Author's Notes:

Hi everyone! I know I said last week that I was debating taking a week off but I found that writing has helped me process a lot of these confusing and upsetting emotions I've had. My state has recently shut down bars (again) and limited restaurant capacity to 25%. This means that my wedding at the end of October might have to be postponed. I've been incredibly stressed because I just ordered my invitations (which look awesome by the way! Watercolor Buckbeak on the front and watercolor Fluffy on the back!) and now we have to wait out this new order and see if the restrictions will be lifted in time for our wedding. Probably not. BUT I did have two very promising job interviews yesterday! I interviewed for a clerkship position with a judge of whom I greatly admire and for a family/criminal law firm. I'm hoping I get an offer from one or both. We'll see. I'll know by Wednesday from my understanding.

ALSO THANK YOU EVERYONE! I REACHED 100 REVIEWS LAST CHAPTER! This alone was so exciting and encouraging to me to keep going and writing! I am just so thrilled that so many people have enjoyed my story thus far and I am so excited to see where it ends up. Well, more so to see what you guys think of where it ends up *wink*. But thank you all so much for helping me achieve this amazing accomplishment. It means a great deal to me. I want to give a shout out to some of my regular reviewers for being so awesome for reviewing so much! A huge thank you to Midnitewanderer, Geekymom, Hinny FTW, Dutchie, Smallwjl, Ari Black-18, and MMax. You 7 have been absolutely amazing with your regular reviews. And a huge shout out to everyone who has ever reviewed Ignoring Destiny! You guys are awesome too!

Beer of the week: This week I was super basic and cheap and drank Coors Light because I'm at the beach and really needed some water to keep hydrated. Ha! But seriously, it's pretty refreshing.

ProfessorMarauder: I don't want to give any spoilers away here with your review so I'll just say that I like the way you think. Ari Black-18: I didn't want a secret friendship either. That's a big reason I opted for a Raven Draco. But that doesn't mean there won't be some friendship roadblocks along the way! I'm glad you like the Ron-Draco relationship. I had some trouble deciding how best their characters would mesh but I feel like Ron would be very much like how I wrote him. SurreptitiousSoulstamp: I'm glad you're loving my story! I'm super excited to get to COS because I have so many ideas that I can't wait to share with everyone! It's going to be *fun*. Dutchie: I love Harry and Ginny too so please bare with me on that front. With her not at Hogwarts and them being 10/11, Hinny will take some time to develop and grow. I really want it to be a natural and realistic progression.

Hinny FTW: I'm not sure what "99 for now" means but, yes, I do believe it should always be quality over quantity which is why I don't have a huge issue posting a shorter chapter if the quality is where it needs to be and the chapter adds to the story what it needs to. And Lucius is 100% a right bastard. Sora'sOtherForm: Thank you for letting me know. I think when I did that I decided that, for simplicity's sake, I would just have Fudge in charge from the start. And, no, it doesn't reflect on him having been in the wrong when Sirius went to jail but refusing to release him and fighting a trial does reflect poorly on him. HarryandGinnyForeverAndEver: Thank you so much! I'm glad that you're enjoying the story despite the warnings. I have some Mental Health issues myself and I've had issues where I've read a story and was given no warnings about the trauma it depicted. I don't want anyone to be in that situation. If you ever feel worreid about reading a trigger warning chapter, please feel free to PM me for a sinopsys of the chapter. Midnitewanderer: Ah yes, Lucius. The blonde Git of the century. Just wait until you see my plans for him. as for Harry/James about Snape-Harry hasn't told James about the first class interaction yet but I can tell you that, when James finds out, it's going to be an interesting chapter.

As always, thank you for reading Ignoring Destiny! Thank you to all of you who have read my story this far. I'm looking forward to the next 35 chapters and 100 reviews with you!

Chapter Thirty-Five: Catching Up

Gin,

How have you been? I feel like it's been ages since we last talked even though it's only been a week. It's weird not being able to hang out with you. I mean, Ron's my best mate, don't get me wrong, and I enjoy hanging out with Fred and George, but I've always had an easier time talking to you than any of them.

I don't know what to do. I haven't talked to my dad yet because I know he's going to be upset with Professor Snape—they already don't like each other. Snape, he's—he's a git. Honestly, Ginny. Calling me famous and saying that I enjoy all the attention that I'm getting from classmates and teachers and whatever. I didn't ask for that. What gives him the right to treat me like this? And the way he's treating Neville is even worse. He's worse than a bully, Gin. Apparently my dad and uncles knew him from school and they aren't big fans of him. They called him Snivellus. I'm going to have to try hard not to call him that in class now.

