A new year.
The very thought used to send shivers of anticipation down her spine. A blank slate to learn to grow and change. It was possibilities. Though as the school year had approached, instead of anticipation she'd been filled with an increasing sense of dread.
The return of You Know Who had been met with silence. Ironic, considering all that had led up to his return. There were Death Eater sightings being reported daily by the Prophet, but nothing official. Mostly supporters impersonating the real thing. Harry had written her nearly daily, sick with worry.
They wanted it to end.
But no one was ready.
There was an old English poem she'd read over the summer with a single line that had been repeating in her mind as the summer months turned to autumn. Fate is inexorable. Inescapable. She'd never put much stock into such things. Fate. Destiny. Prophecy. If her attempt at studying Divination was any indication, it was that she wasn't built to believe in things that weren't tangible; that couldn't be reasoned by logic. Though now, she was finding that perhaps there was something to be said about Fate.
Harry would fight Voldemort. It didn't matter if it happened today, tomorrow, next week, or in 20 years. It would happen, whether they tried to avoid it or not.
She never did well with avoiding things, so she prepared.
If her parent's noticed her sombering attitude, they did not comment. They fussed over her books, new robes, and took her to dinner when she received the letter declaring her to be Head Girl.
She wasn't as thrilled. Not when she'd finished the letter with the last few words, jumbled but resounding in her mind.
Head Boy
Draco Malfoy
She'd nearly fainted, wanting to run test to verify its authenticity. But it was. The stamp real. The words true. It was impossible to fathom, but, she supposed if Dumbledore was attempting some last ditch effort at inter-house unity in order to save what Slytherins that could be saved from turning to the dark, then Draco Malfoy was the obvious choice. On paper, he fit the description.
Second in the class. Points beneath her.
Quidditch Captain.
Prince of Slytherin.
Son of a Death Eater.
She'd shivered at the last. If Draco Malfoy was convinced to take a stand away from the dark, the rest would follow. He was the perfect piece from a long line of pieces that both Dumbledore and Voldemort were playing with. He had to be moved along the board.
Fate is inexorable.
It made her want to set her Divination book on fire.
