Chapter 38.

Magnolia knew her and Draco's friends could tell there was something different with the pair. The days following the Second Task they sat closely at mealtimes and in the Common Room, they joked and teased each other more openly and sometimes when they thought no one was looking, they would be so wrapped up in each other that they had no idea what was going on around them.

On Tuesday evening, after dinner, Magnolia and Draco were sat in a small hidden alcove on the third floor. Magnolia was sat in between Draco's legs, leaning back against his chest, with his arms wrapped around her.

Draco had told Magnolia about the boys questioning him during Quidditch practice that afternoon, only for him to smirk and fly off quickly. Magnolia laughed as she told Draco that the girls had tried interrogating her the same time during their free period, but she brushed their comments off and easily changed the subject.

She was still getting used to the idea of her and Draco being together herself. She was still getting used to how different Draco was with her now; in their quiet moments, he was gentle and romantic with her.

The following day, Magnolia and Daphne were sat on the plush chairs by the fire finishing their Transfiguration essay, Pansy and Tracey had already finished it so were sat on the sofa playing a game of Exploding Snap, when the boys walked in. Everybody froze when Draco automatically sat on the floor by Magnolia's feet. None of them had ever seen Draco sit on the floor.

"Right!" Theo exclaimed, snapping everyone out of their trances and pulling Magnolia and Draco's attention to him, "What in the name of Merlin is going on with you two?"

"And don't try to lie to us." Tracey added.

Magnolia looked down at Draco, who was already facing her. He was giving her the choice. He had promised to wait for her to decide what she wanted, and now Magnolia knew that he was giving her the choice to tell their friends what had happened or not.

Magnolia glanced at Pansy, she didn't know what the girl would do, but found her smiling at Magnolia. Pansy nodded ever so slightly, enough for just Magnolia to see. Magnolia felt her own smile forming and turned back to Draco.

"Well, we're… you know."

Draco laughed, "Eloquent as always."

"You do it then!" Magnolia giggled back, hitting him lightly on the shoulder.

"Ok." Draco turned back to their friends, "…Well, we're… you know."

"Oh, this is painful to watch." Blaise moaned as the others laughed, "Do you two even know what's going on between you?"

"We're… we're… well… Draco." Magnolia stumbled.

"Ok, different question." Pansy interrupted, "What happened when we all went to bed after the Second Task? Because that was when it changed, did you two kiss?"

Magnolia and Draco glanced at each other, "Yes."

"So, are you two a couple now?" Daphne asked.

"We're just keeping it casual. Low profile." Magnolia replied.

"Lia's worried about her brother's reaction and it distracting him from the Tournament." Draco continued, sarcastically. "It's easier for us to not go public with this yet, too many people will have opinions."

"Well, we think it's great." Pansy told the pair.

"About bloody time." Theo laughed.

The following days were much easier for the pair, Magnolia knew that when she and Draco were with their friends, they didn't have to hide anything. It was pleasant, those few days. Magnolia would wake to a mug of tea on her bedside table every morning and be escorted to the Great Hall by Draco.

Magnolia was on her way to Potions on Friday afternoon, the last class of the week, when she heard a familiar clunking noise. She groaned internally as Moody called her name from down the corridor. Reluctantly, Magnolia slowed down and cast a final longing look towards the Dungeons corridor that led to the Potions class, before turning away.

"Miss Potter." Moody growled as he approached her, "I was hoping to catch you alone. I wanted to check on you, after the Task."

"Oh. I'm fine."

"I've noticed you're quieter in class this week. Did something happen in the Lake?"

"Other then my brother and I almost drowning?" Magnolia snapped back, "No, nothing."

"Some of the other Hostages have told me that they had dreams whilst they were in the water. Vivid dreams, did you have anything like that?"

"No." Magnolia answered quickly, "Nothing like that."

Magnolia was desperate to get away from Moody, his probing eyes and suggestive tone made her think of the dream she had had in the water. She didn't want to think about it, and she certainly didn't want Moody to know about it.

