A/N: This is assuming alarming proportions - Rhiannon, Draco and the other characters just won't do what I tell them to! They just do what they want! That's basically how this chapter came about. It's full of scenes I had never planned to write. Apart from that I've got a part of "Dragostea din tei" stuck in my head and it's a bit disturbing to hear "nu-ma, nu-ma, nu-ma iei" over and over again! So much for my little rant of the day...
dragonwing - Draco does realize that. But Salazar had a way of wording the story, well, a bit more different than Rowena. And that made Draco come to the conclusion to break up with Rhiannon. You'll hear more about it.
Chapter 8 - A Binding Promise
The following days were the most dreadful days Rhiannon had ever experienced. Every time she thought she was collected enough she'd see Draco sitting in the common room, passing him on the way to the library, sit down next to him during meals. And then, when she was alone in her dorm again, she'd start crying again.
Nine days after being continuously subjected to this emotional torture the rest of the students came back from their Christmas vacation. That meant that Pansy would be coming back too - and this was by far the worst part of the end of the vacation.
On the day the students were coming back Rhiannon stood in the shadows of the Entrance Hall's doors, waiting for Tracy. The little first years were the first to enter; they were accompanied by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger - always the prefects. Then various groups of students followed in no particular order. Tracy was among one of Slytherins that were in the middle of the stream of students.
"Tracy!" shouted Rhiannon and waved at her friend. Tracy looked in Rhiannon's direction and waved back before she fought her way over to her.
"Hi, how are..." Tracy shut her mouth abruptly. She leaned closer to Rhiannon's face and narrowed her eyes. "You look terrible. All pale and teary," she stated. Rhiannon gave her a weak smile. Tracy shook her head.
"Can we talk about this somewhere else?" Rhiannon asked. "Somewhere private? Where there's no chance of Pansy hearing anything?"
"All right."
The two of them slipped out of the Entrance Hall onto the Hogwarts Grounds relatively unnoticed, save for some third years, who they had to shove out their way before they would get trampled to the ground by them. Down by the lake they stopped behind some big rocks that were big enough to shelter them from the icy winter wind.
Oh-so-not-conveniently Rhiannon also had the perfect view over the place where had Draco had declared his love for her just some nights ago. The sheer thought of that night brought tears to Rhiannon's eyes.
"I've been aching to tell you this," she whispered and brushed the tears away. "Draco... he finally told me he loves me. Over there." She pointed in the general direction and managed an other weak smile.
"Something tells me that it's not that what you're so upset about," said Tracy.
"But I don't know what made him break up with me then. He wouldn't even look at me. He's been ignoring me ever since then," Rhiannon finished and looked to the ground.
"Wait, wait," said Tracy and shook her head again. "Let me get this straight. First he finally admits he loves you and a short time after that he drops you like a rock for whatever reason?"
"Yes." After a short pause she added. "I feel a whole lot better now."
As soon as the last class was over the next day, Tracy stood up and sent Rhiannon on her way.
"Hey, Malfoy," she yelled, once her friend was out of earshot. Draco stopped and turned around to face her. Tracy went closer to him.
"You're a sodding jerk," she said as she reached him. Draco raised one eyebrow, as if to say 'What else is new?'.
"I don't appreciate my friend being treated like that," Tracy continued and jabbed her index finger against Draco's chest repeatedly. "You're going to apologise to Rhiannon and explain why exactly you broke up with her. Is that understood?"
"And I should do this just because you tell me so?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I'm sooo afraid of you now." Draco said in a mocking tone. Tracy narrowed her eyes; it made her look quite scary. Draco, however, was not impressed one bit.
"Tracy, I wont. I'm trough with her. It's better it has ended. You can tell her that if you want." He turned to walk away but Tracy grabbed his collar.
"I sure as hell am going to tell her that. But I still request you go and talk to her. You must have noticed how bad she looks. And it's all because of you!"
That stopped him - briefly.
"So what?" he snarled.
"You're going to talk to her," Tracy hissed in his ear. "I swear you will, even if I have to make you."
"Oh yeah? How? Call me bad names?"
"No, I'll get Mark to beat you up," Tracy said simply. "He told me he wanted to have a go at you ever since you got the Seeker-position on the Slytherin Quidditchteam. Until now he hold himself back, but... well, you get the idea."
Draco thought for a second. Until his second year Mark had been lean and tall. Now he was muscular and tall and - sadly - nowhere near as dumb as Crabbe or Goyle. Draco guessed he could win against Mark in a proper wizard duel, but he doubted he could win in a barbaric fight. It probably was better not to anger him...
Draco tore himself away from Tracy's grip on his collar.
"I talk to who I want when I want, got it?" he growled and walked away, his black robe billowing out dramatically behind him.
Tracy grinned.
"I knew you'd agree in the end!" she called after him.
"Upon second thought... I really think this isn't a good idea, Tracy!" whispered Rhiannon desperately as her best friend dragged her towards Draco's prefect room.
"Stop whining. You complained about Draco. You wanted to talk to him, remember?"
"No..."
Tracy rolled her eyes. Love did strange things to women.
"Anyway," she said. "It probably sounds harsh, but don't start crying. Generally men hate it and feel you're putting them under pressure then. And better don't start shouting at him either, come to think of it."
Rhiannon said nothing. True, she had wanted this meeting. But now, that it was actually happening, she was scared of it. She didn't know what she would say, or what Draco would, for that matter. She had no idea what good or bad would come out of it. And she remembered her letter. It had seemed a good idea at the time - now it just seemed incredibly stupid.
The two girls reached the door and Tracy knocked forcefully. After a few seconds it opened slowly and Draco's face came into view. As soon as he spotted Rhiannon his features grew harder and he wanted to close the door again. Too late, Tracy had already put her foot in the doorway and now forced the door open.
"Hi Draco, we've just come for a little talk. You don't mind, do you?" she asked sweetly and shoved Rhiannon into Draco's room.
"Have fun talking. I'll wait here," she told them and closed the door. It fell shut, but the two said nothing for a while.
"Sit down," Draco said finally after it became evident they could not avoid talking. Rhiannon nodded. As she went to sit on the sofa a bit of pergament on Draco's bedside table caught her eye. It looked suspiciously like the note she had sent him. She blushed.
"So, what is it?" Draco asked in annoyed tone.
"You know perfectly well what it is," replied Rhiannon. She was amazed how cool and collected she'd said that. She'd been convinced she wouldn't be able to say a word in Draco's presence. It gave her bit more self confidence. Maybe she could persuade him to talk to her again and...
"I just wanted to talk about the night we went to Avalon," Rhiannon said. Judging from the look on his face she'd caught him off-guard with this statement. He had probably expected a long-winded talk about their relationship.
"Then talk," Draco said and sat down next to her.
"Did you notice we were Salazar and Rowena on the night of the Halloween ball?" Draco nodded.
"Well, out in the garden, you told me something. Something I'd like to remind you of now." Rhiannon sneaked a glance at Draco. He looked like he didn't have a clue about what she was getting at. Good.
"You said, we would go through this together. I'm taking you up on that now," she informed him.