"Emily Poole, you are exceptionally ordinary" ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
"What a strange way to tell me you love me, but I'll take it," ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
In which Emily falls in love w...
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AS SHE WALKED DOWN to the Great Hall, Emily couldn't help but smile, replaying the kiss in her head over and over. She was caught up in her daydream she almost missed the sobbing sound coming from the boy's bathroom as she walked past the sixth floor. She stopped abruptly and walked softly towards the bathroom door, which was open barely an inch.
"Don't," crooned Moaning Myrtle's voice from one inside the bathroom. "Don't...tell me what's wrong...I can help you..."
"No one can help me," said another voice, and Emily realized to her shock it was Draco Malfoy. She opened the door further, quietly, and peered inside.
Draco was standing with his back to the door, his hands clutching either side of the sink, his white-blond head bowed. His whole body was shaking. "I can't do it...I can't...It won't work...and unless I do it soon...he says he'll kill me..."
He let out a strangled sob and Emily realized Malfoy was crying — actually crying — tears streaming down his pale face into the grimy basin. She pushed the door open further, now standing in the entrance.
"Draco?" she asked softly.
Malfoy gasped and gulped and then, with a great shudder, looked up into flu-cracked mirror and saw Emily staring at him over his shoulder.
She stepped towards him as he turned to face her, his pale face streaked with tears.
"I can't do it," he whispered, his eyes wild and unfocused, "I can't..."
"It's alright," Emily assured, trying her best to calm him as she stepped closer to him, "Draco, look at me,"
Her hand reached out to touch him, but his eyes focused on something behind her.
He drew his wand so quickly Emily barely had time to look around when a flash of light exploded from the wand. Draco's hex missed her by inches, and Emily could feel the air whoosh next to her ear as it passed by her. There was a shattering sound, and Emily could just about see Harry's trainers disappear behind a cubicle.
She turned back to Draco, but his hand flew outwards and slammed into her chest, sending her flying several feet to the side. She landed with a painful thump against the wall of her left, hear head throbbing as it smacked against the marble wall with a crunch.
"Don't touch her!" came a yell, but Emily was seeing stars, and more bright flashes blinded her as curses flew across the bathroom. In the background, Moaning Myrtle was screaming.
"No! No! Stop it!" she cried, but was promptly drowned out when one of Harry's curses backfired off the wall behind Malfoy's ear and smashed the cistern beneath her.
Water poured everywhere and Emily watched as Harry slipped and fell on the floor and Malfoy, his face contorted, pointed his wand at him, "Cruci —"
"Draco, NO!" Emily screamed as she tried to scramble to her feet, and her voice seemed to startle him momentarily, long enough for Harry to wave his wand wildly and bellow "SECTUMSEMPRA!".
Blood spurted from Malfoy's face and chest as though he had been slashed with an invisible sword. He staggered backward and collapsed onto the waterlogged floor with a great splash, his wand falling from his limp right hand. Emily ignored the ringing in her eyes and crawled to the middle of the bathroom on her hands and knees, where Draco lay, face was now shining scarlet, his white hands scrabbling at his blood-soaked chest.
"Oh god," Emily choked, her hands pressing down on what appeared the largest gash, on his chest. There was a big splash as Harry threw himself beside Draco, facing her.
"Emily...No — I didn't —"
But Emily wasn't listening to him. Her hands had reached inside her back pocket for her wand, and her fingers were so slippery with blood she almost dropped it.
She looked momentarily at Harry, whose eyes were wide and horrified as he stared at Draco lying in a pool of his own blood and at Emily, whose hands seemed to be drowning in it, trousers stained red and wet with the water running over the bathroom floor. Emily's mind flooded with memories of last year, when she had laid on the cold floor at the department of mysteries, blood pouring out of her as she gasped and choked on it, the taste in the back of her throat–
She blocked it from her mind, gritting her teeth and gripping her wand until her knuckles whitened.
"Get someone!" she bellowed at Harry, but he looked rooted in place, breathing ragged, "For God's sake, HARRY!"
Her scream seemed to shake him out of his horror, and he scrambled to his feet.
Emily looked down at Draco, hands shaking violently as she met his eyes, full of horror and pain and begging for help. She knew the spell. She had seen the healers do it hundreds of times on her this summer when her wounds had reopened
You know the spell.
It was hard to focus with all the sounds around her, the rushing of the water from the broken toilet, Moaning Myrtle's deafening screams of "MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!"
She had no idea whether it would work, but she had to try, she had to stop his bleeding. Nothing seemed to be happening, and she repeated the incantation, saying it louder, her voice more determined.
She watched as blood stopped spurting out of Malfoy and instead looked to be returning to his body. There were hurried, splashing footsteps in the bathroom but Emily didn't dare look, didn't dare break concentration as she watched Draco's wounds begin the knit, wiping his face with the sleeve of her jumper in an attempt to wipe the blood from his eyes.
"Poole," said a cold voice, but she didn't look up, she couldn't.
Somebody kneeled next to her, a voice joined hers, repeating the words, a wand appearing alongside hers, tracing Draco's wounds. He stopped convulsing, his breath coming easier, his eyes opening, filled with tears. Emily wanted to reassure him, to help him, but the words seemed to catch in her throat and her eyes were wide, images flashing in her mind, bringing her back to the Department of Mysteries time and time again. The figure standing next to her helped Draco sit up, hoisting him to his feet. It was Snape, eyes cold but worried. Emily stood up, wrapping Draco's other arm around her shoulder as together they supported him.
"Professor, he needs d-dittany and–"
"I know," Snape said smoothly, his cold, furious eyes turning to Harry, "And you, Potter...You wait here for me."
Harry stood still as a statue, eyes still wide with horror as they stepped past him, Emily not casting another look in his direction before they disappeared through the doorway.
