Of Horn And Halo | Draco Malfoy

Chapter 7 | 1996

Anthony and Maeve shared a look of both excitement and nervousness. The two were shaking from the cold after running all the way from the greenhouses during the lightning storm that had descended with no warning.

"I can't believe it's finally time," Anthony's eyes were wide and gleaming. He handed Maeve one of the two bottles of blood-red potion and they uncorked them in unison. The sound echoed in the dusty long-abandoned classroom.

"I can't believe you found all this in the library," Maeve said with a disgruntled shake of her head, "uh — cheers, I suppose."

"Cheers."

Maeve placed her wand-tip to her heart, "Amato Animo Animato Animagus."

Anthony repeated her actions a moment after her, they shared one final nervous look, and drank the potions.

Maeve watched Luna Lovegood dance with a lack of any inhibition as the students and odd teacher mingled at Slughorn's Christmas party. She looked somewhat like a sparkling, silver Christmas ornament herself.

Accepting a glass of giggle water from Blaise, she tilted her head to the side as she watched Luna drift away from dancing to engaging an uncomfortable-looking boy in a one-sided conversation. Blaise snorted, "Loony looks ridiculous."

She did look a tad ridiculous, but something about her babbling away to the uncomfortable Gryffindor boy brought a smirk to Maeve's lips, "she's interesting, to say the least."

"Loony," he repeated, and took a bite of some little desert on a plate he'd brought.

Maeve bit at the silver ring on her middle finger that attached at a point to the emerald green sleeve of the simple dress she'd donned for Blaise's ridiculous party. She watched Harry Potter duck behind the golden drapes that hung against the wall and took stock of the other slim figure she assumed to be Granger.

"I wonder if Potter is snogging Granger behind those hangings," she elbowed Blaise and sent him a conspiratorial grin, "or do you think she's waiting out for Weasel?"

Blaise pretended to gag, "the thought of any of those three procreating is truly sickening, Selwyn. You have a dark, dark mind."

The uncomfortable Gryffindor boy Luna had cornered broke free and seemed to be looking around. Dejected, he came to stand a few meters away from the two Slytherins. He tapped the shoulder of a vaguely familiar boy who was carrying a tray of giggle water and asked, "Longbottom? Have you seen Granger?"

Maeve blinked hard. She hadn't thought about Longbottom in quite a while. He'd gotten quite tall.

Longbottom shook his head and twisted away from his fellow Gryffindor.

"Mate," Blaise called to the lost Gryffindor, who perked up and met Blaise's gaze, "I think your girlfriend is over there."

He grinned at Blaise, "cheers mate," and disappeared in the direction Blaise had motioned to with his glass.

"What are you doing?" Maeve asked suspiciously.

"Stirring the pot," Blaise said with a grin and playfully nudged Maeve in the ribs with his elbow.

The two watched Granger escape the golden drapes just as her pursuer arrived. It was like watching a game of cat and mouse.

"I couldn't ask you to a party without entertainment, could I?" Blaise said with a smug smile.

"Watching him pose with students is entertainment enough," Maeve noted as they watched The Slug himself smile painfully with an arm around the She Weasel.

"That reminds me. I should go pose for my portrait. Won't be a minute."

With that, Blaise disappeared in the crowd and Maeve blew out a bored sigh. Everyone around her looked at least somewhat happy to be there. Well, excluding Snape when she'd caught sight of him briefly. In her eyes, it was all pomp with an unknown motive. It set Maeve's teeth on edge.

Slughorn's habit of collecting people could be as simple as self-indulgent ego-boosting, but it was difficult to not search for a sinister motive. The one truth her parents had always made her remember was that, no matter how innocent something seemed, there was always a deeper reason behind it.

One just had to be cunning enough to spot it.

There was a commotion at the door, but it took Maeve a moment to tear her eyes away from the golden curtains where she'd been absently staring. Filch was holding none other than Draco Malfoy by the back of his jacket as he made a ruckus.

Malfoy managed to look both angry and offended at the same time. His eyebrows were drawn together and his mouth turned down. There were dark smudges beneath his eyes, too, that Maeve had noticed more and more. She was beginning to think Malfoy wasn't disappearing for late-night rendez-vous, but something more sinister.

There were so many voices she couldn't quite hear what was being said, but it was pretty clear that Filch had caught the young wizard skulking through the halls and, like a prized trophy had, brought him to Slughorn.

When Snape swept into view and practically dragged Draco from the room, it wasn't much of a surprise. The head of Slytherin house had always held a particular shining to the boy with the white-blonde hair. Maeve supposed he had connections to the long line of Slytherins one way or another.

The Boy Who Lived trying to sneak through a crowd to follow Snape and Malfoy was a surprise, and quite comical. He was Harry Potter. Who stood out more in a crowd than Harry bloody Potter?

Well, aside from Lovegood with her glittering monstrosity of a dress.

Potter and Malfoy had been caught in a game of back and forth for years, but Maeve couldn't help but wonder if Saint Potter had noticed Malfoy being stranger than normal as well.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Maeve mused softly to herself.

"Alice In Wonderland," a dreamy voice said from beside her.

Maeve jumped and turned to see Lovegood's smiling face, "indeed it is."

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