Chapter Twenty Nine
I ignored Harry, Ron and Hermione for the entire day the next day. When I did see Draco, he simply nodded coldly at me and moved on without a word. Kettle was also stubbornly silent, not that I wanted to speak to him.
Only Bouilloire remained his usual self towards me. He met me after classes and asked if I wanted to walk around the grounds with him. I could see Hermione watching me worriedly behind him, so I accepted and he took my hand and led me out.
We chatted about nothing in particular; the weather, my family, subjects; tiptoeing around his promise to reveal everything to me.
We must have circled the lake about ten times when Malfoy came marching up towards us. He glanced at Bouilloire and then turned his full attention to me.
'Lark,' he said stiffly. 'I need to talk to you about Potions.'
I made to release Bouilloire's hand, but before I could his grip tightened on mine and he stepped in front of me.
'Whatever you have to say to her, you can say it in front of me,' he said coldly. I stared at him in wonder; Hermione was right. He was possessive.
Malfoy looked taken aback too. He blinked from Bouilloire to me, before shaking his head slightly and leaning so that he was peering at me behind Bouilloire.
'Lark, with the project, I was just wondering if you'd started yet? Remember, if it doesn't work, we always have our backup plan,' he said, cupping his fingers around his mouth as if I was standing a long way away. Bouilloire bristled.
'What project? We don't have a Potions project.'
I panicked slightly. How would I answer Malfoy's question without raising more suspicion? Quickly, I made a decision.
I threw my arms around Bouilloire's waist and stuck my tongue out at Malfoy. They both looked as surprised as each other, Malfoy's face twisting in a snarl.
'Would you leave us alone, Malfoy?' I said faking anger. 'We're busy.'
Malfoy bristled visibly, and looked ready to whip out his wand and curse us both. Instead, he nodded tightly at me and then spun and marched away as suddenly as he had come.
I released Bouilloire, glad that that was over. I wasn't sure if Malfoy had understood me, but I could just talk to him later. I was only doing what he'd told me to do, after all...
'What a jerk,' I started, turning to Bouilloire. He was looking at me with the strangest expression, and I stopped dead in my tracks. 'What?' I asked nervously.
'Nothing...' he said, still staring at me with his peculiar expression. I glanced away at Malfoy's hastily retreating back. We were mostly alone on the grounds, since the weather was still a bit chilly. I shivered.
This seemed to snap Bouilloire out of his trance, and he took my hand again, smiling warmly at me. 'Shall we return to the castle?' he asked. Again I glanced at Malfoy as he disappeared indoors. My stomach did a little flip; what had I gotten myself into?
'Sure thing,' I replied, quickly masking my unease.
'Maybe we can meet Harry and Hermione in the library,' Bouilloire suggested. 'Oh, and Ron I guess.'
'Oh,' I said blankly, recalling my recent argument with the three of them. 'Yeah, I guess.'
--
Days passed by very quickly. I didn't have time to worry about Hermione and the others; I was so wrapped up in the plan, Bouilloire and homework. All my spare time was spent sneaking off with Malfoy to talk about progress, cuddling up to Bouilloire or sitting the library doing homework. Sometimes with
Malfoy, sometimes with Bouilloire. Ron blatantly ignored me, and started speaking very loudly whenever I passed, Harry gave me puzzled looks, and Hermione looked like she was about to cry when our eyes met. I did feel guilty, every time I vowed that the next time I saw them I'd apologize.
But there just wasn't time.
A week after Bouilloire had come back, it was a month and a half until the end of term. I couldn't believe that a year had passed by so quickly, all the things that had happened so far... it was unbelievable.
But, it did mean that I had to work quickly. With end-of-year exams coming up, there was a lot more study and that meant less time. Malfoy had said that if we didn't have an answer by the end of the week we'd have to resort to plan B.
I knew that I should have already asked Bouilloire for the truth, but, now that it came down to it... I was frightened. There were so many loose ends to be tied up, (Bouilloire's real name/life, the Murray's daughter, Kettle) and I was worried I would receive an answer I didn't want.
And to make it worse, I was even more confused. I was supposed to like Bouilloire – at least, I had before he went away – but now... I didn't feel like I should have been feeling. I was sort of edgy around him, and though we were technically 'going out' now... I didn't feel safe.
And in a glimmer of hope, I had remembered my Moodstone, stored safely in my trunk. Of course, THAT would at least let me know what I was thinking!
