It could be said that two good things came from Draco's disastrous last words to Cornelia. One was that he was subdued enough in the days following their fall out and the attack on Colin Creevey that Cornelia was pleased to see that he wasn't drawing any attention to himself, in fact it could be interpreted that he was as worried by the whole situation as everyone else. The second thing came in the shape of Rosalind's reply to Cornelia's hastily written letter where she had vented angrily about Draco.

My Dearest Cornelia,

It upsets me greatly to hear of the pain Draco has inflicted upon you with his thoughtless and childish words. I am in no doubt that he was simply mirroring what he has learnt from his parents, as children will do when faced with unknown situations. However, that does not mean that this can be overlooked or excused; in fact, you must remember this moment with the greatest clarity for here is the proof of our previous communications – that misogynistic behaviour is learnt at a young age. Children are like sponges; they will soak up even the vilest of lessons. It may not be obvious at first, as you have so believed Draco to be above such ideals, but as you can now see, it is revealed in moments of uncertainty, passion or hardship.

Do not waver in your instincts with this darling, you are right to be so angry, you have been betrayed by your dearest friend and that anger is your driving force. It would not do to allow Draco to continue on the path he is currently taking, and only by realising the consequence, weight and power of his words will he be inclined to change. This is a moment, and it may be a moment of many if you are willing to take up the fight, of revelation for our silly Draco.

That is not to say that you must be made a martyr of in this whole fiasco, quite the opposite in fact Cornelia. If you please, take this as my first official lesson. From woman to woman, there are few opportunities to teach a man the error of his ways. You could talk until you were blue in the face and unless you have some sort of pulling power, a bargaining point, they would not listen. Trust me, I have tried, my dear. Only when it is so abundantly clear that the man himself recognises that they have made a grave mistake, do you hold this power for change.

You must hold this mistake like an axe to their necks. Let them know the severity of their errors and that you, and only you, may release them from execution. Drag it out darling, make them suffer, and raise the stakes dramatically. Their freedom for… what? What is it that you desire? What can they give to you? In the case of Draco, I have a suggestion.

You have previously expressed your desire to spend Christmas with myself and Blaise, perhaps this is an opportunity to bring that wish to reality? I suggest making a deal with Draco. Your friendship for his silence. I doubt he could refuse.

I know this has been a great disappointment to you dearest Cornelia, and unfortunately you must harden yourself to this. It would not do to fall apart every time a man disappoints – you would be dead by the time you were 30.

Do let me know the outcome of this argument with Draco, my dear. Even if you ask something else of the boy, I would be interested in hearing how it turns out for you.

Forever yours,

Rosalind Zabini

Cornelia came away from the letter with flushed cheeks and a smile on her lips. As much as she didn't like to admit it, life had felt pretty tragic for the last few days. She was still pretending Draco didn't exist, but if she were being perfectly honest, his hopeless lost puppy stares and the miserable way he held himself was beginning to get to her, and she missed him. Whilst being with just Theodore and Blaise was fine, she felt a sort of responsibility to appear emotionally stable with them, or at least to cover up the wounded part of herself. They looked to her to lead in the tonality of the day, if she was miserable, they would be miserable, if she was silent, they would eventually lapse into silence. None of them had made any attempt to discuss what Draco had said, and instead they followed her in pretending it hadn't happened.

Being with Draco was completely different. She craved being able to just relax and feel what she felt around someone. She missed his gentle attempts at cheering her up and his upfront manner of discussing their emotional states. Most of all she missed the unspoken communications between them, how they could understand the others mood with just a glance which meant that sometimes the discussion wasn't even needed.

Rosalind had provided her with a solution that satisfied her need to punish Draco and also to be able to enjoy his company again, not to mention she was sure that it would be the perfect leverage to be able to spend Christmas at the Zabini household.

