/

Chapter twenty five

Draco and Daria

/

As soon as Daria woke up late in the morning, she immediately wished she were still asleep. Her head was pounding, her eyes watered, the back of her neck ached, and when she carefully sat up, her stomach immediately turned inside out. She dug herself out of the bed, which was not even hers. With a headache clouding both her vision and memory, she rushed to the bathroom door.

Not even a minute after she finally up dared to abandon the toilet, Ginny stormed into the bathroom with an identical, sickly expression, and violent gagging sounds sounded from behind the screen covering another spot for relief.

Daria threw off her crumpled vampire costume and got under the cold shower. It managed to wake her up completely, however she was not feeling much better. Pale Ginny followed suit as Daria left the showers with a towel wrapped around her body. She was drying her hair, squinting against the sunlight streaming into their bedroom. Only now did she notice that there was no one else except for the two of them. The other girls were already gone.

She settled tiredly on her bed and absentmindedly looked ahead. Even though she got drunk heavily the evening before for the first time, she remembered more than well, whom she danced and talked with, and because of that, she had quite conflicting feelings.

In a few minutes, Ginny also climbed onto her own bed across from her, water still dripping from her hair. They looked at each other, with their pale faces with circles under their eyes, dishevelled hair, and disgusted expression, and both of them suddenly laughed bitterly, earning themselves another sharp headache.

/

When they crawled to the Hall for 'breakfast' at almost eleven-thirty, they found out that they were nowhere near the last one to arrive. Only the first to fifth years were already complete, but the older students were probably still sleeping. There were a few of them here.

The professors had already put the Great Hall in order. There were Houses tables lined with food as usual – although no one really rushed to eat – and there was no sign of the mess after the wild ball. However, the entire faculty grumpily scanned the still half-asleep students. Only Headmaster Dumbledore looked somewhat absent.

Ginny sat down right next to suspiciously smiling Harry and Daria took a seat across from them.

"Good morning, girls," Harry greeted them, looking at their sour faces with raised eyebrows. "You probably went a bit overboard yesterday, didn't you?" he pointed out slightly mischievously.

"Sort of," Daria guessed, pouring herself a full mug of ginger tea. Once she heard that it helped with hangovers. "But you look like you did extremely well yesterday," she remarked a little enviously and curiously.

Harry just shrugged and took another bite of toast. He was in the good mood indeed, even though he suffered through a sleepless night. Apart from the fact that he was relieved how well Angela accepted the gloomy prophecy about him and Voldemort, a sight of two Slytherins helplessly struggling against unexpected buzzing coming out of their mouths instead of words was imply hilarious.

Ginny followed Daria´s example in careful sipping at her tea on an upset stomach and eyed Harry curiously. Then she realized why he was still smiling so mysteriously. At the Slytherin table not far away from them, Angela Rosier was sitting and her expression was exactly the same as Harry´s. They probably imagined how inconspicuous they both were.

She clenched her teeth angrily and glared at the Slytherin girl with hatred. When Rosier noticed it, the smile immediately disappeared from her face and she began to attend to her breakfast.

Also Hermione and Ron joined them a moment later. The walking bookshelf of Gryffindor slid into her seat, slowly reaching for a pot of hot instant coffee and poured both herself and Ron a full mug.

"Well, you two don´t look very lively," Harry noted.

"Shut up, mate," Ron said dully, tossing the third sugar cube into his coffee.

"I'll never drink again," muttered slightly green Hermione, staring at the dark liquid.

"That's what everyone says after their first hangover," Harry assumed.

Hermione just glared at him.

"And how come you're sitting here grinning as if you´ve just gulped down the Liquid Luck?" Ron bristled. "You didn't drink at all last night or what?"

"I did," Harry huffed with his mouth full and swallowed. "But I didn't have time to follow the four of you and get wasted."

"Excuse me?" Daria raised her head. "Ginny, hit him! He's too blunt with the ladies!" she incited her friend with a slight grin.

However, Ginny just kept sitting next to Harry, not reacting in the least.

/

Both Zabini and Parkinson were extremely unhappy about their sudden ´insect problem´, so they did not give her even a glimpse of attention. Yet, when Angela saw the rest of Slytherin seventh years finally coming one after another, she rather quickly finished eating and bolted out of the Great Hall. She was not eager to spoil her current mood so soon.