She could feel the tell-tale tingle in her mind that she had come to realise was Moody trying to read it. Instead of the memory of Tom Riddle rescuing her from the deep water of the Lake, Magnolia pushed a memory of her and Draco the morning after the Second Task to the front of her mind.

Magnolia focused on the memory of Draco holding her hand as they rushed through the hallways of the Castle to find somewhere they could be alone. She focused on the feeling of his thumb softly rubbing against her hand, the butterflies in her stomach as they found an empty classroom and the feeling of his lips on hers as he held her against the wall.

Magnolia saw Moody wince slightly, obviously seeing the memory she pushed forward instead of what he had wanted to see. Magnolia smirked a little.

"Now, if you'll excuse me. I have to get to Potions."

Magnolia quickly turned and left Moody, practically running down the corridor to her Potion's class. She groaned as she realised that no one was outside, which meant she was late. She tried to sneak in, but Professor Snape caught her straight away.

"You're late."

"I'm sorry, Professor." Magnolia mumbled, "Moody caught me in the hallway on my way."

Professor Snape's eyes narrowed, "Stay after class. Now, take your seat and begin your Potion."

Magnolia saw her place free next to Draco and sat down with him. He immediately leaned closer to her, linking his little finger with hers as they had been over the course of the week.

"Moody caught you?" He whispered to her.

Magnolia nodded, "He was asking if I had dreams in the Lake."

"And?"

"I didn't tell him." Magnolia smirked, "He tried to get in my mind, so I showed him us instead."

"Did you have a dream under there?"

Magnolia winced; she hadn't told Draco about the dream she had had. She had meant to, but things had changed between them and she didn't want to ruin the happy bubble they had with the dream. Draco sneered as he realised that she had.

"We'll talk later."

Draco dropped Magnolia's hand then and focused back on his Potion. Magnolia could see some commotion coming for the back of the classroom before Harry was moved to sit by the front. She could tell her brother was furious, he had thrown his ingredients down on to the table and she saw how tense he was when Professor Snape was stood by him.

Harry wasn't the only one who felt tense; Magnolia did too, and she could tell by Draco's frown that he was as well. Usually, he was so relaxed when he was brewing a potion. Magnolia always loved to watch Draco when he was in Potions, he excelled at it naturally.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Karkaroff stormed in towards Professor Snape. Draco glanced at Magnolia as the entire class watched the Durmstrang Headteacher talk to their Professor.

"I want to talk now, while you can't slip off, Severus. You've been avoiding me."

"After the lesson." Professor Snape snapped back.

Magnolia wasn't sure the last time she had seen her Professor look so angry. Throughout the rest of the class, Karkaroff lingered by Professor Snape's desk and her Professor often sent him heated glances.

Magnolia was glad when the lesson came to an end. She packed her things away and began to walk out of the class with her Slytherin friends, hoping that her Head of House would have forgotten about keeping her after class. She breathed a sigh in relief as she managed to escape the classroom and the strange, irate whispers coming from Professor Snape and Karkaroff.

"Maggie!"

Maggie heard her twin calling her and told her friends to go on without her.

"Did you know?" Harry snapped as he approached his sister.

"About what?"

Hermione and Ron joined them and pulled Magnolia to the side of the hallway before handing her a copy of Witch Weekly. 'Harry Potter's Secret Heartache'. Magnolia scoffed as she read the article, until she read a quote from Pansy.

"I've got to go."

Magnolia moved quickly through the hallways, until she stomped through the Common Room where her friends were sat. She stopped in front of Pansy, throwing the magazine at her.

"What's this?" She growled.

"You're welcome." Pansy smiled.

"Welcome?"

"Rita Skeeter came to me, I thought it would be a good way to get the heat off of you from your article." Pansy shrugged, "She wanted more information on you, so I turned it the other way."

Magnolia's anger dissolved. Pansy was trying to protect her, and a part of her was grateful that her friend had taken it upon herself to do that. She huffed as she realised that she would have done the very same thing for them.

