Inferno | Draco Malfoy

054 | The Truth is Freeing

Daphne is nowhere to be seen on this Sunday morning. She strangely wasn't in the dormitory when I awoke. My first guess was that she went somewhere with Blaise, maybe a date. I still don't know seeing as the two of them aren't in the Great Hall. Neither are any of the other boys. I know Milly and Goyle departed to the library together. For the first time in a while, it's just me, Tracey and Pansy.

Cormac was meant to meet up with me in the Great Hall and he's already half an hour behind. I hope nothing bad happened to him, he might still be sleeping. The worst-case scenario is that Malfoy went to beat him up again. If so, I know numerous ways on how to dispose a body.

As if things aren't already peculiar enough, I can't seem to ignore the aching gut feeling in my stomach. It feels sickly, not like the feelings I get around Malfoy, it's brutal. Like things are bound to be bad today.

It's hard to comprehend Daphne's disappearance, if she was to go out with Blaise she'd leave a note or wake me up. The girls also think it's quite odd but, we don't want to jump to any conclusions straight away seeing as nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. It's only our senses that have been messed with.

But, I still trust my intuition. I always will.

"I'm surprised you don't know where Theo is." Tracey nudges Pansy on the shoulder. "You two are usually together nowadays. Let me guess, snogging in secret?"

"No, we study together." Pansy stirs her drink with a teaspoon. "We have a lot of common interests, discussions are easy, and you know it's rare to find a person who gets you. He's great company, I do like him."

I snort. "Like my arse, you love him. Your goo-goo eyes are one piece of evidence. The second is that one time you wore his tie and he wore yours. You two must've removed clothing to do so. Don't deny it, your tie shows nine stripes and his shows seven."

Listen, I'm not weird, I just like to pay attention to detail.

Pansy looks at me, speechless and at a loss of words. She raises her eyebrows, looking at her own tie, before counting it out loud. "...Eight, nine. How— Huh?"

"Oh I take it back," Tracey giggles, "it's shagging in secret."

"No, we haven't shagged. We just— Alright you know what?" Pansy points a finger in my face. "How about you tell us what's been going on between you and Draco?"

As if a saviour, Daphne finally comes running into the Great Hall.

Although, she looks more like a monster that's prepared to fight in war. Her face is a cross between hysteria and fury; she holds a small potion vial in her hand. The ghastly feeling in the pit of my stomach stings and I can not overlook it any further.

"Adriana!" The girl almost crashes into me, she hugs me before sliding down my body and onto the floor. Her hands tremble as she puts the vial in my hands. Tracey pulls her up and onto a seat and I can feel a hundred or so faces staring at me and the clearly distressed Damsal.

There's no label on the vial, nor is there any liquid. I unscrew the lid and there's no smell.

"Adriana, Adriana." Daphne holds my hands, pleading almost and I'm slightly frightened.

"Is everything okay?" Pansy puts her hand on Daphne's shoulder.

"That's the wrong question to ask." Tracey moves to sit beside me. "What happened? Did you kill someone? Poison? Seeing as there's a vial involved."

"No." Daphne's grip tightens. "I definitely did something illegal, that's not up for debate, but you must listen to me Adriana. That vial, it's—"

"Veritaserum." I mumble, finishing her sentence.