And…I told my dad about this but he didn't act like it was a big deal but it just doesn't sit right with me. When I saw him for the first time in the great hall, my scar hurt. I've never had it hurt before but it was bad. It felt like it was burning or like someone had stuck a knife into it. It hasn't happened since, and my dad made me swear I would tell him if it did, but it worries me. Do you think you could ask Bill if he's ever heard of anything like this during his travels? I would mail him myself but I have no idea where he is and you see him once a week or so, right?

How bad has your mom gotten since we all left? Did she decide if she was still going to make you learn to cook this term? She should know by now that you're so dreadful at cooking that you're beyond saving. I mean, honestly, Ron can cook better than you can.

I bet you're doing a lot of flying lately since everyone is gone. I haven't been able to fly once since coming to school. First years aren't allowed brooms and the school brooms are for flying classes and quidditch teams only. We start classes next week I heard. We have class with the Slytherins.

OH! GINNY. NO ONE TOLD YOU! Hermione is at Hogwarts with us! oh my god. You know that private boarding school she was accepted to? SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT HOGWARTS! And she's bloody brilliant at magic, Gin. I mean, she's picking it up faster than anyone else in our class. She's even rivaling Draco. I swear those two are going to have a show down at the end of term for top marks. I think she's going overboard though, I'm telling you. She's read through every single one of our textbooks on top of a few other history books that she got for "Background reading". I think she's memorized half of them, anyway.

Right and Draco! Did you hear the news? The hat sorted him into Ravenclaw! Apparently, Draco's dad came here to school to try to force Dumbledore to move Draco to Slytherin house and Dumbledore refused. I didn't realize how bigoted Lord Malfoy was. Promise me you'll stay away from that creep. I don't trust him and I'm not sure why.

Write back soon, Ginny. I miss you.

Love,

Harry

Harry quickly read back over the letter he had written to Ginny. Satisfied, he decided to make a trip up to the owlery to visit Hedwig and send his letter.

As he made his way up to the owlery he came across Hermione who was on her way down.

"Hi Harry! What are you up to? I'm on my way to the library. We have so much homework you know. I don't want to get behind."

"Hey Hermione. It's Saturday, what are you doing homework on a Saturday? Isn't that what Sunday is for?"

"Harry, we'll get behind if we keep putting homework off! I don't want to get poor marks."

Harry shrugged, "Whatever suits you. I'm mailing a letter to Ginny. I imagine she's lonely at home with just Mrs. Weasley all day. I can't imagine how quite the Burrow is right now."

Hermione's eyes widened, "I didn't even think about how lonely Ginny must feel right now! I'm such a horrible friend."

"You're not a horrible friend! Just maybe send her a letter now and then. Bill said he was going to visit her a lot this year since everyone is out of the house now. I just bet Mrs. Weasley is driving her up the wall."

"I'll write to her right away. I can't believe I waited this long. I was just sending a letter to my parents and I don't know why I didn't think of sending her one, too."

"What did you tell your parents? How is Mrs. Granger? I haven't seen her in years."

"Mum's doing well. Her and dad have really established their practice. They do a lot of lectures at different universities. They're very proud of me for getting into Hogwarts, you know. I was writing them to tell them how my first week was and to let them know what house I'm in. They're going to be so surprised when they find out that you, Ron, and Draco go to school with me! I'm still not sure how you hid magic from us so well with the number of times we visited your house."

"It definitely wasn't easy. We did the magic stuff when you weren't around and sometimes we had parties without you because we were playing quidditch for them. Like, part of my birthday present was tickets to the quidditch world cup and we couldn't invite you to that. You'll have to let me know how they react. I bet it's hilarious!"

"They'll definitely be surprised. I'll let you read the letter when it arrives! But I'm going to head to the library now. See you later, Harry! Oh, and if you see Draco, can you send him my way? I spoke to Professor McGonagall about our debate. Thanks, Harry!"

"See you," Harry said as he watched her hair whip around the corner. He shook his head as he made his way up the owlery stairs and mailed off his letter.

~ID~

James looked around the kitchen, his brow furrowed as he heard a ringing noise coming from the room. He ran his hand through his hair as he tied to recall what they may have in the kitchen that would cause the ringing noise. As he thought about it, he suddenly remembered the muggle telephone they had bought years ago but never use.

