45
The next morning Emily woke up with a slight headache. Finding herself still wrapped up in Marcus' bed she sat up and looked around the room. It was the standard Slytherin dorm, though he had put up several pictures of friends and family, that waved as her eyes passed over them. The Quidditch captain had his broom leaning in the corner by his desk and a banner declaring 'Puddlemere United' his favorite team just above it.
"There's hangover potion in the nightstand if you need it." Emily looked down at the boy who was rubbing his eyes as he reached out with his other hand to rub her back. "Did you sleep okay?"
The witch nodded and smiled, "I did, thank you for…"
"Don't mention it Little Snake." Marcus looked incredibly tired as his hand that was rubbing his eyes moved to rest above his head. "I'm not very exciting on the Sunday after Quidditch ends but you are welcome to stay and lay here for a bit if you want."
"I should probably go find Draco, if he gets up before me to find I'm not with him, he'll have gone straight to my room."
"And if he doesn't find you there, he'll think you snuck out to find Diggory," Marcus correctly assumed.
"Protective best friends, you know."
Marcus smiled and shook his head slightly, "He cares for you, is that so bad?"
"It would be nice if he and my boyfriend could get along. They seemed okay at first but after Yule, everything changed." Leaning back against the headboard Emily ran her hands over her face, she felt Marcus' hand continue to rub circles in a soothing manner on her lower back.
"That's because Diggory changed, or at least got bolder. I can't say I knew him that well, other than on the field before you started dating him..."
Emily looked down at the boy, "What do you mean?"
"Do you not see the way most of the guys in the castle look at you? He's made it clear you belong to him, people won't approach you because despite being a Puff, Diggory is a rather intimidating guy."
The witch rolled her eyes, "Come off it, people won't come near me because I'm the evil Potter twin. I'm out to kill all the muggleborns and support a pureblood agenda. I'm a parselmouth, who rules over her snakes from the Chamber of Secrets."
"While I would never want to be on the other side of your wand, its not fear of you that's keeping other blokes from approaching you. People don't want to find themselves in the hospital wing because they dared to say hello." Emily scoffed at the boy. "I'm serious, Emily you may not realize this, but you are the most eligible witch in this school. You are beautiful, you are of the House of Potter, that alone comes with wealth and a title. You are powerful, well connected and you are currently not bound by a betrothal contract. Not to mention the rumors that the Black line is to pass through you and your brother since their last heir was sent to Azkaban. Has Lucius not talked to you about any of this?"
"A little bit, I mean mostly we go over etiquette and they have been helping me learn the old ways but there's not much that can be done till I'm 15. As far as I know my only guardians were my muggle relatives and I haven't seen them since they dropped Harry and I off at the train station before first year."
"Maybe it wouldn't hurt to talk to him about it. Technically there has to be a magical guardian assigned to you, maybe he can find out who that is."
Nodding Emily sighed, "I should get going. Draco is definitely awake by now."
"You could wait a little longer, it might be amusing to see if he tries to find you in the Hufflepuff dorm."
"Not if Cedric finds out, that might open questions I don't know if I want to answer."
"Fair enough Little Snake, I think I may try to get some more rest. I've been practicing so much, that between Quidditch and my NEWTs I'm exhausted."
"Sounds good." Smiling Emily leaned down and pecked the boy's lips, "Sleep well, and thank you."
"I'm always around. Even after I'm gone, I'll just be an owl away."
Laughing Emily tugged on the boy's shirt she was wearing, "I'm stealing this and your hangover potion."
"Go right ahead."
Standing the witch grabbed a vile of the blue potion that she found in the nightstand drawer. Downing the liquid quickly, she then tossed the empty container in a bowl with several others. She heard the older boy chuckle as she slipped out of his room and quickly made her way to the boys third-year hallway.
Finding Draco's room, she was about to open the door when a disheveled looking Blaise did it for her. The Italian wizard gave her a small bow in greeting before heading down the hall to his own room.
"Knock, knock." Emily said as she walked into the room to find her best friend already getting dressed.
"I was just about to go find you."
"No need," the girl answered shutting the door behind her and moving to grab a clean pair of panties from her stash of clothes in Draco's dresser before throwing herself on her friend's bed. Draco for his part hadn't moved and was watching her carefully.
