Even When There's No Way, There's Always A Will
~* Sorry for not updating in so long, I've been working on another fiction, Cast Away which is turning out nicely. I thought it was time I updated this fiction though, sorry if it's not very good, but I did leave you all hanging for 2 months! *~
Chapter 25 ~ The Great Aftermath
The whole school had been talking about the incident with Draco punching Cho. Everyone, apart from the Slytherins (excluding Andrea), were extremely furious with Draco for doing this. Especially Harry, who was still in love with Cho.
'You bastard!' Harry had yelled the minute he had seen Draco.
'Yeah, what do you expect to do about it? Run along,' Draco had dismissively said at the time, but now he was sure that he wanted Potter to do something horrible to him, it was what he deserved after punching Cho.
Of course, Cho had gone to Miguel for comfort. Draco had learned of his name, and his growing relationship with Cho. Things seemed impossible between Draco and Cho now, he had lost all hopes of ever being with her again. Draco managed to blame his father for this whole thing. Before Lucius had interfered, he and Cho had a great relationship, with minimal people knowing about it. Now it seemed that everyone knew only about the time when Draco had punched Cho. That moment was like a dark cloud which followed him wherever he went, impossible to shake off, and earning death stares from other houses, and grins from his own housemates.
Draco sat on the floor huddled in the Astronomy tower, hugging his legs for comfort. There was nothing he could do to erase the damage he had caused, and frankly, it was killing him inside. He felt like he had no soul, like there was nothing where there used to be love for Cho.
Not even Andrea was talking to him anymore. She had completely blown him off after he had told her to piss off, and her reaction of swearing right back at him. Andrea had gone back to the shadows, walking swiftly between classes, and no one ever knew where she was, especially not Draco. Oh yes, she was definitely doing a good job of keeping out of his way.
Draco had lost his girlfriend, he had lost his best friend, and had gained more hatred from the school. Just when things seemed they couldn't get any worse, they did.
'Cho?' A voice called up to the Astronomy Tower, Draco's new found sanctuary. 'Cho, are you up there?' Draco heard footsteps coming from around the corner. He didn't panic, but he wasn't in the mood to be confronted by one of Cho's friends. He dove behind a cabinet, not wanting to be seen, when whoever was looking for Cho entered the room.
They moved around for a while before they were joined by another voice.
'Mary-ette, is she 'ere?' This voice was male, and Draco recognised the sickening French accent. So, Mariette and Miguel walked around the room for a while, not noticing Draco there. They stopped. Things were silent for a few minutes, and Draco wondered what they were doing.
'Miguel, no, I don't think…'
'She would never know,'
'It's so wrong…' Mariette said softly. 'She's my best friend…'
'Well, if you don't want to…'
'No!' Mariette cried suddenly, and their voices came to a halt. Draco peered out from behind the cabinet. What he saw was Mariette and Miguel kissing pasionately, their hands working their way over eachother's bodies. Draco stood up carefully, not wanting to make any noises that would disturb the pair of traitors. He pulled out his wand and muttered a small spell.
'Piccartio,'
He looked up from his wand nervously, hoping that they hadn't heard him, they hadn't. All of a sudden, Draco grew a strong hatrid towards the pair. Cho was with this guy, and Mariette was her best friend. If Draco couldn't have Cho, she deserved someone who would treat her with respect. The only respect this guy was showing was to Mariette's chest.
'Hey,' Draco yelled abruptly. The two immediately ceased doing what they were doing and broke apart faster than you could say Quidditch. Mariette widdened her eyes, and Miguel looked extremely guilty.
'Malfoy, what are you doing here?' Mariette gasped. Draco sauntered up to Mariette, looking down on her like she had comitted the worst crime in history.
'More to the point, what are you doing here, kissing Cho's boyfriend?' Draco growled.
'Now now, it's not w-what it looks like,' Mariette stammered.
'I know what I saw, lying won't help, I took a photogenic memory in my wand, which can be restored at any time, at any size, that I wish.' Draco threatened. 'And I will do it, you know I will.' He continued. Mariette looked as if she would cry.
'Don't you do it!' She wailed.
'That would be betraying Cho, not like you 'aven't already punched her in the face,' Miguel added. Draco snapped his head to look at Miguel.
'You talk to me about betraying Cho, you have some nerve,' Draco said in a dangerously low tone of voice. 'At least I never cheated on her you son of a bitch!' He lost his temper, lunging at Miguel.
'Help!' Mariette screamed.
'You asshole, you have no reason to live!' Draco cried before kneeing Miguel in the gut.
'Help!' Mariette yelled again, a tone of urgency in her voice.
'You have no decency! Ruddy French moron!' Draco continued to pummel Miguel, who now had blood dripping from his nose and a swolen cheek bone from where Draco had punched him.
'Malfoy stop!' Mariette screeched, trying to pull Draco off Miguel. Draco just sent her crashing to the floor in a heap, where she sat and began to cry.
'Draco Malfoy! What on Earth is the meaning of this?' Professor McGonagall swept into the room, sending a stunning curse at Draco, who froze in mid punch. Miguel looked terrified. The Professor immediately rushed to his aid, performing many spells to get him fixed up.
