human again / hp.

Chapter 124

I couldn't sleep.

Again.

The curtains around my bed were half-drawn, but the moonlight still found a way to slip through and silver the edges of my blanket. The room was quiet. Too quiet. Lavender's soft snoring drifted from the other side of the dormitory, barely audible over the hum of the wind outside.

My eyes stayed fixed on the crack in the ceiling above me. I had counted it before. It forked in three directions, like a tree with broken branches. I had named the splits after stars.

But not tonight.

My thoughts refused to stay still. They wouldn't stop circling. Wouldn't stop whispering.

You have to do it. You have to do something.

My fingers tightened around the edge of the blanket. I'd bitten my lip raw again. I tasted iron.

Draco and I had spoken in whispers behind locked doors, in corridors thick with shadows. We didn't say the word. We never said kill. It was always implied. Always heavy and pressing and choking in the air between us.

He was getting worse. He was pale and restless and twitchy, and he kept fiddling with his wand like he didn't trust himself to hold it. I had caught him staring at the floor for ten minutes straight last Thursday. Just staring. Like it was speaking to him.

I was no better.

Every time I walked past Dumbledore in the corridor, something in my stomach twisted. Guilt. Shame. Dread. It lived in me now, curled up like a cold animal just beneath my ribs.

He smiled at me still. Warm. Patient. That same maddening, gentle smile.

He had no idea.

I swallowed hard and pushed the covers back, slowly. The air was freezing. I crossed the room quietly, careful not to wake Hermione. Her back was to me. We hadn't spoken since August. Not really. Small things here and there. A look. A nod. A quiet "thanks" when she passed the salt at breakfast. But she didn't trust me. I could feel it.

I didn't blame her.

I sat on the window seat and pulled my knees to my chest. The castle grounds stretched out below, shadowed and silent. The Black Lake was still. A sheet of glass reflecting starlight.

I had to do something. I couldn't wait around forever. Draco was crumbling. And if he fell apart, if he failed, I would be next. Voldemort didn't make empty threats.

We would die.

I pressed my fingers against my temples, willing my brain to work. To untangle something. To give me an answer.

We couldn't just waltz into Dumbledore's office and curse him. That was suicide. And we weren't strong enough. Not even together. The Headmaster would see it coming. He always did.

It had to be clever. Quiet. Something he wouldn't suspect.

I thought back to the summer. The visits to Knockturn Alley. The dark little shop crammed with cursed artifacts. The thick velvet curtains. The dust. The smell of decay and secrets.

And then I remembered.

The amulet.

That amulet.

The one in the glass case. The one Borgin had practically hissed at us to stay away from. The one that was cursed so deeply it could kill someone just by touching it. Draco and I had both looked at it. Both paused there a second too long.

I stared out the window, my pulse picking up.

What if...

What if we could get that amulet to Dumbledore?