Good 'N Bad

Chapter : 18 Back to School

'Gosh, that spell was hard. Did you see the legs that my cup sprouted, they couldn't even reach the table, let alone be able to walk', I remarked to Hermione. We had transfiguration and we were walking towards the Great Hall for lunch.

'Its easy if you concentrate. Anyway guess what, Ron's birthday is coming soon, I don't know what to do. We haven't been talking lately.'

'Lavender Brown again?' I asked with a slight grin, 'You must know Hermione, that girl has trapped him. I've seen him when he's with her, you know, when they're not snogging, he would very well like to get rid of her. But you know boys, they don't know how to handle girls'.

'Let's not talk about it now', she whispered as we sat ourselves at the table. I glanced over to the Slytherin table, and caught a familiar face staring at me intently. He looked tired, exhausted even, I felt sorry for him. I wished there was something I could do to put him out of his misery.

'Hey Ava', said Harry, 'How was your holidays?'

'Oh, uneventful. But I'm pretty sure your's wasn't.'

'Oh yeah, nothing much happened, except the Minister of Magic came to see him', bursted out Ron, but quietly, so no one else heard it except those sitting beside him, 'He had come to make Harry their mascot. But he denied, didn't you Harry?'

'Yeah, I don't want anything to do with the Ministry if I can help it.'

          We headed for Potions after lunch, I was dreading to meet Malfoy. We didn't end the holidays on a good note, something had changed between us. I headed over and sat next to him.

'Hey Malfoy', I said turning to him. He just grunted in response, his face held a worried look. Concerned, I clutched his hand in mine, 'Everything's going to be alright Draco', I whispered.

'Easy for you to say, I don't see you assigned a life or death task', he sneered. Before I could reply, Professor Slughorn started to address the class, so I let go of his hand, but I felt it flinch when I did so.

'Okay class, instructions are given on the board, you will find the necessary ingredients in the cupboards, read each instruction carefully. Get started then.'

          Draco and I did not argue much this time, it was probably because he was tired, or maybe he was worried about the task ahead of him. I hoped against hope that he would not do anything stupid like last time.

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----------|Draco's POV|----------

         I couldn't talk to her, I wanted to, but I couldn't. I didn't want to put her in danger. Snape reminded me what I was supposed to do, during the holidays, not that I needed any help in remembering. But he told me some other things too. He didn't want me to drag Ava into any of my business. As an uncle, he was concerned about her, I understood that. He also said that if I was with Ava, it would distract me from my main goal, which was to fix the vanishing cabinet.

          I had been working on it since the start of the year, and I could make only small improvements. I had to make sure it was safe for the assigned death eaters to travel through it. The cabinet which was connected to this one was at Borgin and Burkes. They would enter from there and come out inside the school.

          I was working night and day on it, not getting enough sleep, and it was starting to show, I had bags underneath my eyes, and I had turned paler, anyone looking at me would think I was a walking corpse. Ava was sitting next to me, I wanted her to hold me close, but I couldn't allow those feelings to dominate me. If the Dark Lord found out..... no, I didn't want to think about that. I didn't want to risk losing her. I'd never forgive myself if I did.