When I am not wearing the stone it is a definite black. Not the same as the one it sometimes turns when I'm wearing it, but an empty black, as if it's simply a hole in reality. Almost as soon as I put it on though, it turns to the appropriate colour.
But this time, when I put it on, it remained the empty black colour without even a tinge of anything else. I was distraught and confused, muddled in my head. I couldn't talk to Bouilloire about it, him being the subject of my confusion, and I felt Malfoy would laugh at me.
Plus... he was included too. The thing was, even though I felt strange when I was with Bouilloire, I felt completely safe when I was with Malfoy. I never fell asleep when studying with Bouilloire, and yet with Malfoy – or Draco, now – I could snore my head off and only feel embarrassed, rather than completely invaded.
In short, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
'Are you going to do any work?'
I jumped, jolted out of my thoughts. Malfoy was watching me curiously, his own work forgotten on the desk in front of him. We were sitting the library doing our homework. I had ditched Bouilloire after dinner. I felt my face flush and shook my head, before nodding.
'Of course I am, I was just thinking,' I said quickly, snatching up my quill. His eyebrow shot up.
'Thinking? About what?'
I stared intensely at the desk. Damn myself.
'Nothing,' I answered quietly. I felt, rather than saw, the smirk spread across his face.
'Penny for your thoughts?' he teased. 'Are you thinking about Bouilloire; your knight in false armour? Or perhaps one of your dirty blooded friends... though I haven't seen them around lately, have you finally ditched them?'
'No,' I grunted, bending over my parchment and pretending to work. 'I am simply focussing on other things.'
'Other things?' he persisted, moving right beside me and leaning closer. 'Like what?'
At that moment, he was shoved out of my face, and Bouilloire sat in between us. He slammed his book down and opened it to a random page, beginning reading without a word.
'Bouilloire?' I said, surprised. He looked up and smiled radiantly at me.
'Hello Lark.'
'Excuse me,' Draco forced through gritted teeth. 'I believe you just-'
'I've been looking for you everywhere,' Bouilloire acted as if Draco had never spoken. 'Harry and the others were in the Great Hall, they hadn't seen you but Hermione said you'd probably be here in the library with,' he paused and seemed to notice Malfoy's death-glares for a moment, though he didn't turn around. 'Well; studying,' he finished instead.
'Garçon...' Malfoy tried again.
'And here you are!' Bouilloire started up his tirade of words, keeping a bright countenance the entire time. I could see Malfoy getting steadily more annoyed behind him. I nodded and smiled along with Bouilloire when I felt I was supposed to, but other than that it was a one-sided conversation. He babbled about school, his day, his meals, anything. I guessed he was just trying to provoke Malfoy.
About halfway through, Draco stopped trying to interrupt, and instead went back to his work. He was watching out of the corner of his eye though, seething.
'Anyway, how are you?' Bouilloire asked eventually. He took a deep breath, seeming worn out.
'Oh, I've just been studying with Draco, getting ready for exams,' I said. I admit I was teasing; I just wanted to see his response.
Bouilloire's face clouded for a moment, but he quickly replaced it with his sunny smile. 'Draco? Must be a new friend of yours. Anyway, Hermione-'
'Not a new friend, he's in your dorm,' I said innocently. 'He's right behind you, actually.'
I could see Draco smirking, and I had to struggle not to grin myself. Bouilloire glanced behind him disapprovingly.
'So I see,' he said to me, his smile suddenly fake and lifeless. I swallowed guiltily.
'Seems like the typical Slytherin brat to me, not worth our founding fathers House I say,' Bouilloire drawled suddenly. I saw Malfoy twitch and I winced.
'Not worth your time, Lark,' Bouilloire snaked his arm around to rest his hand on my shoulder. He squeezed me to him, in a kind of one armed hug, and cupped my face with his hand.
'It's people like him that give our house-'
'LARK!' Malfoy screeched suddenly, standing up and tipping his chair back. Bouilloire and I jumped a foot in the air, terrified. Malfoy was angrily shoving papers and quills back into his satchel. All at once he stepped across Bouilloire, seized my arm and yanked me out of my own chair. I squealed, using him to quickly regain my balance.
'WE'RE LEAVING!'
'But..!' I tried, glancing back at Bouilloire and my things. 'Mal-'
'DRACO!'
'But Draco..!'
He ignored me and instead pulled me out of the library. I glanced back as we left; Bouilloire was still standing beside our desk completely shocked. Madame Pince was marching towards him, her eyes gleaming with the thrill of her catch.
