PRINCESS ➳ harry potter , draco malfoy (OLD VERSION)

109 || The Lost Diadem

A/N: Hey everyone! This book is slowly starting to come to an end, which is crazy to me because I've been writing it since November 2018. The Battle of Hogwarts kicks off in this chapter. I'm hoping to get 115 chapters so it doesn't end on a random and ugly number. Anyways, I have a sequel in the works that I'll hopefully be able to start very soon after this book finishes...

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Neville climbed through the doorway of the passage that led from the Room of Requirement to the Hog's Head. No one quite knew why — Ariana's portrait didn't exactly speak, she just gestured for Neville to follow her, and so he did.

Katie was sat with her legs hanging over the side of the green hammock in which she slept, and Draco was sitting on his sleeping bag beside her hammock. As the hammock was relatively low down, if he lifted his hand she could just about reach his rings to fondle with them.

"What do you reckon Aberforth wants?" Katie asked.

Draco shrugged. "No idea."

They didn't need to wait long to find out. Merely ten minutes later, the doorway opened and Neville emerged, beaming out at them all.

"Look who it is!" he called. "Didn't I tell you?"

Katie heard the gleeful shouting before she saw the people that Neville had brought back.

"HARRY!"

"It's Potter, it's Potter!"

"Ron!"

"Hermione!"

People flocked towards the trio, hugging them, pounding them on the back, shaking their hands, ruffling their hair, and jabbering excitedly. Katie and Draco looked at each other and she almost fell off her hammock with surprise. Draco appeared to be just as excited as everyone else.

"Never thought I'd see the day where you'd be pleased to see Harry Potter." she smirked and, hopping down off her hammock, she grabbed Draco by the hand and pulled him towards the crowd.

"OK, OK, calm down!" Neville shouted, and as the crowd backed away, Katie and Draco found themselves standing in a gap where they were clearly visible.

When Harry saw her, his eyes widened, and then they narrowed. Katie felt her blood go cold.

"Malfoy Manor not cosy enough for you?" he bit.

Katie frowned. This was what she had been dreading — that Harry, Ron and Hermione would think she had joined the Death Eaters.

She took one step forward. "Harry, listen to me—"

"If you're just going to come out with more lies, then I don't want to hear it." Harry spat. Katerina had never seen him this bitter. It was honestly a little frightening.

"I — what?" she stammered, genuinely nonplussed.

Harry appeared to be resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Saw a vision of Draco getting tortured, did you?" Harry said. There was an unnecessary amount of venom to his voice. "Had to go and save him? Then you decided you'd stay in the luxury of Malfoy Manor?"

"Harry, it wasn't like that—"

"'I'm never leaving your side. Not again'." he mocked Katerina's voice, and for some reason that hurt her more than any insult ever could.

"I didn't want to go—" she was practically pleading with him to let her talk. She was aware of the raw desperation in her voice and how pathetic it must sound, but she didn't much care. Her worst fear had come true — Harry thought she had betrayed him and she had to let him no that this was not the case.