Make Me Fall

35. Back To School

"I'm boooooooooooooooooored!"

Draco looks over the top of the Daily Prophet, irritated.

"How did you pass time the other twelve times you've made this journey?" he snaps.

"I sat and was silently bored," I mutter, staring out the window of the train.

"Could you try that now?"

"Uuuuurrrrrgggghhhh..."

He goes back to his newspaper. We'ven been travelling for an hour and I'm already bored out of my mind. Draco's had his nose buried in the paper the whole time. I honestly don't know how it takes him so long to read it. I reach over and tap the centre of the newspaper.

"Don't," Draco growls. I do it again.

"DON'T!"

"Then talk to me!" I cry, "I am your WIFE!"

I brandish my wedding and engagement rings at him. He pushes my hand away.

"Fine, I'm going to find someone else to talk to," I grumble. I stomp out, quite aware that in the absence of Hermione and the twins there's noone else to talk to.

"Autumn?"

I turn around and see Ginny's head sticking out of a compartment.

"Hi," I smile. Take that Draco, I can find my own entertainment!

"Do you want to sit with us?" she asks.

"Sure," I follow her into the compartment. They're two others, Neville, from my year and Loony Lovegood from the year below, in Ravenclaw.

"This is Autumn," Ginny says, "this is Neville and Luna."

"I know Neville," I say, smiling at him. He smiles back, looking a bit shy.

"Are you on our side, then?" Luna asks.

"Uh, yes?"

"I heard that you're a spy for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," she says, as if talking about a pleasant kind of tea.

"Uh, no."

"She's on our side," Ginny says firmly. Luna smiles at me. She's a bit odd.

"We were just talking about who the new defense teacher will be," Ginny tells me, "do you have any idea?"

"Uh, from what I've heard, they won't be teaching 'defense' so much as the actual dark arts," I say.

"Do you know who the teacher will be?" Neville presses.

"No, I haven't heard," I say, "we haven't had a proper meetings in a while. The Dark Lord has been... Absent."

"You call him the Dark Lord?" Neville frowns, "only his followers call him that."

"For all intents and purposes, I'm a Death Eater," I say, "besides, I've grown up hearing him called the Dark Lord, just like you grew up calling him You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. And Dark Lord is shorter."

"Have you been marked?"

Blimey, Luna is direct.

"Yes," I reply shortly. Ginny and Neville's eyes widen.

"Fred and George didn't tell me that," Ginny says, "can I see?"

I reach over and pull down the blinds on the doors, then lift up my sleeve. The mark stands out against my skin, writhing on my forearm.

"Gross," Ginny wrinkles her nose, "no offence."

"None taken," I cover the mark.

We talk about stupid things, life before the war, for a little while.