Potter Watch [a HOO/HP fanfic](finished) [Demigods at Hogwarts]

Chapter 25: The Dark Mark

Hey, guys!!!!!! Here's the next chapter as promised... I'M ALMOST TO 1K READS PLEASE HELP ME TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to mwsmiles, who is amazingly the epitomy of wonderfulness, and to AlexRiptide.. As for the picture at the top... pfft yeah right brickhead.

Love you all, and hope that you love this chapter!!!!!!

Verity

Reyna walked into the Slytherin common room apprehensively. She wasn't sure about this meeting at lunch thing, but she didn't want to be with Malfot any more than she could stand, not even after school. She was already going to see him tonight at the fourth DA meeting this year. Getting a P on the project was something she could stand, as long as she didn't have to see Malfoy constantly.

She looked around the room, wondering where he was. Finally her eyes locked on a solitary, depressing figure.

Malfoy was sitting in a high-backed chair that faced one side of the roaring fire. The flames cast a shadow over his slouching position, and over the downcast, brooding face that seemed even more dissatisfied than usual.

He looked up when she reached him. She was surprised to see a faint challenging gleam in his icy eyes that started to dispel the coldness. "Hello," he said.

She sat down in the chair across from him. "That's the second time you've forgotten to call me twit," she observed calmly.

"I didn't forget," he snapped. "I'm being polite. You might start by foregoing the mention of it."

Reyna raised her eyebrows. "I'm supposed to do YOU a favor?"

He huffed. "Reyna, we're going to be seeing a lot of each other in the next three weeks. It'll be torture if we're not at least civil to each other."

"You said my name."

"You can feel free to continue to call me Malfoy," he said, with a return of his usual sneer. "Now," he added, pulling a large black book out, "let's get started."

"That's not the normal textbook," Reyna pointed out.

"I know it's not," he said crisply. "It's a book I got from the library."

Reyna peered at it. "Moste Potente Potions?" she asked, eying it with narrowed eyes. "Hermione says that's from the Restricted Section."

"It is."

"So they let you check it out?"

Malfoy's face darkened, and Reyna felt herself flush. "Sorry. It's just I didn't-"

"Of COURSE they didn't let me check it out," he snapped. "I'm a Malfoy. My name is now dirt. If I asked, that old stuffed vulture Pince would ask me how many people I'm planning to murder."

Reyna paled. "You mean you're... you're a..."

"No," he said moodily. "I never killed anyone. Aunt Bellatrix said I didn't have the nerve. That's not true. I just didn't have the heart." He looked up at Reyna, raw honesty alive in his eyes. "I could never have killed someone."

Reyna looked down at her plaid skirt, flashing silver and green for everyone to see. It didn't seem as bad, suddenly. "Were you a Death Eater?" she asked. Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron had been able to tell her loads about the Wizarding War.

Malfoy's eyes turned stormy, and like clouds in a lightning storm, they flashed. He said nothing, only pulled up his robe sleeve so that she could see the skull tattoo with the snake protruding from it. "I was an idiot," he muttered to himself, dropping the cloth quickly as if he couldn't stand the sight of the Mark. "I chose mine. At least A-" but he stopped, and didn't say anything else.

Reyna felt awkward, as well as unsure of what to say. Finally, she decided to change the subject. "Let's get started," she told Malfoy. "We've already spent ten minutes talking."

"And you want to get to Transfiguration to snog Professor Boyfriend, I know," he snapped bitterly.

Reyna flushed angrily. "No! I want to get this potion started."

He shrugged and opened the book. "This book gives a better method for the potion-making," he explained, still glowering at Reyna.

Reyna sighed. "Okay, then, let's get started."

That night at the DA meeting, Alexos saw something between his cousin and his girlfriend. It wasn't disgust of animosity, as had been so often the case for the past four months. From Reyna he saw a grudging respect.

From Draco, he saw more. And he didn't like it.

"Hullo, Professor!"

He turned to see Hazel Levesque in front of him. She looked a little abashed when she saw the look on his face.

"Sorry, Professor, it's just... do you have any idea how to produce a Patronus?"

He froze. He hadn't been able to produce anything but silver vapor since Fred died, and the vapor had only come in the euphoria of having a girlfriend. Now he wasn't so sure that anything would come in light of his present unease.

"No," he admitted finally. "I hope to be able to produce one by the time Professor Weasley teaches them to you. Why did you want to know?"

Hazel looked embarrassed. "I feel a little... exposed, here," she admitted. "I want to protect myself, and since a couple of the demigods can produce Patronuses already, I felt a little embarrassed asking them. I was hoping you could help me."

He smiled at her. "I'd help if I could, I assure you."

She smiled gratefully. "Thanks so much!!"

He laughed a little. "Anytime."

As the steady stream of young witches and wizards slowed down to a trickle, Alexos motioned to George that it was time to begin.

Little did he know that this DA meeting would be different than any other he'd ever been to.