Riddle Me This

Chapter 39

Catherine's POV

As the weeks went on, I saw less and less of Draco during break. He seemed to distance himself from everyone, and it worried me. In the Great Hall during meals, if Draco even went, he would put on the act of boyfriend, arm around my waist, returning kisses on the cheek. But he'd fallen back into calling me Cat, and would never initiate anything besides having his hand around my waist or holding my hand and rubbing it with his thumb. He was also a little more snappish, and it was beginning to get to the others.

"Cat, if something going on between you and Draco?" Pansy asked at breakfast one morning. I just poked at my eggs and shrugged.

"I don't know." I said. "As I told you the first night, he'd been acting weird for a bit." I bit my lip. "I'm wondering if his feelings had changed. Or if..." My voice hitched as tears formed in my eyes. "What if Lucius told him to accept my feelings? That since I'm the Dark Lord's Daughter, dating me would look good for their family or something. But since Lucius went to Azkaban, he doesn't feel that he needs to keep up the act?"

"No way!" Blaise said as he pointed to me with his fork. "He was freaking out all of last summer about you kissing him and confessing. He literally said, and I quote 'Catherine kissed me and said she loved me, what do I do Blaise, I don't know what to do, help me, you know how to deal with girls, you've been shagging since we were in third year, what the ever living fuck do I do. Have you ever noticed she has this little dimple in her right cheek when she smiles? It's really cute and Merlin's Beard her eyes remind me of truffles. Wait, what am I writing, Blaise help me'."

"Yeah. He asked me what to do and how to react. I told him to grow some balls and tell you how it is. It seems he decided kissing you was the best way to do that." Pansy added with a shrug. "So I highly doubt Lucius would have anything to do with it."

"But what if he did?" I said, shaking a little with how upset I was getting. "What if Draco was confused, and Lucius was all 'You should definitely court Lady Catherine because' insert Death Eater shite here." Pansy and Blaise looked at each other for a moment. It was a 'she could be right' look. I pushed my plate away. "I'm not hungry any more." And I left the room. I tried to talk to Draco, but he kept having to go somewhere to do something, or would snap at me since we were in class and I should be paying attention to my studies instead of whatever I thought was wrong, because 'Nothing's fucking wrong Cat.'

And I couldn't go to Hermione, because we had sworn to wait until Harry had defeated my father before we were normal friends again. And I could only turn to the Slytherin ones for so long before I'd break down into tears because they seriously couldn't help me.

And the hexes, or the curses. I had a stinging hex thrown directly at the center of my back and absolutely screamed in pain like Voldemort had appeared in front of me and was just about to cast the killing curse on me. I could have sworn I felt blood running down my back, but it was only sweat because of the pain, and I saw the edges of my vision turn black and everything blur before a cooling sensation was on my back. It was Draco, and he looked almost livid as he turned and sent a stinging hex just as strong directly to the other students groin. Snape was the teacher to witness everything and the other student and his friends received detentions as Draco got a slap on the wrist and I had my back examined.

But I still didn't see much of Draco. And he wasn't always there to protect me, nor were the others. I had to stand alone, and because of the mix of not having my friends to help defend me, Draco never being around, severing my friendship with Hermione and in turn Harry, the jynxes, hexes, curses, and burn from my scar, I had the absolute worse nightmares. My roommates had a fit until Slughorn started to give me dreamless sleep before bed, as well as the salve Snape had already had Daphne and Pansy applying.

I also cried most days, sitting in my room during breaks with Sevy fluttering about restlessly as I sobbed, not knowing how to make it better. She tried everything she could, giving me her fruit, wrapping me in her wings, doing aerial tricks that always used to make me smile. But nothing worked. She even tried going to find Draco. The only reason she came back was because a student in the hall recognized her as mine and hexed her. The only reason she was alive was because Draco caught her and brought her to me. It was then I sent her to Kreacher, who was more than happy to care for her, and had quiet lividly said that the people who did this should be in Azkaban because nothing bad should ever happen to me.

Pansy dragged me out of the dorm for the Slytherin/Gryffindor game. And it felt good to cheer on the house team again. Draco wasn't seeker this year, but Blaise was on the team as a chaser, so I cheered for him. And even though we lost, I still smiled and told him he'd kick their arses in the next game.

"It's good to see you out of your room." Blaise said as he sat next to me on the couch. "Been missing your pretty face." He took my chin between his forefinger and thumb and smirked. "Scratch that. Snoggable face." I pushed his hand away with a small smile and blush.

"He has a point you know." Pansy said as she sat on my other side. "You are absolutely gorgeous, and if everyone wasn't a bigot, they'd be been chasing your heels, trying to get you to look at them. You're hair is perfect, and I still haven't found out your secret to keeping it shiney, yet still completely soft, your complexion is to die for, you have a natural model walk, you have a nice figure-"

"Nice?" Blaise cut in. "Have you seen her tits? Look at them. Solid D's. Not to mention her arse." Blaise gave me an appraising look. "You have a marvelous arse. Not to mention those hips." Blaise whistled low. "I would love to lay my hands on those hips. They are delicious to look at." I giggled.

"Oh, you've been checking me out, eh?"

"Cat, I've been checking you out since second year. I knew you'd have a nice body, but damn, I didn't know it'd be like this. If I did, I would've hooked up with you third year." Blaise said as he draped his arm behind me on the back of the sofa.

"Hey Blaise, your lust has taken on a liquid form and is rolling down your chin, should probably wipe that up." Pansy teased. I tilted my head back and laughed as Blaise went to do so, but realised it was nothing.

"Bitch." He said as he glared at Pansy.

"Slytherin." Pansy and I corrected, causing us both to fall into a fit of giggles. Draco came in and I turned to him with a smile.

"Would you like to join us Draco? It's been awhile since we've just sat down and talked." I said.

"I'm going to finish my homework and go to bed. Maybe next time Cat." And he was gone up the stairs. I frowned and turned to the floor.

"I think I'm gonna-"

"No." Pansy said, interrupting me and grabbing my arm to keep me in place. "I just got you out of that fucking room, so you're going to socialize until the prefect comes and tells us to go the fuck to our rooms." I sighed and just leaned back into the couch. "Blaise, you're in the Slug Club, right?" Pansy asked, causing us to start talking about Slughorn's special potions club.