Before the door, she glanced back at the Gryffindor trio and noticed that the Weasley girl was no longer clinging to Harry. She no longer sat with them at all.

Will we see each other tonight? she sent a thought to Harry.

Sure, he agreed enthusiastically. In the Room?

Do we have another option? Angela smiled sadly and turned away.

Of course, we do, Harry sent after her a bit annoyed.

Angela knew what he meant by that, but she rather did not answer him, not wanting to argue. She made her way to the stairs leading down to the dungeons, her thoughts wandering to the strange Death Eater figure from the Ball. She was almost sure it was Draco, but she had no…

Her thoughts were roughly interrupted when on the third step, completely unexpectedly, her foot slipped as if on ice and she lost her balance. She reached out her hands, but she was too far from the railing. She landed hard and half rolled down, half slipped on her ass to the bottom of the stairs.

"Shit!" she cursed, examining her limbs to see if they were intact.

She could feel the bruises popping up on her butt and elbows, but fortunately, all her bones seemed to survive her fall in one piece. She looked up at the stairs and just barely managed to see a strange gloss disappearing from them. Someone set her up. She thought she heard hurried footsteps from the Entrance Hall, but then she sensed someone behind her.

"You should be more polite, Rosier," said a slimy voice, and Angela rolled her eyes. "When you get outrageously drunk as soon as you have the chance, it's no wonder you can't even walk down the stairs normally."

If you'd rather help me instead of yapping such a bullshit, Angela cursed in her mind, sending the Bat into the burning hells. She gritted her teeth and stood up cautiously. She looked into Snape's eyes, but she could not tell if it was him or someone else…

She limped around him and did not even look back, even though she felt his gaze on her back.

/

After a quarter of an hour, Angela could not take it anymore and inconspicuously, still limping, made her way to the location of the Room of Requirement. She looked around intently, focusing on the wall in front of her. When that desired door appeared, she burst into it and headed straight for the shelf with healing salves. She sat down in the chair and carefully began to dab at every bruise. She was relieved almost immediately and finally was able to move normally.

Feeling much better, she went for a slow walk to loosen her stiff ankle a bit. To be even better off, she was only missing Daria, as she wanted to talk to her. If only she had met her… Angela cheered inwardly when she saw her motionless figure standing approximately in the middle of the bridge connecting the castle to the lookout tower above the valley where the small river flowed into the Great Lake.

She pulled her jumper tighter and leaned against the railing next to her friend. Although the trees around were almost without leaves and a cold northern breeze was blowing, the sun beautifully illuminated the colourful carpet under the trees and the entire landscape.

"Hi," she tore Daria off her thoughts with a greeting.

"Hi Angela," replied the girl without moving.

"What happened to you? You look pretty awful," she commented on her appearance and expression.

"Well, thanks," Daria smirked. "Ginny and I went a bit overboard yesterday."

"So, the first hangover, huh?" Angela smiled mischievously.

"Yes and what? Here goes another one with a mouth full of stupid crap and a dopey smile," Daria shot back. "Did you abstain yesterday since you're so fresh or what?"

"No, but Harry and I left a little early," she replied, still with a smile.

"Ah, so," Daria nodded her head meaningfully. "Then you surely had a good time, didn't you? What was it like?" she added curiously.

"Wonderful," Angela mused. "How can it be different with someone you love?" but as soon as she finished, she got a little gloomy when she remembered what Harry told her after their lovemaking.

Daria was slightly saddened and Angela noticed it.

"Sorry, I…" she began apologetically.

"It's okay," the sad girl interrupted her.

They paused for a moment, looking down into the valley. Angela noticed that one of the guarding Aurors was watching them from below at the edge of the forest.

"Daria?" Angela addressed the other girl seriously. "What else happened yesterday? You don't look like you're just suffering because of hangover."

"Nothing that would matter," Daria replied unconvincingly.

"I don't believe you," she shook her head. "Doesn't it have something to do with that guy in the Death Eater mask?"

Daria froze.

"By any chance, wasn´t he…" Angela started to question, but Daria cut her off.

"Please, leave me alone!" she growled grumpily and started walking across the bridge back to the castle.

