PESTILENCE THAT WALKETH IN DARKNESS
PART I: SCHISM
CHAPTER IV: SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE

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Chris returned to her original compartment to find that Ron and Harry had started a game of Exploding Snap, and Hermione had her nose stuck in a book.

"Why am I not surprised?" she asked, taking a seat next to Hermione. "Is this seriously all you guys are going to do on the way back to London?"

"Unless you've got a better idea?" Hermione didn't look up from her book.

Chris took a few more bites of her salad before shrugging. "I don't know. I thought that we could maybe do something together before we got to the train station."

"I'm done with this," Harry told Ron, standing up. "I have to use the toilet."

When Harry had left the compartment, Ron snorted with laughter. "Worst defeat he's ever had, I think."

Hermione ignored his comment, but Chris laughed. "I'd better go console him, then. Hermione, you want the rest of my salad?"

"What kind?"

"Caesar."

Hermione crinkled her nose, and Ron took his chance. "I'll eat it."

"It's yours, then," Chris passed it to him before leaving the compartment. "We'll be back in a few - Oops, sorry, Neville!"

Neville groaned as Chris ran into him, pushing the steak and potatoes that he carried into his chest. "No, no, it's all right. I'll just go change and buy myself some more lunch. Really, Chris, it's no bother-"

"Nonsense," she told him, pulling out her wand. "It's nothing a little magic can't fix. Scourgify."

Neville inspected his shirt. Where there should have been a stain, it was clean. "Thanks. Listen, Chris, Harry's looking for you."

Chris frowned at him. "What? He was just here. He knows where I am."

Neville shrugged, moving past her and on his way. "That's what he said."

"Where is he?"

Neville pointed towards the end of the train. "That way. Down by the toilets."

Chris watched after him as he disappeared into a comparment two doors down. She turned back to Ron and Hermione. "Well, I guess I'll go see what he wants, then."

Ron and Hermione did not hear her, for they had succumbed to an argument. As far as Chris could gather, Ron had sniggered when Neville spilled his lunch down his front, and Hermione did not appreciate his discourtesy.

"See you later," Chris spoke more to herself than to them, then headed on her way.

As she moved further down the corridor, the people began to thin out, and when she reached the end, there was only one person standing there.

"You got my message, then," Harry spoke as she approached him.

"I did," she tried to smile, but found that it was not possible at this point in time.

She already knew what was to come, and she didn't want to deal with it.

"So, I got down here, and found that it was empty, not counting Neville," Harry recounted, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms. "He was on his way back down towards his compartment so I told him to send you down. What do you say, Chris?"

She blinked. "Say to what?"

He considered her, not believing that she didn't already know. "Well, we're going to be separated for the entire summer, and the last time that we did anything was over a week ago-"

"If you're suggesting that we have sex in a public toilet, you're absolutely crazy," Chris monotonously replied, crossing her arms as well.

Harry shrugged. "I don't see what the big deal is. We've done it before, back at the castle."

"Yes, maybe," Chris admitted to what he said. "But this is different. This is the train. What if someone came in? There aren't any other toilets on here, and nowhere for us to go where we'd be out of the way."

He shrugged again. "There are stalls."

"And you're going to be listening for someone coming in?" Chris countered, poking him in the chest. "Look, I don't even know why I'm arguing with you. The answer is no."

"Chris-"

"No," she spoke more forcefully. "I may have done some pretty sleazy stuff with you in the past, but I'm not going to sink this low."

Harry stared at her in defiance, but she did not waver her gaze. Finally, he sighed and looked away. "Fine. I'll meet you back in the compartment."

With that, he stormed off past her. Chris exhaled heavily, then shook her head in disbelief. She could do without this for the next two months; his indecisiveness, mood swings, and appetite.

She leaned against the wall, lightly hitting her head against it over and over again as she tried to think. They must be getting close to London by now. Was there even a point in going back to the compartment? If she did, would Harry embarrass her and begin an argument about what had just transpired in front of their friends?

She decided against it. She might as well just stay down at this end of the train, and she already knew who she would spend the rest of the train ride with.

"Hello, again," she greeted Draco as she slipped into his compartment. "I'm sorry to bother you, but is it all right if I stay in here with you?"

Draco studied her, as though attempting to discern whether or not she was actually serious. "Yeah, it's fine by me. Mind you, if Pansy should come ... run."

Chris laughed as she sat down as close as she could to the door. She had found before that if she positioned herself right, she would not be seen by passers-by. "You don't need to tell me that. It's a natural instinct."

Draco chuckled nervously, then looked back out the window. "Yeah."

"She's trying to get you back, is she?"

Draco's gaze returned to her. "How'd you know we were dating?"

"Overheard you telling Flint about the break-up down at the lake yesterday," she told him. "So, dating Pansy for the fiftieth time must have been an experience worth taking note of. Tell me about it."

Draco laughed. She had always made fun of his affinity towards turbulent relationships, most of which had been with Pansy. "It was ... interesting, to say in the least. Different."

