We've tried so hard to understand, but we can't.
It takes some time to let you go and it shows.
Cause all we know is falling, it falls.
Remember, cause I know that we won't forget at all.
You never, you never said
This wasn't what you wanted, was it? Was it?
This isn't what you wanted.
[All We Know by Paramore]
After getting ready for bed, Brooke went to Ron's room, where she last left Hermione, Harry and Ron. Once she opened the door, they hushed.
"Oh, hi, Brooke," said Hermione, trying to cover it up. As bright as she was, Hermione was terrible a terrible actress.
"Why don't we just tell her, she won't be mad- she might actually appreciate it," murmured Ron. Hermione threw him a warning glance.
"Tell me what?" she smiled, amused.
Despite Hermione's protest, Ron said, "Harry thinks Draco's a Death Eater."
Expecting a far different take on their Diagon Alley adventure, Brooke erupted with laughter.
"It makes sense," defended Harry. "Why else would he be going down Knockturn Alley? He didn't want Madam Malkin to roll up his sleeve and then, he showed something to Borgin that scared the wits out of him. It must have been the Dark Mark, right?"
"Harry, it could have been anything," said Hermione. "We were just telling him that Voldemort would never let someone as young as Draco be a Death Eater."
"But since when would Voldemort pass up a chance to get another follower?" Harry said.
"I'd have to agree with Hermione," said Brooke, still smiling. "A Death Eater? Don't you think that's a little far fetched?"
Harry gave up arguing it and they decided to call it a night. To Brooke's surprise, Hermione hadn't brought up anything else about Draco once they went back to Fred and George's room.
A few days before the end of break, she found herself alone with Harry. Hermione and Ron had been called down by Mrs. Weasley for their turn to help wash up after dinner.
Brooke lay face up across Ron's bed and sighed out of boredom. Harry was on the end, leaning on the bed posts.
"You haven't said much about Malfoy," he said, breaking the silence.
"You saw what happened," she said. "It's as if the boy charmed his ears to not hear me anymore."
Harry laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised if he did."
Brooke smiled.
"He flat out ignored me," she said, staring at the ceiling. "It wasn't even him not making an effort to say something, but flat out ignoring me, not insulting, not saying hi, not even bothering to look at me."
"Sounds like you want him to insult you," smirked Harry.
"Well, what's better, having him not acknowledge my existence or making a snotty remark I can hate him even more for."
"I wouldn't mind him ignoring me," said Harry.
"Course you would."
"Does this mean you still like him?" he asked, looking sideways at her. "Did I not make it clear the past couple days?"
Harry shrugged and changed the subject to Ginny's dislike of Fleur, which grew more pronounced and more funny each time the two were in the same room.
Sooner than they wanted, the Ministry car that took them to Diagon Alley, yet again waited for them, destined for the train station.
Brooke lugged down her trunk downstairs first, then Caleb. Not at all was she looking forward to term, especially now that she was the only one of the four taking Divination. Ginny had the luxury of having them advise her to take a different elective and had Hermione's fifth year Ancient Runes textbook.
Two Aurors dressed in Muggle suits, like the ones her mother got for her father for non magical parties, were waiting for them at King's Cross Station. They escorted a harassed looking Harry into the barrier. Brooke walked through herself after Hermione and saw the gleaming red train.
They thanked Mr. and Mrs. Weasley again and waved. Ron and Hermione made their way to the prefects' carriage to inspect the corridors.
She and Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express, searching for a compartment, however Brooke was subconsciously intent on leaving the looking for empty compartment up to Harry.
Fully prepared, although not being able to control the heat in her chest or tightening in her jaw, Brooke found herself right outside of Draco's compartment. He sat leisurely, yawning as he took up an entire side. One step further and she realized he was leaning rather comfortably upon Pansy Parkinson's shoulder. The pug face smirked to herself and kissed him on the cheek.
Brooke would not have been surprised if flames were erupting in her abdomen. In one quick move, she could singe the hair off of both of their heads. Suddenly her trunk jerked backwards, stuck in the doorway. She pulled on the handle furiously, half hoping the pack of Slytherins wouldn't hear the rattling from her fight with the luggage. One more sharp tug and it pulled free.
A compartment door slid open. Hesitant to look up, Brooke felt relieved, seeing Anthony Goldstein being pushed out by his cheering friends.
"Brooke!" he exclaimed almost breathlessly.
"Oh, hey Anthony," she smiled. He had gotten a little taller as well and let his dark hair grow out a bit past his ears.
"Are you looking for a carriage? Cause we have room in here if you wanted to sit with us," he threw a thumb behind him.
"I would, but I think Harry's just found one," she glanced at Harry and Neville gesturing at her.