It was easy, almost ridiculously easy. She had told Theodore and Blaise to go on to dinner without her whilst she remained in the common room. She had complete faith that if Draco were to see her alone, he would attempt to apologise again. She had been quite impressed with how thoroughly he had swallowed his pride in his repeated attempts to apologise and had to remind herself that it was his pride that had got them in this situation to begin with.

Just as predicted, Draco and Croyle had emerged into the common room to drop off their bags before heading to dinner, and Draco had done a double take when he spotted Cornelia curled up in the armchair by the fire, seemingly alone. He froze, apparently unsure of what to do, but when Cornelia glanced up and held his gaze steadily it emboldened him to move quickly towards her. She was pleased to notice that he must have told Croyle to go on without him, as he was alone in his advance.

He hesitated as he neared, and Cornelia made sure to keep her gaze impassive. It was the longest eye contact they had had in days and Draco took courage from this, forcing a nervous smile onto his face.

"Hey?" he said quietly, his voice questioning, gently probing to see whether she would be willing to interact with him.

"Hey." Her voice was hard.

"Can I sit down?" He gestured to the chair beside her.

"I can't stop you."

"You could." He said, his smile growing stronger as he began to lower himself into the seat.

"Stop then." She said quickly and a ghost of a smile flickered on her lips when he actually froze before his bum hit the chair. She pushed it away quickly; Make them suffer Rosalind had said. "Sit there." She gestured her head towards the chair opposite her instead, and she had to fight to hide the celebration dance her insides were doing as Draco slowly obeyed her command.

They considered each other for a moment when he was finally sat, and she could see Draco was desperately trying to read her expression. She wondered what he could see. Eventually his face slackened into that familiar sad and worried look he had been wearing since they had last spoken.

"I'm so sorry for what I said." He sounded like he meant it too.

"I can't believe you said that to me." Cornelia replied in the same hard, emotionless voice. To her surprise Draco collapsed forward, his face falling into his hands and his shoulders scrunching in on themselves.

"I know. I can't either. I don't know where it came from."

"Oh really? You can't think of anywhere?" Cornelia refused to be moved by his defeated posture. His hands slid down his face a little and he looked at her with mortified eyes.

"I was really angry. Really angry with myself." When she didn't answer and just continued to stare at him with cold, dark eyes, he lowered his hands completely and leant towards her. "I really am sorry Nelly. I'll never say anything like that again-"

"But you'll think it." She cut in and Draco's mouth hung open stupidly before he gathered himself.

"N-no, I'd never-"

"Yes you would. You think I should just sit and be quiet like a good girl." Cornelia couldn't help the emotion that rose in her voice now. Where Draco cowered, she towered, glaring down her nose at him.

"No Nelly, I don't, I swear!" He sounded like he was on the verge of tears, she could see them sparkling in his wide eyes. It was almost enough to ruin her whole plan, and she broke eye contact as she shifted her position to grip her hands to stop them from reaching for Draco. She couldn't stand seeing him cry.

"Alright then." She said gruffly after a moment, still looking at her clenched hands.

"Do you believe me?" She didn't dare look up; Draco definitely sounded like he was crying as he choked out his words. Instead, she glanced around the room. Luckily, the common room was practically empty as most of the students had gone up to the great hall for their dinner. Still, she wished she'd thought to pick a more private spot for this conversation; as much as she wanted to punish Draco, she didn't want to humiliate him. "Because I really mean it! I think you should be able to do whatever you want. I like hearing what you have to say, I really miss-"

"Yes, yes, okay, I believe you." Cornelia rushed, trying to stem the flow of words that were burbling out of Draco as she met his desperate gaze again. They were quiet for a moment as they looked at each other, him leaning forward, she leaning away. She was struggling to say her next words, it went against all her instincts to not comfort Draco. "But I don't forgive you." She eventually managed.

Draco's face fell and Cornelia's heart sunk as the tears started up again. "I mean I don't forgive you yet." She said quickly.

