Disclaimer: All characters in this fanfic do not belong to me or the co author HollyHobbit101. The only characters I own are my OCs Jaime and Oliver. As I said before, this story is being co written with HollyHobbit101; be sure to check out her profile and show her some support.
The rest of the winter vacation passed by in a desponded blur that blindsided both the Cressy siblings and Draco. Yet all of three of them returned to Hogwarts, seeming to carry even heavier burdens than when they first started. But somewhere in the midst of all this madness and darkness, Jaime and Draco still found a way to male their relationship work and more importantly, thrive- despite the secret he was keeping from her. Occasionally, they'd sneak off to the Astronomy Tower in the dead of night for a passionate tryst that ended in long hugs before they snuck back to their respective dorms just as the sun rose. If Oliver knew anything about this, he did a good job of not saying anything about it. Not that he could stop his sister, anyway. With the snow still covering the ground in thick blankets, students took advantage of the winter wonderland as much as they could with snowball fights every other day. But the Cressy siblings preferred the warmth of the castle and amused themselves by playing a few chess games now and again during meals. But today was another matter entirely as Professor Snape cancelled Jaime's class for the day but not before giving homework that was due by next class time. By fourth period, the rumor floating around the school was that Snape was summoned to assist McGonagall in helping a student who'd been hexed by a cursed necklace- not that Jaime had a reason to be concerned as she and Oliver sat at one of the desks in the library while she helped him study for his Herbology quiz. While Jaime sat with her eyes glued to he paper, Oliver played with a rubber band ball that he transfigured from one of his crumpled wads of parchment paper. Jaime looked up from the paper and watched him do this with a brief roll of her eyes.
"Suddenly, I get the feeling that I'm the only one studying here", she said only half sarcastically. Oliver gave an eyeroll of his own and caught the ball in his hand and looked at his sister languidly.
"There's no shame in taking breaks between studying", he replied with a chuckle before his tone of voice became a tad more serious.
"Speaking of shame, do you ever thing of...him at all?" he asked, referring to their Death Eater relative who had a hand in their parent's deaths. The atmosphere around the two of them now was thick enough to cut with a wand as Jaime put the paper down and heaved a sigh that calmed her down and temporarily washed away any negative thoughts that she had about what she'd do if she and Malachite ever crossed paths.
"Probably more than I should", she replied, quietly. Oliver nodded in understanding, knowing how dark his sister could get when she was angry. Maybe he should've let a little more time pas before asking something like that. He now tried for a bit of lighthearted banter.
"Good thing Snape cancelled class today, am I right?" he asked with a small smile.
"I guess", she replied, turning her attention back to the parchment in front of her, marking it with her quill for a bit before sliding it towards Oliver.
"Because now you get to redo some of this questions that you got wrong", she said with a teasing lint in her voice. Oliver clicked his tongue in annoyance before working to re do his wrong answers, glad for his sudden decision to change the subject entirely. The next week was an uneventful one for both Cressy siblings until one day when Jaime heard a bit of news that made her heart drop to the point that it hurt. As she was retuning a stack of books to Madam Pince, she 's caught bits and pieces of a conversation between Slytherin girls from nearby.
"Yeah, I heard that Weasley kid is still in the infirmary from being poisoned".
"No way! That's makes him and Katie Bell. I hear she's still suffering from the after affects of that cursed necklace".
"That's not even the worst of it. Have you heard about hat happened to Draco?"
"No. What?"
"Supposedly, he and Harry Potter got into a fight in the loo and it ended with Draco getting carried out by Snape- crying and bloody". That was all Jaime needed to hear before she ran out of the library, her personal belongings now forgotten, and made straight for the infirmary. Once there, she looked around at each and every bed until she saw the one that Draco was in.
Jaime hesitated in the doorway of the hospital wing. She could see Draco's bed about halfway down the ward and she longed to run over to him, make sure he was okay. And yet, her feet refused to move. She took a shaky breath and quickly swiped a hand over her eyes to clear the tears that had begun to blur her vision. She hesitated a moment longer, then forced herself forward, her heart beating faster with each step.