"Where have you been? Whose shirt is that?"
"Why did I just see a certain Italian leaving your room?" she countered.
"Blaise stayed the night." Emily raised an eyebrow at her friend, "Nothing serious, we just snogged a bit and then passed out. I woke up and thought he was you, that was a bit awkward. When I realized you weren't here, I told him he had to go because I had to track you down, I shouldn't have abandoned you last night."
"You didn't need to kick him out on my account and I get it, you caught the snitch, you beat Harry Potter! Go Snakes!"
Shaking his head the blonde moved to the corner of the bed and leaned against the post, "He shouldn't have been here in the first place, he's betrothed. It was a lapse of judgement from the excitement and alcohol."
"Makes two of us I guess," it was Draco's turn to look suspiciously at his friend. "I don't regret it though and maybe that makes me a bad person." Emily sighed, clearly her best friend felt bad about his dalliance, but she truly felt no remorse even though, unlike Draco, she was actually in a relationship. Nothing had been made official between him and Daphne as of yet. "Dray?"
"Yes…"
"Does Cedric want to propose a betrothal contract?"
"Who told you that?"
"No stalling, I want an honest answer."
The boy hesitated but nodded his head yes, "They approached Father at Yule, but without you having a set magical guardian all talks have to wait until you turn 15 and can legally sign the documents for yourself."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"To be honest I thought Mr. Hufflepuff had told you about his intentions. Father said he planned to speak with you this summer about everything, but there were a few things he wanted to look into first. It's not just the Diggorys that are interested in courting you though, multiple families have approached Father."
"Marcus said something similar," Emily stared at the ceiling wondering how blind she must have been. She felt ridiculous for not noticing sooner but there was also an ounce of anger geared toward Cedric for not telling her he had wanted to draft a contract.
"When were you speaking to Marcus?"
"Does Cedric scare other people away from me?"
"Honestly?" Emily nodded her head as she propped herself up to look at her friend. "There have been a few people who've had mysterious accidents that have been rumored to have an interest in you. Nothing really crazy but bad enough that they would think twice before coming near you."
The witch let herself fall back on the bed again and sighed. She had no idea what she was going to do with all this new information. She should be flattered that her boyfriend wanted to spend forever with her and was willing to protect their relationship yet something wasn't sitting right with her, not to mention what she had allowed to happen the night before. Maybe she was as heartless as she was rumored to be.
Draco cleared his throat grabbing Emily's attention, "Are you going to explain where this came from? Or better yet whose shirt you're wearing?"
"It's Marcus'."
"I see."
"I slept with him last night."
Draco nodded a small smirk on his face, "Well I'm glad you were able to find a surrogate for me. I was worried when I woke up that I was going to have to go looking for you by the Hufflepuff common room."
"No, Dray, I slept with him last night, well not slept but we kissed and he might have gone down on me… but then we did sleep but like actually sleep not sleep…"
Slowly realization struck and the boy moved to sit on the bed, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I was completely willing. If anything I kind of pushed him, he was trying to be sensible but I don't know, it felt good."
"Do you like Marcus, you know…"
"He's betrothed, yes I'm aware and no I don't feel that way about him. It was a onetime thing."
"I see."
"Is it bad that I'm not bothered that I messed around with someone who isn't Cedric?"
Lying down next to his friend, Draco took Emily's hand, "Is it bad that I'm relieved you weren't in the Hufflepuff dorm more than I care about you snogging my Quidditch Captain?" That comment earned a laugh and the pair smiled at each other. "Are you going to break up with Mr. Hufflepuff?"
"I don't know."
"Fair enough."
"Dray?"
"Yeah?"
"Your shirt is on backwards."
"Thanks for the heads up."
"Anytime," she rolled into her best friend's chest, a smile on her face.
0o0oo0oo0o0
The castle seemed sullen the days following the Quidditch final. The hope of having Slytherin knocked to second place was lost and people were not quick to recover. Slytherin House however functioned as it usually did come the end of term, people were busy revising for their finals and of course there were a few who couldn't help but clap whenever they saw Draco congratulating him on his win. But the Slytherins seemed to be the only ones in reasonable spirits.
