BANALITY : Draco Malfoy

31

"What was erased?" I say it more to myself than to them.

Potter looked through my memories, obviously looking for something. Maybe it was the accident that he was interested in finding, but I doubt it. He cut through it before I had even made it to the top of the stairs. They were looking for any sign of Goyle.

Goyle knew me, but I didn't know him. Just like my flatmates will never know Draco knocked them unconscious, but I will.

Draco and the others are too wrapped up in their bubble to notice me. When I stand, I turn to look at them. Potter's eyes dart over, and he leans back, almost alarmed that I am standing.

"Something was erased, wasn't it?" my voice is loud to try and penetrate their spell.

Potter waves his wand and the buzzing stops. All four of them stare at me.

"Well?" I ask, looking between them. "A memory was taken, right? Just like you did to my flatmates?"

Weasley looks at Draco with disgust, and Draco sighs, "that's what we suspect, yes."

"What happened to me?" I ask, looking around them. "A wizard did something, right? Goyle, I assume?"

"We don't know," Draco shakes his head.

I stare at them, looking around for anyone else to provide an answer, but they are all quiet. Weasley looks like words might burst out of his mouth though. My eyes turn to him, hoping he will look at me and then see me and speak. He's too focused on glaring at Draco.

"Memory charms don't show up on diagnostic charms, even ones more complex than those that I know," Granger explains. "We needed to see if we could find a crack in a memory."

"Muggles are good at filling in gaps, but wizards notice things that muggles explain away," Draco continues. "Potter could feel the crack but couldn't place it."

"It's less like finding a hole in a balloon and more like tasting," Potter explains. "A hole in a balloon has air shoot out of it. You know where the hole is. It's like, I can taste that something is off, but I don't know what it is or how to find out."

I figure they were looking for something that's been tampered with when Potter went scratching his way through all my memories. I don't know when it happened though.

"What did he hide?" I ask, looking around them all. "What did Goyle do to me?"

I can feel my panic climbing in my throat. Each breath is more jagged than the last, so sharp they slash into my throat, and I can feel my windpipe swelling. I take a few steps backwards, so that way I can sit on the bed. If I don't calm down, my body is going to take over and I will be running out of here barefoot just as I did last month.

"It's not about what you did, but what you knew," Draco explains. "Goyle wouldn't have switched from focusing on me to coming after you if it weren't important."

"What?" I ask, looking around. The idea that he took information from me is much less unsettling than the thought that someone might have touched me, touched my hair, and then tore it from my head. "I don't know anything."

"Does she know about the war, then?" Weasley looks angry. He reads something on his face. "Merlin, you really told her nothing then. What do you expect us to do, Malfoy?"

"I did mention it, but no details," Draco grits his teeth. I wait expectantly. He looks up at the ceiling, mutters something to himself either a spell or a prayer, and then speaks. "There was some fighting in Brighton back in 1997. You must've heard something you weren't supposed to hear. Goyle either wants to prevent us from extracting the memory or get the memory himself."