Draco was asleep when she got to him, so pale he was almost indistinguishable from the bed sheets. His hands lay on top of the blankets, spidery veins standing out starkly against the papery skin. Jaime reached out and gently stroked a hand down his face, shocked at how hollow his cheeks were. She hadn't realised how thin he'd become.
Draco stirred at her touch. Jaime held her breath and kept her eyes trained on his face, watching as his eyes fluttered and slowly cracked open. He looked around for a moment before focussing on her. Jaime tried for a smile, but it must have looked more like a grimace, as Draco frowned at her in concern.
"Is something wrong, Jaime?" he asked, voice weak and raspy.
Jaime sniffed. "Is something wrong?" she repeated. "You're in a hospital bed, Draco! Why- I mean, how- What happened, Draco, I-" Jaime broke off as her voice broke, tears finally spilling down her cheeks. She bent her head and sniffled, hastily wiping them away.
"I'm sorry," Draco whispered. "I'm sorry all this has happened, I'm sorry you've been dragged into it, I'm sorry for everything I've done; it was never meant to go like this."
Jaime looked up at him, frowning in confusion. "What do you mean, 'what you've done'?"
"I…" Draco hesitated, before his face crumpled and he closed his eyes, sighing wearily. "I'm sure you're aware that my family is not the most… reputable."
"Yes, but I swear I don't care about that-"
"I know that," Draco cut her off. "There's something that you need to know, Jaime. You're not going to like it, and I understand if you hate me afterwards, but I can't keep this from you."
Jaime's frown deepened, her worry spiking at the almost panicked look on Draco's face. "Draco, what is it?" she asked.
"You remember when I came to you during the holidays?" Jaime nodded. "A man – one of my father's… associates, I don't know his name – came to my house. He gave me a ring, said it was a Portkey that would take me to you. So I used it, but when I returned, he told me that he had only done it to get you out of my system so that I could carry out my mission properly. I promise you, Jaime, this isn't just a fling, and I told him as much, but-"
"What mission, Draco?" Jaime interrupted, brushing his assurances aside. She knew that what they had between them was something solid; she needed no solace on that count.
Draco looked away from her then, almost ashamed. His hands started fidgeting nervously with the blanket, only stilling when Jaime gently laid her hand atop his. He glanced up nervously, eyes wide and full of fear. She smiled at him encouragingly.
"Okay," he whispered, nodding slowly. "Okay. My mission. I was given it in the summer, not long before the school year begun. I- I have to-"
Draco broke off, letting out a shuddering breath. Jaime squeezed his hand gently, and he looked directly at her, the intensity of his gaze scaring her a little.
"I have to kill Dumbledore."
Jaime drew back involuntarily, shocked to the core at Draco's revelation. A burning rage filled her – not rage at Draco, but for him; rage at the scum who had forced him to agree to such a thing. She clenched her hands into fists, her body tensed as she thought of all the ways she wanted to hurt the people who had done this to him. Oh, the things she would do to Malachite if he were here now…
"I'm sorry." Draco's whisper cut through Jaime's haze, and she snapped back to herself in time to see the tears slipping down his cheeks and falling from his lashes. Her anger instantly cooled, replaced instead by pity and sadness. She leaned forwards and pressed a soft kiss to Draco's cheek, smiling at his startled expression.
"I don't hate you, Draco," she told him. "I could never hate you."
"But… I lied to you, I kept this from you, I tried to kill a person," Draco stammered.
"You were forced to," she said. "Of course I forgive you for this; how can I not after all my family have done?"
"What?" Draco asked, confused.
Jaime shook her head. "I promise I'll tell you everything, soon, but first you need to rest."
Draco opened his mouth to protest, but Jaime silenced him with a quick kiss. "I'll see you soon."
He grumbled, but sank back down into the bed, closing his eyes. Jaime watched him for a few seconds, then rose, tip-toeing out of the ward.
Back in the Ravenclaw dorms, Jaime did everything in her power to distract herself from how angry she was- from rekindling the fire in the fire place to making small talk with one of the newer ghosts that passed through the walls. But so far, nothing was working. As if things weren't bad enough already, now they had to deal with this. While she didn't know him that well, Jaime was set in her belief that her great uncle was a sick Son of a Bitch.