Angela caught up with her and matched her pace.

"Was it him?" she asked insistently. She just had to know if her hunch was right.

Daria stopped abruptly: "You won't let it go, will you?"

"No," she confirmed and looked at her pleadingly.

"Well, yeah," he friend sighed, leaning against the railing again. "It was Draco…"

"…What did he want?"

"How did he get here would be a more practical question," Daria hummed gruffly.

"That's true, but not what I asked."

"Hmm, he wanted to explain something to me," said the black-haired girl ironically. "I sent him to hell."

"Maybe you should have listened to him," Angela commented quietly.

"I already warned you once that you shouldn't stand up for him!" snapped Daria and continued on her way.

Angela sighed, then something dawned on her and she quickly followed her friend.

"Well, as for how he got inside," she stated matter-of-factly. "I think I should go see Dumbledore and tell him about the huge weakness in the castle's defences."

"What?" Daria did not understand for a moment.

"Actually, I'd like to slap myself a few times that Harry and I didn't announce it sooner. Windows. Just use a completely ordinary unlocking charm on them and any idiot with a broom can get in and out again just fine," Angela explained. "I only have a guess as to how Draco got past the protective barrier and the guards, but he must have used a window to enter the castle. Now, I even remember hearing the shutter slamming last night when we… well, never mind."

Daria just smiled slyly but said nothing to the other girl´s last remark.

Angela cursed herself for not thinking of it sooner. They were lucky that nothing had happened yet. They were silent for a while, but then Daria suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Angela wondered.

"You know, I just remembered that I wanted to… Well, I want to ask you for something," Daria said hesitantly.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Don't go to Dumbledore about those windows yet," Daria pleaded.

"What? Don't you understand that…"

"Yes, I understand it´s important, but I need to get out of the castle. Today at the best. Or tomorrow."

"Why?"

"I… Well, just… Would you accompany me to my parents' grave?" Daria blurted out.

Angela stared at her in surprise.

"They won't let us go knowingly, so I wanted to leave secretly, but I can't get out of the castle by myself. Not without you," Daria continued quickly.

"Daria! This is…"

"I haven't been there since their funeral. And it´s gonna be the All Souls´ Day," added Daria quietly.

"But..." Angela wanted to protest, but softened under her friend´s pleading look. "We shouldn't go anywhere alone. You never know what can happen," she said, though with less resistance.

"As if you never did," Daria muttered.

Angela just gave her a blank look.

"Please… I know we shouldn't, but we'll only be gone for a few hours and we'll be careful. Come on," continued Daria.

"Alright then," Angela finally gave in and thought for a moment. "We'll leave tomorrow while everyone's still at breakfast and we have to be back by lunchtime."

"Okay, but how do we get out of the castle undetected? What if someone sees us?" Daria suddenly worried.

"Leave it to me, okay? We'll meet tomorrow at nine thirty in the Room."

"Why in there?" wondered Daria.

"You'll see," Angela smiled mysteriously. "But no one can see us with it."

/

"Harry…?" Angela began with a meaningful smile and snuggled into Harry's lap.

"What? Do you want something?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, just a tiny favour," she agreed and hugged him around the neck.

"Then say it straight away," he urged, pulling her closer to him by the waist.

"Would you please lend me the Cloak of Invisibility for tomorrow?" Angela asked in one breath.

Harry frowned a little: "What for?"

"Well… I, how should I…"

"I want the truth," Harry prompted her slightly threateningly.

She sighed: "Okay… Daria wants to see her parents' grave, so we need to get out of the castle without being seen. Normally, no professor would have let us go," Angela explained her intention to him, running one hand through his tuft of black hair.

"You can bet that they would not let. And neither do I! What do you think? That you can just hang out outside these days?" Harry fumed.

"Come on, honey," Angela soothed him. "We'll be careful and your cloak will protect us. Nothing will happen to us."

"And how do you want to get from the castle to the Apparition border undetected?" Harry tried again.

"You know it's not that much of a problem yourself," Angela said conspiratorially.

Harry gripped her waist tighter: "Is there any way I can talk you out of this?"

Angela shook her head a little guiltily.

"What am I supposed to do with you?" he sighed.

