Spellbind

31. My Clandestine Oath

A/N:

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Niyla POV:

I had risked wandering around the Forbidden Forest since the very beginning of my first years at Hogwarts. But now I know, I wasn't good at sneaking out into the school grounds; Dumbledore just simply allowed it. Some of the professors knew of my travels, but with the Headmaster's command, they were instructed to turn a blind eye. I suppose I could understand Dumbledore's leniency, seeing that even he knows little of my wolf abilities. Who was he to know that I wouldn't just lash out, similarly to a werewolf on a full moon. — I hardly think I ever would have, or that I will. But if he saw I took enjoyment in shifting into my dire-wolf form, he must have figured I'd be better left alone; to blow off steam.

Something about being in the know makes sneaking out of the castle far less fun. The only excitement in it is dodging Filch and his yellow-eyed cat, Mrs. Norris. And occasionally Peeves the castle's poltergeist, whose mere presence is trouble enough. I'm allowed to make late-night trips to the Forest, but it's an unsaid agreement to avoid the school's caretaker — Argus Filch. Any student caught out of bed after curfew by him will be forced to lose House points.

I waited fully clothed in my four-poster bed, waiting until my wristwatch — that I had gotten from Charlie Weasley as a belated birthday present — to reach the latter minutes of the hour of the wolf.

I kicked the cracks in the stone floor of a corridor as I made slow progress to the school's library. Suddenly I turned back, the sound of quickened steps echoing after me and the familiar sound of a particular voice loudly whispering my name. With parted lips and an uneven breath, he waited for me to greet him. His gray eyes seemed black in the low light that twitched from the torch brackets, placed along every other thin concrete pillar in the wide hall.

"I saw you leave the common room," Draco said, the lack of sleep was easily heard in his tone.

"Okay..." my voice came out bitter.

"I'm sorry," he was flushed, "for yesterday."

"Desperation doesn't look good on you," I said, then turned on my heel.

"Darkness will come tearing through everything we know," Draco called out to me when I was several paces from him. "...You have no idea just how fucking desperate I am to keep you around, until that happens."

There was a pause. My eyes slowly fell on Draco, I could feel a very deep sour expression on my face. I gripped the strap of my school bag, irritation making my heartbeat accelerate. A shift in the cloudy predawn sky caused the summer-blue moonlight to glide in the space around us, there was a sort of struggle in his gaze. My stare was forced to soften, my eyes flickered away and then rested gently on Draco.

"I thought you understood," I said. "We'd stand together through anything. We'd keep each other's sanity in check, remember?"

Draco frowned a bit. "If I lost you in the wake of a war, I'd have no reason to keep sane."

"You shouldn't have acted so impulsively," I said, thinking about our kiss and how Draco wanted to use the interaction to blackmail me.

"What is it?" I prompted. "What did you need to tell me?"

We found the nearest vacant classroom, the contents of the room were mostly silhouettes in the weak lighting. I occasionally look around the room with my golden-yellow, dire-wolf eyes. We sat on the floor, hidden under one of the long tables, far from the entrance. We were half a foot from each other, shoulder to shoulder. I listened to what Draco refused to tell me before the first task of the Tournament. What he thought was too worrisome for me to know before I would come face to face with a dragon. I discreetly moved a little bit from Draco when I started to feel the heat that his skin gave off.