Let's Play Murder (A Draco Malfoy Fanfic)

Chapter 9: Black Coffee

"What the hell is a tragedy? I am." –Sylvia Plath

*

Draco leaves the dormitory around midnight, not wanting to be late. He feels more confident sneaking around the castle since he's been doing it so much, and getting out of his Common Room and upstairs is super easy tonight. He decides to stop by the Room of Requirement first, just to see how the Vanishing Cabinet is doing. He wants to make sure no one messed with it in the hours of his absence. Now that he's seen Longbottom come in, he's more anxious about outside interferences.

Draco stops in front of the barren wall and closes his eyes, thinking about fixing the Cabinet. He has to try several times because Darcy keeps popping into his head and breaking his concentration. He pushes her out and can almost feel the door materializing when something stops him cold.

All it takes is a quiet, itty bitty meow to make Draco's eyes widen and his muscles stiffen. He turns around slowly.

Mrs. Norris.

The cat darts away as soon as they lock eyes. Draco swears and runs too, but he sprints towards the secret passage one floor down, hoping that he's faster than Filch. Well, he knows he's faster, but Filch knows every secret passage in the castle. Who knows where he'll turn up?

Draco turns the corner and smacks right into what he thinks is a wall. As he looks up from his spot on the floor, he realizes it's Snape. Snape picks him up off the floor roughly, dragging him into an empty corridor.

"I told you to be careful!" he snarls. "I've permitted you to be out of bed, but I can't speak for the other teachers! You shouldn't be running, either. Go back to the Common Room, and don't let me catch you again tonight, or we'll both have some explaining to do."

He pushes Draco down the stairs, standing at the top until Draco is out of sight.

What's he going to do? Now he can't get through the passage to get Darcy back into the castle! He could wait until Snape is gone, but who knows how long that will be? And Snape doesn't know about Darcy; he'd get her into trouble for sure.

Pacing in front of the fireplace, Draco weighs his options. He could go back and hope that he doesn't run into Snape (or any other teacher), or he could wait until tomorrow night, when Snape won't be as vigilant.

Draco decides to wait. He figures if Snape catches him again, he'll know something is going on. The last thing Draco wants is to get Darcy a lifetime sentence in Azkaban, and he also doesn't want to lose her help. She's been amazingly progressive since she arrived. And Draco can't help but add that he doesn't want to never see her again. She's the closest thing to a mutual friend he has.

He can only hope that she won't be pissed at him tomorrow. Draco smirks when he thinks about how angry she'd probably be if he never showed. Her posture would be really cute—

Wait, cute? Back up. Darcy is cute, he knows that for sure. But why is he thinking about how cute she is when she's upset? Why is trying to think of the fire that would burn in her dark eyes or the frown that would tug at her lips or the way her small hands would clench or how she might punch him or how her jaw would clench?

Back up even more. Draco realizes that she is honestly the only reason he can still smile and laugh. She makes him happy, even in his trying times. She's amazingly skilled at making sure he doesn't think too much by making him think about other things. And it works.

Even when he's in the middle of it all, when he's fixing that cabinet and going over the plan a million times in his head, he doesn't feel stressed or afraid when she's there. And that one morning she was gone, Draco fell apart. He saw how much he's changed and how much he hated this new version of himself that can't cast a Patronus charm and will most likely never be able to (which he discovered earlier this year from his father during his Azkaban trip).

But with her, his heart warms. He likes her. She makes him feel human. She makes him feel like the old Draco Malfoy again.

*

Darcy waits for Draco in the Hog's Head. He's a little late, but she doesn't think much of it—that passage is really long. But being alone in the pub with no background noise besides the blustering wind outside makes her think.

When she was little, she was so energetic. Up until she went to Azkaban, she was up for anything and everything. A friend wants to explore a spooky forest at two A.M.? Let's do it. Thirty dozen cookies for Christmas that's two days away? Heat the oven, let's go. She was a restless ball of energy who constantly needed distractions, who always had to be busy.

But after her first excursion to Azkaban, all of that changed. Her first sentence was two months. When she came out of there, she was exhausted, mentally and physically. Even after recovering for a few weeks, she never felt the same energy again. Her mind was fogged, her strength was hindered, and her life was changed forever. Even now, three years later, she's never experienced the same burst of energy, the same readiness for anything. The only kind of energy she experiences is the exhilaration of doing something she shouldn't be doing. She thinks that this energy is similar to how she felt as a child, and that's why she craves it. That's why she's addicted to it.

She thinks about what it would be like if she'd never gone to Azkaban. She probably would've attended some kind of magic school eventually. If not, she'd learn on her own, like she does now. But without Azkaban, she wonders if she'd be more successful. Maybe happier. More sociable. But, then again, she probably never would've met Draco without going to Azkaban. Would that be bad? He's most likely helping You-Know-Who with this whole Vanishing Cabinet thing. She figured that out long ago but didn't say anything because she realized he probably doesn't want to admit it.

Darcy has gotten more attached to Draco than she'd like to admit. She likes him—he's the first friend she's had in three years—and his company is, somehow, relieving. Would she go back in time and prevent herself from going to Azkaban if it meant never meeting Draco?

She doesn't think so.