The Slytherin Heiress

Chapter || 09

We meet in the commons and quickly make our way to the vanishing cabinet. Draco pulls a small bird from his robe pocket and I watch him with pinched brows. He sets the bird gently on the shelf. The small chirps as it hops around are innocent. Draco closes the door and mutters the incantation after plucking a small feather from his sleeve.

The chirping stops and we open the door to reveal the cabinet empty. He closes it and utters the incantation again. This time when we open it the bird lies lifeless on the floor.

I look to Draco and find him breathing deeply, his nostrils flared and his jaw clenched. I watch him carefully before I close the door.

"Come." I give Draco a comforting look before we head to the dining hall for dinner.

We walk in the hall side by side and Draco stops short. I turn to him.

"Are you alright?" I ask before turning to see Katy Bell and Harry Potter staring back at us.

Draco immediately turns around and rushes out of the hall. I move to follow him but Pansy intercepts me near the door.

"I thought you and Draco were at each other's throats again?" She asks.

"We are, why?" I ask, turning to See Harry Potter rushing out the door after Draco.

"Well for starters you walked in together-" she begins.

"I'm sorry I- I've got to use the loo." I excuse myself, running down the corridor after the two boys.

I watch Harry enter the boy's loo and I pause outside the door, debating on going in. My debate ends when I hear spells being cast and glass shattering.

I throw open the doors just as Harry yells an unfamiliar spell. Draco's body flies back into the flooded floor. His gaps fill my ears alongside the running water. Blood oozes from cuts on his chest. As if by instinct I cast a disarming spell at Harry and kneel beside Draco, panic filling my chest.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." I mutter. "Harry Potter you are a dead man!"

Snape enters the bathroom and Harry does nothing but stand there, staring at Draco before running from the bathroom. I cradle Draco's head in my lap as he sobs and Snaps kneels on the other side of him. I brush his platinum hair from his sodden forehead as panic sets in.

"No, no, no. Please, please come on." I beg. "Do something!"

Snape begins muttering an incantation. Slowly the blood soaking the water returns to his body and the cuts begin to heal. Any blood on my hands disappears, back where it belongs. I fight back a sob that threatens to escape as Draco goes unconscious.

"Let's take him to Madam Pomfery." Snape orders.

I nod and cast a levitation spell and rush him to Madam Pomfereys. She doesn't ask questions as she prepares a bed for him. Snape takes her to the side to explain, probably some bullshit story. I pull a chair beside Draco's bed and bind my hands. The scar slightly tingles and I press my lips to it.

"I will escort you back to your common room," Snape says as he returns to my side.

"I think I'll stay here actually, for a little while at least," I say and Snape doesn't argue.

I must have drifted off to sleep. I jolt awake from another nightmare to find my head resting on Draco's arm, slumped over the bed. His hand holds mine tentatively. I sit upright, not daring to separate our hands as he sleeps.

"Here you are, dear." Madam Pomfery says handing me a cup of tea. 

"Thanks," I say separating Draco and my hands to drink. "Is there anything we should be doing to get him to wake up?"

"Oh, he's already woken up dear." She smiles. "He only fell back asleep once he was holding your hand. Very sweet. He will be free to leave once he wakes up again."

I pinch my brows as she walks away, tending to paperwork or something at the end of the room. I check the clock and it's six am. Today is the day. I lean back in my chair and run my hands through my hair, lightly pulling at the strands.

Draco stirs and I lean forward a bit. I smile as his eyes slowly open and he sits up.

"Morning sunshine," I say sarcastically. "It's about time you wake up."

"What time is it?" He asks.

"Why don't you look at the clock?" I force a laugh. "It's six."

"What day is it?" He asks.

"It's happening today," I say somberly.

"Right." He says, clenching his jaw. "Well, we better get prepared then."

"Are you sure you're all right to be doing this?" I ask. "We could postpone, an excuse. I can come up with something."

"I have received enough coddling from my mother," Draco says to me, standing. "I do not need it from you as well."

We eat breakfast as normal. It's as though even the sky knows something awful is happening today. Our light spring rain has turned into a full-blown rainstorm. The magic sky in the dining hall echoed with thunder. I look at my friends and see them laughing carelessly, none knowing what is to happen tonight.

I run my hands through my hair and Draco's leg nudges me under the table. He gives me a steady nod but I know he is just as anxious as I am. I dismiss myself from Pansy's girls' day activities with the excuse of period cramps. She rolls her eyes but agrees in the end.

Draco and I act as normal as we can, going to classes and lunch as normal. It's after dinner that our plans begin to transpire. We go to our rooms to change before going to the vanishing cabinet. Draco wears his signature black suit and I wear a long black dress that brushes my ankles. This time only a cardigan covers my tattoo which is soon to be removed.