𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑

the one with the diadem

"Anger is better than
grief, better than tears,
better than guilt."

•

"A LONG TIME AGO, you asked me how you could help," I said to Draco as we were back at the Slytherin dorm, in his room. He was next to me, tangled in his bedsheet, surrounded by multiple parchments and a thick transfiguration book. He paused writing and looked at me with his steely grey eyes. "I'm going to tell you something."

"Is it about Cedric Diggory?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. I blinked.

"No, what," I said quickly. "No."

"Why did he come here?" There was something about his voice that was strangely emotional. I felt a wash of brine again. Jealousy? Then again, why'd Theo feel jealous? And jealous about what? I realized I've been staring at him for a while and not said a thing.

"He came to apologize," I said.

"Apologize for what?" Brine. Brine. Brine.

"When we were in the maze," I took a sharp breath, "he was actually the first to reach the Triwizard Cup," I said. Draco watched with fixed concentration, the kind he showed when he was doing a particularly hard Arithmancy chart. "I stunned him away so that I got to the cup first, with Harry."

"So? That's how the game works," he said, confused. Of course. To a Slytherin, winning matters most, no matter the ways used to achieve it. If I was in the Tournament for the game and nothing more, I'd have wanted to win too.

"Yeah. But he was mad because the cup was rightfully his," I said.

"So, he was bitter?" Draco laughed. It was a beautiful sound. I was still not used to being his girlfriend.

"Yeah. But, he came to apologize because," I sucked in a breath, "because he thought I was lying about Voldemort's return. He was mad at me because he thought I was using that knowledge to gain sympathy."

Draco sat up straight. He apparently found this interesting. "So why does he believe you now?"

"He joined the Ministry, he's exposed to inside information. He joined the dots and realized that Voldemort is indeed back,and what I did actually saved his life."

"What?" he asked, looking confused.

I sucked in a deep breath.

"It is time, Draco," I said, turning towards him, closing the book and putting it aside with the parchments and quills. "I'm going to tell you everything."

He bit his lips and turned to me. There was a faint smell of roses now. I'd have to interpret that later.

"Skylar," he said, cupping my face. A simple gesture, yet it made me melt. "I don't want you to tell me anything under compulsion. Tell me, only if you feel like it."

"I do, Draco," I leaned into his touch, placing my hands on his. "You have to know now."

"My mother's actually Harry's father's twin, you knew that right? But-for whatever reason-she turned to the Dark side and became a Death Eater. As such, she was able to manipulate her powers to the full extent. Apparently there was a big taboo on strecromancy before. It's not there now, I don't know why. It should exist, shouldn't it? Because the last person to use it, was my mother, and she wasn't very nice when it came to using it.

When the war came, my mother and Harry's father were on different sides. My parents because Death Eaters at a very young age. After my father invented the spell at seventeen, my mother was the first to be marked. Before that, Death Eaters existed, but none were marked. Spell-making is a very hard work apparently and my father had the genes for it. He made the spell-Morsmordre-and Voldemort marked my mother at seventeen. And that marked the ultimate estrangement between James and Meredith Potter.