Malfoy turned so pink that I thought he might burst. I suppressed a small smile and continued on my way.
"Mudblood, trust me when I say that you will feel my wrath." He hissed.
"I don't doubt you for a second, Malfoy." I snapped. "But I don't fear you for one either."
Malfoy smirked. "Just you wait."
"I still am." I retaliated.
"Is he ALWAYS like that?!" I asked in exasperation. I had sat down next to Hermione in the Great Hall at dinner. Malfoy hadn't cut me slack at all that day. Every chance he had her cornered me in the hall or after a class. He even waited for me outside of the bathroom. He was like a stalker or something. I had to admit to myself that it made me edgy.
"Is who always like what?" Ron asked; chewing lamb chops as he spoke.
"Malfoy, a stalker." I jabbed my chops viciously, imagining Malfoy's face.
Harry, Ron and Hermione raised their eyebrows at me.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked quickly.
"He frickin' followed me everywhere!" I swore.
Ron's eyebrows came together. "I don't know, is there some sort of a rule that says we can knick a few points from Slytherin if a member is stalking someone?"
"No." Hermione said firmly. "But we can talk to Professor McGonagall if you'd like."
I shook my head firmly. "No, then he'd know he's getting to me."
"Want me to have a word with him?" Ron flexed his fingers.
"I'd prefer to be the one to have that kind of word." I said.
Harry and Hermione laughed. Ron grinned. "Favian, you are one in a million."
"No." I disagreed. "I'm just angry."
Harry left to go to detention with Professor Umbridge at five to five. Ron and Hermione seemed really worried about him.
"Is she that bad?" I asked.
"Worse." Ron said fervently. "She's a monster and Harry's not in a good mood lately."
"Who can blame him?" Hermione asked reasonably. "And all the homework he's going to have to catch up on. We can get a good start tonight, Ron, Favian."
I agreed with a silent nod. Ron looked sideways, as though searching for an escape.
"Let's go to the library, shall we?" Hermione asked me. I nodded.
"Er… I have to go to my dorm. I'll catch up with you two later." Ron sprinted away before Hermione could object.
"Catch up with us never, more like." Hermione's mouth thinned into a line reminiscent of McGonagall's most severe.
I smiled and shook my head. On the way to the library the corridors were mostly empty.
"Do you fancy him?" I asked, using the expression I had heard so many times over the month at Grimmauld Place. Funny expression, really.
"What?" Hermione was startled. First she turned white and then crimson. "No! What made you wonder that?"
I shrugged. "Sorry."
"No, Favian, really, what made you wonder?"
"The way you two are around each other."
Hermione became silent and pensive. Oh, she totally dug him.
We finished our homework and returned to the common room two hours later. Hermione stayed up knitting while Fred and George worked diligently on their Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. I sat there, resignedly staring at the clusters of First Years doing homework and wondered how detention was going for Harry.
The plane plummeted into the turbulent waters and somewhere….
HE LAUGHS!
I jerked in my seat. I must've dozed off.
I was still shaking, covered in a thin sheen of sweat. That face… with the red eyes and cat-like pupils… so impossibly pale and cruel. That contorted face, filled with malicious laughter… I had never seen it before.
"What is it, Favian?" Hermione asked quietly, scooting over closer to me.
"A bad dream." I frowned. "A really bad dream." I shook my head.
"Need to talk about it?" She asked with concern.
"Not likely." I shrugged. But somehow I did. "I've never seen a face like that." I whispered. "Never ever."
"A face like what?"
I described it slowly to her. "And he was responsible for a plane crash…." It had been a very familiar plane. "Oh God." I clapped a hand to my mouth. I scrunched my eyes shut. "Now I'm dreaming about the plane crash again. God no."
Hermione was silent, but her face had drained. Maybe it was just my vision blurring because of the tears waiting to spill. My father and mother remained dead. I missed them so much that it ached when it returned. I buried my face in my hands. I realized that ever since I had started classes I had been saving experiences to share with my parents when I came home.
There would be no home to go to. How wrapped up in life had I become that I had forgotten my parents? The greatest friends I would ever have. The only parents I would ever have. I squeezed my eyes shut and tears leaked over my lids.
"I'm sorry." I said, sitting back up and wiping my face on my sleeve. "It's just… are you okay?" I asked. Hermione was biting her lip.
"This man… sounds incredibly like… Vol- Voldemort."
"Death flight." I muttered. "That's exactly what that plane became."
"French?" She asked.
"Yes."
"I wonder if Voldemort killed your parents." Hermione thought aloud.
I was beginning to wonder.