Love used to be just a word | Draco Malfoy

- TWENTY-TWO -

15th of October, 1997

It was Wednesday late in the evening and I was sitting in the far corner of the Gryffindor Common Room trying my best to write a paper for our Herbology class that was due in two days. I knew I'd been slacking off lately with all that had been going on and I was desperately trying to do some damage control, but I just wasn't in the right state of mind. A deep sigh escaped my lips. How am I ever going to finish this?

Suddenly there was a loud thud and someone sprinted into the common room. My head snapped back to the commotion that followed, as did the few others that were still up as well. "They've been caught!" Seamus yelled before panting – seemed like he ran up all the stairs to give us the news. My heart dropped – thinking he was talking about Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Is this it then? Is it over for the Wizarding World?

"Who did?" a voice asked – I wasn't sure who it was, but they sounded as scared as I felt. "Ginny, Neville and Luna – they got caught trying to steal the Sword of Gryffindor from the Headmaster's office. Snape caught them!" he explained feverishly. They tried to do what?! What the bloody hell was Ginny thinking? I clenched my fists, feeling my sharp nails dig in the palms of my hands.

All eyes turned to me – all bearing an accusatory expression on their faces. "You traitor!" Seamus screamed as he ran up to me and – before I knew it – my feet lifted off the floor as he pulled me up by the collar of my robe. "What in Merlin's beard are you talking about, Seamus?!" I asked with anger laced through my voice, while I tried to pull myself away from him. He didn't let go of me though – and even if he did – I had nowhere to run. All students that were still awake were surrounding us – in total there were seven of them. Talk about being outnumbered.

"Nobody knew about any of this; you must've tipped off your filthy Death Eater boyfriend!" he yelled in my face. The other students made agreeing sounds, all of them staring at me with pure hatred on their faces. "You just said it yourself, nobody knew anything. How should I have known?" I asked, hoping I could get out of this unscathed, but it didn't seem anyone wanted to listen to what I had to say. "You think we didn't know about you being best friends with Parkinson all of a sudden? Ginny told us she showed up when she was talking to you yesterday!" Pure anger was radiating from Seamus. I felt defeated – how did everything turn out like this?

"And that means I'm best friends with her?! You guys were my friends first! Even if I had known about any of this, I would never tell anyone! I never betray my friends!" I screamed at him, trying to push him off in the meantime, to no avail. "You're out of your mind if you think we're still friends with you, Blackwood. You're a filthy traitor!" Seamus screamed back at me. Ignis hissed at my assailant; he curled his back, his tail still and fluffed, all the hair on his back stood straight up. Seamus' eyes averted from me to my cat and I could almost hear his thoughts.

Oh no you don't.

"Run, Ignis!" I ordered the second I felt Seamus' grip loosen a little on me. I pushed Seamus with all the power I had and he stumbled back. Another student caught Seamus and pushed him up again, but by the time he regained his footing, Ignis was gone.

This time Seamus averted his anger towards me and, although I could block his first two attacks, I felt the third punch in my stomach. I hurled forward and coughed. Everything moved fast and slow at the same time. More fists made contact with my body – some hit my face. I fought back to the best of my ability and eventually my right fist made contact with someone's face – creating a small opening in the group surrounding me. I wasn't even sure who the person I hit was, the only thing on my mind was to escape the scene as fast as I could – and this was the exact moment I had been looking for. I bolted out of the Gryffindor Common Room, ignoring the pain all over my body as I ran down the stairs as fast as my body would let me.

Voices were following not too far behind me, screaming my name, I lost my footing and stumbled down the stairs. I could hear a cracking sound, but I stumbled up again and ran further. "What are you all doing out of bed?!" a teacher's voice echoed somewhere from upstairs, but I didn't slow my pace.

No way in hell I was going back there now.

A few minutes later – which felt like forever – I found myself in the dusty old classroom that now almost felt more like home than the Common Room. I groaned in pain as I slid down against the wall. I knew I brought most of this upon myself; the mistrust, the broken friendships, but I never imagined getting physically beaten by students from my own house.

"You're out of your mind if you think we're still friends with you, Blackwood. You're a filthy traitor!"

Seamus' voice echoed in my head – somewhere I'd known for a while that none of us were really friends anymore, but someone saying it out loud made it real – and that hurt more than any wounds I had now. I felt tears streaming down my face and I found myself wishing for my three best friends to be back. This would've never happened if I'd tagged along, or if they'd never left.

The door to the classroom creaked and Ignis leaped in. At least you're save. I thought with a small smile as I reached out to him to scratch him underneath his chin – his favorite spot. I whimpered as a sharp pain shot through my wrist and only then I noticed it was broken. Fucking great. Seems like I found the cause of the cracking sound from when I fell down the stairs earlier.

"Why the fuck are you taking me here, you little- bloody hell. You look like shit," a familiar voice said and I felt my breath stop. Ignis meowed innocently as my eyes locked onto his grey ones.

Draco.