His eyes wide, James quickly made his way over to the counter against the back wall and grabbed the phone and held it to his ear. He frowned when all he heard was a dial tone. Confused, he put the phone back on the hook and turned to walk away.

He had made it about ten steps before he heard the phone ring again. As they hadn't had anyone calling them in years, James was thoroughly surprised to hear it going again. He turned on his heel and ran back to the phone, picking it up on the fourth ring.

"Potter residence," James spoke into the receiver.

"James Potter!" Roared a voice on the other end of the line, "Why in the world did you keep Hogwarts a secret from me? You must have known that Hermione had these—these powers!"

James pulled the receiver away from his ear as he continued to hear the yelling and ranting on the other end of the line. He sat there, allowing her to continue yelling, for several minutes before the woman finally calmed down enough for him to get a word in.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but you were yelling so loudly I couldn't quite understand what the issue is and I think you may have the wrong number—"

"You're James Potter, right? Or is this Remus or Sirius?"

"This is James. Who are you?"

"It's Jean Granger! And I'm yelling at you for not telling us that Hermione was a witch and you let us find out from a letter from our daughter that your son and his friends are all wizards and they now go to school together! Greg and I would have appreciated some sort of warning about all of this—this stuff!"

"That Hermione's a—Jean, I didn't know she was a witch!" James roared with laughter, "I didn't find out until the day they started school when Harry told me they found her on the train to school!"

"You didn't—how could you not know? It seemed like all you—people just kind of—knew each other. Don't you? Isn't there some way you knew?"

James laughed again and replied, "No. only Hogwarts knows that. There's a magical book at the school that records when any person with magic is born within the boundaries of Europe. Then, every year McGonagall and Dumbledore use the book to send letters to the children. Honestly, Jean, if we had noticed Hermione using magic, we would have told you immediately. It must have been a bloody shock for you when you found out."

James could hear Jean humph on the other end of the phone as she stopped and thought for a moment, weighing her options before she continued, "Well, it must have been obvious, though. She was always doing odd things and this explains how she was able to read so much and get her books down from the top shelf. And hiding things! She used to make things just disappear and we thought she was hiding them. I'll never forgive myself for punishing her for making her broccoli go away—I thought she'd hidden it but I guess she was telling the truth when she said it had disappeared…" Jean trailed off as she spoke mostly to herself about all of the odd things Hermione had done during her childhood.

"To be honest, Jean, it sounds like Hermione may have had some level of control over her magic. Some children are like that. My wife—my late wife, Lily, was like that. And, if that's the case, unless she explicitly showed one of us we wouldn't have known until now. Some muggle borns are just exceptionally powerful."

"And that! That lady who came to talk to us kept using that word, mug-gal, but I have no idea what it means! It sounds like an insult if I'm honest."

"Oh, I guess you wouldn't know what a muggle is, would you. It's someone who doesn't have magic and comes from a non-magical family. So, you're a muggle. And because Hermione comes from a family of muggles, she's a muggle born. We, wizards I mean, don't really know why sometimes muggle borns are born. Some people speculate that, centuries ago, some magical blood was in the family line and then a squib was born, causing the magic to die out. Then, centuries later, that magical energy builds until it's passed on to one person. But that's pure speculation."

In the moment of silence that followed James' explanation, he could almost hear Jean frowning and thinking. He gave her several moments before continuing, "Did you have any other questions? Or anything you want explained to you? It's a lot to take in, I know."

"Well, yeah, a lot of questions. Everything is so different for wizards. I mean, you even use quills and ink still—it's so archaic and time consuming."

James frowned, "Well, what else would we use?"

"Pencils? Pens? Markers? Literally anything that doesn't require you to dip something in ink every other letter? I've sent Hermione some pens to Hogwarts. Hopefully she decides to use them. You know, she couldn't even take her alarm clock with her! I understand not wanting to use new technology but, an alarm clock? Really?"

"I mean, in Hogwarts' defense, the magic that surrounds the school and is used in it causes anything run on electricity to short out and malfunction. Some wizarding children are able to charm wirelesses and bring those but they're rare."

"A wireless? You mean you don't use Walkman's?"

"What's a Walkman?"

"It's a—honestly, you've never heard of them? They're so popular right now. It's a small, portable, cassette player. You use headphones to listen to your music or books."

