Marked ⁂ Draco Malfoy ⁂

Year 6: Don't Hate Me

"Aurora!" I heard as Draco and I entered my dorm.

I was instantly tackled with a pair of arms around my neck. Instantly I knew it was Zara and I squeezed her back. I felt a sigh of relief knowing she was okay. She of course wasn't in any danger that I knew of, but having to abandon the castle after an attack just left me unsettled. I could see Blaise sat at her desk as he went up to Draco and they exchanged a quick hug.

I pulled back from Zara and she looked scared. I could only imagine how bad and scary it all was not knowing what was going on. She held my arms and we just look at each other for a moment before her focused turned away from me. She reached behind me and slammed the door shut so no one would see or hear what's going on.

"What in gods name is going on?" She asked frantically. I looked to Draco not knowing where to start.

"Listen, I didn't want to leave without telling you but I couldn't!" I said trying to cover for myself. It was the truth but that didn't make it any easier.

"No I know all about that, you two are getting married?" She shouted and I felt my face instantly turn red. I looked to Draco who also looked uncomfortable.

"I may have mentioned it." He said clearly referring to when he told Blaise what had happened since we left.

"You both are only 17!" She said clearly not thrilled.

"It's not our choice Zara, he's making us." I said defensively. I could see she wasn't really upset, but more shocked than anything.

"This is insane, he nearly kills your parents, makes you kill Dumbledoor, and then forces you into an arranged marriage. I mean seriously what does this guy have against you! Not to mention everything with Ced-"

"That's enough." Draco said raising his voice. I jumped at the sudden yelling, but it surely got her to shut up. I know she didn't mean it, but I didn't really want to have to think anymore about everything he's done to ruin and control my life. It hurt me more than I'd ever let anyone know. "All of you sit, there's something we need to talk about."

I looked to Draco and he looked angry. Clearly he needed to tell us something, but I was curious what it was. I looked to Blaise who looked confused as well and I went over to my bed to sit. Zara sat on her bed and Draco was sat on my window seat looking out at everyone.

"There's a little more that I haven't told all of you." He said sounding very tense. "I shouldn't even know about this, but my father gave me a small bit of a stone a few years back. I didn't know what it was, but he said to hide it from anyone else. Last summer he pulled me aside and finally told me what it was and told me to keep it as safe as possible until the time was right."

"What was it?" Zara asked.

"A piece of the Marvolo Gaunts ring. It's hard to describe, but in short Voldemort broke his soul into 7 pieces and embedded them into different things. This sort of keeps his soul alive so long as those pieces are left intact." Draco explained. "In a sort of way if he could keep each Horcrux hidden he would be immortal. His souls would be forever kept alive in some manner."

"So he can't be killed?" Blaise asked.

"He could, but it isn't an easy task. Dumbledoor thought he had destroyed the ring a long time ago, but Snape was able to get a small piece of it so it was never really fully destroyed. It's only about the size of a small pebble, but it is enough to keep him alive if all the others were destroyed." Draco said.

"Wait." I said connecting the dots.

"Don't, just listen." He said cutting me off knowing what I was about to do. "No one knows it exists except for Snape, my father, and now us."