Before The Past

Ch. 32

Draco pulled me away and into a hidden hallway. It was dimly lit so we both cast the Lumos spell and pointed our wands away from our faces. I glared at him, but was slightly relieved that he had gotten me out before we were caught. It was odd to be so close to him again, but the sight of him in a black suit brought nothing but dreaded memories. From the time we first met before the world cup, to when him and Matteo watched as I was silenced by Moody. 

We stood in the dark, not daring to say a word to each other. I knew it was too soon to go back to the common room, but I wasn't sure how much more awkwardness I could take. I sighed and sat down on the ground, leaning my head against the wall. Draco did the same, but made sure to avoid any eye contact. I pursed my lips, wondering if I should say anything. 

What could I say? Was there anything to say? 

"So, is this your idea of keeping up your promise?" I finally said. 

"What?" He asked. 

"Well, I mean so far you haven't made much effort, so I assume this is your way of 'trying'." I explained. 

"I don't need to explain myself to you." 

"So you've forgotten the promise then?" 

"No. I've just been side tracked is all." 

"Right, side tracked avoiding caring about others." 

He opened his mouth to say something else, but kept quiet. His lack of arguing proved even further that I was right. Given any other opportunity, he would have raised his voice to the mountains by now. At this point I was sure that we were in the clear, so I took the passage down to the other end and went back to the common room. 

When I got there, there wasn't a soul in sight. It was almost one in the morning by now, and everyone else had either gone to sleep or were probably getting a lecture from Umbridge. Draco had walked up to the boys dorms, but stopped abruptly as he watched someone else walk down the stairs. Matteo walked down smugly, keeping eye contact with Draco until they passed each other. Draco clenched his jaw, looked up at the door and walked into the dorm room. 

Matteo then turned his eyes to me and approached me with a grin. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the girls dorms. Before I could get far though, I felt his hand grip my arm. 

"Get off me." I grunted, pulling my arm away from him. 

"Someone's feisty." He remarked. 

"Who wouldn't be after you caused all that commotion and then left me." I scoffed. 

"To be fair, that wasn't my fault." 

"You're right, it was both of you, and both of you had the power to avoid the situation as a whole." 

"Well you're safe now, right?" 

"Yeah. No thanks to you." 

I looked back up at the stairs and noticed that Draco was still watching us. I stood for a few more seconds before walking up the stairs. 

When I got into the dorm room, most of the girls whose beds were empty before were still empty. All except two, which were Pansy and another girl named Maxine Caldwell. They were both fast asleep, so I did my best to stay quiet as I settled down. 

Weeks had gone by and the longer Umbridge was there, the worse the school got. By now she had administered at least a hundred new rules and has now become 'High Inquisitor' of Hogwarts. Hardly anything had gone unnoticed by her. She changed the curfew, banned any and all 'frugal' activities, and has even gone as far as to get rid of quidditch.