"Muggles invented a way to listen to books? They never fail to amaze me. I bet Arthur Weasley would love to get his hands on one of those."

"I mean, I can mail him one. They're nothing too interesting."

"No, no, you've never met Arthur. He has this odd fascination with muggles. He has this huge collection of muggle batteries and plugs and stuff. Real odd I tell you. He would have a field day with one of those Walkman's."

"Why would anyone have a collection of batteries?"

"No clue," James said as he laughed.

The two parents continued to talk on the phone for the next few hours while James explained the ins and outs of the wizarding world to Jean who was absolutely fascinated by everything he had to say. He filled her in on how Hogwarts works, their grading system and how each year progresses as well as the multiple subjects that are taught. By the end of the conversation, Jean was feeling much more comfortable with allowing Hermione to continue learning at Hogwarts.

~ID~

Ginny sprinted to the window in the kitchen the moment she heard the sharp tap on the glass. She beamed as she soon realized who's owl was paying the burrow a visit with a letter and quickly opened the window so Hedwig could hop inside, hooting affectionately.

Ginny ogled the snowy owl's beauty and lightly stroked the feathers on her head as she cooed to the owl. Hedwig must have thought she was in heaven because she certainly loved having her feathers stroked and she hooted indignantly when Ginny stopped and went to untie the letter from her leg.

"Sorry Hedwig, don't you want me to be able to mail Harry back quickly?" she asked the owl who was now sitting very put out on the sill of the window. Hedwig hooted and shuffled her feet so she was facing back out the window and simply waited for Ginny to get on with reading the letter and writing a reply.

"Oh now, really. You don't need to be like that. There's some left-over bacon from breakfast if you want it. It's on the table; help yourself."

Hedwig hooted and quickly flew to the table where she began happily eating the bacon sitting there. Ginny simply rolled her eyes at the owl before opening Harry's letter and reading it greedily.

After she had finished reading it through for the fifth time, Ginny held the parchment close to her and smiled, Harry had written to her. To her! And he missed her.

Ginny quickly made a beeline to her bedroom and closed the door as quietly as she could so as not to alert Mrs. Weasley to the fact that she was no longer doing the dishes. After she read through the letter again she made quick work of replying to Harry.

Harry,

I'M SORRY, WHY ARE YOU JUST NOW TELLING ME THIS INFORMATION?! I feel like Hermione being a witch should have warranted a midnight owl to the burrow at the very least but that along with Draco? I mean, come on, Harry! I expect this lapse of judgment from Ron but, honestly, I expected more out of you. I'm not surprised she's picking up magic as quickly as she is—she's always been capable and intelligent. And she was ahead a year in school. Didn't she ever tell you that? As for Draco, I'm a bit shocked that he let the hat sort him into Ravenclaw. I was worried he was going to let his dad's influence sway his opinion too much. Good on him for pulling a Sirius though. I'm so proud. Have you told Sirius? I bet he'll be so excited.

Did his dad really come down to the school to force Dumbledore to move Draco? He's so full of himself. I mean, honestly, the audacity! Then again, I've found that some people who have tons of money think they can just get whatever they want because they have tons of money. It's not right of them, and I think they're terrible people, but that's just how it is I guess. Keep me updated on that—I'll send Draco a letter along with this one. Can you pass it along?

Now that I've gotten over that shock, I've been ok. It feels like it's been ages since we've seen each other. I'm glad that everything has turned out alright in the end. I miss you, too. It's weird not having anyone at home to talk to except Mum and dad. I love them to bits but mum has been so overbearing since the boys left. Bill stopped by yesterday—he took me to lunch at this really nice, muggle Italian place. The food was amazing! Maybe we can go sometime. With everyone else of course. After lunch Bill took me shopping for some new clothes. He let me buy some of my uniforms for next year and Madam Malkin said she would hem them when I went shopping next year. I can't wait to get to go to Hogwarts.

Where does this professor get off on saying things like that? You were only a baby—you didn't defeat you-know-who on purpose or to get some sort of recognition. And you lost your mum that day—he sounds like an awful man. No wonder your dad and uncles aren't fans of him. I hope you use that name in class! It would serve him right to have an awful nickname after how he treated you and Neville. Honestly, he sounds like he needs a good pranking. The bloody git. What I don't understand is why your scar would hurt when you looked at him during the welcoming feast but not during class. Isn't that an odd thing to happen? What was so special about that night that would be any different from how he reacted to you in class? I'll talk to Bill about it but I honestly don't think he'll have heard of anything like that. I mean, your scar is a really unheard of effect of a curse from my understanding. Or, at least that's what Bill told me. I'll owl you once I've heard from him.

