All I Have Left

Chapter Eighty Eight

"Wait, you're not trying out for Quidditch?"

Daphne gawks at me as I throw on a black turtle neck and tuck it into a simple black skirt. I'd finally discovered a Concealment Charm for my Dark Mark, and was able to change in front of the girls as I had done everyday the last few years, just to ensure they didn't suspect anything.

I spare a short glance at Daphne before grabbing my wand and school bag. "No, I decided to quit the team."

"But the team needs you." Daphne insists, standing in front of the doorway to prevent me from exiting. I heave a sigh, uninterested. "Urquhart is Captain— a title you should rightfully have, by the way— and he'd easily give you a spot if you went to try outs. In fact, he'll probably give you one even if you don't show up!"

"Daphne, I don't want to be on the Quidditch team this year." I say. "I can't bear to focus on such trivial matters as Quidditch."

Daphne frowns. "What else do you have to focus on, then?"

A momentary panic comes over me, but I quickly recover. "Perhaps the fact that I'm an orphan. This stuff doesn't appeal to me now. I've lost everything, Daph. Quidditch doesn't matter to me in the slightest anymore."

She doesn't argue, but the deeply disappointed and pitiful look on her face makes me increasingly aggravated. I spin on my heel and search the room curiously.

I turn to Daphne once more. "Where's Athena?"

Her face softens, her expression easing up. "Oh, I think I saw her down in the common room. Where are you going, anyways?"

I blink, slowly, and shrug. "I'm meeting Malfoy. We're going to spend time studying together."

Daphne grins suggestively. "Ooh, I like the sound of that."

"No." I scrunch my nose in repulse, shaking my head as I begin exiting. "It's nothing like that. We're actually going to be studying."

"Yeah, whatever you say, darling." She giggles. I'm now standing outside, on the staircase of our dormitory. "Remember, be safe-!"

I slam the door shut in her face, heat creeping up my neck and irritation roaring in my chest, before speeding down the steps to the common room.

I scurry further into the room, seeing Malfoy perched on an armchair near the fire. I furrow my brows.

"Have you seen Athena?" I ask, but as he turns to look at me, I see my black cat already laying in his lap comfortably, eyes half shut as she purrs each time his long, pale fingers caress her fur. My mouth drops open slightly, and he cocks a brow at me. "Oh, there she is. I've been looking all over for her."

I walk over to him and lean down to take my cat from him, and he raises her in his arms gently before placing her into my hold with intense care, our skin grazing one another, a jolt threatening to go through me at the sparks on my arms from the contact.

I pull her closer to me and coo at her, petting her gingerly, and Malfoy runs a hand through his own hair and clears his throat. "Where was she all summer? I didn't see her."

"I left her back at my Manor, with my house elf." I say quietly. Athena had fallen asleep, and I place her softly onto the sofa and allow her to curl up into herself. "Smiley took care of her. I didn't want her in a house full of— well, um, you know."

He nods curtly, standing from his seat and walking over to me. "Ready?"

In return, I nod my assent, and we try to be as silent as possible as we trek through the corridors to the Room of Requirement, all the way on the seventh floor, whereas we were deep in the dungeons.