"Thank you, thank you, you are a treasure!" Angela beamed and kissed him on the mouth.

"Wait, wait," Harry cut her off. "Something for something."

She gave him a wide smile. "Anything you want," she said, half-serious, half-laughing.

"Really?" Harry drawled. "In that case, I want you to stop wearing that dragon chain."

Angela's smile immediately disappeared from her face and she pulled away from him.

"Why?" she asked uncomprehendingly.

"I just don't want you to wear it. I cannot stand that you have something from that bastard with you all the time."

Angela pursed her lips in disapproval as she remembered the silver bracelet she always wore on her wrist. A part of her still did not want to condemn Draco forever. She took the little dragon in her fingers and unconsciously started playing with it, watching her boyfriend gloomily.

"So?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "I hope you don't care about that chain so much. Malfoy is now standing against you, he is our enemy. Why should you care for a present from him?"

"Well, yeah… I know," Angela muttered. "Fine," she eventually relented, unenthusiastically removing the chain from around her neck and tucking it deep into her jeans pocket. "You will never see it on me again. All right?"

"Fine," Harry kissed her shortly. "Now wait a moment, and I'll get you that cloak," he lifted Angela and sat her back on the sofa. "I'll be right back," he promised.

"That's what I'd advise you," Angela called after him meaningfully.

Harry stopped just short of the door and turned back.

"Now, I remembered… One more thing for the Cloak," he said with a mischievous smile.

"Aren´t you a bit expensive, hmm?" she objected.

"It´s not going to hurt, Angie. Just promise me that we'll finally stop hiding and behave to each other like any normal couple."

"Harry..." Angela sighed heavily. "Why should we keep adding fuel to the fire?"

"I don't care what anyone thinks or says," he opposed her determined. "We've done enough hiding!"

She glared at him for a while, but then she nodded defeated: "Well, okay…" she agreed to the second request as well.

Harry jumped up to her and kissed her passionately. She started to smile.

"One more…" she requested softly.

Harry kissed her longer this time. When she fell dreamily silent after the kiss, he wanted to do it again, but she gently pushed him away.

"Get that Cloak, you blackmailer!"

He flew out of the Room in a flash, only to be quickly back again.

/

Angela remained standing about two meters from the row of tombstones and let Daria approach it by herself. He friend squatted down and placed two white roses on the lawn in front of the grave with the names of both her parents. She turned away from her a little not to disturb her and began to look around the cemetery with countless burning candles.

She was relieved that they had made it this far without much trouble. Through the almost empty corridors from the Room, they reached one of the windows facing the Forbidden Forest, fastened the Cloak tightly and slowly flew to the protective border, where they waited for the guard to pass, crossed it and they went deeper into the forest. They hid the broom and cloak high up in the tree they had marked and Angela took Daria in tow as they apparated to the tried and truly abandoned alley near the Muggle graveyard.

Daria was quite surprised at how easily Angela could break through the locked windows and got through the protective boundary around the grounds, but she told her that any Death Eater could do that. Long-term protection for such a large area could not have been more powerful. However, she also told her that since a certain time she would not be able to get through the locked gate into the castle under any circumstances. The headmaster and some professors were using such a strong and complicated spell on it that even she could not overcome it.

Angela's gaze fell under a tall poplar on the edge of the cemetery and flew over, but then returned to it again. A figure was standing right next to the trunk without the slightest movement. It was definitely a boy in faded jeans and a black sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head, so that his face could not be seen.

She frowned at the figure for a moment before returning her gaze to now kneeling Daria with her back hunched over. She felt his gaze burn into her. She was almost certain it was Draco again. He was probably waiting for Daria here. It must have taken him a lot of work to find the correct cemetery.

However, when she looked at the same place for the second time, no one was there.

/

"Damn it!" Draco hissed in a low voice as he saw Angela trailing behind Daria.

Although he expected that Daria would not come alone, he hoped that she might be accompanied by one of the professors or some douchebag from the Ministry, with whom he would not get bothered at all. If she had an Auror to accompany her, that would be less of a problem, but Angela? This was a clear cut over his plans.

He would like to kick something. Why did she have to go with her?

Well, why… He could answer that to himself right away. Angela was Daria´s best friend after all.

