In the weeks that passed after the message on the wall, Cornelia stuck close to Draco, which at first was a miserable affair. Whilst neither of them wanted to be separated (there was a nervousness about Hogwarts that made people move in groups), both of them were extremely awkward and upset about her slapping him. They didn't bring it up, but for a few days Draco avoided her eyes and barely spoke, even losing his smugness with the rest of the students.

Eventually the awkwardness passed, and the pair slipped back into their usual selves, although Cornelia promised herself that she would never raise a hand to Draco again. Maybe a wand – but never a hand.

Draco wrote home asking about the chamber of secrets, as it was now known as amongst the students, and received a long letter back from Lucius about how the chamber had been opened some 50 years ago, and a girl had been killed by the beast that lived within. The culprit had been found and expelled, although he couldn't tell them who it was as the whole affair was strictly confidential. His advice was to keep their heads down and let the heir of Slytherin do their job in cleansing the school of mud-bloods and blood traitors. He also added that he was sure that Hogwarts would be a much better place in the coming year.

"Do you think he had anything to do with it?" Cornelia had whispered to Draco as they read the letter together.

"Father? I don't think so. He would have said."

But Cornelia couldn't shake the feeling that it all seemed so coincidental that Lucius had been so confident that he would be dealing with both the Weasleys' and Dumbledore this year, and her mind kept returning to the book she had seen him slip into Ginny's cauldron. She couldn't see how they were connected, but she was yet to hear of anything else coming out of the situation.

A new tension began to rise within the castle walls as the first quidditch match of the season approached, Syltherin vs Gryffindor. Draco's attitude worsened as he grew nastier towards the students around him, picking more and more victims for Crabbe and Goyle to play with, and the teams regularly tried to put the other out of action. Cornelia attempted to bat off any attempts on Draco, although even she was unable to prevent the Weasley twins, Fred and George from getting a few pranks in on him. One she even allowed – for a little while.

Draco had been on a roll with the amount of people's families he had threatened with his father's position at the ministry, a tactic Cornelia found incredibly humiliating to stand by, when a humourful voice from across the courtyard called "Oi, Malfoy! Heads up!"

Before Draco or Cornelia had a chance to react, a large ball the size and shape of a bludger was launching towards his face.

"Argh!" Draco had yelled in a comical fashion, leaping backwards and covering his face with his arms, only for the ball fall with a soft thump to the floor, it was clearly made of foam.

The twins had come bounding over, broad grins on faces that were obviously used to smiling and glittering mischievous eyes. Cornelia had forgotten to grab her wand, the lack of spite in either of their faces unnerved her, although the boy closest to her did look her quickly up in down in search of the wand he had seen threatening his brother in Flourish and Blotts, before bending to scoop up the ball off the floor.

"Sorry about that!" The other brother said jovially, patting Draco on the back as he slowly straightened out, his face furious. He shook his hand off violently.

"Didn't mean to frighten you!" The twin closest to Cornelia grinned and winked at her before they both turned on their heels and returned back to the corner of the courtyard they had come from.

As Draco spat curses after them and straightened his robes indignantly, Cornelia was surprised to find that her heart was fluttering nervously in her chest and a whisper of the hot flush she felt when she had received Rosalind's first letter was spreading up her neck. She had never been winked at before, and the image of the Weasley twin's wide brown eyes lingered in her mind.

It might have been due to this odd sensation that when Draco turned on his heel to storm from the courtyard and Cornelia saw the words 'DADDY ISSUES' on a piece of paper taped to his back, the high girlish giggles erupted from her mouth. She quickly slapped her hand to her mouth to smother the laughter when Draco threw a dirty look over his shoulder at her.

"What are you laughing at?" He snapped.

Cornelia just shook her head, her eyes watering as she looked anywhere but at his back. Her eyes fell instead on the twins, who were watching with matching grins, and her heart stammered again.

She allowed Draco to walk with the sign on his back for the next 20 minutes, making sure Crabbe nor Goyle caught sight of it and pretending to ignore the giggles that followed them around the castle, before discreetly ripping it off and throwing it in the bin.

Finally, the day of the match arrived and the excitement in the castle was tangible. Cornelia and Blaise had agreed that they would be attending the game, the first quidditch match they had watched since starting at Hogwarts, Cornelia to support Draco and Blaise to support Cornelia.