"Oh yeah, of course," Anthony said, waving at the two.
"But I'll see you in classes," she picked up her trunk and Caleb's cage.
"Yeah, I'll talk to you later," he nodded. They stood awkwardly in the aisle for a couple moments, trying to find a way to get past the other. Brooke smiled at him as he closed the door.
"Hey Neville," she smiled, letting him get into the carriage and arrange his luggage first.
"Fancying Anthony Goldstein, now?" grinned Harry.
"I was only saying hi," she rolled her eyes.
"Hello, Brooke," said a dreamy voice. Luna smiled, however Brooke hardly noticed, as a colorful and bizarre set of glasses were perched upon her nose. "Hey, Luna," she smiled back. "How have you been?"
"Quite good. The Quibbler's getting great circulation!"
"That's good," said Brooke, fixing her and Harry's things.
The four of them had been in mid conversation about last year at the Ministry and Neville's new Cherry and unicorn hair wand, when a bunch of girls gathered outside of the carriage, giggling.
"I'm not going to ask him," whispered a cheerful, yet mortified looking girl, "you go!"
"No way," said another.
"I'll do it," said the most petite of them all. Her long black hair looked oddly familiar to Brooke, as did her loud voice. The girl pushed her way through and leaned upon the doorway.
"Hi, Harry," she said, her acrylic nails grasping the edge of the door and sticking her arse out beneath her pleated skirt. Brooke couldn't help snorting in laughter, but the girl hardly noticed, her intent solely upon Harry. She continued, "I'm Romilda, Romilda Vane."
Then, Brooke realized it was the same little girl who tried hexing her in her fourth year after Rita Skeeter's article got published. Only now it seemed she hit a growth spurt in the past two years.
"Erm, hi," said a confused Harry, far from being enticed.
"You can sit with us if you'd like. You don't have to sit with them," she whispered, lamely trying to conceal her pointing. Brooke raised her eyebrows, taking amusement in her failing flirtation.
"They're friends of mine," said Harry coldly. "Oh," she looked surprised, "Oh, okay."
She took a step back and closed the sliding door.
"And that is one lovely polite girl, no?" Brooke smirked.
"We're sorry, Harry," murmured Neville, "It must be hard not sitting with cooler people than us." "You are cool," said Harry. "No matter what anyone says. They weren't there with me at the Ministry. They didn't fight the Death Eaters."
"Why thank you," said Luna, even behind the grand, odd Spectraspecs, gave him a warm smile.
They proceeded into a conversation about their O.W.L.s and Neville, who wished to take Transfiguration, but only received an 'Acceptable.' Brooke felt disappointed, not much to Neville, but thought that maybe she could have tutored him a bit harder or at least referred him to take extra practice with Professor McGonagall.
To Brooke's discontent, neither Luna or Neville were taking Divination either. It left her to wonder exactly how many students were going to be in that class anyway.
Ron and Hermione soon came into the carriage and Brooke was sorely reminded of Draco coming in behind them last year; Ron closed the door behind him.
"Hi Neville. Hi Luna," said Ron, sitting lazily down. "Guess what? Malfoy's not doing prefect duty anymore."
Not sure if she was supposed to respond to this or not, Brooke nodded her head in acknowledgement. Hermione took a small glance at Ron, almost in fear of something.
"Oh and we passed by his carriage- full of Slytherins," Ron continued, not aware of Hermione's expression. "He was snogging Parkinson. They make a disgusting couple."
Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.
"Ow! I said disgusting!"
Ignoring his justification, Hermione set her stare upon Brooke, waiting for her to react, but was received with nothing she expected.
"They are quite perfect for each other, aren't they?" said Brooke lightly, neither smiling or leaving a hint of sarcasm. Not even she knew what she meant by the remark, but let it waver in the air for a moment before Hermione changed the subject by asking Luna about her glasses.
A student with dusty blonde hair knocked on their carriage, carrying what looked like two shiny postcards for Harry and Neville.
"It's an invitation to Slughorn's carriage," said Harry, gazing at the lofty preprinted signature at the bottom.
"Who's Slughorn?" asked Neville, utterly perplexed.
"New teacher," replied Harry, "Seems like we should go, though."
"What does he want me in there for?"
"No idea," said Harry, who then got up, carrying one of his smaller bags and left with Neville. A few moments later, she recognized Anthony's smile and waved back at him, mouthing out the words asking where he was off to. He looked pleasantly confused, so she opened the sliding door.
"I said 'where are you going,'" she asked cheerfully.
"Oh, I got this," he pulled out the same invitation from Slughorn out of his pocket. "I guess it's a meeting or something?"
"You got one too?"