His former female companion noticed him bare moments after they arrived. After all, she had been through Death Eater training, and her instincts were well trained. As soon as she turned away from him, he took one more look at his loved one huddled by the distant tombstone and apparated away. He was hoping for one more option…

/

After leaving the Muggle graveyard, they took a long-distance bus to the house of Daria's grandparents. Daria wanted to see her grandfather, to whom the housekeeper kept coming.

However, nobody came to answer the bell. Daria finally took her keys out of her pocket in amazement: "Where can Grandpa be?" she wondered.

"I have no idea…" Angela shrugged, looked back at the street and froze.

How could he follow them here? Or did he know where else they could be headed? Does he really know Daria that well?

Daria unlocked the door and entered the house. Angela, however, was still standing on the porch, glaring at Draco on the other side of the path, who already had his hood off and was looking back at her.

Daria returned surprised: "What´s going on?"

"I think someone wants to talk to you," Angela said slowly.

Her friend looked in the direction she had been staring and frozen up. Draco caught her eye. She flinched, quickly turned away and looked at Angela.

"I don't even want to see him!" she gritted through her teeth. "You can say that to him!"

"Wait!" Angela grabbed her sleeve. "Don't you want to give him at least one chance?"

"Chance? What chance? For what?" Daria clenched her fists angrily.

"Maybe he really wants to explain it to you. Maybe it was not like…"

"There's no explaining to what he did," Daria snapped, turning back to the door.

"He was at the cemetery too," Angela remarked innocently. "He knows you really well, I must admit that."

Daria stood for a moment, trembling.

"After you send him to hell and you're tired of talking about him, come upstairs," she said hoarsely, slamming the door behind her.

Angela sighed. She did not really like to be a messenger in this particular situation and she could imagine Draco was not very thrilled about her presence either, considering how their last meeting turned out.

Surrendered, she leaned against the wall next to the door and waited. It took him quite a while, but finally, he decided and started walking slowly toward her. When Draco stood right in front of her, she stared into his impassive eyes and said nothing.

He looked at her inscrutably for a moment, then took his hands out of his pockets, folded them across his chest for a change, and calmly asked: "Will you let me in?"

"No," Angela replied just as calmly.

"I need to talk to Daria."

"But she doesn't want to see you."

"I'm not surprised by that, but I still want to talk to her," Draco insisted. For that moment, he had probably conveniently forgotten what he had said during his last talk with Angela.

"But I won't let you into the house and you won't get there on your own. Not anymore. You certainly know that very well," she sneered.

Unexpectedly, Draco braced himself against the wall with his hands on the sides of her head and leaned dangerously close to her.

"You owe me something, Angela. You didn't forget, did you?" he asked haughtily.

The smirk disappeared from her face right away: "No, I did not."

"Then let me in!" Draco requested, already a little angry.

"Wasn´t it enough for you, how have you already hurt her? Do you want to make it even worse?" she tried to talk him out of it. But to no avail.

"No, I just want her to know the truth about what really happened here."

"And what really happened? Well? Spit it out," Angela encouraged him.

"None of your business," Draco stated coldly.

"So, I'm not supposed to know, huh? Your loss," she straightened her head and folded her arms flamboyantly.

"She needs to know that I never meant to hurt her!" Draco urged with a pleading tone in his voice.

"But you did it anyway!" she retorted.

"You are not the one who can lecture me!"

Angela grimaced and did not respond. Draco sighed deeply and leaned even closer to her. She could feel his breath on her face.

"I didn't torture her grandmother," he said almost inaudibly.

"No?" Angela wondered. "Then what did Daria's grandfather see and hear?"

"I didn't do it, dammit! I just made it look that way. I was the one who dragged old Merill out of bed to disturb us downstairs."

"WHAT?" she gasped in disbelief.

"I was tasked to kill her! Do you understand?" Draco snapped at her in a raised voice. "If I was such a jerk, her grandmother would be dead by now, okay?"

There was silence for a moment.

"And I'm supposed to believe you this?" Angela asked slowly.

"Believe what you want, just let me in," Draco replied, looking into her eyes intently.

Angela was silent, thinking. One part of her believed him and wanted to let Draco into the house, but the other part mocked his speech and wanted to send him away. Then she remembered herself, shaking in fear that Harry would not believe her, when she told him the whole truth…

"Give me your hand," she said at last, extremely quietly.

