BANALITY : Draco Malfoy

64

Today is the last of the scheduled interviews. My hopes are not high. The shred of confidence that I had is dwindling. In the morning, I try to convince Terry to use the sleeping spell on me once more. I would figure out how to do it on myself if I wasn't worried that my body would be trapped in nightmares for hours. The side effects last time were unpleasant. Terry remembers how my body reacted, so he refuses to help.

On the docket today are the two Ravenclaws on our year that Terry Boot knew the best. While he says that it is unlikely that they were able to help me over Easter, he says they could possibly know something. Like me and Terry, they were in the club, Dumbledore's Army.

Michael Corner is the first of the two who arrives. During the first half of his interview, he describes how he spent much of the winter break hiding out, occasionally spending time with Terry, Anthony Goldstein, and Cho Chang. His girlfriend, Cho, was initially part of a group that protected muggles from Death Eater violence. She had no involvement with the underground group that hid muggle-borns besides knowing people who participated in the group, so she wouldn't know anything about me.

"I'm sure you know the details about our split," Michael's voice is a bit quieter than the others, so I have to try my best to truly listen.

"For the record," Terry says back.

"Well, she left the wizarding world entirely during the winter break," Michael says. "She just found the fight to be exhausting. She was still stressed from Cedric's death. I was surprised she came back to the Battle of Hogwarts at all. Apparently, she's engaged to a muggle now, and works a muggle job. Marietta still loves to gossip about Cho, but she hasn't seen her in almost a year now too."

"What about Easter?" Terry asks.

Michael's breath hitches, "well, I guess that was before everything went too absolute shite. I'm sure you remember the public display the Carrows made of me."

Neither of them speaks, and neither of them shuffles. Listening through the extendable ear cannot paint a picture. I wonder what Michael Corner looks like, or if he would be able to read me.

"If you aren't able to talk about these things, we don't have to do the interview," Terry says. "I need to hear things from your perspective, you know. You don't have to tell me anything that you told me for the first book."

He is silent for some time. If there were more movement, I would assume that Michael was getting ready to take the Floo out. Terry doesn't even seem to stir. My back aches from lying on the floor, my body pressed close to the string to hear the sound of their hushed voices. This is quite rotten.

"There is something you don't know." Michael says. "I need to tell you the whole story to explain. I guess... you know during Easter that I was really quite angry with Cho? You see, I spent most of it moping. I had thought about reaching out to Ginny, because I knew she was stuck at school while Harry was out fighting. Well... that makes it seem like I was trying to get her to cheat on Harry with me, but it wasn't like that. At least, I didn't want her there for romantic or sexual reasons. We weren't really well suited anyway. I just... no one seemed to understand what it felt like to have Cho outside of Hogwarts. Everyone had something going on with their family or muggle-born friends so I didn't want to complain. Ginny was never very empathetic, but I thought she might understand what it was like to worry about someone on the outside and not because they are a muggle or muggle-born, or because they are a friend or family, but because you love them and you cannot possibly take up the mantle alongside them. As silly as it is to love during a war, you cannot help it. I wish I could've stopped.