"Wh-what - what can I do?" He stammered, the tears coming thick and fast now and Cornelia just couldn't keep it up anymore. She rushed to his side, squeezing into the chair beside him and throwing her arms around him. He returned the hug fiercely, silent sobs wracking through his body as he buried his face into her shoulder.

She was shocked, she hadn't seen Draco this regretful since the day he had lied to replace Mrs Bagshot and gotten her whipped in the process. She wondered whether she really needed to continue with her plan, whether it was worth it, but Rosalind had been very clear, she needed a bargaining point.

"I don't want to go to the manor for Christmas. I can't stand it there." She said quietly, her voice soft now. She felt Draco nod against her neck. Her heart raced as she said her next words "I want to go to Blaise's instead."

Draco's sobs subsided quickly and he pushed to sit up and stare at her. "Zabini?" He asked stupidly and Cornelia smirked at him.

"Who else?"

"Why?"

She hardened her expression again and folded her arms across her chest. "Why does it matter?" She couldn't tell him about Rosalind, she couldn't afford for him to start asking questions, she couldn't risk him telling Lucius. "If you want me to really forgive you, you have to cover for me."

Draco shook his head. "I can't!" He whined, but when Cornelia moved to stand up he lunged forward, grasping her hands and pulling her back down. "No – I just mean I don't think I can convince mother and father!"

"Of course you can." Cornelia huffed curtly.

"I don't know Nelly…"

"Well, you can forget about being friends then!" She wrenched her hands from his and stood sharply.

"Wait! Nelly, wait! I'll just stay here instead!" He cried desperately and Cornelia stilled where she had begun to pace away. She glanced back at him, he looked sad and desperate again.

"Really?"

"Yes, of course! I'll just say neither of us want to come home for Christmas! They won't question me about you that way."

A genuine smile broke out across Cornelia's face and the relief was clear in Draco's. She returned back to his chair and hugged him again before pulling away and fussily wiping the tears from his face. He struggled against her, dragging her hands away and holding them in his lap instead. His gaze was searching on her eyes.

"So you forgive me?" He asked carefully and she nodded happily. He let go of one of her hands to reach up and gently touch her earlobe. She beamed, a warmth spreading in her chest.

"I'm here." She said and her heart felt like it was going to burst with happiness when Draco returned her smile with an overjoyed one of his own.

It seemed that their discussion happened at the perfect time, as the next day Professor Snape appeared in the common room compiling a list of students remaining at the castle for Christmas. Cornelia and Draco shared a look before he signed his name, followed immediately by Croyle.

On top of that, Cornelia, Blaise and Theodore had completed their preparations for their prank on Professor Lockhart. Lockhart had become completely insufferable, the only slightly interesting class he had held was when he had brought in a cage full of Cornish pixies. Cornelia had been sat beside Theodore and had heard his whisper of "alohamora" as Lockhart had spouted pompous rubbish about how difficult the pixies were. The cage door had sprung open and the resulting havoc had been entirely worth it as Lockhart's spell to round up the pixies failed miserably and had resulted in him fleeing up to his office above the classroom.

Since then, the three of them had been working on creating an irreversible hair dying potion that they would conceal inside a fancy looking shampoo bottle to gift to the professor. Finally, when they had perfected the solution (Blaise had lead on the brewing), Cornelia remained behind to behave like a love-struck teenage girl, giggling nervously as she handed over the shampoo.

"It's a family recipe for curly hair." She gestured to her own head of wild curls and blushed prettily. "I remember you saying honey was your favourite scent so…"

"Ah, Cornelia was it? What a thoughtful gift!" Lockhart had fixed her with one of his brilliantly white smiles, his cheeks dimpling in his trademark fashion. She held her breath as he uncorked the bottle and inhaled the scent. "Absolutely delightful, I shall use it this evening!"

Cornelia had held her breath as she left the classroom, but she couldn't hold in the cackle that burst from her when she ran into Blaise and Theodore waiting outside the door to see how it had gone.