By now, she sat in one of the cushy chairs with both of her legs draped over the chair's right arm, and her arms in her lap while staring up at the ceiling. Unmoving and quieter than ever; no different than how she looked when she first arrived at Hogwarts. Not even Oliver could pull his sister out of his slump, sighing in defeat and going up to his room to do some homework. It wasn't until a few hours later when a few more Ravenclaw students burst into the common room crying did she understand the enormity of the situation.
Dumbledore died.
Jaime heard it as a rumour, whispers of the Headmaster's death reverberating through the castle and bouncing off the stone walls.
Dumbledore is dead, have you heard? Someone's killed him. Dumbledore is dead.
As soon as she heard is, she knew that they were here. She ran out of Ravenclaw Tower, grabbing Oliver on the way, ignoring his shouts of protest. They had to find Draco, he wasn't safe now that Death Eaters were wandering Hogwarts.
They stumbled through the hallways, Jaime peering down every corridor for any sign of Draco. She was barely watching where she was going, her feet moving on muscle memory more than anything, her mind racing with thoughts of Draco. It was this inattentiveness that led them straight into a body blocking their path. Jaime and Oliver stumbled back, blinking up at the figure before them. He shifted so that the light hit his face, and Jaime felt horror rise in her as she saw him.
Malachite.
As Jaime stood frozen by shock, Oliver ripped away from her with a yell and rushed towards Malachite, his wand slicing through the air as he shouted a spell.
"Oliver!" Jaime cried, breaking out of her stupor, but she was too late. Malachite grinned and easily deflected the spell Oliver threw at him, sending him sprawling halfway down the corridor, hitting the ground with a thud. Jaime rushed to stop Malachite from attacking her brother any further, but he just turned his gaze on her, overpowering her quickly. Her vision swam as she lay on the cool stone, her movements slow and sluggish.
The click of Malachite's boots echoed in her ears as he approached them, standing over Jaime with a cold smirk on his face.
"I should've known," he sneered. "All this talk of your abilities, and yet you're nothing more than carbon copies of your pathetic, weakling father."
At the mention of her father, the same anger she had felt before filled Jaime, spurring her on as she lunged to her feet with a roar.
"You son of a bitch!" she screamed, summoning all the fury and strength she had to send a powerful blast of magic Malachite's way.
Malachite threw up his wand, and the magic gathered at its tip, forming a crackling ball of pure energy.
"You should learn to watch your mouth before your elders," he remarked, far too casually. Then, he threw Jaime's magic back at her, the ball slamming into her chest and sending her flying away from him.
The last thing Jaime heard before she hit the floor was Malachite's laughter ringing all around her.
As Jaime slumped, unmoving, next to her brother, Draco launched himself out of the shadows, a howl of despair tearing itself out of his throat. Greyback followed him, reaching out and gripping his arm tight, preventing him from going to her.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Greyback growled at Malachite. "Kill them!"
"No!" Draco cried, earning himself a glare from both older Death Eaters.
"They've seen us, boy," Greyback said. "They can't live now, else they'll report us to the Ministry."
Draco shook his head frantically. "No. No. We can't kill them; Dumbledore's death is bad enough, but if we kill these two then we'll have made enemies of an incredibly powerful, pure-blood family."
Malachite turned a considering gaze on him. "And what would you have us do, if not kill them?" he asked coolly.
Draco breathed out shallowly. "We take them with us. I'll supervise them personally, make sure they don't do anything that would harm us or our cause. Besides, they're purebloods, and we need all the numbers we can get. They could prove useful to us."
Draco grimaced as he finished speaking, hating every word. The idea of using Jaime and Oliver was poison to him, but it was the only way he could see that would save them both. Greyback snarled his disapproval, but Malachite brushed him aside, approaching Draco slowly.
"Alright. We'll do it your way. But you'd best keep them in line, or else we'll have no choice," he warned.
Draco nodded stiffly, watching with barely-concealed anger as Jaime and Oliver's bodies were lifted up and carried away. He followed quickly behind, never taking his eyes off Jaime.
I'll fix this, Jaime, he thought. I promise.