Transfixed: A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction

Chapter 71

After the night of our fight, Draco and I didn't speak to each other. We did our patrols of the castle separately, and ate at opposite ends of the table in the Great Hall. I had gone to the Carrows the next morning to ask them if they would train Draco and I separately. They didn't ask why, and I didn't give them any details, but they agreed.

I decided that I didn't have any time to be heartbroken over what had happened, so I threw myself into my training harder than I had ever done before. I would wake up before the sun came up every day to train alone in the dark forest.

Each morning, I would walk down to the forest with my crown, and I would fire spells into the woods at lightening speed. I decided that if I were going to be worthy of Isolda's powers, I had to prove that I was tough enough, and disciplined enough. No more complaining, no more tiredness. I was going to work from sun up till sun down.

And that was what I did. I still fulfilled my duties as a Junior Inquisitor, and I still had to discipline students all the time, but my mind was on other things. Like reaching my full potential and unlocking the ancient gift that had been waiting generations to be awakened once again.

I was so consumed by my training that I hadn't even thought about the safe house. After the conversation with my sister, they never tried to do anything to Draco or I again. They knew the two of us were fighting, as we would check in on them separately, but for a while, they seemed to be more quiet. I wasn't suspicious of that at the time, but I should have been.

A couple weeks after my fight with Draco, I had just finished a particularly difficult evening training session with the Carrows. Per my request, they were now working with me twice a day, because I decided once wasn't enough. But despite my dedication, it was tiring, and most nights I would be asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

As I trudged through the corridors on my evening patrol, I was particularly exhausted. I was focusing on just putting one foot in front of the other, when I passed by the empty hallway where Draco cornered me on the first night of our sixth year.

Hermione had just broken the news to me that something was wrong with my father at the ministry, and I had broken down at the mere thought of anything happening to him. Draco followed me out of the Great Hall that night, and mocked me, but I now knew that he had really followed me because he was worried. He just didn't know how to be caring back then. He only knew how to tease.

Yet as that year went on, I had discovered the whole other side to him that was now so familiar to me. His kindness, his humor, his courage. As I sat down in the same spot where we had quarreled that night over a year ago, I began to feel terribly and deeply sad.

But I still had duties, and I needed to carry them out. I picked myself up and headed to the isolation wing to make sure everything was secure before turning in for the night. I made my way up the staircase to the third floor, then let myself into the isolation wing.

I was hit with a jinx before I even stepped through the door.

I stumbled backwards and clumsily reached for my wand.

"What the?..." I mumbled to myself, trying to snap out of the haze I was in.

Then, another curse was fired at me, but I managed to deflect it. As I stared through the doorway, I saw the entirety of Dumbledore's Army, waiting for me, wands outstretched.

"This is the end of the road, Cliffton," Ginny said. "Surrender now, and drop your wand."

I surveyed the lot of them, preparing myself to fight. I was tired, but it was clear I had no choice but to unleash.

"You really don't want to do this," I growled, my voice low.

"Oh, I think we do," said Neville.