Even Hagrid had seemed more down than usual but with her time preoccupied and various sanctions still being enforced due to Sirius Black being on the loose, she hadn't had time to catch up with the giant. Emily had been stuck attending CoMC though, Cedric was busy studying and the pair hadn't seen too much of each other since the Quidditch final and Emily couldn't help but think that maybe it was for the better.
"They just can't, Hagrid!" Weasley said loudly as Granger and Harry attempted to quiet him. "I read!"
"That's a first," Theo mumbled grabbing another piece of lettuce to feed to his flobberworm. The boy had taken to sitting by Emily and Draco in their shared classes and the pair had to admit the boy was a rather decent wizard when he shut his mouth and put his mind to a task.
"How are we back to these creatures," Draco sighed. "I really am sorry about this."
"You can stop apologizing now, the year is almost out anyway. Soon we will never have to take this class again."
"Speak for yourself, part of my Father's business is based on the study of magical creatures. I'm stuck taking this class through my NEWTs." Emily and Draco both cringed in sympathy for Theo as he poked his flobberworm, "I think it's dead." Picking it up he passed it to the witch, "Put it in a potion, better use of it then it just lying out here to rot."
Shrugging Emily accepted the animal and took the excuse to quickly leave the paddock in search of a jar to store it in.
0o0oo0oo0o0
"How are your exams going?" Cedric asked as he read his Defense book in preparation for his next final.
"As good as one can expect," Emily answered, the girl was lying on her back by the lake, her mind focused on her Ancient Runes exam as she practiced drawing runes in the air with her wand.
The boy nodded, "I'm guessing you'll be first in your year again."
Shrugging Emily looked at her boyfriend, "I don't see why not. What about you?" The pair had never discussed his standings much but from what she had gathered over the week was that he was usually in the top two of his year.
"Cedric?" a new voice called out interrupting the Hufflepuff from answering. Sitting up the witch realized that Cho Chang the Ravenclaw seeker was heading in their direction. "Cedric, I've been looking for you. I was hoping…"
The girl stopped as she got closer probably realizing the boy wasn't alone. Emily watched as his eyes narrowed, he looked annoyed at the intrusion. Cedric reached out for the witch, his arm holding her extremely tight as if his grip on her was stopping him from reaching for his wand. "I haven't seen Felix," he responded tightly.
The girl looked confused at Cedric's statement before she quickly nodded her head in agreement, "Oh right, yes, thank you. I just thought maybe you knew where he was."
The boy shook his head and turned to kiss Emily's forehead before his attention was back on his Defense book. Cho didn't move, her eyes were looking between the pair sat before her. Emily finally caught her eye and she noticed the older girl blush, "Did you need something else?"
"No, thank you, I'll just go try and find Felix."
As the seeker walked away Emily wriggled a bit to loosen Cedric's hold, "What was that about?" When the boy just made a sound of question but didn't look up at her she nudged him. "Ced?"
"Surely you remember Liam and Felix talking about her at the game between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."
"I remember."
"Well Felix decided to find out if the rumors are true."
"What rumors?"
"It's no big deal Em, they are just messing around."
"You don't seem to like her very much."
"I don't."
The witch couldn't help but feel there was something her boyfriend wasn't telling her but she didn't push. After a few minutes of them sitting quietly while Cedric read he flipped his book shut and made to stand gathering his things. "I need to go find Liam before class, do you want me to walk you back up to the castle?"
"I'm fine here, I'll head in shortly."
Nodding Cedric leaned down and pecked Emily's lips before heading off towards the castle. Emily sighed as she laid back down on the grass and stared up at the sky, partially glad her boyfriend had left. Pulling out her wand she started back at her Runes practice.
0o0oo0oo0o0
On Thursday Emily and Draco were walking through the halls having just cleaned themselves up after their Defense final when they ran into Cornelius Fudge. He was wiping the sweat from his brow with a hanky as two men headed out onto the grounds. One was rather withered looking while the other was tall and kept twirling his mustache.
"Good day Minister," Draco greeted.
"Draco! It's so good to see you my boy, why I just saw your father this morning before I came over. Nasty business everything today, but I guess it comes with the job." The man patted his brow again and attempted to smiled at the pair. "Miss Potter, it is a pleasure as always."