'LARK!' Bouilloire yelled suddenly. Malfoy's grip tightened, and all of a sudden he was running. I almost tripped on my own feet, yelling for him to release me.
'This is INSANE!' I screamed, struggling to keep up.
'RAN FASTER!' he yelled back, swearing.
We lost Bouilloire before he could even catch up. I suppose Malfoy knew his way around the castle better than either of us, so it stood to reason. When we stopped running we were standing in the middle of an empty corridor, panting hard. I was bent double, hands resting on needs, greedily gasping air. Draco leant on a wall, in much the same state.
'Why the... hell did... you do that!' I gasped, glaring at him. 'Malfoy-'
'Draco-'
'You get crazier every time I see you.'
I straightened up, having caught my breath and fixed him with a proper glare. He narrowed his eyes right back.
'He was just annoying me, I was trying to talk to you,' he grumbled. I rolled my eyes.
'Yeah, that's what he was trying to do,' I snapped. 'It didn't mean you had to do that. If you want this plan to work, then you have to let me do my job. Just ignore the stuff he said about your House, it wasn't exactly clever anyway.'
'But, Lark,' he whined. 'I don't care about the things he said about me, he was, he was...' he trailed off, looking darkly at the carpet. He pouted.
I snorted; he looked like a little boy who was getting reprimanded for running in the house. He looked up sharply and I smothered my amusement with my hand.
He advanced, scowling at me. 'It's not FUNNY, I just, I was,' he spluttered to an end again, seeming unable to finish his sentence. I smirked.
'Anyway, I should get back to my things. They're still in the library, where I left them, before you took me on this wild-'
I stopped suddenly. I had turned to leave, when he had suddenly reached up and cupped my chin with his hand, just like Bouilloire had done in the library. He turned my head back to face him, and I felt my eyes go wide. Heart racing like a subway train, my mouth dry, I couldn't tear my gaze from his. His hand felt soft and cool on my cheek, his face was unreadable. His looked just as surprised as I did, staring in awe at his hand on my face, as if he couldn't understand why it was there.
At that moment, a group of first years spilled into the hallway, chatting loudly and playfully pushing each other around. I leapt away from Draco, and we both stood a metre apart, awkwardly waiting for the hallway to empty. When it did, I took another step away from him, glancing at the floor.
'I better go,' I said emptily. 'Thanks for the study session.'
He didn't say anything, just turned and walked away. I did the same, but in the opposite direction.
What had just happened?
--
I was so weirded out that I forgot to go back to the library, and instead ended up in the common room of Gryffindor tower. Dazed, I decided I'd get my books in the morning and instead wandered up to bed. The common room was still filled with people, Harry, Ron and Hermione included, but no one noticed my arrival and no one noticed my departure. I crawled into my bed and lay still on my side, staring at the wall.
I hadn't moved, nor had I drifted any closer to sleep by the time Hermione came up. I felt her eyes on me for an instant, and I tried to get up. But I seemed to have frozen, and all I could do was lie there.
She sighed, and I heard her climb into bed.
I must have been lying there for hours, not moving, not sleeping, before I finally came out of my paralysis. I sat up and blinked a few times, before letting out a little laugh. Whatever had happened... well, it hardly mattered. I had objectives to complete anyway. No doubt Malfoy would do his usual trick of pretending it never happened, and we could go back to how it had been before.
As I closed my eyes, sleep finally descending, it occurred to me that something had changed. The way I thought about him... was different. Something was wrong.
'Oh God,' I whispered. 'Put it back the way it was.'
--
I opened my eyes to a bright, rectangular room. The walls were slate grey and straight, rising up to form a neat box. Glancing around, I couldn't find the door.
'Strange,' I murmured, and my voice refracted off the walls, bouncing in all directions. It hit me square in the face and I staggered, falling back onto the bed.
It was placed in the centre of the room, and was the only thing in there other than myself and the walls. Light came from somewhere, though I didn't know where exactly. There were no windows, no lights. No openings. Just the room.
'Hello?' I called, bracing myself for the echo. This time, nothing came.
'Hello?' a voice answered back, though it wasn't my own. I glanced around, but couldn't see anyone. But the voice...
'Kettle?'
At that moment, the scene changed, and I was suddenly in my room lying on my bed and talking to Kettle. It was a conversation I remembered having a few weeks ago, though I didn't know what we were talking about anymore. Kettle was speaking, but his voice was strangely muted, echoing like he was at the bottom of a deep, dark well.