"Yeah, are you going?" he asked hopefully, not wanting to be there alone. She said no, but reassured him that Harry and Neville were on their way over there.
Once he headed in the same direction as Harry and Neville, she closed the door and rested back down.
"Since when did you start talking to Anthony Goldstein," asked Ron.
Brooke shrugged, "Dunno, he was in the D.A. wasn't he?"
"Oh, that's right," said Ron, who leaned his head on the end of the door and closed his eyes.
"He's very smart," said Luna from behind her magazine. "Always studying in the Ravenclaw common room."
"Sounds like Hermione's perfect match," smiled Brooke, more aimed at Ron than Hermione. Right on cue, he opened his eyes.
"Who? Goldstein?" he asked. "No, they're idea of a date would be swapping notes or reading textbook excerpts."
"Why, thank you, Ron," said Hermione tartly, unable to suppress tiny bit of her pulling up on the edges of her mouth. Then, her expression changed and Brooke saw her stare through the corner of her eye. "You're not mad at me are you?"
"Is there a reason to be mad at you?" Brooke looked at her surprised.
"For forcing you to go after Draco at Diagon Alley," she clarified.
"No, of course not," said Brooke, although initially placing blame on Hermione, she reasoned it was not entirely her fault. "We wanted to know what he was up to, so," she trailed off, shrugging.
Hermione nodded, a burden lifted off her shoulders. At this moment, did Brooke notice her fortune to have such a friend caring that much about their level of terms.
Once the train slowed to a creaking stop, a sigh escaped her lips, not thinking the best of the upcoming year. Although complaining to herself, it was unthinkable to simply sit on the train and wait until it was back at King's Cross Station. They figured Harry, who Neville said disappeared after Blaise Zambini, had gone off to follow Malfoy the rest of the night.
Climbing into one of the carriages, Brooke struggled to keep to herself from rolling her eyes, as Pansy Parkinson laughed obnoxiously loud from the carriage in front of them. She had her arm draped over Draco, tilted her chin and cackled. "Oh, Draco, you're so funny!"
It would not have antagonized her so much, if Parkinson hadn't taken a derisive glance at her on the way down to perch her head on his shoulder. Brooke imagined herself taking off in full speed out of the carriage on four paws, then pouncing the sickly girl out of her seat, thrashing her viciously. Along with the mischievous smile upon Brooke's face, came the nagging tug at her insides reminding her of her own promise to practice transforming. Recalling the tight, dull pain in her forearm often came to mind every time she decided to practice. It had been perhaps a month since she turn a full tiger. Although now she remembered trying to change her hands in feet into paws. Successful the first two tries, but the third came the splitting pain of tiger nails and the thinness of human skin.
A sudden stop of the carriage interrupted her running thoughts. They stood at the front of Hogwarts when Hermione brought up an alarming point.
"Where's Harry?" she asked, trying to peer above the students' heads. Ron, who was much taller than either of them, glanced around.
"Don't see him anywhere," he said.
"He would've tried looking for us at the carriages," said Hermione, sounding worried.
"Maybe we've missed him and he's already sitting down inside," said Ron.
"Maybe," said Hermione, still looking around.
The last of the crowd of returning students proceeded their way and the three of them decided he must be in the castle by now. Hermione was not at all pleased in entering the Great Hall only to find the Gryffindor table lacking their friend. Upon debating whether or not they should sneak out, the doors opened with McGonagall leading the first years, half of them excited, while the other half looked terribly frightened.
The three were forced to stay sitting down at the table as the sorting hat was placed on each of the new students. Brooke hardly paid much attention, and neither had Ron or Hermione she noticed. Ron, who kept tapping his fingers on the table either in anxiety or hunger, more probably the latter. Hermione had been glancing constantly at the door as if waiting for the perfect time to grab the two and slip out.
Soon, the piles of chicken legs, bows of chips, mashed potatoes, vegetables and other foods appeared down the table.
"Where could he possibly be?" said Hermione.
"Dunno," said Ron. He looked towards the door, already having his mouth full and a bitten off chicken leg in his hand.
Brooke searched the room. "He can't be in any sort of trouble with a teacher, they're all here, well, except Snape."
"Snape?" said Hermione, alarmed. Brooke normally would have no trouble listening to Hermione thinking out loud, but her ears constantly caught the screeches, she already knew were Pansy Parkinson without turning to look.
Brooke merely caught "wonder," "trouble," and "danger" from Hermione's voice. All the rest she heard were Pansy's undying compliments to what seemed like every slight action of Draco. She loved his humor, she loved the exact same foods as he did, she loved the way his hair was styled out of the way of his eyes.
