Smile - Book One of the RP Saga

Bloody Long Way ( 24 )

With that bizarre thought, Rachel walked off to Dumbledore's office, the thought of sherbet lemons in her mind. It made her feel hungry and her stomach rumbled. As she rounded the corner she almost walked into Draco.

"Oops, sorry." Rachel laughed.

"What are you doing here, shouldn't you be in the Hall?" He smiled curiously.

In his hands, Rachel could see a green apple. She let out a whine. "Oh, Draco, give me the apple." She said, reaching for it.

Draco lifted his arm and raised it above his head. "Why can't you just go to hall with me and get your own food?" He asked looking rather confused, still holding the apple above his head.

"Because I'm going to Dumbledore's office, apparently he needs to speak to me. So I haven't had the chance to eat yet and I'm starving!" Rachel cried, lunging for the fruit in his hand but missing and only grasping air.

Draco rolled his eyes and reluctantly passed her the apple, she took a huge bite out of it greedily. Besides Rachel, Draco laughed at her - which was a nice change from the dodgy scorns she got from his friends.

"Thank you!" Rachel smiled.

"It's okay, you owe me an apple now." Draco shrugged.

"Well, I better get going, I'll see you in potions." Rachel said, Draco nodded.

In the distance, Rachel could hear the muffled talking of students and professors, it was usually quite quiet here seeing as nobody had any business up here. Unless of course you're in trouble, which made Rachel wonder if that had happened to her. She had no idea.

Maybe it was about Sirius. She panicked a little bit. Rachel had done what Sirius asked - which was to burn the letter once she had read it. But even if she had left a letter, it was signed by 'Padfoot'. She thought that meant it would have been safe.

Rachel arrived outside the office, a large eagle was poised in the middle of the stairs with it's wings open. The stairs would not move unless Rachel said the password. But she didn't know what it was. She thought back to the night Harry and herself were told they were twins, but she was in such a state she couldn't remember the password. She then remembered what McGonagall had said to her.

"Sherbet lemon." Rachel pronounced and as expected the stairs began to rise, Rachel quickly hopped on them and walked up to Dumbledore.

What separated his actual office from the stairs was a small little corridor, at the end was a large oak door with symbols carved into it. Nervously, Rachel stood in front of the door, her hand clenched ready to knock. But before Rachel could, the door flung open and Snape stood there glowering down at her. To which Rachel raised an eyebrow back.

Rachel stepped to the side so he could pass, he walked by muttering under his breath.

"Ah, Miss Potter!" Dumbledore called. Rachel turned around to look at him. He was sat behind a large desk, that had various papers and objects scattered all over it. "Please, take a seat."

Rachel nodded and went and sat in one of the large chairs that was opposite him.

"I am probably right to assume you are wondering why you are here?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well... yes, sir." Rachel answered, he nodded and adjusted glasses upon his face.

Dumbledore was an incredibly wise man, that would explain the numerous amount of books and various contraptions around the room. Rachel took a moment to fully appreciate how beautiful his office was.

"Rachel, is it true a couple of weeks back you and Mr Malfoy were in the Forbidden Forest together?" He asked, but it seemed as though he knew the answer.

Rachel's heart quickened in her chest. She couldn't lie to Dumbledore. "Yes." She simply answered.

"Can you tell me why you were there?" Dumbledore pushed, but again he seemed to know the answer.

"We were being chased by Sirius Black." Rachel stuck to simple answers, to avoid having to lie.

"Sirius Black? Tell me, why were you running?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Draco and I thought we would die so we just ran, we didn't actually mean to end up in the Forbidden Forest!" Rachel quickly stated.

"Rachel, I know what has been happening these last few weeks." He said, which took the breath out of her lungs.

"Am I in trouble?.." Rachel said in little more than a whisper.

"No, you aren't, but are you aware of what has happened? Why Sirius was sent to Azkaban prison?" Dumbledore wondered, leaning forward in his chair. Rachel nodded. "Well, I think that is all then."

Rachel looked up confused. "Really? I'm not in trouble or anything?"

"Of course, you have done nothing wrong. You made a promise to somebody and you're keeping it, you know the past and the present. Why would you be in trouble?" He asked rhetorically.

Rachel stood up to leave, as she stood by the door she paused. "Nobody can know, it's a secret."

"Of course." Dumbledore smiled.

Happy with that, Rachel left, shouting a thank you as she walked down the stairs. Breakfast was over now and Rachel had potions with Snape, knowing Draco was in her lesson, she skipped off happily. At least today she wouldn't mess up too badly. It took her a while to get to the dungeons, even whilst Rachel was running. But from the very top of the castle to the very bottom is a long way.

Rachel flung herself threw the potions door, getting glances off the Slytherins and smiles from Gryffindors. Snape instantly stopped writing on the board and glared at her as she was making my way to my seat.

"10 points from Gryffindor for lateness." He simply said.

"Sir! You know I was with Dumbledore! That's not fair!" Rachel shouted out, getting frustrated.

"Another 5 points for rudeness."

"Ugh!" Rachel groaned sliding into her seat next to Draco. He was trying to hide a laugh, it was so obvious. "Something funny Draco?" Rachel whispered under her breath.

"Yeah, you." He smirked.

"I know, I am so funny." Rachel sarcastically said.

"So what did Dumbledore want?"

"He knew we were in the forest and he just wanted to know like why we were there and what happened." Rachel said.

"Oh, are we in trouble?" He asked. Rachel shook her head.

"What are we actually doing?" Rachel wondered aloud trying to look at the board, luckily for them, they were at the very back so they could talk easier. Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat towards the front away from us.

"An essay." Draco simply stated.

Rachel looked at him with a look of disgust. "And to think I ran from Dumbledores office to here for an essay." Rachel grunted, Draco chuckled.

The lesson dragged on as they wrote an essay on how to make the confusing concoction, Rachel could remember actually doing well whilst making this but she couldn't remember everything. So she kept asking Draco and he eventually just showed her his paper. They both managed to finish their essays in time and handed them in to Snape, even if Rachel had just copied Draco. Seamus looked round at her and raised both eyebrows in shock. Rachel simply smirked back at him, laughing silently at his confused face.

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