I sat up, looking around in confusion. I felt an immense weight around my neck, and looked down to see my Moodstone. To my surprise, it was no longer black. The colour seemed brighter too, along with its size. It glowed a deep purple, lighting up the room.
'What does purple mean?' I wondered, my voice sounding like Kettle's.
The scene changed, Kettle vanished and I was suddenly sitting on the Hogwarts train on my very first day. Harry, Ron and Hermione were watching me with wide eyes as I explained about how I came to discover my wizarding heritage. The voices were still muted and strange.
I stopped, mid-sentence, confused about what I was supposed to say next. I couldn't remember... I couldn't...
Again, I looked down at my Moodstone. It was pink and purple, with flecks of yellow. I smiled, I knew pink meant love, and yellow meant excited. Purple maybe meant nervous? Or... friends?
The scene changed violently this time, and I found myself standing in the hallway with Bouilloire. I was yelling at him, and he was spinning his lies.
'Bouilloire!' I cried, in surprise. 'What's all of this? Where am I? What-'
I snatched up the Moodstone; it was black flecked with red and maroon. I blinked a few times; it wasn't the empty black, which meant I was feeling hate. The red suggested anger? And the maroon probably spoke of a dislike...
'Are these the feelings for now?' I asked Bouilloire, who was already fading. 'Or my feelings in this memory?'
I was sitting out in the backyard of my house, in the sandpit. Luke and Harry were digging a hole for buried treasure. I stared down at my six-year-old body, and marvelled. The memory was so clear.
Shaking off the distraction, I pulled my Moodstone out of the pocket it had appeared in. Pink, it was pink.
'Love,' I whispered.
While I had been looking at the stone, the scene had changed around me. Now I was sitting in the library, staring down at my Potions notes.
'Lark?'
I jumped; this voice was true, and not distorted. I jumped up and threw my arms around Draco before I could stop myself.
'Where am I?' I whispered. 'What's going on?'
Without hesitating, he wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his face in my neck.
'You're asleep, you moron,' he said tenderly.
--
I sat up, uttering a cry of horror. The sun was streaming through the window and I was covered in a cold sweat, my chest was heaving as I gasped for breath.
What a horrifying dream. It was sickening and wrong. I shuddered in disgust, throwing my bedclothes off and running into the bathroom.
I was glad everyone was already up. I didn't feel like retelling my dream just yet. Leaning on the bathroom bench, I paused to let my mind catch up. It was still in a dream-fog, but slowly it evaporated and I was able to think clearly.
I was also lucky it was a Sunday, else I would have been horribly late for class. As it was, the peace and quiet of the dormitory allowed me to think. Tip-toeing back to bed, I climbed in and lay still, staring at the ceiling.
Almost without thinking I sat up and reached under my pillow for my Moodstone. I slipped it over my neck, holding it in my hands.
It stayed black, but I wasn't discouraged. Determinedly, I focussed my thoughts on Professor Snape, someone whom I definitely had decided feelings for.
Immediately the stone began to change. A murky maroon soon covered its surface, and I grinned in triumph. All I needed to do was focus on something singular, instead of everything. For the moment, it seemed I was too mixed up to look at my 'overall mood'.
Next, I focussed on Hermione. It changed to pink and purple, a swirly mixture. I grinned, purple must mean friends. Pink was love, of course. I vowed to make it up with Hermione and the others as soon as I could.
Biting my lip, I hesitated. If this worked, maybe it would answer a few of my questions. I found myself torn between two wants, a want for hate and a want for love. Love would make things simpler, whereas hate pointed towards other things...
I closed my eyes and focussed on Bouilloire. After a second, I opened my eyes and looked down.
The stone was exactly as it had been in the dream, red, black and maroon. I felt my heart give a jittery shudder.
'Sh-surely that's everyone,' I said nervously, making as if to take it off my neck. But, in doing so, I had already accidentally thought about him. The stone was already changing before my eyes. A gasp caught in my throat.
It had turned back to empty black.
Author's Note
I have only JUST noticed that all my paragraph separators disappeared in my last chapter... I'm so sorry! That must have made bits confusing ; It keeps doing it to me... I always forget to edit it on the site...
Anyway, it's fixed now. C:
There, I promised to get the next chapter up faster than last time, so I did.
It's kinda crazy… I've had exams so the only time I have been able to write has been between 11pm and onwards XD
Well… looks like this story is drawing to a close, along with their school year. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, in the NEXT chapter we have definite changes… c:
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/alerted so far!! Your words and actions are what makes me continue the story C:
-ECM.
