Belong (D.M)

Part fortyfour

October turned into November, and nothing was the same. The castle felt cold and dark, and there was no life dancing along the hallways. The students walked quickly from class to class, barely talking. Frightened eyes wandered around the corridors and few hands were raised in class. Quidditch had turned into nothing but a distant memory, and Slytherin was in the lead for the house cup with hundreds of points. The professors barely spoke, except from the Carrow siblings who's malicious laugh echoed through the stone walls. Professor Snape was barely seen leaving his office, and no one played outside as the snow began to fall.

On a snowy Tuesday afternoon she was cornered in the hallway on the fourth floor by Pansy Parkinson and her Slytherin girl gang. They seemed to love the new regime at the school, and they strutted around like they were worth all the gold in the world.

"Professor Carrow thinks you're a friend of Draco's" Pansy spat mockingly, crossing her hands over her chest "how pathetic, he would never befriend someone like you"

"I'm not his friend" she said quietly.

"Of course you're not, he's a Slytherin king and you're a muggleborn Gryffindor" Pansy laughed, turning to look at her friends. They all joined in on the laughter, making a point of sounding as amused as possible.

"What is your point Pansy?" she asked, rolling her eyes at the dark haired girl.

"My point is..." the Slytherin girl spoke through gritted teeth, taking a step closer to her "you shouldn't even be here at this school, you probably stole your magic you filthy mudblood"

She looked at Pansy's dark eyes, the girl looked both angry and confident. She was about to speak when a familiar voice interrupted her.

"Back of Pansy" 

She Slytherin girl turned around quickly, her hands flying to her sides. She looked up and her eyes landed on the tall blonde boy she knew so well, Draco Malfoy.

"What's up with you Draco?" Pansy asked, eyeing the Slytherin boy "first you won't perform the cruciatus curse and now you're defending mudbloods? They shouldn't be here!"

"It's not your responsibility to drive them out" the blonde boy spat, eyeing Pansy governing "leave that up to the dark lord"

"Fine" Pansy said, rolling her eyes "not going soft are you Draco?"

"Never" he said sternly, his jaw clenched "come on lets go back to the dungeons, I heard Theo was looking for you"

"Excellent" Pansy said, glaring at her one more time before she grabbed Draco's arm and began walking away with him "we wouldn't want to hang around bad blood for too long"

She watched as they walked away, the almighty Slytherins in their glory. Draco turned his head quickly towards her to mouth "sorry, I had too"

And she mouthed back "it's alright, I know"

They turned a corner, their black and deep green robes disappearing out of her sight, and she turned on her heal to continue her walk back up to the Gryffindor tower. It was much warmer there anyways.

She sat down by a round wooden table in her common room, working on her Alchemy assignment. The subject had never been her favourite, for she found it very complex and difficult to understand, however she endured it for she figured that it would come in handy in her future healing career. And the science of the four elements and such was actually rather interesting.

"Hey Ellie" Neville mumbled as he sat down next to her "how are you?"

"I'm alright thanks, what about you?" she asked, looking up from her book.

"I'm quite alright I suppose" the boy spoke, opening his herbology book "have you been out in the snow?"

"No" she said, shaking her head "have you?"

"Uhm no" Neville said sadly "I want to but I don't want to get in trouble"

"Yeah me neither Neville"

Suddenly Ginny plopped down on a wooden chair opposite of them, her eyes showcasing something slug and bewildered.

"What are you two to up to?"

"Homework" she answered.

"Yeah homework" Neville said, nodding his head quickly.

"Okay put it away" Ginny said "we are sneaking out"

"We can't" Neville said "we'll get punished"

"Only if they find out" Ginny said eagerly, putting her hands on the wooden table "and they won't"

"You don't know that, the Carrows have eyes on the whole school" Neville said nervously.

"Oh Neville please" Ginny whined, glaring at him "I can't possibly spend another evening just sitting here, it's getting so terribly boring"

She looked between the nervous boy and the red haired girl. Ginny was definitely like her two older twin brothers, craving some sort of silly ruckus and a good laugh. 

"I agree with you Ginny, it is awfully boring being stuck here" she said, looking at the Weasley girl "however, I hardly believe we will get away with sneaking out, Neville has a point about the Carrows, and I don't want to get detention, I've had it enough to last me a lifetime already"

"Come on Ellie, it will give you a chance to go see your lover boy" Ginny teased.

"Lover boy?" Neville asked confused.

"Malfoy" Ginny said, sticking her tongue out in disgust "she clearly has a thing for him"

"No I don't" she quickly argued.

"Oh please" Ginny said, rolling her eyes "everybody can see how you look at him"

Neville coughed, looking at her with wide eyes.

"I don't look at him in any particular way Ginny" she argued, crossing her arms over her chest "he's a Slytherin, I would never"

"And he's a death eater, he's one of the bad guys" Neville croaked in.

Ginny let out a amused laugh as she tucked her red hair behind her ears.

"Alright alright Ellie sorry, but he definitely has a thing for you though, you can see it in the way he looks at you, he looks all longing and doting, it's quite unpleasant"

"Oh he does not" she laughed, looking down to hide her blushing cheeks "you know him, he would never do that Ginny, stop it"

But Ginny didn't know him, not like she knew him. And Ginny was quite right to assume that he had a so called thing for her, however that was supposed to be their secret.

"I think you should stay away from him Ellie" Ginny said, suddenly turning more serious "Neville's got a point, he's in you know who's inner circle, he can't be trusted"

"He can be dangerous" Neville agreed, nodding his head.

"Besides, he's a arrogant bully, awfully rude and seemingly ruthless too" Ginny added.

"Don't worry you guys, I have nothing in common with him" she assured them, trying her best to lie. 

"Alright" Ginny said, gazing at the fireplace "so no sneaking out?"

"No sneaking out"

....

Cold November evenings turned into frosty December mornings. The white snow coated the school grounds, and ice glazed the tall windows of the castle. In every common room fires were burning in the fireplaces and all the student wore their scarfs in the cold stone hallways.

It was soon time to go back home for Christmas, and she longed for the comfort of her warm and familiar two story house outside of London. Never before had she wanted to go home as much as now. Hogwarts still looked the same, but nothing felt the same. There was no warmth, no joy and no excitement.