The man took the girl's offered hand and kissed it in greeting, "Likewise Minister."
"Oh, you two can both call me Cornelius."
"Then you must call me Emily."
"I will my dear! Now I best be off, I need to check in with the Auror in Hogsmeade before I head down to witness the execution."
"Execution?" Emily questioned.
"Oh yes, I'm afraid it has been decided that there is a mad hippogriff that must be put down. In fact, the very one that injured young Draco here. I can't apologize enough that action wasn't taken sooner but you know how Dumbledore can be with pushing for second chances."
"Of course, I trust in you and our ministry to do what is right."
"Good, good. Well, I must be off."
"Have a good day Cornelius."
"You two as well."
With a small bow to the teens the man took off in the direction of the grounds.
"They are killing Buckbeak?" Emily asked Draco as the pair headed towards the kitchens which was their original destination.
"Father said it couldn't be helped. Once Edmond had heard of what happened he was on a rampage, anything to discredit Dumbledore or get that 'giant oaf' fired."
"How did I not know about this?"
"You've been really busy this year between Mr. Hufflepuff and all your work with Sev, its not like this is a big deal."
Emily nodded in agreement, "Remember tonight is the last night I meet with Sev."
"Are you excited?"
"I'm mostly just curious to see how it turns out, I did a lot of the brewing on my own this time."
"Uncle Sev wouldn't serve it to him if you hadn't done it correctly."
Emily wasn't sure about that, it was clear to her that the Potion Master had a strong distaste for the werewolf and she wouldn't put it past him to have had the thought of poisoning the man cross his mind a time or two.
As the pair entered the kitchen it was to the usual chaos, though waiting off to the side was Professor Trelawny. She didn't seem to notice the two Slytherins and swayed slowly back and forth as she hummed a tune to herself. Draco requested a basket to be put together and the pair stood next to the waiting Divination Professor. At some point her head fell forward and Emily thought the woman might have fallen asleep standing up.
"IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT."
Emily looked over to Draco and together the confused pair stared at the Professor whose head was now turned towards the younger witch her eyes completely blank. "Professor Trelawny, are you okay?"
Draco touched Emily's arm and shook his head. "I think she's actually in a trance, she can't hear you."
"THE DARK LORD HAS LIED IN WAIT. ALONE AND FRIENDLESS HE HAS FAUGHT TO SURVIVE. TWELVE YEARS HE HAS WAITED, TWELVES YEARS HIS SERVANT HAS HOPED TO ESCAPE. TONIGHT THE SERVANT SHALL BE FREED TO AID HIS MASTER, THE RESSURECTION EVER CLOSER, THE FEAR AND TERROR EVER GREATER THAN BEFORE. RUN… RUN… RUN… HE WILL SOON RETURN. TONIGHT BEFORE MIDNIGHT HE SHALL ESACPE, BY NEXT WEEKS DAWN THEY SHALL BE REUNITED."
Professor Trelawny started to collapse but Draco was quick enough to catch the woman before she hit the floor. She started coughingand shaking her head before she looked up at the two students. "Oh thank you dear, I must have drifted off again… I seem to be doing that quite a lot today."
Draco helped the older witch to sit on the floor as Emily asked, "Professor, what do you know about the Dark Lord and his servants?"
The woman looked strangely at the girl and titled her head, "Not much dear. Just about what everyone else does I suppose."
"But you just mentioned him and his servant."
"Did I? Your brother said something similar just a few minutes ago. He was my last exam of the day… I drifted off during his final and I think we both might have been a bit tired after all the tests this week, he was my last exam of the day you know."
"Yes, you just mentioned that."
"Oh… well what were we discussing?"
"The Dark Lord and his servant."
"You know your brother just said something similar to me."
"Yous basket is ready Misters Malfoy." A small elf's voice could be heard from behind the large basket it was holding up as an offering.
"Thank you Kippy," Draco took the basket from the small elf who nodded with a blush and ran off back into the depth of the kitchens. Nodding in the direction of the door with his head the boy offered his free arm to Emily. "Have a good day Professor."
"You too dears!"
As the kitchen door started to close they could hear the woman and resumed her humming. "Draco, what…"
"Not here. Let's get back to Uncle Sev's quarters."
