instead of having exercises and summer works, I was free to pace. Almost.
Since Voldemort was back in flesh my territory reduced a lot. I was forbidden to go or to fly near the forest, the lake or to Hogsmeade. Dementors were said to patrol. I doubted about that threat, nevertheless i wouldn't risk it. So the playground was pretty small.

As pastime I shared letters with my friends. It was cheering me up. We all needed this I guess. My pals were having nice time at their family house or holidays' cottage. They appreciated to take distance.
Ginny Weasley only replied me to say she didn't wanted to receive mail from me anymore, explaining that her brothers were strongly criticising and burned the previous one. But I understood that she herself disliked me. Understandable.
Katie, her, immersed into Quiddich knowledge and adopted a dog. It's all what she talked about.
Exchanging news with french students was odd because they seemed to live in another world where the Deatheaters didn't exist and final exams were the only concern for the year to come.

It's Draco who was the least talkative of them. He didn't share a word of his actual life. It was clear that he was hiding things... but I couldn't help any way.
One time I asked if he could search in deatheater's document for informations about my parents, to know if Mr and Mrs Malfoy did met my mother during their school time. To this, he never replied. I couldn't blame him though, we knew what deatheaters were capable of if someone sneaked in their buisness.
However, Draco and me we did sent each others love poems, one or two... or three. He could be such a romantic with words.