The atmosphere in the stands was electric as the Slytherins all ascended up the steps and spilled into the rows of wooden pews together, the voices and laughter of the spectators filling the entire grounds. Cornelia, who wasn't accustomed to being closely surrounded with so many bodies and voices felt a little overwhelmed, but also couldn't deny the excited fluttering in her stomach as her, Blaise and Theodore took their seats and cast their eyes across the enormous pitch.

It was an impressive sight, pretty much the entirety of the school had filled the stands surrounding the pitch, including professors who were in the stand two to the left from them. It was as she looked over at the staff that she recognised the glossy silver head of hair and pointed features of Uncle Lucy staring directly back at her. Her heart leapt into her mouth and for a second she was completely flummoxed by the sight of him. He smirked and tipped his head in greeting to her and she hurriedly smothered the expression of shock on her face to wave back to him.

What on earth was he doing here? She thought, before remembering that he had been boasting about getting onto the school board during the summer holidays. She groaned and Theodore turned to her, followed her line of sight and made a surprised noise. "Isn't that-"

"Yep. I wonder if Draco knows."

Cornelia turned back to the pitch and now her stomach fluttered nervously. If Draco was aware that his father was in the stands, she knew that the pressure to perform would be extreme for him, as if his first quidditch game in front of the entire school wasn't enough! Her worries were soon banished however by the student's collective roar as the teams and Madam Hooch walked onto the pitch. The sound thrilled through her and she leant forward eagerly to single out Draco. He was easy to spot, he was one of the smallest on the pitch and his hair glistened in the sun in the same way as his fathers.

If she hadn't thought the spectators could get any louder she had been wrong, as the screams became deafening as the teams kicked off from the ground and zoomed into the air, followed quickly by the balls that Madam Hooch had released and thrown.

Although her eyes were trained on Draco as he sped about the pitch, she noticed that the Weasley twins were playing as beaters for the Gryffindor team. She became momentarily distracted as she followed their flight, unhesitating and synchronised as they swooped and darted after the bludgers, landing powerful blows upon them when it came within their reach, which was often. She quickly dragged her eyes off them to return to Draco who seemed to have changed tactic and was now watching the game unfold from a heightened position.

This was when the mutters and gasps began spreading through the stalls, and once again Cornelia looked away from Draco to see what the problem was. "What's going on?" She asked Theodore who pointed towards Harry Potter who was currently doing an astonishing twirl in mid-air.

"It looks like someone's tampered with that bludger." He explained, his voice was bright with enthusiasm at the prospect.

Every eye in the stadium was upon Harry Potter as he desperately dodged and raced away from the bludger that was unmistakeably chasing him. Fred and George were tailing his every move, hitting the bludger away with increasing urgency, but the bludger would unnaturally change its course and continue its chase on Harry every time.

Harry swooped and swirled up into the air and Cornelia could see that Draco had called out to him from his elevated position; Judging by the ugly expression on his face, he was taunting him. But as Draco glared at Harry, Cornelia wasn't the only one that saw the golden shimmer of the snitch hovering right beside his head. As Harry stared at him and the snitch, he seemingly forgot about the bludger, which shot forward and ferociously smashed into his arm, making the crowd groan. It looked like a split-second decision, and despite his clearly broken arm, Harry darted towards Draco with such speed that Cornelia's hand slapped to her mouth as she gasped. It was over in less than a second, and when Harry's hand closed around the snitch just inches from Draco's head, the stands around them erupted into ecstatic cheers.

Cornelia's heart was racing as the Slytherin's around her groaned and boo'd in disappointment, and when she side glanced at Uncle Lucy his fury was etched into every line on his face. She had to suffocate the urge to run from the stands and off to find Draco immediately, who she was both irritated by his stupidity (as she had, despite herself, gotten quite involved in the match) and concerned for his state of mind as his father, the Slytherin team and all Slytherin's in general turned against him. Instead, she had to summon all her patience and evacuate the stands and make her way back up to the castle with Theodore and Blaise and the rest of the students.

She hovered in the Slytherin common room, unable to sit down and instead wringing her hands nervously by the fire, before Draco and his team finally bustled in through the door. Draco was wearing a sour look on his face and didn't look up as he entered, the team around him sporting similar foul looks. For once, Cornelia was unbothered by the presence of the rest of the team as she quickly stepped towards him.

"Draco!" She breathed, latching herself by his side immediately. He attempted to shake her off.

"Just leave me alone." He muttered, and whilst his words stung she refused to obey, knowing that it was just his dark mood talking.