"How so, Sir Malfoy?"

Draco was distracted at the mention of one of her oldest nicknames for him. "Ok, now, that is old."

A slow smile spread over Chris. "I thought I'd bring it back. Am I still the only one that calls you that?"

"No one else has ever called me that."

"Good," Chris spoke with a nod. "So, tell me about your relationship with Pansy. Give me all the dirty little details."

Draco laughed in remembrance. She had always pestered him for details, ever since he let slip that he had lost his virginity to Pansy in third year. "There was nothing too bad this time around. She wanted to try and stay celibate. When she let slip that she wanted to wait for marriage, though, that was it for me."

Chris scoffed. "So, you wouldn't stay with her because she wouldn't sleep with you?"

Draco shook his head, leaning forward onto his knees. "No, let me elaborate further. She wanted to wait until we got married before having sex again."

Chris pulled an expression of disgust, causing Draco to laugh. "Ah, well, never again, I say. Never again."

"And so you finally learn."

"Hey, it happens once in a while," Draco leaned back in his seat. "But I'm not always the culprit. What was that between you and Harry in the hallway? That's what you've been reduced to?"

Chris' face fell, and she felt her cheeks begin to burn. "You heard that?"

"Well, you weren't exactly keeping your voice down."

Chris shrugged, occupying herself with a lock of her hair. "Go on, then, say it."

"Say what?"

"You have something burning on the tip of your tongue."

Draco was silent for a moment. "No, I don't. I'm actually kind of proud of you for being able to say no. I wouldn't have."

Chris gave him a peculiar gaze. "You would have said yes if Harry asked you to have sex with him in the-?"

"All right, no, I'll take that back," Draco spoke over her laughter. "That isn't what I meant, and you know it."

Chris took one look at his bewildered expression, and then succumbed to giggles once again. "Sorry, I just got the funniest mental picture-"

"Oh, you'd better get that mental picture out of your head," Draco threatened her, crossing his arms huffily and beginning to pout in his seat.

"Or what?" Chris asked, wiping away a stray tear of laughter. "What'll you do to me? Make my summer a living nightmare? I doubt it, Draco."

"No," he snapped. "I'll - I'll - would you stop laughing?"

Draco grumbled as she carried on, ignoring his request. "I've caught you two at it, you know."

This got Chris' attention, and she immediately stopped laughing. Her jaw dropped, and she stared at him in embarrassment. "No ... you can't be serious!"

He nodded, sinking further in his seat. "In the fourth floor boys room. I was under the impression that it was empty-"

"Draco, I don't think that Harry and I have ever gone to that bathroom-" she stated before her eyes grew wide with realization and she gasped. "Draco, you asshole! You're bullshitting me!"

It was his turn to laugh, but instead of Chris taking up the position that he had previously held as the victim, she joined in with him. "That was a pretty good one, I have to admit."

"Yeah, I really had you going there for a minute," Draco cheerfully replied before rubbing his cheeks and exhaling heavily. "Man, they're getting sore. I haven't laughed this hard since - well, the last time we hung out like this."

"Neither have I," Chris admitted with a smile, noticing that the train was finally coming to a stop. "I've missed you, this year."

Outside the window, Chris could see the interior of King's Cross. They had finally arrived in London. Draco stood first, grabbing his trunk from beneath his seat.

"Where's yours?"

"In the other compartment," she answered as she followed him into the hallway. "All right, you remember the drill. You stay five paces behind me."

"Right," he let her pass him, and continued to follow her towards the train's nearest exit. "For what it's worth, Chris, I missed you, too."

She flashed him a smile over her shoulder to indicate that she'd heard him, then carried on. As they grew nearer to her compartment, she came to a sudden halt. "Oh, no. Hide me."

She dipped into the adjacent compartment, and barely missed being seen by Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they left their compartment, dragging their trunks along. Draco wasn't far behind her.

"You're sure we shouldn't take it for her?" Hermione's anxious voice came.

"She knows where it is," Harry coldly replied.

"How can you say that?" Hermione snapped at him. "She's your girlfriend! What the hell is your problem?"

"Good ol' Hermione," Chris mumbled under her breath to Draco as they listened in. "She'll always stick up for me, and never put up with his nonsense."

"Well, do you have an extra arm?"

Chris chanced a peak around the corner. All three of them had their trunks in one hand, and pets in the other.

"No, I guess not," Hermione finally replied, frowning at him. "But you're taking the fall if she doesn't get her trunk."

"Deal," Harry nodded in agreement, and they carried on.

"Bastard," Chris sneered as she and Draco came out of the compartment they had taken refuge in. "This is what he always does when I don't put out. Gets cranky and annoying, I might add."

Draco waited in the doorway as Chris fetched her trunk from their compartment. "Oh well. Two months of freedom. From him, anyways. Now that I'm done with being angry at Harry, I can concentrate on my parents, and their carelessness with the Ministry."