House Crossed Lovers; A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Detention

Y/n's POV

That night at 6:30, I walked down to Umbridge's office to serve my detention, which I was not looking forward to. The door was already ajar, so I pushed it open and stepped inside. Almost immediately, I cringed. Everything was pink, and there were dozens of plates with moving cats on them placed around the walls of the room. And they all meowed at me as I took a few more hesitant steps forward. My patronus was a cat, and right now, this was ruining it for me.

"Good evening, Ms. Fawley," Umbridge greeted. "Have a seat." I took a seat at the table next to her desk, rolling up the sleeves of my robe as she shut the door behind me. "You're going to be doing some lines for me today." Umbridge then handed me a quill and a piece of parchment, which I set down on the small desk.

"What do you want me to write?" I ask. 

"How about, 'I must not talk back'," Umbridge suggested. I nodded and went to get to work, but noticed I didn't have any ink. 

"Professor, you haven't given me any ink," I notify. 

"Oh, you don't need any dear," Umbridge disclosed. "And make sure you continue writing until the message sinks in." I looked down at the parchment and began to write, but after writing the first line, my left hand began to sting. I winced and looked over at it to see that the words I had written on the paper were being carved into my skin. That's when my mind flashed back to my second year when I was under the Imperious curse. I had been forced to carve the dark mark into my skin. Looking down at my arm, I saw the faint scar that I had gotten that night. It would be a forever reminder of what happened, and detention was only brining that memory back to light. I continued writing the lines, the message continuing to be burnt into my hand, until finally, Umbridge stopped me. "You may go now, Ms. Fawley. Just remember to never talk back to a teacher." 

I exited the office as quickly as possible, and once I was far enough away, I broke down in tears. I slid down the wall in the deserted hallway, my butt touching the cold stone floor, and continued to cry. I don't remember how long I was there for, but the next I thing I know, Draco was towering above me.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Draco questioned. 

"I'm fine," I lie and stand up, brushing the tears off of my face. "I just want to get back to my common room. Excuse me." I then tried to get past Draco, but he reached out and grabbed onto my injured hand, causing me to whimper.

"You're not fine. What happened?" Draco quizzed and held my hand up to get a better look. That's when he saw the words etched deep into my skin, and a trickle of blood dripped down my hand. Obviously, it would take a few days for the cut to scar up and fade, but until then, I was stuck with this hideous message on my hand. "I was just coming to see if you'd finished up detention.......Did Umbridge do this to you?"

"N-no," I stutter. "I was just practicing a spell and it didn't go as planned."

"Y/n, you're the most talented and intelligent student in our year," Draco reminded me. "I've never once seen you mess up a spell. So I'm gonna ask you again. Did Umbridge do this to you?" More tears threatened to spill from my eyes as I nodded, and Draco pulled me in for a hug. He soothingly rubbed his hand up and down my back as I buried my face into the crook of his neck, taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down. "She won't get away with this. You have to tell Dumbledore, or at the least McGonagall." 

"I can't, Draco," I decline. "She's been approved to teach here by the ministry. There's not much I can do. Not even Dumbledore can override the Minister for Magic. I'll be okay. This is just gonna take a few days to heal. I really do have to get back to the common room though. I'll see you later." I gave him a peck on the cheek as I passed, glad that I was finally able to get some alone time in the common room. But that didn't happen either because as soon as I stepped through the portrait, Hermione waved me over to where her and Harry were sitting by the fireplace, and then she too grabbed my left hand. 

"So she did it to you too," Hermione spoke. 

"Guess we can be matching," I joke weakly to Harry. "What's yours say?"

"I must not tell lies," Harry recited. "You?"

"I must not talk back," I tell him.

"I can't believe you two are making a joke about this," Hermione fumed. "It's not funny."

"There's nothing we can do, Hermione. Just let it go," I inform her.

..................................................

Weeks had passed, and winter was almost upon us. That meant winter break would be here as well. I was eating breakfast with Draco today because Hermione, Harry, and Ron were sleeping in, and I thought this would be the perfect time to spend some time with him. Between all of our classes, we barely had time to see each other. Sometimes it sucked that we were in different houses.

"Has your hand healed?" Draco implored as we were eating. 

"Just about," I reply and show him my hand. The words were barely legible, and you could hardly see them now. 

"That's good. I'm glad," Draco confessed. Just then, there was commotion out in the hallway, and Draco and I looked at each other before heading out there to see what was going on. We got outside just in time to see McGonagall and Umbridge having a heated argument.

"Pardon me, professor, but what exactly are you insinuating?" Umbridge asked. 

"I am merely requesting that when it comes to my students, you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices," McGonagall responded. I guess McGonagall had finally found out about Umbridge's form of punishment. 

"So silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom, Minerva," Umbridge put forth. 

"Not at all, Dolores," McGonagall shot back. "Merely your medieval methods." 

"I am sorry, dear, but to question my practices is to question the Ministry, and by extension, the minister himself. I am a tolerant woman, but the one thing I will not stand for is disloyalty. Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared. Cornelius will want to take immediate action" Umbridge declared.