In the week that followed, they actually looked forward to their DADA classes, arriving 5 minutes before anybody else and waiting impatiently outside the door. They were sorely disappointed each time when Lockhart opened the door with his usual confidence, his soft curls still a warm blonde.

"Do you think he hasn't used it yet?" Blaise had whispered furiously as the trio had trailed to their seats, shoulders slumped and previous enthusiasm gone. Cornelia shrugged.

"I'll find out after class." She muttered.

However, Lockhart had beamed up at her when she had made her way over to his desk as the rest of the class filtered from the room. "Cornelia! I meant to mention, wonderful stuff that shampoo. Smells divine! I don't suppose you would be willing to give me the recipe?" He winked at her, but unlike when the Weasley twin had winked at her, her heart did not speed up.

There didn't seem to be any underlying meaning to his words and his smile was bright and genuine, and Cornelia left the room feeling puzzled and frustrated.

"But why didn't it work?" Blaise had complained quietly at lunch that day. "We covered everything!"

"Maybe he knew a counter-charm." Theodore pointed out but Cornelia shook her head and snorted.

"He couldn't counter-charm a cat!"

Blaise giggled and leant back in his seat. "A cat?"

Cornelia shrugged. "I like cats."

"Maybe he didn't really use it yet." Theodore suggested and they agreed – that had to be it.

Later that evening a crowd was gathered around the notice board , chattering excitedly as Cornelia, Blaise and Theodore entered. Draco was amongst them and she made her way over to him.

"What is it?" She asked, peering through the rest of the students. "Not another attack?"

"No, they're starting a duelling club!" He replied, and Cornelia's eyebrows shot up. Draco grinned at her, they had spent hours of fun playing at duelling when they were younger, making up spells and pointing broken twigs at each other, dramatically acting out their reactions to the curses they shouted. Cornelia's favourite books in the Malfoy library had been the ones on curses and hexes, although Aunt Cissy had made it difficult for her to get her hands on any that were too grown up for her.

"Are they training us up to take on the heir of Slytherin or something?" She asked, making her way closer to the board.

"I reckon it's just an excuse for Snape to humiliate Lockhart."

Cornelia barked out a laugh. "Snape and Lockhart? Oh, this is going to be good!"

And it didn't disappoint. Cornelia, Draco, Blaise and Theodore were amongst what looked to be the majority of the school who turned up to the duelling club. The Great Hall had been transformed to create a long golden stage that stretched the length of one wall, the sky was dark above them and Snape and Lockhart were illuminated by the warm light of the candles that floated overhead.

Professor Snape was watching Lockhart with eyes that glittered with dislike, and Cornelia felt a little giddy as Lockhart paraded up and down the podium like a catwalk. She couldn't wait to see Snape's brilliant mind meet Lockhart's slow one.

Lockhart's hair still gleamed a stubborn golden colour, a point of soreness for Cornelia, Blaise and Theodore, who couldn't believe that they had been outsmarted by the DADA professor, and he turned to greet them all like long lost friends.

"Gather round, gather round!" He called with arms wide, and Cornelia begrudgingly admired his impeccable taste in robes. "Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"

When he introduced Snape as his assistant, Cornelia couldn't resist the laughter that bubbled to her lips, drawing a few odd looks in their direction. The expression of deep loathing on Professor Snape's face was just too good, and she was certain the revenge she so desired for Lockhart was just around the corner.

A nail-biting silence descended on the hall when the professors turned to face each other in a duelling stance, the students holding their breath and watching with eager eyes. All of a sudden, Theodore gasped "It's a wig!" at precisely the same time that Snape whipped his wand forward in a blur and cried "Expelliarmus!"

Two things happened at once, Professor Lockhart seemed to spin through the air in slow motion, a blur of gold and lilac, and Cornelia's brain leapt into action. Almost without consciously making the decision to do it, her eyes had trained on the golden hue of his hair, her wand was drawn and her lips uttered "wingardium leviosa!"