"It's okay Draco, there's always next time-"

"There might not be a next time." Marcus Flint interrupted her menacingly.

Cornelia barely glanced at him as she shot in a poisonous voice "I suppose you don't want your brooms then?" before turning back to Draco whose cheeks were flushed a dark red. She attempted to touch his arm, but he shook her off again before throwing himself onto the sofa. She barely noticed the rest of the team disperse to be replaced by Croyle, Theodore and Blaise, who lowered themselves quietly and carefully into the seats around them.

"I know you're upset, but honestly, everyone will have forgotten about it by-"

"Did you know father was watching?" Draco asked darkly, staring into the flames in the fireplace.

Cornelia hesitated, she was hoping that Draco hadn't known. "Yes." She admitted.

"He never came to see me afterwards. He just left." He spat and Cornelia jerked towards him automatically, she so wanted to comfort him but she knew he didn't want to be touched right now.

"That's not your fault." She said softly but Draco didn't seem to be listening.

"What the hell was Potter doing anyway? All that showing off on his broom, he knew I wouldn't be able to ignore it."

"Well, the bludger had been tampered with…"

"Oh shut up, Nelly! You don't believe that rubbish do you?" Draco finally looked scathingly at her and his sharp words felt like a slap. Cornelia straightened in her seat; her concern quickly being overshadowed by offence.

"Maybe if you weren't so obsessed with Harry Potter you might have seen the snitch!" She snapped, and the words were no sooner out of her mouth than she regretted them immediately. Draco on the other hand smirked, it was if he had been pushing her to say exactly that. His eyes narrowed dangerously and he jutted out his chin, the smug expression she hated so much returning.

"Didn't my mother teach you when to shut your mouth?" He said loudly. There was a sharp intake of breath from Theodore behind her and the people closest to them in the common room hushed.

If she hadn't watched the words come out of his mouth, Cornelia wouldn't have believed her ears. It felt as if all the noise of the common room slipped away, and Draco's words echoed loudly around her head. Her mouth slackened in surprise as she stared at him, and Draco realised he had crossed a line. She watched his smug expression flicker and the familiar worried crease appearing on his forehead instead. He had just begun to lift his hand to reach for her when something snapped shut in Cornelia's head and the sound of the room rushed back in. She stood sharply and walked blindly towards the dormitory, ignoring Draco's shouts of "Nelly!" behind her.

Cornelia spent the rest of the day locked away in the dormitory, pulling the heavy velvet curtains shut on her bed and sat staring into space. At first her blood had been boiling and she had had to throw her wand to the end of the bed to prevent her from setting fire to the curtains, but eventually that diminished, and Cornelia had to scrunch her face up to stop herself from crying. She had never expected to hear such vicious words from Draco, in fact he was literally the last person on earth she would have expected to hurt her in such a way. What was worse was that he had known exactly what he was doing, he had wanted to hurt her - and he had. It felt as if his words had sliced a hole in her chest and nothing Cornelia did could stop it from throbbing painfully.

She didn't know how much time passed but her thoughts were soon scattered by the sound of feet descending into the dormitory, and the last voice she wanted to hear called through the empty room.

"Cornelia?"

Cornelia held her breath and grimaced.

"Cornelia? Hellooooo…" the curtains twitched and Cornelia resisted the strong urge to hiss at Pansy like an angry cat.

"What?" She snapped instead.

"Draco's asking for you." Pansy's face peered in through the curtains, her eyes glittering curiously through the darkness towards Cornelia.

"He can fuck off!" Cornelia screeched, tugging the curtains closed on her face so hard that a ripping sound followed the action.

"Oooh!" Pansy had called in surprise. "Well sorry for bothering you." She said in a way that was clear that she didn't mean it, in fact she sounded positively excited.

The interaction sparked Cornelia's rage again and after a few minutes of punching the bed and screaming silently she stilled, knowing exactly who she needed to speak to right now.

After scrambling to find her wand again and quietly casting lumos, she reached out of the curtains blindly, fumbling for the parchment and quills in her bedside drawer. Once she was settled, the parchment resting on a book whilst she bent awkwardly over it, she began writing and didn't stop for a long time.

By the time she'd finished, the sun had dipped below the horizon and her stomach was growling. Glancing at her watch she saw that she had missed dinner and had a mere half an hour before curfew. She quickly re-read her letter – it was a mess, her handwriting scrawled messily across the parchment with silly spelling and grammatical mistakes, missing words, and a couple of places where the ink had blotted in her haste, but it would have to do. With her face set she ripped open the curtains and tore from the room.

