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Draco Angor
Chapter 8
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Emilee and I stood there staring at each other for what felt like an eternity, when we knew in reality it was only a few moments at best. I don't think we would have ever had go had Dumbledore not cleared his throat. This wasn't just my cousin, she was my sister. One of the few people in my fucked-up life that actually gave a shit about whether I was alive or dead. Well…the only one now that Mother was…
Dumbledore cleared his throat again and Emilee and I pulled away.
"What?" Emilee asked, turning her head towards the former Headmaster.
I had to stifle the laugh in my throat at her rudeness. Emilee wasn't one to bite her tongue for anyone, former Headmasters or not. Dumbledore didn't look all that thrown off, amazingly. Actually, he smiled.
"I have heard you have information on the rise of the new Dark Lord," Dumbledore said to her. "I need to know if this rumor is true, and if so, I need the information."
Emilee raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," She says. "I have information. But…"
"But?" Dumbledore asked.
"But I can't recall right now," She shrugged and tapped her forehead. "It's there. Locked away. I just can't remember."
Dumbledore sighed and there was an awkward silence hanging in the air for a tense moment.
"Is that all?" Emilee asked. "Are you going to leave me here to rot now?"
She raised her arms in a half-shrug and I heard the chains still hanging off them hit the tile on the ground. I winced at the sharp sound.
Dumbledore looked at her for a moment, before turning to Healer Taye, who had gotten up off of the floor and was now standing in the corner rubbing his neck.
"How much longer does she have to stay here?" Dumbledore asked the healer.
Healer Taye looked from Emilee, to me, to Dumbledore.
"If you have a place for her to go, she can leave," He said finally.
"But I don't have a place to go," Emilee replied with a sigh.
"Actually…" Dumbledore looked at Potter with the question on his face. Potter looked at Emilee and I, and I saw something resembling pain flash across his eyes before he nodded slightly.
"The Potter Inn, at your service," He said with a slight smile.
"Well then," I smiled, looking down at Emilee. "Off we go."
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An hour later I apparated up to the room I shared with Potter, Emilee by my side. She wavered slightly when we hit the ground, but caught her balance and took a step forward.
"I hate apparating," She muttered.
I laughed.
"Well you can't rightly use a broom, can you?" I replied, crossing my arms over my chest.
She replied by sticking out her tongue and we laughed again.
"So what am I supposed to wear?" Emilee asked after a moment of silence, looking down at her dingy clothing.
"Um…" I thought about it for a minute. "I could ask Hermione if you could borrow some of her clothes? You two looked about the same size…"
"Okay," She replied with a nod. "But while you do that is it okay if I go take a shower?"
She jerked a thumb over her shoulder towards the bathroom.
"Yeah," I said with a laugh. "Unless you want to walk around smelling like the inside of Weasel's socks."
She hit me on the shoulder with a laugh before turning and walking into the bathroom. I waited until the door was closed and locked before I turned and walked out of the bedroom and up the stairs towards Hermione's room. I reached the threshold and yawned before knocking on the door.
"Come in!" I heard Hermione call out from inside the room. I reached forward and walked in to find her sitting on her bed with a book resting on her lap and her hair pulled up in a sloppy bun.
"Hi," She said, glancing up and seeing it was me.
"Hullo," I replied, leaning against the doorframe as a wave of sleep hit me.
"You okay?" She asked me, closing the book and putting it on her nightstand.
"Yeah…uh…" I blinked and shook my head a bit, trying to wake myself up. "I just need a favor…"
"What d'you need?" Hermione asked, getting up and walking to stand in front of me.
"Clothes for Emilee," I replied, "Can she borrow some of yours?"
"Of course," Hermione replied with a warm smile, walking over to a wardrobe tucked in the corner and throwing open the doors. She stood rifling through her clothes for a few minutes before coming back with a few shirts, about four pairs of jeans, and a pair of black and white Converse.
"She can borrow these for a while," Hermione said, handing them to me. "We can head off to Diagon Alley one day soon so she can get her own."
"Okay," I replied with another yawn. "Thanks, Hermione."
"You're welcome, Draco," She smiled at me. "Now please go get some sleep. You look just about ready to drop."