When Lockhart hit the wall and landed sprawled on the floor, there was an uproar from the students. Beneath the perfect golden locks of his wig (because Theodore had been right) there wasn't the dyed black hair that Cornelia had been expecting, but instead the candlelight bounced back off an incredibly shiny and smooth bald head.

The laughter that ensued was hysterical and spilled out of the hall and into the castle beyond. Admittedly it was mainly the male population that found the situation so funny, many of the girls were wearing expressions of horror and some were shushing their neighbours with a scowl. Cornelia, on the other hand, howled alongside Theodore, Blaise and Draco, tears streaming down their faces as Lockhart got to his feet looking bewildered. Only when a timid looking Hufflepuff girl reached up to hand him back the golden wig that had flown into the audience, did he begin to look mortified. He ripped the wig from her hands and hurriedly placed it back on his head, his mouth gaping open and shut repeatedly.

Even Snape's smirk had grown to represent a wicked grin, and he allowed the mania to continue for a good few minutes longer than necessary. It seemed he was enjoying watching Lockhart suffer as much as Cornelia. Eventually however, he raised a hand and called for silence before gesturing to Lockhart to continue.

Lockhart's face was drained of colour and he appeared to be shaking. "R-right well. That's enough demonstrating!" He stammered and Cornelia's shoulders shook with silent laughter. "If you could all get into pairs and practise amongst yourselves!"

To give him credit, Cornelia was surprised Lockhart didn't flee from the room at the first opportunity, instead moving sheepishly amongst them to put them into pairs. Cornelia had automatically paired up with Draco, looking forward to putting their old fantasy routine into practise, but Snape had other ideas.

"Mr Malfoy come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter. Miss Lestrange, I think you'll be more than a match for Weasley." Cornelia and Draco shared a disappointed look before sidling off to face their new opponents who looked as unhappy with the arrangement as they were.

As Cornelia eyed Ron Weasley she realised the last thing she needed was to fall victim to another backfiring hex from his broken wand, and knew that whatever she did, she needed to take him out quickly, not only for herself but to watch over Draco too. Her eyes slid over to where he and Harry were standing off with matching vicious expressions before returning to Ron who was glaring at her sullenly, although she thought she could recognise a nervous tightening around his eyes, and he held himself in an alert position.

"Worried about Malfoy?" He called jeeringly.

"Well, I'm not worried about you, Weasley." She returned with a smirk before bowing their heads woodenly at each other and tensing as Lockhart counted down.

When Lockhart reached "2'" it became apparent that her and Draco had had the same idea. She heard his voice rise alongside her own, and she made a note to herself that they should have a proper duel together sometime after this. She saw Harry stumble from the corner of her eye at the same time Ron yelled "URGH!" and dropped his wand-turned-to-slug to the ground.

"What's wrong? I thought you liked slugs!" Cornelia cackled, already turning her attention to Draco and Harry. Harry recovered quickly from Draco's spell and Cornelia flinched as he hit Draco with a tickling charm.

She was just about to step forward to take on Potter herself when Draco managed to wheeze out "tarantallegra" causing Potter's legs to dance wildly. Cornelia's laughter rang loud and high as Lockhart screamed at them to stop, and Snape stepped forward to remove the charms from Draco and Harry.

Looking around the room, everyone was looking a little worse for wear, and Cornelia's laughter bubbled up again when she saw Theodore and Blaise dragging themselves up off the floor, Blaise clutching his side and wincing, and Theodore with a bloodied nose.

Lockhart looked thoroughly flustered, the duelling club had not gone to plan at all for him; his smile was gone, wig askew and he was stammering out plans to teach them how to block spells. Cornelia in the meantime caught Draco's eye and flashed him an impressed grin which he returned furtively. Suddenly Snape's voice cut through their silent interaction.

