Draco Malfoy's Perspective

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

For the next week, it seemed to Violet like Draco was avoiding her. She wondered in passing if she'd pushed too hard. Well boohoo, baby. You need to let someone in.

He seemed more relaxed when she saw him later in the week though, and she grew increasingly curious until it was eating at her. What had made him so relaxed? He'd been so wound up before.

Then one day she saw him smiling in her direction and couldn't take it anymore. "Spill, Malfoy," she said, standing in front of him in class before it started.

"The day got pushed off," he said vaguely. But vague was good. It was safe. She smiled too. The headmaster was safe for now.

"Good."

Then he looked at his textbook and ignored her. After pulling Goyle's ear to get him up, she sat in the seat beside Draco. "Stubborn as a mule," he said again. She grinned.

Throughout class, she kept poking his leg with her wand. When he got annoyed and looked at her, she tapped a piece of parchment with her finger. He looked down and read I'll stop when you stop ignoring me.

A small wave of his wand produced a couple words of his own. Fair enough. Then he grinned and she felt something in her lap. A rose.

Show-off, she mouthed.

Still think you're better at magic than me? he wrote on his own parchment.

She lifted a brow. Was that a challenge? She glanced at Professor McGonagall, who was getting onto a boy that had been doing magic. Idiot. A hex made quick work of diverting her attention, and Violet quickly whispered another spell, one that erased the last spell from the wand. Now McGonagall couldn't catch her definitively.

"Who did that?" she exclaimed, her lips pursed tightly. Some students looked scared. Ravenclaws, the lot of them. "We are in a dire situation! You-Know-Who has returned and you're playing pranks! You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

Draco was trying hard not to laugh. "Think this is funny, Mister Malfoy? May I remind you that should things end badly, you will be caught in the mix!"

"I am well aware, Professor." Need she remind him? It would be better for her if he did forget. Better for everyone except him and his family. Never would be let down his own family and subject them to torture because he couldn't say a spell.

Draco is a terrible Occulumen, thought Violet. How he had kept those books a secret was beyond her. But he would never let her in if she kept pushing him. And she would never stoop to using a spell or potion.

That night, she finally told Theresa everything (or everything not relating to what Draco had said directly to her), and her friend sat there gaping. "He-he's going to what? I mean, I'd kill for a decent payout, but this?"

"He thinks he doesn't have a choice."

"He doesn't!"

"I'm trying to give him one. I'll tell him I can do it, or get Professor Snape to do it for him. He has choices here. Dumbledore just has to die, and the guy's already pretty old and sickly."

"Violet, you can't get involved. Well, any more than you already are. The Dark Lord will find out. He will find you. And then you'll be in deep trouble."

"I can handle it."

"You're sixteen!"

"So is Draco."

Theresa nearly pulled out her hair. "Draco isn't handling it! He's a mess! Sobbing in the girls' bathroom, not showing up to classes, skipping meals! He'll waste away before the end of the year!"

"You're wrong." Violet shook her head. "And Draco deserves someone to help him. I met his mother. She just cares about them looking good."

Theresa sighed and shook her head. "He's never going to let you be there."

"Obviously. But I have a way around that." Then Violet bared her Time Turner, and Theresa almost fainted.

"Merlin. You're going to make him think you're here, aren't you?"

"I'll lock myself somewhere safe. Draco will watch me. Then the next morning, after everything is over, he'll come get me. He won't even know I was gone. But then in the middle of the night I'm going to turn back time to before the attack, and while he's watching me lock myself up, I'm going to be finding Dumbledore and hiding near him. Then I'll be there for Draco, and if for some reason I need to step in, I can."

Theresa shook her head. "Suicidal."

"Loyal."

"Gryffindor."

Violet smirked. "Hey. If I'm not on his side, who will be?"

Theresa rolled her eyes and fell on her face. "Ugh. Why are you even telling me this?"

"Because Draco won't tell me what's going on when he's awake, and being stubborn isn't getting me anywhere. I want you to tell me how to coax it out of him."

"But you already know." Her voice was muffled, one word barley discernible from the next.

"But he hasn't told me."

"Whatever." She sighed and rolled over. "I know why you wanna get close to him, okay? So fine. Look, stop being pushy. You're never going to get anywhere productive by being pushy. And like I said, he goes sobbing into the girls' bathroom, and he doesn't eat much. Just kinda...fix those things. Go eat with him or whatever. I don't even care."

"Thanks, Theresa." Violet smiled at her friend's overdramatic groaning response.