I nodded while stifling a yawn and started back down the hallway while Hermione shut her door.
I got back into my room and found Emilee curled up on the end of the bed wearing a pair of my pajama pants and one of my old shirts. The blindfold she was wearing was clutched in her right hand while her left arm lay across her eyes.
"Hey," She said when I closed the door behind me.
"Hey," I said, walking over to the bed and setting the clothes down on top of my bag before sitting down next to her.
She yawned and stretched her arms out.
"I'm sleepy," She said.
"Me too…" I replied, stifling a yawn with my hand.
"Hn…" She reached up with her left hand and rubbed her eye with a grimace of pain of her face.
"Ouchhhhhhh," She muttered when she pulled her hand back, a line of blood on her hand.
"What in the hell happened to your eyes?" I asked her as she wiped the blood on my pants.
She was silent for a moment before opening her eyes. I winced when I saw them.
It looked like all of the blood vessels in her eyes had broken, leaving seas of red with pools of pale green in the middle. A single drop of blood formed at the corner of the eye she had scratched before falling down her pale cheek. I reached out instinctively and wiped it away, smearing the crimson on her white skin.
"What happened?" I whispered again. She shrugged before folding her arms over her stomach.
"Don't make me talk about it now, Draco," She replied quietly, dropping her gaze to the ground. I sighed, but nodded before stepping forward and hugging her. She was shaking.
"I missed you, brother," She whispered after a moment.
Brother…The word seemed natural, like we had known all along that we weren't just cousins. We had fooled others when we were little, telling them we were brother and sister, twins, even, though she was nearly a year my junior. We passed it off well, though. We reached a point where we could finish each other's sentences, where we could just glance at one another and know exactly what the other was thinking and feeling, we could talk about anything and everything for hours on end…She was the only person in the world I would jump in front of a Killing Curse for, and when I heard she was dead half of me died, too. But somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it couldn't be true…I would've felt it if she had died…we were just that close…so I always had that hope. That one little bit of hope in me, the pinprick of light in a sea of jet black. And here it was, the light had turned into a beacon and flooded out all of the darkness that had invaded my heart and mind…or at least most of it. It still hurt to think of my mother…it still hurt to think of all the death in my family…of all of the evil populating my ancestors…their blind love for a being so evil that the very ground he walked upon cursed his existence…And the few of us that had denied loving him, who had said no, had been killed. Now the only ones left were Emilee and I. We were the only "good" ones in the entire family. We weren't saints, by any account. I know I was a right git in Hogwarts. Hell, I was the scourge of the school, trying my damnest to ruin the lives of some of the students. That was Lucius's fault, mainly. I know that, but it's still no excuse. I was horrible. I still don't know how the Weasley's, Potter, and Hermione could just seem to forget all of the pain I forced on them and let me into their house…but I was glad they did…After all, where else did I have to go?
The door opened and Potter walked it yawning and rubbing his eye under his glasses. Emilee turned her head quickly and put on the blindfold before Potter could see her eyes. Potter stopped and looked at the two of us.
"We don't have a bed set up for you yet," Potter said to Emilee. "But you can sleep in my bed if you want. I can just sleep on the couch."
"No," Emilee replied. "It's okay…I can share the bed with Draco. We've done it before. You can keep yours."
Potter shrugged.
"Alright," He said with a nod before kicking off his shoes and climbing into his bed, pulling the blankets up to his waist and burying his face into his pillow. He was still for a moment before sitting up and pulling his glasses off, setting them on the nightstand before settling back into his position.
"Blow out the candles when you go to sleep," He said to us, his voice muffled by the pillow.
"Sure," I replied, waving a hand and putting out half of the candles.
Emilee yawned and left my side, going to lay down on the bed.
"I'm going to sleep," She said, crawling under the covers. I let out a laugh before I laid down next to her on top of the covers.
"Night," She muttered.
"Night," I yawned back, raising a hand to extinguish the rest of the candles before falling into a dreamless sleep…
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A/N: And there's the next chapter…it's not as long as it should be, I know. Sorry for not updating in so long…Shit happens, though, yeah? Anyway…yeah…click the button…hearts to you peoples and have a nice day. Bai bai now. D