"How about Malfoy and Potter?" He was suggesting to Lockhart, his eyes glittering in a way that suggested that Lockhart could not disagree. Cornelia realised he had volunteered the two boys to demonstrate to the rest of the students as they were ushered into the centre of the room, and she made sure to position herself as close to Draco as possible.

Whilst she was a little nervous and held her wand tightly by her side, as she stared at Draco's confident stance and unwavering gaze on Potter, she realised that she was also quite proud of him. He could hold his own easily against Potter, and for once Uncle Lucius's lazy arrogance looked good on him. When she cast a quick look around the students and spotted Pansy Parkinson across the crowd admiring Draco too, her eyes narrowed and the violent image of her cursing Pansy's eyes shut flashed through her mind.

Lockhart's cry of "3, 2, 1" snapped her attention back to Draco just in time to see him quickly raise his wand and bellow "Serpentsortia!"

It was a spell she had never heard of before, and her surprise was as great as everyone else's when a great black snake exploded from the end of his wand, fell to the floor and raised its head to strike at Potter.

"Don't move Potter, I'll get rid of it." Drawled Snape, moving ever so slightly too slowly from beside Draco with a mean look on his face.

"Allow me!" Shouted Lockhart, darting forward and brandishing his wand flamboyantly, apparently attempting to make up for his less than impressive start to the club. There was a loud bang and the snake flew ten feet in the air, seeming to fall back to the ground in slow motion as the crowd scattered away from it in horror. When it landed with a loud slap on the flagged floor, it was obvious that the snake was furious, whipping it's head back and forth for the nearest victim before fixing its gaze on Justin Finch Fletchley and advancing with terrifying speed.

Before anyone could react, Potter had stepped forwards and was hissing and spitting in a bizarre, guttural voice. The snake froze and turned its head to face him before continuing in its advance towards Justin, hesitating and then falling completely still.

Cornelia was amongst the rest of the students present holding their breaths and staring in horror at Harry Potter, who seemed completely oblivious to what he had just done. He actually grinned at Justin – grinned! Cornelia had a split second of wondering if she had mis-judged Potter, perhaps he was more malicious than she originally thought; but when his face crumpled in confusion at Justin's furious reaction she realised it was more as if Potter had no idea of the implications of what speaking Parseltongue meant, even if the coincidental timing of the whole situation seemed too great to be true.

Ron and Hermione were the first to break the heavy silence that filled the previously excited hall following Justin's exit, rushing forward to Harry and whispering in his ear, before dragging him towards the double doors leaving the hall. Cornelia followed in their lead, stepping quietly up to Draco and joining him in glowering at Potter's fast retreating back.

Here is a nice long chapter for you :)

I've had a couple of messages of support for Rosalind, I also think she's brilliant, but she sure isn't innocent! I love writing her views on the patriarchy of the noble wizarding families and her ways of navigating this system and working it to her advantage. She's sharp and manipulative and I'm really looking forward to seeing how she will pass these skills onto Cornelia. If anyone has watched Dangerous Liasons I am taking a lot of inspiration from the main female character of that film, the Marquise. She's incredibly skilled at playing 'the game' and not getting caught, bending people and situations to her will, and has a brilliant speech on how she has learnt to smile politely at a dinner table whilst stabbing her hand with a fork beneath it.

So the big fallout between Draco and Cornelia - was it worth it for the make up? Draco is a softie who wears his emotions on his sleeve whereas Cornelia is hardened and is working to become more manipulative in these situations, both of them strike out when angered - what a combo!

As for the rest of the chapter, I feel like it dragged a little. I have felt myself getting into a routine where I am just following the events of the book and writing Cornelia into them, which isn't something I particularly want to fall into. I will be practising writing more unique situations and interactions between Cornelia and her friends (and enemies) in the coming chapters! Although I am aware that I do want to get into Prisoner of Azkaban sooner rather than later, it's coming I swear. In the meantime, let's just enjoy watching Cornelia struggle, grow and learn into a woman witch!