Where Your Loyalties Lie

Chapter Sixty-Two: Bathroom Brawl

The first Saturday after classes began again, I stared at my breakfast food, pondering on whether or not I should make the decision I had been thinking of ever since Draco and I had visited my mother. Convinced that I couldn't eat anymore, I pushed my plate to the center of the table and announced to Draco, Maddie, and Blaise, "I need to go talk to my father about something. I'll see you guys later."

"See you at lunch, Love," Draco told me, giving me a kiss on the cheek before I stood up. He had already informed me that he would be spending the entire morning working on the cabinet.

When I arrived at Dad's office, I came in quietly and sat down in the chair across from him. "I need to ask you about something," I began. He sighed and put aside the assignment he was grading before looking up at me, urging me to continue. "I've been thinking that it might be a good idea for me to change my last name to yours instead of Mom's. With all the risky and dangerous things I could be brought into, being two-sided and all, I believe it would be safer for Mom, John, and Easton if I disconnected myself from them as much as possible. They wouldn't be able to protect themselves if you-know-who or some death eaters decided to go after them," I explained.

"It's possible that the Dark Lord already knows your name. I'm not sure what changing your name would do, however I suppose it wouldn't hurt to change it just to be safe," he replied after thinking it over.

"Even if him or his death eaters know who I am, then changing my last name away from a muggle last name could prove to them that I support their cause. Being a half-blood, I'll need to convince them as much as possible, right?"

"That is true..." Dad trailed off. "I will look into changing your last name on any legal documents that are necessary."

I smiled. "Thank you!" I quickly got up and went around the desk to hug him before leaving him to his paper grading. After leaving, I headed to the common room to find Maddie and Blaise to hang out with before lunch.

~~~~~

Ever since break ended, Draco had started working on the cabinet every chance he got. Time was running out and he needed to fix it as soon as he possibly could. Sometimes I would come and keep him company, but most of my free time that wasn't spent on homework was spent hanging out with Maddie and Blaise. I spent time with the trio too, but whenever I did that Hermione would be nagging about homework and Harry would always question where Draco was. He's been pretty obsessed with Draco lately. I've been running out of excuses for where Draco was. Every once and a while I would just spend time by myself too. I'd walk around the castle, lay under the tree by the lake, or play guitar in my room.

One sunny day in April, I sat at a windowsill in one of the many hallways of Hogwarts upstairs staring at the grounds. Draco would be heading down to lunch through this hallway in a few minutes so I decided to wait for him there. When he finally came, he looked distressed and almost walked past without noticing me. "Draco!" I called out.

Startled, Draco stopped and turned towards me. "Katie, I didn't see you there," he said.

"Obviously," I stated as I stood up and walked closer to him. "What's wrong?"

His eyes met mine briefly but then quickly darted away as he shook his head. He began walking again towards the Great Hall and I followed. "I can't do this. I don't want to do this. There is no way I'll have that fixed in time!"

"Alright calm down, Draco! It's going to turn out just fine. You-"

"You don't know that! You have no idea if I'll ever be able to fix that bloody thing. And who knows? Even if I succeed, maybe he'll end up killing me anyways!"

"Don't talk like that!" I wanted to go on, but we had reached the Great Hall, where we had to cease our conversation. I had taken a few more steps before realizing Draco had stopped walking. Stopping to see why he had stopped, I watched as his face, if it was even possible, paled even more than it already was. Following his gaze, I noticed that Katie Bell had returned from St. Mungo's Hospital. She was looking directly at Draco and Harry was standing right next to her, watching him as well. Turning back to Draco, I found that he was rushing back out of the Great Hall.