"Oh, and your eyes!" Pansy exclaimed. "Especially in this light, the gray in them glitter. I don't know a single person who has that exact shade. I'll bet they look even more marvelous in the moonlight by the lake!"
All the effort to restrain strangling Pansy vanished and Brooke couldn't take it anymore.
"We get it Parkinson, you're obsessed with him! Now will you shut up!" she shouted at her. Immediately afterwards, Brooke was thankful the other students were so chatty. Only a couple people surrounding them noticed.
Pansy's expression was neither appalled or pouty, but Brooke would have been happier with those reactions. Instead, Pansy had a more than satisfied look on her face- the kind where she finally received the reaction she wanted. Brooke thought herself a fool for letting Pansy get the better of her, but it was a side thought to the still residing anger pounding in her head.
"Oooooh, I think I've touched a nerve," she smirked. "Can't handle it, huh, Miller?"
"Yes, in fact, my eardrums simply do not have the capacity to withstand the shrieking frequency of your voice," said Brooke, sharply. More than willing to continue arguing with Pansy, Brooke turned around back to her own table. Although Pansy was having a field day with Brooke's reaction, Draco had been stabbing his chicken, trying to get the fork in the precise spot.
Again, her cheeks grew warm underneath her friends' gazes. Brooke went straight back to eating to wave away what just happened, but it was no use.
"What?" she asked innocently. Seamus, Dean, and Neville, who were sitting across from her were staring too.
Ron snorted with laughter, which Brooke was thankful for.
"Hopefully that shut her up," he said, taking another bit of chicken.
The door opened again with Harry quickly heading towards them. Hermione breathed, not with a sigh of relief, but rather a gasp. Brooke saw why. His face was covered in blood.
The clanking of utensils and conversations died down a little until he sat down in between Brooke and Ron.
"What the bloody hell happened to your face?" asked Ron.
"What? What's wrong with my face?" said Harry, grabbing a spoon to examine himself.
"Harry, you're covered in blood!" whispered Hermione, not sure why, since it was no secret to the rest of the students who saw him come in.
"Oh, right," said Harry. "My nose look alright?"
"Your nose?" asked Brooke. It was a random concern of his to be worried about the state of his nose instead of explaining why he was nearly half an hour late.
"I'll explain later," he said lowly.
"But-"
"Later," he said again.
"Hold on," said Hermione, "Tergeo!" She pointed at his face and the blood wiped off. Just as Harry reached over to grab a bread roll, it vanished and the bowl was replaced with a tray of treacle tart, which he pleasantly made for.
Midway into the desserts, Dumbledore stood up and welcomed them back to Hogwarts. What was more alarming than the shriveled black looking appendage attached to Dumbledore's arm, was his announcement of Professor Slughorn taking the position of Potions, while Snape took on Defense Against The Dark Arts. No doubt did the entire Hall erupt in murmurs and whispers, except Harry, who, instead, shouted in horrified surprise.
"Harry, you said that Slughorn was going to be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts!" said Hermione.
Harry still gaped up at the staff table. Snape was unaffected by this reaction with a subtle smug expression to show his satisfaction of finally receiving the position he greatly desired. Gradually, the attention was placed back onto Dumbledore as he finished up his annual speech and soon, they were dismissed.
Hermione ran off to gather the first years, without another word. Brooke stared at Ron, wondering why he wasn't going as well.
"What really happened to your nose?" he asked Harry.
Harry explained his hiding in Draco's compartment, eavesdropping on their conversation. Once the train stopped, and they emptied out, Draco stayed behind, immobilized Harry underneath the Invisibility Cloak and broke his nose. Ron looked grim, while Brooke's mouth opened slightly. Despite her multiple tries to make Draco seem like his old self, she couldn't even picture that version of him doing something so low.
"But, look," said Harry, leaning closer towards them, "Listen to what he was saying before he found out I was there. He said he might not be at Hogwarts next year and that he'd be 'moving onto bigger and better things.'"
"Harry that could mean any-"
"And he even mentioned Voldemort taking over and he won't care about grades, but devotion," continued Harry.
"That does sound suspicious, but don't you think he was only showing off for Parkinson?" said, to Harry's surprise, not Brooke, but Ron.
The next morning, Hermione thought the same, when Harry repeated his story.
"Although," she added, "that does seem like a big lie to tell."
"Exactly," said Harry, enthusiastically. "So he must be up to something."
"Well, I wouldn't say that," said Hermione, to an exasperated Harry. "We shouldn't jump to conclusions."
Defeated again, Harry sighed and they left to the Great Hall for breakfast.
A/N: I decided to post a chapter earlier than I though, so there it was :) Again, thanks so much to you guys who are reading and a special thanks to those reviewing ;) Keep telling me what you think, what you liked, don't like etc.