BANALITY : Draco Malfoy

67

I said I needed a minute, but I actually needed over an hour. Terry came out with a tea for me and my wand. He says he knows that tea isn't my thing, but it's already December. My breath is so cold in the air, so he also brings a blanket and casts a spell on it to help it heat my cold and stiff body. He says that Anthony is going to stay the night so that we three can decide on an actual plan in the morning. Terry doesn't want me to be surprised if I come back in and Anthony is asleep.

All I can do is nod.

I spend the time in the yard staring at the pond and thinking. The night is fairly quiet. There are a few ripples from the slow fish within the water, but no other sounds. I drag the tip of my wand along the surface. I assume the wand can get wet, and I am proven correct when I recast the warming spell on the blanket.

The sun was setting when I came out here early this evening, but now the darkness is around me, thicker than even a muffling charm. I can see the lights along the river that runs through Derry from up here. If the walk didn't seem so far, I'd like to be at an actual waterfront. Perhaps I could convince either Terry or Anthony to walk alongside me down there. It would probably be an hour journey there and back walking. Terry does not have a car. Generally, I guess wizards have no use to cars if they can apparate. I cannot apparate; I cannot go to the river. In the dark, all that accompanies me is my broken head.

I don't even know what Mandy Brocklehurst looks like. Her name wasn't on the list of members of Dumbledore's Army, I think. There is so much about my life that I still don't know. It feels so insane that someone could resent me so much that they would torture me like this, torture Draco like this, so that they have an opportunity to date Terry Boot. Although, I suppose there might be other aspects to Mandy's hatred that elude me, just as nearly everything eludes me.

Then, there is a pop somewhere to my left. I bend down, flattening myself into the grass. Someone just apparated nearby, and I do not know where they are. The world around me is quiet, even the pond. I'm not sure if I could cast a spell that would help camouflage me quietly. Certainly, I cannot run from here without being spotted. Perhaps it is Mandy, or perhaps Anthony did send an owl to the aurors. Maybe Draco has finally figured out where I went.

"Jane," I recognize the voice, and it is not Draco's. "You know I can see you."

I force myself upright. Blaise is behind the fence, across the pond from me. So, I stand to face him.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, looking him up and down.

It feels years since the early day in October when I met him, and just as long since the last I saw of him a few weeks later. He looks mostly the same, with his sharp gaze and strong jaw. However, his wizarding robes are almost a surprise. The cloak must keep him warmer than the blanket and the tea Terry brought for me, which are discarded on the ground. It is early December now.

He crosses his arms over his chest, "I'm here because of Draco."

"Why isn't he here?" I ask.

Blaise rolls his eyes, "it did occur to you that your absence might have upset him, did it not? Currently, he's rampaging around Southern England trying to find Pansy Parkinson. He has already murdered Millicent Bulstrode while trying to get information on you, which I'm sure will be in the papers tomorrow. I had to convince him not to try to break into Azkaban to get at Goyle."

An angry Draco is not one that I envy seeing. I do not know Millicent Bulstrode, but now that is two people that Draco has killed. Both of them had nothing to do with harming me, as far as I can tell. My stomach feels sick.