She saw out of the corner of her eye as she hurried through the common room people moving towards her, but she resolutely ignored them and continued on her way. Someone caught up with her in the corridor outside and when she finally dared to look she realised it was Theodore. He was staring ahead and unspeaking, and honestly, he was probably the only person she could bare to be around in that moment.

They moved quickly and silently through the castle and outside towards the Owlery; Theodore asked no questions and simply kept up with her fast pace. Only when she had sent the owl on it's way and they watched it's silhouette in the night sky retreat did he hold something out to her. It was a sandwich wrapped in a napkin. She finally met his eyes, and what felt like the first smile of the day melted her features.

"Thank you." She whispered and he smiled gently back.

When they returned to the common room, Draco was waiting for their return and shot from his seat when she entered. Cornelia refused to even look at him, instead muttering a quick goodnight to Theodore and making her way swiftly back down to her dormitory.

She slept fitfully that night, the only comfort she could find was the thought that, if she knew Draco at all, then he would be struggling to find sleep too. Her stomach was writhing uncomfortably as memories played back through her mind like a montage, memories of Draco, particularly his hurt expression every time Lucius or Narcissa punished or degraded her. She couldn't pair that person with the boy who had spoken to her earlier that day, and she wondered how just how many of his parent's ideals he secretly carried within him. She questioned everything she thought she knew about how he saw her, the mutual respect they had for each other.

The morning arrived steadily and unwelcome, the windows in the dormitory bewitched to let in natural light despite them being underground, and the hard grey light filtered in through Cornelia's bed hangings, hurting her tired eyes.

She awoke, along with the rest of the school, to the news that there had been another attack by the heir of Slytherin, and the annoying first year Gryffindor, Colin Creevey, had been petrified during the night. The whispers began at the breakfast table, where Cornelia was cradling a cup of tea, keeping her eyes stubbornly on the mug and away from Draco who had been gazing worriedly at her all morning. Cornelia had risen late, despite her being awake to see the sunrise, and was surprised to find Theodore and Blaise both waiting for her in the common room. It seemed they had decided between them to adopt the role of bodyguards, and escorted her, one on each side, up to the great hall, where they took their respective seats.

It was here where Draco had approached her, nervously standing behind her. "Nelly?" He had asked in a sad little voice, but Cornelia stubbornly refused to acknowledge his existence.

After a few more attempts, Blaise had finally turned to Draco and said, "Leave it Draco, she doesn't want to talk to you."

Although he looked highly disgruntled, he didn't dare to confront Blaise with Cornelia there and instead he returned to his seat, his eyes on Cornelia more often than not.

Cornelia wasn't aware of anything other than the angry buzzing in her head for a while after that, but when she heard Theodore's voice say sharply, "What did you say?" beside her, she snapped back to reality.

Theodore was talking with a Slytherin fifth year sat beside him, their voices low and faces serious, and Cornelia quickly tuned in to the conversation.

"-taken to the hospital wing last night. It must have been after hours because nobody saw anything."

"What was he doing out of bed after curfew?" Theodore asked.

The fifth year shrugged. "I heard he's obsessed with Harry Potter, he could have been trying to go and see him in the hospital wing and got caught along the way."

Cornelia butted in and Blaise leant curiously forward beside her to listen as well. "Who are you talking about?"

"Colin Creevey." Theodore answered, his face grim.

"What about him?"

"He's been petrified."

The words hung heavy in the air, and Cornelia's swollen eyes widened in shock. Automatically they slid to Draco, tired eyes meeting tired eyes before she snapped them back to Theodore. "Another attack?" She whispered, a chill passing down her spine, her already twisted stomach clenching tighter.

Theodore nodded slowly and she could see a slither of fear in his eyes. Now that she was compos mentis, she realised there was a gloomy atmosphere in the entire hall, students everywhere were murmuring quietly about the news and similar looks of fear were echoed in everyone's faces.

We got a few different feels in this chapter. Could that be... surely not... Cornelia harbouring the beginnings of a crush on the Weasley twins?! I mean, can you remember the first time someone winked at you? I can very clearly. I was in year 7 and he was year 8 and it made me blush so hard. I can still remember what his eyes look like all these years later! I wonder which twin it was?

And Draco, Draco, Draco - what were you thinking? You crossed the god-damn line.

Until next time.