Mum has been—well, she's been mum. She's been having me try to cook and you know how dreadful I am at that. The other night she had me make spaghetti for everyone for dinner and the noodles turned out like rubber and I burnt the sauce. I don't know why she continues to insist on having me cook. Some people just aren't good at it. I've been trying to break into the shed as often as I can but it's hard because mum watches me like a hawk. It's as if she expects me to disobey the rules or something. As if I would ever do that—I'm an angel.

Write back soon. I miss you, Harry!

Love,

Ginny

Ginny quickly read back over her letter before writing one to Draco too. Once she had finished, she attached both letters to Hedwig's leg and sent the owl back off to Hogwarts.

~ID~

Sirius and Remus both had their heads bent over a roll of parchment and several books in Remus' office at Hogwarts when the fireplace suddenly lit up green. The two men were so engrossed in their readings and translations that neither of them noticed when a pink haired, pierced nose, punk looking woman stumbled out of the fireplace and into the coat rack that Remus kept beside it. She had actually straightened back up and brushed herself off before either of them realized she had entered the room.

Sirius had just looked up for a moment, lost in thought, about the rune translation when he caught sight of his cousin standing by the fireplace looking absolutely displeased to have been so rudely ignored.

"Nymph!" Sirius barked as he stood up and strode over to her, a grin on his face.

"Don't call me Nymph. My name is Tonks you git!" Tonks said as she smiled and smacked Sirius on the arm playfully, "How are you? I haven't seen you in ages."

"Oh, you know, dicking around and helping old Moony here with his homework. How about you? You're in the auror training camp, right?"

"Oh yeah. They're training us hard over there. I actually came to see if profe—I mean, Remus, would help me with an assignment I've been given? I've been asked to look into translating some text we've found regarding some seriously dark magical potions that the Ministry confiscated from some foreign wizards. Do you—do you think you could help?"

Remus, unsurprisingly, hadn't been listening to Tonks. He had, in fact, been so caught off guard that she had arrived in his office unannounced in the late hours of the evening that he didn't even realize that he was looking at her in ways he absolutely should not be. He didn't seem to realize that he was looking at Tonks, his eyes moving from her face, down to her chest, down to her hips, and down her legs. He momentarily wondered what those legs would feel like wrapped around his head—what she would taste like as she tightened around his tongue.

At the sound of his name he snapped back to reality and internally chastised himself for having such thoughts about Tonks. On top of him being a werewolf, she was significantly younger than him—he wouldn't think of straddling someone as young as her, as full of potential as her, with the burden that was himself. She would be ostracized from society, she could even be fired for being with him. They could never have children—he wouldn't dream of it. What kind of life is that for someone as bright, as brilliant as Tonks?

"I'm so sorry," he said once he realized that Tonks was speaking to him, "I was lost in my own thoughts—could you repeat yourself, Nymphadora?"

Tonks frowned, "It's Tonks, not Nymphadora. I hate that name, Remus. You know that."

Remus smiled, "And that's exactly why I call you Nymphadora. Well, that and it suits you. It's a unique and beautiful name much like yourself."

Tonks blushed at the compliment while Remus' eyes widened at the realization of what he had said hit him, "I mean, not that I think you're beautiful. I mean, you are—beautiful, I mean, but I don't find you—oh boy."

Sirius stood behind Tonks miming digging a hole in the ground and then dragging his finger across his neck while grinning. He was highly amused with the spluttering that was erupting from his friend's mouth right now. Sirius couldn't remember a time when Remus was so flustered because of someone he found attractive. The last time might have been when Remus was interested in Mike Joseph, a man who had been a part of the order with them during the war. The two had shared a brief relationship that did not pan out. Remus had been devastated but, also, oddly understanding.

"Anyway," Tonks said, narrowing her eyes, "Can you help me with these translations then? I didn't take ancient runes after my OWL year because I didn't think I would need it to be an auror. Well, obviously now I know that was a mistake."

"I—sure. I can take a look. I don't know how quickly I can turn around a translation though."

Tonks shook her head as she handed him the parchment, "No, you're misunderstanding. I have to assist with the translations as part of my training. Apparently reading runes on a rudimentary level is a necessary skill they didn't advise me of during my career conversations with Sprout."