"We need to talk." Draco was standing by her side now, whispering into her ear and linking their little fingers.

Magnolia was pulled away from their friends, down the stairs to the Dorms and into Draco's room. He didn't let go of her hand until she was sat on his bed, glancing around the boy's dorm. It was a lot neater and cleaner than she had thought it would be. Having lived with Harry in such a small space for so long, she thought all boys would be the same as her brother.

Magnolia was perched on the edge of Draco's bed, not wanting to look at him as he sat by the foot of it, one leg bent on the bed. She knew he was watching her as she took in the room he spent most of his year in at Hogwarts. She could immediately tell which beds belonged to Blaise, Theo, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Lia."

Magnolia trained her eyes on her knees at his tone. He was disappointed. Disappointed and a little bit angry. She still wasn't sure that she wanted to tell him about the dream. She had always told him everything, now it was different though. Draco wasn't just the pompous jerk she shared a House with anymore. She wasn't just Harry Potter's Slytherin sister anymore.

"Lia, look at me."

Magnolia reluctantly glanced at him; she could tell by his eyes that he was worried about what she had dreamt, hurt that she hadn't told him sooner and angry that she would have kept it from him longer if Moody hadn't caught her.

"Tell me."

"It was nothing."

"Lia, why wont you tell me?" He asked, pleadingly, "You've always told me everything. Even about the dream where you chose the Dark Lord."

"Things are different now, though."

Draco sighed, "Lia, I'm not going to think worse of you because we're together. It certainly won't make me not want you."

Magnolia fiddled with his bed covering, before leaning back on his headboard and telling him about her dream. She watched him closely as he listened, taking note of every tiny expression change. Once she had finished, he nodded.

"I don't know what it means, but I'm glad you told me. And I don't know why you keep having dreams like that. But I do have an idea of what we can do about it."

"Really?" Magnolia perked up straight away, thrilled that Draco had an idea.

"Oh yes." He smirked, shifting from his seated position to his knees, "I'll just have to make you forget about any other man but me."

Magnolia giggled as Draco crawled towards her, until he hovered above her and trapped her with his arms either side of her body. Magnolia lightly touched his mouth with her fingertips, smiling at his playful smirk before he captured her lips with his.

The following morning, Magnolia was walking to Hogsmeade with the Slytherins. Blaise and Theo were still glaring playfully between her and Draco after they had walked into their Dorm the night before, just to find the two snogging on Draco's bed. They had, of course, greatly exaggerated the story to the girls, and by the time Magnolia walked back into her own dorm for bed, the girls pounced on her for information.

As Magnolia took her cloak off on the way down to Hogsmeade, she laughed, "I hope this isn't too naked for you boys."

Blaise and Theo scowled at her, as the rest of the group joined in with her laughter. They headed straight for the Three Broomsticks, taking a seat as the boys went to order the drinks. Magnolia stayed with them for a little while before Harry popped his head round the door and beckoned her over to him.

Magnolia walked with Harry, Hermione, and Ron further then she had ever been in Hogsmeade. She thought that she'd like to come this way again, maybe with Draco for some privacy. There was hardly anyone around here, and they were surrounded by countryside and the mountains.

When Magnolia spotted the big black dog, she couldn't help the smile that broke out on her face. She ran toward sit, dropping to her knees as she hugged it, feeling the dog nuzzle into her hair and lick her cheek. She moved back and saw the wolfish grin on its face.

The four students followed the dog through the fields as it led them to cave in the mountain and changed back into Magnolia and Harry's godfather before their eyes. Magnolia noticed Buckbeak tethered to the side, as Harry gave Sirius the bag of food he had brought him.

"What are you doing here, Sirius?" Harry asked.

Magnolia rolled her eyes at her brother, settling next to Buckbeak and stroking his feathers. Their godfather wanted to be near them, Magnolia noticed his subtle look towards her as he explained about his worry.

