Toxic Crush

~33~

The Hogwarts express pulled out of the station and Clara bit her lip. She hadn't seen Draco yet.

Marcus was by her side, guiding the two of them towards the prefects compartment for the start of term meeting.

When they entered the space, she looked around with anticipation for Draco.

Just a flash of his blonde hair would have been enough, but she couldn't see any evidence of him.

Pansy noticed her looking around and sneered. 'He's gone'. She mouthed at her, grinning menacingly.

For a moment, Clara's heart stopped, but just as quickly as the anguish had come, it left again.

Draco had bustled into the compartment with his usual grimace, uttering a feeble apology to Mcgonagall before taking a seat next to Pansy and crossing his arms.

Mcgonagall gave him a little smile and gestured for Clara and Marcus to sit down before starting her meeting.

It was different to the one Clara had attended last year, and the teachers spoke mainly about the way the school was going to run on a tighter and safer regime.

They never said anything about Voldemort, but it was implied in almost every sentence.

The new Quidditch captains were announced after all of the duties were given out to the fifth and sixth year prefects.

Cho was to be Ravenclaws captain, Harry- Gryffindors, Hannah- Hufflepuffs and Blaise Zabini- Slytherins.

Clara and Marcus grinned sideways at each other at this announcement, knowing that they were almost guaranteed spots on the team this year.

They were exceptional beaters, and had been on the team up until fourth year when the Triwizard Tournament had taken over, and of course in fifth year during OWLs.

This year they were determined to make the most out of quidditch, especially since they didn't have important exams or anything to worry about other than passing their apparition tests.

After the quidditch captains were announced, the meeting broke up, and Clara followed Ron and Hermione to the back of the train.

They reached a compartment containing only Harry and Ginny, who Clara noticed were sitting quite close together.

"Ginny, leave." Ron ordered, pulling open the sliding doors and showing her out of the space with his arms.

"Uh, no." She replied, crossing her arms.

Harry sighed. "I'll talk to you later Ginny."

She was obviously hurt by this, and stood up slowly. "Yeah maybe."

"Thanks Ginny." Hermione said kindly as she shut the door and went to sit with the other Gryffindors.

"Did we have to do that?" Harry asked stonily, watching through the doors to see Ginny sitting next to Dean, clearly about to do some jealous flirting.

"Yeah." Ron said. "We did."

"Why?"

Ron looked sideways at Clara and sat opposite Harry, his hands clasped together in his lap. "Malfoy."

Clara's look of surprise and outrage had been anticipated, and Ron looked apologetically at her before continuing.

"Harry... I think you might be right."

"Right about what?" Clara asked, interrupting the conversation.

Hermione huffed and looked at the boys with narrowed eyes. "Harry is under the impression that Draco Malfoy is a death eater."