Of Irrevocable Fate And Virtue

15

[flashback]

~ Start of 7th Year / Hogwarts Express... ~

I hadn't seen Draco since he visited me for a week at the start of the summer. I haven't heard from him since then either. Except for one thing, but I would hardly call what his owl delivered to me to be an actual correspondence.

Something was wrong. I felt it in my bones. As soon as he and I kissed goodbye earlier this summer, I had this sinking intuition that made me lie awake at night, worrying and trying my hardest not to.

I wrote to him again and again, going from simply asking him how he was and telling him that I missed him, to nearly begging him to just let me know if he was okay. If I had done something. If something had happened. If something was wrong.

It was a week before we were due to return to Hogwarts that I received a letter from him. I recognized his owl immediately as it tapped on my window, and I leapt from my bed, feeling relief so intensely that tears welled in my eyes. All I wanted to know is if he was okay.

But then I opened the letter, and felt nothing but confusion.

Scarlett,

Do not return to Hogwarts this year. Please.

-D.M.

The letter sat heavy in my bag that was slung over my shoulder as I pulled my trunk down the platform of King's Cross station.

Draco had to have lost his mind to think that an ominous letter from him after not hearing from him in weeks was going to keep me from returning to Hogwarts. In all honesty, I was pissed off. I was angry. I was anxious and sick with worry to the point that I wanted to yell at him and kiss him all at once. I had hardly slept since receiving that letter. He was all I could think about.

After a tearful goodbye with my parents, I made haste getting on the train. Quickly, I found my Gryffindor friends, and exchanged hugs and hellos with them as we all settled in. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, a few others, and I all caught up. I tried my best to stay in conversation and appear as collected as I could, but I feared that Hermione and Ginny knew something was up based on the worry in their nonverbal expressions towards me.

I gave them a soft smile, trying differ suspicion and alleviate their worry. As soon as the train started moving, I excused myself. I told them I was going to visit with the Slytherin cabin, and they didn't question it. Technically, I wasn't lying.

As I started down the aisle of the train, the words of Draco's short letter repeated over and over again in my head, and my worry and anger built up again, making me walk faster. I had so many questions and things to say to him.

Why did he not want me to return? Why hadn't I heard from him in weeks? What was happening at Hogwarts? Where the hell had he been?

I avoided others that I passed, not bothering to take even a second to see if I recognized whoever them. I was looking for one person, and one person only. I'd apologize to anyone that I ignored later.

When I made it to the door that lead to the train compartment that the Slytherins occupied the majority of, I peaked in the small window. Immediately I spotted Pansy, Blaise, Theodore, Crabbe, and Goyle sitting together. None of them spoke. None of them even acknowledged each other, really. Except for Pansy, who looked to each of the four boys with a look of apprehension and pity. Like her heart was aching for them.