Madam Hooch was the first to arrive at the scene. She didn't need many explanations to understand the dynamics, but she still wanted the full story.
"Alright, you three - start talking!"
Fully confident in his role, Malfoy took it upon himself to narrate the incident.
"Caesarius and I had a fight earlier. I'm guessing she was here to calm down, as I've been doing the same in the Astronomy tower. I wanted to talk it out with her and I knew she'd be here. What I didn't expect to find was Avery trying to kill her!"
Richard cut Draco off. "Me?! These are false accusations, Madam Hooch! I'm clearly the one hurt in this exchange - look at my injuries!"
Not minding him, Malfoy continued. "He's an evil character, impulsive, and absolutely incapable of accepting the consequences of his actions! Because I had seen him frequently going into the girls' corridor in the Slytherin dorms, especially at night, he plotted against me with the help of his sister, Stephanie. I believe now that I had survived a murder attempt that day before winter break, thanks to Caesarius who anticipated their moves and had very cleverly thought of an emergency plan with her former friends."
Draco saw the three girls together in the crowd. Elisa looked away, while Selena and Anna hung their heads low.
"Of course, they can't really be called friends, as they would rather listen to the rumors that Richard and Stephanie Avery had been spreading about the both of us! They are a family of cowards! Because my father and our esteemed professors had rightfully taken corrective action against Stephanie and her allies, they found it in their nature to do everything possible to bring me and Caesarius down, but I confess - I had never thought they could be capable of something so low, so vile, so absolutely evil as to attempt murder!"
"Lies!" Richard yelled. "He's lying!"
"He's not," Katherina intervened, while willingly bringing tears into her eyes. "You sneaked up behind me and attempted to strangle me!" Her voice slipped. She was quite calm, but she knew it would be to their advantage if she let out a few whimpers and tears. "When I tried to defend myself, you threw me into the ground and threatened to kill me because you can't stand the fact that I've been asked to identify your sister and her accomplices! You told me you've been trying to make me kill myself through your acts, isolating me from everyone else in hopes I would fall into despair. When you couldn't break my spirit, you said you were going to break my neck instead!"
That's when the crowd split in two, making way. Draco continued narrating the incident. Perhaps it truly was beneficial to work with Caesarius, if only this one time. They could get rid of the two Avery morons who stained the Slytherin name.
"I had found Avery immobilizing Caesarius, who was choking and nearly passed out on the ground. Look at her, I can see the bruises he left on her neck from here!" he pointed towards her. "If I hadn't intervened, Avery would have murdered her in cold blood and threw her body into the lake! He confessed everything to us, before attempting to use the exploding charm to silence us! Thankfully, I was quicker and managed to immobilize him, which caused his attack to backfire, but if I had been merely a fraction of a second more hesitant...!"
"Thankfully, you weren't," Malfoy said with a proud smile on his cruel face as he watched Richard Avery cower away from him. "Now do you see why I had proposed and insisted that you expelled both of them, Dumbledore?" he addressed the headmaster by his side. "They are clearly a threat to the safety of your students. What would have happened if my son hadn't been here by mere coincidence? It is only by his bravery and vast knowledge of wizardry that he succeeded in preventing a tragedy."
Hooch looked over to Dumbledore.
"These are very severe accusations and all evidence seems to support Malfoy's story. Should we call an emergency meeting with everyone in the Discipline Comission?"
The headmaster sighed heavily and looked at the three students with a broken heart. "It pains me to see such an event taking place at Hogwarts. I believe we should, Professor Hooch. Miss Caesarius, you seem hurt, can you stand?"
Katherina struggled to find her balance a bit more than she needed. "I'm... lightheaded, Professor." She swallowed hard. "I can't move my arm and I barely feel my hand." As she said it, another few tears spilled from her green eyes, rolling down her face. She could feel her neck burning as the bruises formed rapidly.
The old man looked at Draco. "Would you be so kind to help Miss Caesarius to the infirmary, and then come meet me in my office? I would like to have your testimony documented."
Avery looked up at the headmaster, but the way Malfoy the senior eyed him made his blood freeze. If the devil was real, Richard swore it walked the earth in the form of Lucius Malfoy. "Professor Dumbledore, please! You can't believe them, this isn't true! They had set it up! Malfoy and Caesarius are friends, and she's been nagging our family to receive our last name, a prestigious name!"
"You can put your version of events in writing, Mr. Avery, so the Discipline Commission can evaluate it. Please, accompany me into my office."
He approached hesitantly, trying not to step too close to Malfoy. "Please, sir, you can't expel us! My sister had nothing to do with this! Please don't take any measures against her!"
Hooch blew her whistle and clapped her hands to get everyone's attention on her.
"Alright! Everyone back to your dorms, please! Come on, move along - there's nothing to see here! Prefects, escort your respective colleagues back to the dormitories! Slytherins, please follow me!"
Left behind, Draco looked at Katherina.
"...Are you alright?" he asked before quickly shifting his eyes from her.
"It really hurts, I think he broke my arm," she said with a small cough. "Thank you, again."
Draco took a few steps towards the entrance into the castle. "Are you coming?"
Katherina followed him quietly to the hospital wing. They took their time walking there.
"So... what did you want to talk about?" Draco asked halfway through.
"That portrait-"
"It's no big deal!"