The two moved as quickly as they could through the halls when they were confronted by Cedric and his approaching friends. "There you are! I have been looking everywhere for you!"
The boy pulled Emily away from Draco and gave her a long kiss. "You've been looking for me? I thought you had one final left."
"We finished about an hour ago, the guys and I are on our way to the kitchens to request some food in celebration."
"That's what we were doing as well," Draco announced holding up the basket in his hand. "We would invite you to join but we have to meet Professor Snape."
Cedric looked like he was about to protest so Emily was quick to intervene, "Tonight is my last night working on the project but I'm all yours tomorrow."
"Good," the boy kissed the witch again and gave her a small squeeze as his friends were quick to join him and the group took off laughing towards the kitchens.
"You need to sort that out," Draco offered holding out his arm once again.
"One headache at a time, please."
"Yes, but that is a headache I've been dealing with for months."
"Not now Dray."
"Fine, but by summer."
Emily shook her head as Draco led her further into the dungeons, hissing the word 'Open' when they reached Severus' quarters. The place was empty, not that they were surprised, Severus was supposed to be holding the fourth-year exams for another hour.
The pair settled into the couch and Draco started serving up the food from the basket. The elves had put together a lovely meal of turkey, roast potatoes and green beans. He poured them both a glass of butterbeer and the pair tucked in, silence filled the room, both not completely sure about what had just happened.
Sighing as she finished, Emily put her plate on the coffee table before tucking her feet underneath her and getting more comfortable on the couch. "Why do weird things have to happen to me?"
"Sounds like it happened to your brother as well."
"Is that known to happen? Can someone really give the same prophecy twice?"
"I don't know, I'm more shocked she gave a prophecy at all."
"Prophecy?" A smooth deep voice questioned as the entrance to the room closed.
Looking over at Severus, Emily shrugged, "We don't really know."
"We think it was a prophecy, the signs were all there."
Severus looked between the two teens, "Explain."
"Em and I wanted to spend our night together celebrating the end of finals and decided to nip down to the kitchens to grab a basket so we wouldn't need to go to dinner tonight. Professor Trelawny was in the Kitchens too and at first we thought nothing of it, she just stood there humming to herself but then it was like she fell asleep and before we knew it she was staring at Em… though not staring, if that makes sense? She had this blank look to her and her eyes…"
Emily nodded in agreement, "It was eerie feeling. Then she started talking about the Dark Lord."
The teens could see Severus go stiff, it was obvious he did not want to over react and worry the pair but his tension was clear. "What did she say?"
"She said the servant will escape before midnight tonight and will be reunited with his master."
Draco reached out and took the witch's hand, "She also mentioned that the Dark will rise again and his reign will be more terrifying than before."
"Can you show me?" At Draco's nod Severus moved around the couch to kneel in front of his godson. Draco took a deep breath to relax himself as he showed his memory of the event to the Potions Master. Once satisfied with what he saw Severus retreated from the boy's mind and stood, walking over to the fireplace. "What you saw was a prophecy, what I'm curious about is whether what she told your brother varies any from what she told you."
"I don't know."
"Maybe we could try going to dinner and you could approach him?" Draco offered.
"I could try but his friends won't let me be near him alone, especially not if they know what he has heard. They don't trust me."
"Granger seems nice enough to you, maybe she could hold back Weasley."
"I doubt it, smiling at me and trusting me are two different things."
"They're Gryffs, not Ravenclaws."
"It's fine," Severus intervened. "I agree he isn't likely to tell you and it may be that he only knows what we know. Right now, the most important thing is that Emily, you remain by my side at all times tonight."
"But don't you have to take the Wolfsbane to Lupin, if I'm with you he'll know I'm aware of his condition."
"Let him know and while he's at it he can thank you for brewing it for him."
Draco smirked, "That will go over well."
"If nothing else it proves to him that you are more than capable and there was no need to worry about you in the first place. Draco, you may stay here with us but we can't take you along to drop off the potion. I need to notify Dumbledore, you two are not to leave this room."
At nods from the two teens Severus moved towards his bedroom. "Um… Uncle Sev, the door is that way."
"Yes, but I also have a fireplace in here that I can make a call from."
Draco nodded and tried to play off his mistake, but Emily couldn't hold back her smirk. "Oh shut up."