Henrietta Potter || Draco Malfoy

46 - Back To Hogwarts

I buried Dobby like the Muggle he wasn't; dripping into his grave my own blood, sweat and tears whilst everyone else kept an appropriately safe distance away from me.

My grumpiness had turned from bitterness to full on psychopath. I was not having a good year.

And I was also getting a bit fed up with all the fucking death.

But hey ho, the show must go on, and so Ron, Hermione and I joined cahoots with Griphook, a disgusting little goblin who I could not trust as far as I could throw him (which was actually quite far because he was tiny and therefore easy to pick up). But we had little choice.

We needed to get into Bellatrix's vault. For reasons I can't be bothered to explain, I was pretty sure there was a Horcrux hidden inside it.

And there was!

After watching a bunch of goblins get toasted alive, we hopped on a dragon's back and flew ourselves to freedom.

But then I had a shit weird vision about Voldemort having a full-on tantrum over our little adventure as he slaughtered a room full of goblins. I was beginning to get the sinking feeling that I was not going to be getting the Gringotts' Customer of the Year Award anytime soon.

"He knows," I said gravely to Ron and Hermione as we watched the dragon fly away across the lake it had unceremoniously dumped us in. "He knows we know."

"But does he know that we know that he knows?" Hermione asked.

"Huh?" Ron asked stupidly.

I excitedly jumped to my feet, getting a brainwave. "He's going to check where the other Horcruxes are! And the last one..." I said, pausing dramatically as I looked between Ron and Hermione, "...is at Hogwarts. I knew it. I knew it."

I knew fucking everything.

***

So, without further ado, we ended up back in Hogwarts on our quest to locate what I assumed was going to be the last Horcrux (ha!).

Oh yes, and on my way there, I bumped into Dumbledore's brother and found out that he had killed his sister or some shit.

I got the hero's welcome I most definitely deserved when I arrived and, after a bit of clever brainstorming, I got the rest of the students to work out that what I was looking for was a lost diadem.

But before I could start my search, bloody Snape interrupted the entire school by calling everyone to the Great Hall.

I listened in as he was giving it all this shit about defending the castle against me and that everyone could be rest assured that I would not step a single toe inside.

Well ha bloody ha Snape.

"It would seem that, despite all your exhaustive defensive strategies, you have a bit of a security problem, Headmaster." I said, parting the crowds like I was Jesus, swaggering in, giving it my all, while the rest of my minions followed in behind me.

"And I'm afraid it's rather extensive."

Fuck, I'm awesome.

***

After chatting to a couple of ghosts, I remembered where I had seen a diadem before: the place where I had hid my Potions book after nearly killing Draco.

So off Hermione, Ron and I went to the Room of Requirement. I had to wait for Ron and Hermione to have a "moment" before we stepped inside though. Ugh.

"OI!" I shouted as they sucked each other's faces. "There's a war going on here!"

And, as though we needed a reminder, the whole castle shook as the enchantments Professor McGonagall had put into place to protect us from Voldemort's army threatened to break.

I need the place where everything is hidden, I begged of it inside my head, and the door materialised on my third run past.

We split up the second we entered, as we each looked frantically amongst the towering piles of junk.

Skidding round a corner, I came across a large looming cabinet and stopped short. Through deep shaking breaths, I swallowed. This was what Draco had been trying to fix all the previous year.

I reached out trembling fingertips, hesitantly touching the cabinets hard, shiny exterior, and I briefly thought about everything he had gone through. I wondered how much I really knew Draco Malfoy and my heart suddenly felt heavy with sadness as I recalled how broken and frightened he had looked the last time I had seen him.

But yet, it had turned out that he had given me his wand. A gesture that meant that he had left himself wandless. Wandless in the middle of a war.

Before I could analyse this thought any further, something caught my eye. And it was then that I spotted an ancient, discoloured tiara. The diadem.

Fuck yes. All I had to do next was destroy this mother fucker, rip off a snake's head and then blast Voldemort's arse into the next galaxy. It was all too easy.

I was just in the process of reaching out my hand towards it; the prize only inches from my fingertips, when shit happened.

"Hold it, Potter."

I froze. A voice so cold, so dangerous, and low, and yet... no- it could not be.

My heart thudding noisily against my ribs, I slowly turned around.

Crabbe and Goyle were standing shoulder to shoulder, wands pointing right at me. And through the small space between their jeering faces was another figure.

A boy with a pale pinched face and angry grey eyes.

It was Draco.

***