"It's beautiful." The word seemed to have struck a chord as Draco remained quiet. "I've placed it into my journal from this year. I wanted to thank you, and... well... I don't know why you wouldn't talk to me after that, but I realized I can't focus as well on my assignments when you're not at the other end of the room, sketching."
Draco felt his heart picking up its pace and throwing him into a panic. "If you mention this to anyone-!"
"It's been two weeks and I haven't." She forced a small smile for him. "You're really talented, but I won't tell anyone. I just wanted to thank you for sharing that with me."
How was he supposed to respond to that? Malfoy looked at his feet, counting the tiles on the floor as they walked and losing track every so often. "...It doesn't mean anything."
"You know..." she stopped a few steps away from the hospital wing, "you look really content when you draw. I'm sure the entire book is full of gems." She stood in front of him, eyes red from crying in front of his father and the professors, and a dark bruise circling her neck. "Promise me you won't ever give this up!"
Draco took a step back. "What?!"
"Promise me you won't let anyone rob you of it! Even if nobody else sees it...!"
Draco looked everywhere in an attempt to avoid her burning gaze. What was this supposed to mean? Why would something so stupid as art make any difference? His father thought it was a waste of time, he ridiculed artists all the time! Certainly, there would come a day when he won't practice anymore, right? Hobbies get lost in time, it's part of growing up, just like jumping on one leg and talking to imaginary friends!
"I-I...! I promise!" he whispered, out of breath, already turning on one foot and running towards Dumbledore's office.
Madam Pomfrey greeted Katherina right as Drago took off in the opposite direction. She gestured for the girl to walk into the infirmary.
"Please sit down on that bed. What happened?"
As the girl began narrating the story to her, she allowed the nurse to take her shirt off her shoulder. It was bruising horribly, but that wasn't the worst part. With a quick move, the nurse snapped her arm back into its natural position, causing a shockwave of pain to shoot straight into her brain. Katherina didn't even have the time to scream. The rest was a blur, but she recalled Madam Pomfrey doing a few healing spells and charms, or something of that sort.
Later that evening, Katherina received an unexpected visit as Draco and his father walked into the hospital wing with confidence. Recognizing the large, confident step of Malfoy the senior, the girl struggled to sit up on her bed and ran her hands through her hair. She had kept the top half into a neat bun with curls pinned all around it, but in her struggle to fight Richard, it had come undone. She quickly remembered this and took out the hairpins from her curls, trying to look at least slightly more presentable.
"Caesarius, related to Avery?" the man asked her as he stood at the foot of her bed.
"Yes, sir, on my mother's side." She saw the smirk on Draco's face and it confused her, but at the same time, she thought it might be a sign of something good.
Lucius raised his eyebrows and looked at his son. "You are an orphan, I've been told? Too young to inherit your father's legacy, Amadeus Caesarius."
Unsure, but feeling slightly more confident thanks to Draco's attitude, she nodded again.
"If you were to be... taken into custody, does your father's testament mention anything about it?"
"I believe it would cause the right to administrate the fortune currently given to Stephan Avery to become illegitimate, sir."
The man gave her a slow nod and hummed quietly to himself. "Draco told me you are ready to renounce your ties to the Avery family, is this correct?"
Katherina was hesitant. She kept looking from Draco to his father and back again.
"...Yes, sir." He didn't seem like the type of man who enjoyed too many details. Flitwick was the polar opposite - he was more than happy to carry a conversation about anything, somehow turning it into a learning experience, but Malfoy the senior resembled Snape more than any of the other professors. Actually, no... He seemed worse. Much worse.
"He also happened to mention your high education and your excellent results in the academic field... and my wife has deduced what she believes to be a chance for you to become a respectable witch. Do you have any aspirations in life, now that you have renounced your mission of acquiring the grace of the Averys?"
Katherina had to struggle to understand everything. It seemed that he was trying to make a fool of herself... or was it just her imagination?
"I plan on educating myself so that I can take over my heritage and expand my father's businesses." Hopefully, that's what he asked. She already knew from Draco that giving a big speech on passion, art, and expressing one's feelings was not going to get her very far.
Malfoy tilted his head and seemed to be considering her reply. Draco looked up at his father, unconsciously biting the inside of his lower lip. When he tasted blood, he seemed in shock at what he had been doing for the past half a minute and quickly turned to look at Katherina. Her neck looked horrible! He could see the shape of Richard's hands on her skin. Draco knew that his mother had been very interested in hearing about all of his friends at school, asking about the Slytherin house especially. He also remembered that his parents had been having some long talks late at night which were forbidden to him. He had no idea what these were about, but he was beginning to suspect that whatever decision his father was going to make had been one of their topics.
"Pack your bags for the summer. From this moment on, you will say that your mother was a witch and your father, a squib. I assume you know the term?" Not waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel to walk out of the hospital wing.
The girl stared after him for a long time. What did this all mean...?
Draco was smiling brightly. He jumped on her bed and play-punched her healthy arm. "Come on, get ready! My father isn't very patient, you know?"
"But... get ready for what?"
Author's notes:
Oh my, this story is compared to the original? Thank you so much for the honor! I'm researching the franchise in hopes of keeping everything accurate and the canon characters true to themselves, but the plot kind of spins in its own direction. I'm so glad you find it worth reading.
Please follow, favorite, and review! I'm always looking forward to hearing from you. Also, I have another few chapters already completed, so there's a high chance for a new update following reviews.