She tuned out of their conversation as they discussed Barty Crouch, she had already read the Daily Prophet's articles about his mystery illness. Although, she did lean forward when she saw Sirius contemplating about him firing his House Elf.

"Winky didn't steal that wand!" Hermione cried as Sirius suggested someone in the Top Box at the Quidditch match could have stolen it.

"The elf wasn't the only one in that box. Who else was sitting behind you?"

"Loads of people," Harry shrugged, "Some Bulgarian ministers, Cornelius Fudge, the Malfoys."

"The Malfoys!" Ron shouted, startling everyone in the cave, "I bet it was the Malfoy's! Maggie ran into Malfoy on his own in the woods, didn't she!"

"It wasn't Draco, don't be so ridiculous." She replied, calming Buckbeak.

"Ludo Bagman was in the Top Box too, Harry." Hermione reminded him.

Magnolia was glad that Hermione had brought their attention back Harry's wand, she hadn't meant to stick up for Draco so easily, and she could tell by Harry's grimace that he had noticed her call him Draco.

Magnolia listened as Sirius told them all about Crouch; how he was the one to send Sirius to Azkaban, and his own son, how he was set to be the Minister for Magic until his wife and son died.

"Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark wizards." Harry told Sirius.

Magnolia rolled her eyes again, of course Harry would tell Sirius about Moody.

"Yeah, I've heard it's become a bit of a mania with him. If you ask me, he still thinks he can bring back the old popularity by catching one more Death Eater."

"And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" Ron added.

Magnolia frowned; she hadn't known that. She wondered what else her brother had forgotten to tell her. She glanced back at Buckbeak; she couldn't really talk; she had been keeping a lot from him. Her dreams, the Occlumency, Moody, Draco.

"Why are Moody and Crouch so keen to get into Snape's office then?" Ron asked, after Sirius had told them about Snape when he was younger and his prevalence for the Dark Arts.

"I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to have searched every single teacher's office when he got to Hogwarts. He takes Defence Against the Dark Arts seriously, Moody. I'm not sure he trusts anyone at all, and after the things he's seen, it's not surprising"

Magnolia phased out again; it was one thing listening to her brother worship Moody, she didn't need to listen to her godfather saying what a great Auror he was too.

"What's the time? Sirius asked.

"It's half past three." Hermione responded.

"Ok, let's talk about you now, Princess."

"Me?" Magnolia startled.

"You've been awfully quiet." Sirius sat next to her, "What's been going on?"

Magnolia looked down at Buckbeak's feathers, "Did you see the article?"

"Yes, I've heard rumours about that before. It makes sense that so many people were talking about Harry and not you when I was in Azkaban."

"Do you know why?" Magnolia asked, hopefully.

Sirius shook his head, "I'm afraid not. But I do think Skeeter was right about one thing. It's Dark Magic that kept you from being remembered. You-Know-Who must have done something to you that night before he tried to kill Harry."

Magnolia winced.

"Keep close to the right people, Princess. With Moody at Hogwarts, no Dark wizard will be getting to you."

"It's Moody I'm most worried about."

Harry scoffed, "Here we go again. Mags, Moody is the good guy! Stop trying to find things wrong with him."

"He just doesn't feel right, Harry."

"Yeah, well maybe if you weren't hanging around with Slytherin's all the time, you could actually tell a good wizard from a dark one." Harry snapped back.

"Harry!" Hermione and Sirius yelled at the same time.

Magnolia glared at her brother, "Maybe if you weren't such a prejudiced Gryffindor, you could too."

Magnolia made a hasty exit then, barely casting a glance at any of the others in the cave. If that was how Harry thought when she was just friends with the Slytherins, how would he feel when he found out about her and Draco? Magnolia growled as she pushed the thought from her mind and stormed back through the countryside towards Hogsmeade village.

The following week, Magnolia was being dragged to the Owlery by Hermione with Harry and Ron. Things were still frosty between her and her twin, neither of them apologising about what they had said. Hermione had already told Magnolia that Sirius was furious with Harry for what he had said.

