Chapter Ten
A/N: Thank you to sammiSTRICK for reviewing the previous chapter.
Just over a fortnight had passed since the incident on the stairway and, other than a severe warning from Madam Pince about the battering that the books had received from the stonework, nothing truly eventful had happened.
However, Merida had still not fully recovered from the shock of her friendship with the serpent having been rekindled, as she had most certainly not expected it, though she had found that, when it had occurred, she had been wishing for a great deal of time for Draco to ask for their bond of friendship to be returned, as she knew that she would never do so herself, for the sake of her pride if nothing else.
Over the time since they had returned to hanging around together, the pair had learnt things about each other that they had never asked about before, as they had never seen reason to. The redhead had learnt that, despite the talk he always gave about his father, the blonde's favoured parent was his mother, by a country mile, as he said that she was by far the kindest woman he had ever met. Meanwhile, he had learnt that the redhead had always been told stories by her cousin, and had enacted them with extreme enthusiasm as a very young girl, with the use of a small wooden bow and arrows charmed to fly to their trajectory, though her mother had not told her of the charm and had let her think that she was merely an expert at the sport.
The game had lasted a long while, and she was well aware that it was not quite as personal a story as his had been, but she could not really tell him one that was any more familiar, not without revealing the secret she had worked so hard to keep from all of the students around her, excepting Ginny and Luna, who she trusted enough to know. Despite their close friendship, she was not certain that she trusted Draco enough to reveal it.
"Are you alright, Meri?" the blonde asked suddenly, bringing the girl out of her reverie. It was only then that she realised how long she had been lost in her thoughts, as a glance at the clock told her that she had been out of the conversation for a good quarter of an hour at best. "You seem a little bit distracted."
"I'm fine, thanks, Draco." she sighed, knowing that she was not a very convincing actress at all, but not really caring about this fact, as she doubted that the young man would have believed her, even if she had been worthy of an Oscar. As a Slytherin, he was not only extremely good at lying by reputation, but also good at spotting a liar when he saw one, a fact which could be both positive and negative at once, depending on the situation, and which side of the fence she was sat on at the time. "Alright. I'm just a bit worried about my cousin, that's all. She's getting married to a boy that I don't know, and I'm not sure if he's good enough for her, because she lives in France, and I won't see him until just before the wedding, when it will probably be too late."
Although the first phrase of her speech had been a lie, the second had been nothing but the truth. Over the Christmas break, Vevina had revealed that she was engaged to a man named Anton, who was over two years older than she was. Though she professed her love for him far more than a couple of times, and her grandmother said that he was a good looking boy, but still, she was not quite convinced that it would be positive for her cousin to become married, especially when she was still only eighteen herself.
"Who is she marrying?" the man asked, wondering what could have made her so tired and distant to him, when she was such a bubbly and lively personality to be around. It went far beyond strange to see that she was so distracted, as she had always known precisely what she wanted and concentrated on such, but Draco was still willing to listen, to see if he could help her at all.
"A French wizard, called Anton Duchene, and he seems nice enough. But I've never met him, and I won't do until the wedding, because they are still in Calais." the girl explained, even shocking herself due to how much she was revealing to the young man, but not minding as much as she thought she would do. "I'm just worried that he doesn't love her enough. That he'll cheat on her, that he'll hurt her, anything. I'm just worried."
"My parents weren't in love when they got married, you know." the older boy confessed, a slightly sad expression on his face. "Their marriage was arranged between their two families, and they didn't have a choice in it. But they didn't object, and they married, and even now, they are still happy together. Or they had been, until he was sent to Azkaban."
It was quite obvious that this was a touchy subject for Draco, and so the young woman spoke again, so that he would not feel uncomfortable. "That's been a Pureblood tradition for years, but my cousin isn't a Pureblood. None of us are. Not quite."
"What do you mean 'not quite'?" the Malfoy heir questioned, suddenly much more curious.
"Well, my father was an Urquhart, so he was a Pureblood, but my mother wasn't. She was a…" Suddenly, Merida paused in her explanations, as she realised what she had said, and what it meant that she had said, especially to a Pureblood who had studied the ideologies. She had been guarding her secret for so long, and now she had put it all in jeopardy.
"Well, I don't think that you need to worry about that, Merida Ross." the young man sighed, the twinkle in his eyes suggesting that he knew the secret she had hidden very well, and the words he spoke afterwards suggesting it all the more. "Or should I say, Merida McGonagall."
A/N: So, she is discovered! What will happen next? Review to find out!