"Oh. So you—you want us to work together on this?"

"If it's a problem I'm sure I could find someone else. Mr. Eldridge in the Department of International Cooperation knows how to read runes. I'm sure he would be more than willing to assist me."

Remus thought for a moment as he tried to remember why the last name Eldridge rang a bell in his memory. Suddenly he remembered and his eyes burned, his face reddening, "You don't mean that ponce Brandon Eldridge from the year above you, do you? Because, honestly, Tonks, the man is decent at translating runes but he's not really the assisting for no charge kind of guy. It's no wonder he ended up in the DIC—all they do is negotiate to get what they want from other countries and organizations. You'd be better off doing it on your own."

Tonks' eyes flashed, "Well, if you're unwilling to help me for whatever self-righteous reason you've come up with today then he'll be my only resort as Bill Weasley is currently out of the country until next month. And as I have just under a week to successfully complete this project, waiting for him to return is out of the question."

"'Self-righteous' now, see here, Nymphadora—"

"Don't call me Nymphadora!"

"That's enough!" Sirius yelled as he stepped between the couple, "That's enough. I'm sick of the arguing. Look, you two have some serious tension here and I personally don't care how you decide to expel it but don't do it by shouting my ear off. Remus, you'll help Tonks with her translations. Tonks, you'll stop poking Moony's buttons, no matter how entertaining that may be."

"Sirius, really—"

"No 'really', Moony. Just do it. She's my cousin so just consider it a favor. I owe you one."

Remus sighed as he watched Sirius step into the fireplace and disappear. He held out his hand for the parchment that Tonks was still holding and winced as she shoved it into his outstretched hands angrily.

"Alright. Let's get to work then, I suppose," Remus said as the two settled in closely behind his desk and looked over the parchment. Remus could feel the warmth of her skin, smell the lavender and coriander lotions and soaps she had used that morning lingering in the air. And when he caught sight of her eyes alight with fire, whether from desire or excitement he did not know, he knew this was going to be a very long week.

~ID~

Draco sat in the Ravenclaw common room late in the evening after everyone else had already gone to bed. His textbooks sat before him, forgotten long ago as he had received a letter earlier in the night that stole his attention away from his assignments. He had sat in this spot for a long while now, long enough that the fire was now only embers and he was having difficulty reading the neat handwriting on the parchment that remained in his hand. And, as he read through the letter for the dozenth time, he rested his head in the palm of his hand which was propped up on the table in front of him.

Draco,

I have done much thinking and assessing over the last week that you have been at school regarding our previous conversation with Headmaster Dumbledore. I have come to the conclusion that you did not try hard enough to be sorted into Slytherin, that you do not hold to the values of the Malfoy legacy. You have continued to flaunt your unsavory friendships with the Potter and Weasley boys and it has now come to my attention that you have also befriended a Mudblood. Not only this but, from my understanding, this Mudblood is surpassing you academically in all classes. This is extremely unacceptable behavior from not only a pure blood but from a Malfoy. Should you wish to continue enjoying the benefits and amenities that coincide with being of the Malfoy family, I strongly suggest, no, I demand, that you end these relationships effective immediately. Please be aware that I will know if you have failed to follow my orders to the letter and the consequences of such failure will be dire. If it were not for your mother's begging and my deep love for her, you would already be receiving such consequences as a result of your failure as a son to uphold the Malfoy legacy of a pure blooded Slytherin. You owe her your deepest gratitude.

Lucius Malfoy

As Draco rested his head on the table in front of him the last of the embers burnt out, leaving him in darkness as he thought of what to do next, where to turn, and what sort of consequences his father had imagined for him this time. And, as he felt that all hope had gone, that he was going to have to sever his friendships with the people that meant the most to him, a bright and brilliant thought occurred to him.

As the idea slowly formed in his mind, Draco grabbed a spare bit of parchment and a quill before lighting the tip of his wand. He carefully and precisely scrawled a pleading note explaining his fears and his questions. Once he had finished, he enclosed the letter his father had sent him into the envelope with his letter and stood up, determined. He carefully scrawled a single word on the envelope of the letter before sneaking out of his common room and up to the owlery where he sent the letter off, hope alight in his heart.

End Notes:

Thank you for reading Ignoring Destiny! Please be sure to like, follow, and review this chapter!