She had also told Magnolia about Harry's encounter with Crouch in the Forest the night before, which was why at the crack of dawn, they were sending a letter to Sirius. Magnolia didn't understand why she had had to go as well, it didn't take four of them to give Hedwig a letter.

"That's blackmail, that is, we could get into a lot of trouble for that-"

"We've tried being polite, it's time to play dirty, like him. He wouldn't like the Ministry knowing what he did."

I'm telling you, if you put that in writing, it's blackmail!"

"Yeah, and you won't be complaining if we get a nice fat pay-off, will you?"

Magnolia frowned as she heard George and Fred speaking. She hadn't seen George since the Second Task; she'd been too busy spending most of her spare time with Draco. Tracey had yelled at them only a few days before, telling them to pull the curtains around their beds if they were going to snog in the dorm rooms. Magnolia had blushed when Theo added everything else the pair could do with the curtains drawn and a silencing charm put up.

"What are you doing here?" Fred and Ron asked at the same time.

"Sending a letter." Harry and George replied instantly.

Magnolia chuckled when Hermione and Fred then spoke at the same time too. It was quickly wiped away though when George asked Magnolia to take a walk with him. The others smiled at her as she desperately tried to come up with a reason to not be alone with George but couldn't and just softly nodded at him.

"So, what was that all about?" Magnolia asked, as they walked away from the others.

"Nothing."

"Didn't sound like nothing."

"It's nothing."

"George, who are you blackmailing?"

"No one, it was a joke." George's tone hardened, "Like I said, it was nothing."

"Fine."

"So, how have you been? I haven't seen you much since the last task."

"Fine, just busy with studying."

"Sure, I bet you've got a lot at the moment. O. are tough."

"Yeah."

"Well, if you fancy, we could do breakfast one day, seeing as it's getting warmer now."

"George…"

Magnolia heard George sigh beside her. Things had never been this awkward between them, and she had a niggling idea he knew why. He and Fred might be class clowns, but Magnolia knew that he noticed things other people didn't.

"You can't, right?"

"I'm sorry."

"What happened?"

Magnolia shrugged, "The Task-"

"It terrified me; you know." George interrupted, as they stopped by the edge of the Lake, "Seeing you after you were pulled from the Lake. Do you know what happened?"

"No, last thing I remember was Harry and I being surrounded by Grindylows."

"Weird. That's what Harry said too." George mumbled, "I saw you get above the water with Harry and the little girl, and then you both vanished again. Then there was this flash of light, we all assumed you or Harry had done something."

The two stood, looking out at the Lake silently, for a few minutes. Magnolia was wondering what the light had been. She had thought that Harry had gotten them away from the Grindylows and out of the Lake, but it didn't seem like that had happened.

She was startled out of her thoughts, when she felt a hand in her hands, and saw George turn to face her. He looked sad but determined.

"I don't think I've ever been so worried as I was that day." George told her passionately, "First, when I realised that you were in the Lake. And then, seeing you lying on the platform… I thought you were dead. Nola, it broke my heart to see you like that."

"George…"

George shook his head, "No, just let me say this. I think I know why you think you can't see me anymore; I saw you at the Yule Ball with Malfoy. But he's not good for you, he isn't enough. And I'm not saying I am enough, honestly, I don't think I deserve you at all. But I would treat you right, I would treat the best I could."

"I don't know what you're talking about George."

"I won't tell Harry. He gets angry enough seeing you with any of the Slytherins. Just remember Nola, I'm not giving up on you. Because I know one day, you'll realise that I'm better for you. And when that day comes, I'll be waiting. And whenever Malfoy messes up or upsets you or hurts you, I will be right there to pick up the pieces and show him how he should have treated you. Because you, Nola, deserve the absolute best."

Magnolia couldn't reply; as soon as George finished speaking, he bent to kiss her cheek and walked back to the Castle. For a moment, she stared back out at the Lake before she headed back to the Castle and Draco.