by your side. [ d. malfoy ]

➵ | forty- three, change of plans

— thana was back at school sooner than expected. just after thana had gone to bed and was about to open fred's letter a second one arrived. 'open this when you get it.' the envelope said so thana immediately opened it.

dear thana,
harry has had some strange dream and my father ended up extremely injured. i need you. we're all at hogwarts but will be going to visit him soon. please come to hogwarts, we'll wait for you.
love, fred.

thana immediately packed all her bags, running to theo's room. "hey something happened and i have to go, i promise i'll explain it all when i come back. if i come back. anyways if i dont come back i'll see you at school, thank you so much. this christmas was amazing bye!" and then she just left. leaving the sleepy and confused boy in his room.

so there she was, running around hogwarts as she tried to find the weasleys. when she finally found them she immediately ran over to fred, hugging him tightly. "what happened?" she asked quietly but the boy shook his head, "harry's dream and now our father and," thana could hear he was fighting the tears and she held him even closer. in the meanwhile dumbledore had given the paintings some orders. one of them already reported back, "they've got him albus. it was close but they think he'll make it. whats more, the dark lord failed to acquire it."

all eyes were on thana. "i had no idea! i'm so so sorry guys. trust me, i hate him just as much as you do." fred rubbed her back, "don't worry love, we know." if thana didn't know better she'd think harry didn't like to see her have all the attention but sadly she knew better. the way he moved his head before screaming, the way he was clearly upset and sweaty and out of breath. "look at me!" he kept on panting and when he got dumbledores attention his voice changed, he didn't sound mad anymore and he wasn't screaming; he was upset and confused. "what's happening to me."

"you wished to see me, headmaster?" thana's eyes shot towards snape , who didn't expect her there but still nodded at her, fixing his hair. this was a sign they made up to let each other know it was going to be okay. after thana's last confrontation with her father he seemed to take the responsibility of taking care of the girl on him. "wait where are you going?" the brunette asked when harry took snape away, "the dark lord seems to be in harry's head, which could lead to him being able to read his mind." snape said  calmly. "he talked to me. when i was younger i had a voice in my head, the voice would tell me to punch a bully or ignore an old lady who needed help. the voice became more and more loud every year here at hogwarts and last year, when i knew he was my father, the voice tried to somehow have real conversations with me. i started to talk back by focusing really hard but after he killed ced i did everything i could to keep the voice out. snape helped me control it." after hearing the story dumbledore had a sudden idea, "thana follow me."

"you want me to try to get in touch with him again, convince him i want to join his side and be like some secret spy?" dumbledore nodded, curiously waiting for thana's answer. she thought about it, he would probably trust her more than the others and the others trusted her enough to let her do this. she could join the inquisitorial squad to keep them from finding the DA and most importantly she could make sure dumbledore and harry knew voldemort's next move so they could prepare. the only downside was that she was scared to get sucked back into the way she acted in her first two years. she was scared he'd find out and kill them all. but she agreed by slowly nodding, "okay. i'll do it."

•••

"daddy's back." everyone started clapping and molly proudly pushed arthurs wheelchair into the room. thana smiled and sat down. she felt a little guilty for thinking this but this christmas was already better than the other one. "now presents!" thana smiled and grabbed her own bag with presents. when she went shopping with theodore she had bought presents for the weasleys too, knowing theo wouldn't make a mean comment she took the time to find them the perfect gifts.

"and thana, i can see you liked yours considering you're still wearing it." thana nodded and smiled at her, "thank you so much. i love it." she looked around the table and her smile grew even bigger. "okay, my turn." she handed everyone their presents, the special edition of a muggle book hermione had told her was one of her favourites, a gift box filled with muggle objects for arthur, lots of yarn in different colors for molly, a magic camera for harry ( so he could take pictures of things and people he loved, she gave him this knowing how much he cared about the good moments in his life. ), magical and muggle food for ron, some extra magical fireworks for george, a golden bracelet for ginny and lastly a clothespin of a rose for fred. after opening his gift he looked at her, "thank you."

it wasn't a big gift but he knew what she tried to say with it, at least thats what he thought. when he put the pin on his sweater it started spraying water. everyone started laughing at the now covered in water fred. "if you press on it, it'll do that. but if you hold it for over three seconds mine," she held up her own pin, "will light up. you can even say something in it and i'll hear it." arthur's face lit up, "like that muggle thing! a walkie walkie?" he asked and harry, hermione and thana bursted out in laughter. "a walkie talkie." harry politely corrected him, making the other weasleys laugh too. "thank you thana. i love it."

•••

"thana!" the brunette turned around and almost immediately got hugged by theo. she let go of freds hand and hugged her friend back, "sorry for disappearing." theo shook his head, "that's alright, i understand." thana nodded and let out a sigh of relief, this wonderful moment ended when a certain blonde decided it was his turn to greet thana. "hello thana, missed you at breakfast. and the days after that."

she felt fred wrap his arms around her again and she lazily leaned against him, reassuring him it was fine. "i get it weasel, she's your girlfriend you're the couple of the year. i'm not here to steal your girl, just being friendly." draco rolled his eyes and thana sighed, looking at her watch. "three minutes draco, you managed to keep your promise for three whole minutes." draco apologised and thana sighed, "yeah let's just go. i have to find umbridge." she kissed fred's cheek as a goodbye but he pulled her back in, kissing her passionately right in front of draco.

as thana followed draco to hagrids hut, where umbridge was, neither of them said a thing. "why are you even looking for umbridge?" draco eventually asked. thana was prepared for this, she was a good liar so this shouldn't be hard. "i want to join the inquisitorial squad. that way i'll get to spend more time with you, to recover our friendship you know?" thana nodded and when she saw the smile on draco's face she felt the guilty feeling grow stronger.

•••

now that she was an official member of the squad all she had to do was try to get in touch with her father. thanks to snape's help she could open and close her mind for him. but if her mind was opened he could see through her eyes and feel whatever she was feeling. so she went to the bathrooms and stared at herself in the mirror as she finally let herself think back about the tournamenr, she felt the tears fall down. she pushed all her thoughts away and prepared what she was going to say. then she opened her mind.

silence.

"father?" she asked hesitatingly, feeling the sad feeling grow as she waited for him to reply. "father please! i need your advice."

"yes, daughter? what is it?" thana let out a shaky breath and looked herself in the eyes. she blinked a few times when she saw his face in the reflection of her own eyes. not letting this distract her she continued, "he broke up with me. after i befriended draco again he got jealous and made me choose. he made me choose between him and draco. i choose draco because what else was i supposed to do? he's been my best friend for so long and deep down i knew that i would be safer with draco. but now they don't trust me anymore, they started blaming me for everything you've done a-and they're thinking about expelling me."  she couldn't control her breathing anymore and to her surprise voldemort tried to comfort her. "it's okay, i wish i didn't have to say this but if you would've just chosen me in the first place, after i told you about your real family you should've joined me. but, people make mistakes. i'll ask you one more time: are you ready to join me and get your revenge?"

"i am."