The Malfoy Diaries (A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

t h i r t y - t h r e e 💛

The next day, all of the students were called into the Great Hall in the early hours of the morning. 

Aria caught sight of Malfoy from across the hall for a couple of moments but looked a way a little nervously when she noticed that she was staring directly at her. 

"If I'm being honest," McGonagall began to say, once all of the students that were currently present at Hogwarts filled the hall. "Times are getting worse. The situation is getting worse. We have unfortunately lost one of our own in the past few days and I refuse to allow that to happen to anyone else. As such, the school will henceforth be officially closed for the second time in Hogwarts history." 

Of course, Aria remembered, the last time that the school had been closed was when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. 

"It is always in my best intentions to keep integrity in everything that I do and it simply would not be right to allow the castle to be open any longer, when I know it poses a threat to us all. The only people that I'm allowing to stay here are Potter, Granger, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley. Fred and George Weasley, Lovegood, Cho Chang..." she continued on then, saying people's names and surnames until her eyes settled on the final two, "Malfoy and Honey." 

Malfoy met Aria Honey's gaze from across the room and he tried to keep his expression as unreadable as he possibly could. He was sure that the half-blood witch probably would have mastered mind-reading by now if she could. 

"It would not be fair for me to keep anything from any of you, according to my sources, Voldemort isn't close to the castle but his death eaters are. We have to be careful and we must keep it within our best interests to stay within these castle grounds. That includes you especially, Potter," McGonagall said, as the shine of her glasses became directed in Harry's direction. 

Harry sat back in his seat and sighed. He supposed that he should have expected as much. 

Snape soon entered the hall, which prompted some of the students to inhale in their surprise. 

"For those of you who don't know- Snape will return to his position at Hogwarts for now. It seems that there was a...significant misunderstanding in Snape's true intentions," McGonagall said, as she glanced towards Snape with apologetic eyes. "He was on our side, all this time. However, he acted as a spy for our side and as such...he had to kill Dumbledore," she explained. 

"Yeah. To protect me," Draco whispered then, loud enough for Hermione and Aria to glance in his direction with serious expressions. 

Hermione was sympathetic to Draco on this matter alone. He had never wanted to kill Dumbledore. 

Aria knew that Malfoy's life had been planned out for him from the very moment of his birth. Death eater. She knew very well that for him to be anything else would go directly against what his family wanted from him. Sometimes she could understand why Draco Malfoy was the way that he was. She could understand why he thought the way that he did and it was all down to what he had been taught from a young age. It didn't excuse much of what he had done but it did explain a lot of it and Aria believed that was why she could never truly hate him. 

"It would be irrational for any of you to so much as think about leaving these grounds under our present circumstances. Do I make myself clear?" he asked. 

"What a load of bollocks-" Malfoy said, until Snape put a silencing charm on him. 

"Do I make myself clear, Malfoy?" Snape asked, which prompted Malfoy to nod even though he appeared as though he wanted to do anything but agree with Snape. 

"Good," Snape said, with a satisfied smirk, before he took the silencing charm off Malfoy. 

Malfoy released a breath and then angrily abandoned the hall, not turning back for a single moment. 

Aria swallowed a little anxiously and Hermione caught on to what her friend was thinking. 

"Aria, no..." she trailed off. 

"I can't just let him be by himself right now," Aria said, taking everyone including Severus Snape by surprise. With those words spoken, she made her way out of the hall and after the blond Slytherin. 

None of the students stopped her from doing so. Times were chaotic enough to even bat an eyelash at the fact that Aria, who was known to have thoroughly disliked Malfoy and everything that he did at one point, was now going after him. 

Aria wasn't sure where all her determination to get through to Draco Malfoy even came from, but she knew for a fact that she couldn't give up on him. 

"I'm leaving this castle," Draco said decisively. 

Aria wasn't sure whether he was saying this to himself or to her, but she spoke anyway. 

"You can't leave this castle, Malfoy," she said. 

"And why's that, Honey? I can do as I please. If I want to, I can leave this place and go and join the death eaters and-" he cut off then, as Aria interjected the conversation. 

"And what exactly is stopping you, Malfoy?" she asked. 

Malfoy sighed, as his eyes went slightly darker. 

Aria had hardly imagined that such a thing was possible but the evidence was in front of her. 

"I'm already a disappointment to my father and probably my mother, now, too. I don't know. I just...I don't want to disappoint-" he cut off and scoffed, as he placed his hands into the pockets of his robes and he glanced down towards the floor with slight anxiety in his gaze. 

"Malfoy," Aria said so softly it prompted Malfoy to return his gaze to her. 

"You," he said. "For one reason or another, I can't leave this castle and prove that you were right about me. I already know that you hate me, now. I don't want you to hate me any more  than you already do."