Your Grief is My Grief [DM] sequel to Beauty and the Beast

Chapter Seven

Draco's POV:

It was odd not sleeping beside Lizzie back at Hogwarts. I had gotten so used to having her next to me that I didn't sleep well the first few days, not that I had been sleeping well in the first place.

I found myself falling back into my Hogwarts routine pretty easily, however. When I woke up in the morning, I would quickly get ready for classes then head down to the common room to wait for Liz, trying to avoid everyone. Sometimes she would beat me down there on the nights she didn't sleep at all. If it was early enough, we would go to the Great Hall and pretend to eat breakfast before parting ways for our separate classes.

After classes, Liz and I would sit in either the common room or the library and do our homework in near silence, occasionally asking each other quiet questions about our days and such. But one day a few weeks after the start of term, Lizzie broke the silence.

"Draco?" she whispered, looking up from her most recent Potions essay. I pulled my attention away from my own Transfiguration essay and looked at her with a questioning look. Her hair was tucked carefully back behind her ears and came flowing down her shoulders. Her eyebrows were furrowed as if she had been thinking about something that worried her. "Do you reckon we should... you know... start?" I narrowed my eyes and cocked my head to let her know I wasn't following. "On the... erm... the Vanishing Cabinet?" she whispered, looking around to see if anyone was listening in on our conversation.

"Oh..." I replied, running a hand through my hair in exasperation. I had almost managed to forget about the task. Almost. It still haunted my every moment like a weight tied around my neck, but it had become such a normal thing that I had learned to live with it. "Y-yeah, I reckon we should. Uh... I can start researching spells now. I've almost finished my essay, anyway."

"I'll help you," she offered. I nodded and packed up my Transfiguration work with slow hands, wanting to put as much time between the work and now as I could. Standing up, I walked around the bookshelf behind Liz and searched for a book that might help.

My eyes almost instantly landed upon a book simply titled Repairing Charms and thought it quite convenient for our needs. The cover was a royal purple with elegant gold lettering twisting across the front like vines. I gripped it carefully in my hands like it might disintegrate in my hands as I walked back to Liz.

"I found a book of repairing charms," I mumbled, flipping the book open as I sat beside the girl, who had a blank piece of parchment in front of her with a quill in her hand, ink dripping onto the table.

"Don't you also think we should g-go into the Room of Requirement to see what we're working with?" she muttered as she brushed her hair over her left shoulder.

"Well, yes..." I replied with a sigh. "I suppose we could go in tonight. You think?"

"Yeah." She began to chew on her lip uncertainly and I felt for her. It was one thing to know what we were to do, but it was a whole different feeling to actually start on the task. It was like the seed of evil had been planted, but now it was beginning to sprout.

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Show us the room where everything is hidden.

Show us the room where everything is hidden.

Show us the room where everything is hidden.

Lizzie and I had agreed that this was probably where the Vanishing Cabinet was hidden, seeing as the Room of Requirement was also known as the Room Where Everything is Hidden. We also had no idea what else to do.

The intricate lines began to race across the wall, quickly revealing to us the large door. I turned my head to see how Liz was holding up. I know she's a strong girl, but even I was shaking right then. She brought her right hand up to her face and slowly tucked her hair behind her ear, trailing her fingers along the beginning of her jawline, and I could see her hands trembling slightly. Her face was wiped carefully blank as she stared at the door in front of us.