When Mariette, Miguel and Professor McGonagall were safe distance away from Draco, the Gryffindor Head of House swished her wand, releasing Draco, who sent a punch into the air. He looked around in confusion when his fist did not connect with Miguel. When Draco noticed the scenario, he seemed to shrink.
'Fighting, in the Hogwarts Castle! It's absurd, you will receive a detention, and let me assure you that if you were good enough to be on the Hogwarts Quidditch teams, you would be dropped immediately,' With those words, McGonagall turned on her heel and swished her robes in a huff, stalking away from the scene. A very scared Miguel followed quickly after her, not wanting to face Draco's rage again.
Mariette stood at the door frame.
'You're not going to tell Cho, are you?' She dared to ask. Draco narrowed his eyes.
'You can bet your life that I will enlarge, and multiply, that photogenic memory, and place them around the school so that everyone can jeer at you and Miguel and leave me alone!' Draco said menacingly, pushing past Mariette, who was now crying.
~***~
Draco was as good as his word. The next morning Cho came down to breakfast in a good mood, ready for her three day weekend, Monday being a pupil free day. She walked alone, not knowing where Mariette or Anabelle were.
As soon as Cho reached the Great Hall, she immediately knew were Mariette and Anabelle were. She saw her two best friends frantically trying to take down some moving posters. Cho saw one, disregarded, on the floor by her feet. She bent to pick it up, took one glance and let out a scream. Mariette and Anabelle turned quickly in reaction. They saw Cho, standing alone in between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables.
'Mariette! How could you?' Cho said, in barely more than a whisper, but Mariette heard her, and ran up to her. Cho had tears streaming down her face, Mariette reached out to put a hand on Cho's shoulder, but Cho stepped back, looking at Mariette like she was a dead person who had just come back to life.
'Cho…' Mariette began, but never got to finish as Cho turned and sped from the scene. Mariette stood alone, humiliated, enduring the taunting looks which she was being given.
Draco sauntered over to Mariette, his face wearing a grim expression.
'Mariette, I have nothing left to say to you save one thing. You are a disgrace to this school, I suggest you not show your face in these halls without a polyjuice potion.' Draco said, and walked off quickly in the direction that Cho had gone.
'Don't you run after her you pig,' Anabelle said, coming up next to Mariette. Draco turned around. The entire school was silent, listening to what would happen next.
'And you are going to?' Draco spat at Anabelle. 'It looks to me like you've sided with Mariette, trying to take down those pictures instead of going to Cho,'
Anabelle looked shut down. She sighed heavily and made no attempt to move. Draco spun around and ran out after Cho.
Draco ran out onto the Hogwarts grounds. The atmosphere felt greatly like the Quidditch Tournament was not far away, which it wasn't. Draco had no idea where Cho had gone, but he had a feeling she had gone into the large grandstand that she often saught comfort from. He lifted the tarp which was blocking the entrance, and slipped in, un-noticed.
Cho was sitting on the grass, staring into space, the tears streaming down her face without her even bothering to wipe them away. Draco walked over to her carefully, bent down and put a hand on her shoulder. Cho didn't move, she didn't even flinch.
A few minutes passed, and Cho finally brought herself to look at Draco. She said nothing, the look on her face said it all; Why is all this happening to me?
'I was there, Cho,' Draco said finally, breaking the silence. 'I took the photogenic memory in my wand and I exposed them to the whole school.'
Cho could have said a lot of things at that moment, but she remained silent, dropping her head, refusing to look at Draco.
'It's better that you know, don't you agree? Wouldn't you rather know that he was cheating on you as apposed to not knowing,' Draco said, somehow bringing comfort to Cho. 'Cho, all this time I have been kicking myself, wondering I could be so cold hearted as to hurt you, emotionally and physically, I'm sorry,' Draco said. Cho looked up.
'You said you have no love for me, that hurt more than the punch in the face,' Cho said, her words like daggers into Draco's heart. She saw him hurting, so she put a comforting hand on his shoulder. 'What I don't understand is, if there's no love there, why did you bring the truth about Miguel to me?' Cho asked. 'Jealous rage?'
'No.' Draco said slowly. 'You deserve better than a lying, cheating asshole,' He said.
'Are you implying that I deserve you?' Cho asked.
'No, I'm just as bad as Miguel,'
'Don't say that!' Cho said immediately. 'You are not as bad as him, I've seen how you can be, you can be one of the sweetest guys I know, don't you ever compare yourself to Miguel again, he's not half the man you are,'
Draco looked up at her, and gave her a small smile.
'I don't deserve you,' He said softly.
'Why do you say that, if you do not love me,' Cho asked. Draco sighed heavily.
'I lied about that, I was mad at you and said a lot of things to you that I did not mean. For that I am truly sorry,' Draco said slowly. Realisation dawned on Cho's face, and she smiled.
'So…' Cho didn't dare to say it, incase she was wrong.
'Yes Cho, I'm hopelessly, madly, crazy in love with you,' Draco admitted. Cho's eyes lit up.
'That's the best thing I've heard since we broke up!' She cried, flinging her arms around his neck. Draco smiled and hugged her back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
~* Okay now that they're back together I'm going to focus more on the Quidditch side of this story, and the students from the other schools. I hope you all liked it! Please review and let me know how this chapter went, I'm very sorry for keeping you waiting for over 2 months! *~
~Gryffindor Gal~