The Mudblood

Chapter 118 : Year 6

The fanart of Lainey was made by https://www.quotev.com/magicisgreat :)

November dragged on, bringing harsh winds and snowstorms that made Hogwarts even gloomier than before. I wasn't depressed or even unhappy, though; everything seemed to be going as well as it could, given the horrible situation our world was in. Students continued to be punished by the Carrows, sometimes brutally, but the Cruciatus Curse hadn't been used in quite some time, and I was beginning to hope that maybe the Carrows would grow tired of their constant antics and become more docile. But...hope was becoming a foreign concept these days.

There was very little news on Harry Potter, nothing substantial, anyway. The Prophet sometimes had articles about sightings of "the most dangerous wizard in Europe", as they often liked to call him, but I knew it was just a ruse to keep this evil version of Harry in the common people's minds. Sometimes I hoped I would have a dream or a vision about my brother, some kind of inkling as to where he was and what he was doing, but nothing from the present or future came to me; my Clairvoyant brain seemed to be stuck in the past, only giving me visions that pertained to the lives of my parents, real and adoptive.

Personally, however, I was fully enveloped in the present. The prank cupboard didn't draw me in with its memories as it once had, and, though it had been a struggle, I'd managed to ignore the magical blackboard in my closet throughout the entire month of November. My romance with Fred Weasley was in the past now, and while I didn't really have a choice in my future romance, I wanted to feel like I did, which was why I wasn't going to go into my relationship with Draco Malfoy fighting and miserable. I wanted the foundation for this marriage, however forced, to be as promising and optimistic as I hoped that my life could be.

And, if I was going to be thrown into an arranged marriage with someone, perhaps Draco Malfoy wasn't the worst candidate.

While Malfoy and I weren't sneaking around and snogging like everyone thought we'd been doing for years now, our conversation in Zonko's had changed something fundamental about our relationship. He'd become slower to anger, I'd noticed, even though he was still easily peeved. I'd been more cautious with my emotions as well, pushing aside my moodiness for his sake—and, frankly, for my own. Happy wasn't the right word, since there was nothing even remotely jovial about this school, but I felt...at peace, with myself and with Malfoy, which was new and slightly exhilarating.

Our teasing and banter never amounted to anything, and even during the rare occasions that we found ourselves alone, he never attempted to make a move on me. Maybe he was waiting for me to make the first move, but...I'd decided that after what went down in Zonko's it might have been best for us to take this slow. Whatever this was.

I continued to See auras, not just on Malfoy but on everyone. They were generally very faint, none as strong or radiant as Malfoy's, but I noticed them frequently, and I wasn't really sure what to do with this newfound ability.

A week after Hogsmeade, I mentioned it to Melody, who, without explanation, dragged me to the library and dropped a large stack of books in my face. We'd spent every evening since then in the library, reading silently in armchairs. Her books were always about vampires, and mine were always about Clairvoyance, and though she showed no real interest when I found out a new fact about my powers, at least I wasn't utterly alone.

On the last evening of November, Melody didn't want to go to dinner, so I left the library alone and ran into Ginny when weaving through one of the more secluded second floor corridors. Upon hearing my footsteps she paused what she was doing and slowly turned to face me where I'd positioned myself beside her, admiring the mural she'd been painting on the wall with her wand.