Almost breathlessly, Draco placed his palm in hers. She touched his hand with her wand and mumbled something.

"You're right that I owe you something, Draco. But remember – this is the first and last time," she stated, tucking away her wand, opened the door and pulled him into the house behind her.

/

Daria stood by the window of her room and stared out through the curtain at the setting sun. A single look at Draco awakened in her with full force the feelings she had been suppressing for a month. Anger, despair, hate and love…

"Daria…" whispered a voice behind her.

She crouched as if he had hit her with it and slowly turned around. He stood in the doorway, watching her imploringly.

"How did you get here!" she hissed grumpily, fighting back the tremors that came over her with force of will.

"It doesn't matter, I just wanted… I wanted you…" Draco tried to speak, but the words would not come out of his throat under her gaze.

"How dare you even come into my sight?"

"Daria, let me explain it to you. Please…" now Draco was really begging with both words and eyes.

However, it did not work on hurt and aggrieved Daria.

"What the hell do you want to keep explaining to me!" she snapped at him angrily. "My grandfather saw you torture my grandmother with his own eyes! What do you want to explain?"

"It wasn't like that…" Draco began, but Daria cut him off.

"You mean my grandfather is lying?" she bristled and clenched her nails into her palms.

"No, he didn't, but he only saw what I wanted him to see because…"

"What the… What?!" Daria interrupted him again. "How can you… how can you make such poor excuses? First, your father killed both my parents! Then you acted like a Good Samaritan while you surely had been pulling my leg the whole time! My grandmother has been lying unconscious in the hospital for a month and you tell me that you didn't do anything to her!" she kept raising her voice.

"I'm…" Draco tried to speak again.

"If she doesn't recover, it will be on you!" Daria shouted.

"But I…"

"Shut up, Draco!" she yelled at him, hysteria starting to creep into her voice. "I don't want to hear anything from you anymore, you understand? NOTHING! I hate you, you bastard!"

Draco was not able to raise any more arguments.

"Get out of here before I throw you out myself!" she screamed angrily.

He put it all on one card: "Daria, I love you!" he declared desperately. "I never meant to hurt you!"

Daria was trying to catch her breath for a moment. Everything inside her was in turmoil and in the end the betrayed trust in her former boyfriend won.

"Fuck you!" she said with such hatred in her voice that Draco froze.

He knew this was the end. The rough cutting of all the beautiful things they had together. He could see it in her eyes. Even if he could explain it, she would never truly believe him. Not anymore.

Draco gave up. His entire figure hunched over and defeat appeared in his gaze. He took one last look into her beautiful, angry, tear-filled eyes, turned on his heel, and left as fast as he could.

He was barely halfway down the stairs when he heard the deafening crash of breaking glass. He did not stop, ran down the rest of the stairs, almost flew past the living room where Angela was sitting with her head in her hands, burst open the front door, and apparated away without a second thought or even the slightest glance around…

Angela slowly stood up and looked up the stairs. Helpless sobs, hard from the throat, could be heard from upstairs. She went up and cautiously entered Daria's room.

The tall mirror across from the bed was broken into pieces, a vase that she had probably used for it was lying in the shards, and Daria herself was kneeling in a fit of tears by the bed, where she was tearing some paper into pieces.

Angela walked over and sat next to her. She gently hugged her and silently let her get all the grief and pain out. In a pile of papers on the ground, she recognized some drawing...

After a long time, Daria pulled away and accepted the tissue Angela handed her.

"Why did you do that?" she asked with regret in her voice. "Why did you let him in?"

Angela eyed her guiltily. "I owed him something. He asked me so convincingly that I believed him and led him inside. Sorry," she said apologetically.

"Convincingly?" Daria drawled, blowing her nose powerfully. "What did he tell you?"

"That's not important," Angela shook her head. "It was my mistake. The important thing is that you didn't let it happen."

"You're absolutely right about that," she agreed bitterly, rubbing her eyes so mercilessly that they were all red. "Don't ever do anything like that again, okay?"

"You don't have to worry about that. I promise," Angela stated seriously, looking thoughtfully at the torn drawing.