Chapter 5


"Why would you give bloody Potter the prize?"

"Really? Do I have to explain this again?"

"Yes, because you gave a prize to stinking golden-boy Potter!"

"It was just a potion."

Blaise shook his head, "It wasn't just any old potion. That was felix felicis, mate. It's rare because it's so damn hard to brew."

"I didn't need it," Malinda scratched her chin. "Hell, I didn't even want it."

"Still, it's not right!" Daphne insisted. "Your potion was just as good as Potter's. I think you should've won it, especially since you finished it sooner than he did."

"I'm not sure the hat sorted you in the right house," Pansy sniffed. "A real Slytherin would've claimed the prize."

They sat in the Common Room, hovered around Blaise and Crabbe who played a game of Wizard's Chess. It was nearly over, with Blaise quickly gaining the upper hand. Pansy sat beside Draco, a fashion magazine open in her lap. Meanwhile, Draco read a book on curses, one that Malinda noted to read herself later. Daphne sat at the table with the chess players, working on a charms assignment. It was nice, sitting together like this.

Well, it had been nice until they began to pester Malinda about potions class again.

"Look, he may have won the felix felicis potion," she finally snapped, putting her own textbook down. "But I won the better prize or should I say prizes?"

"Veritaserum isn't as rare-" Daphne started.

"No but still uncommon," Malinda countered. "Plus I won a shit ton of house points so you're welcome. Lastly, I got invited to the Slughorn Club."

"What's the Slughorn Club?" Pansy asked, leaning forward.

"Who cares?" Draco muttered.

Blaise answered, "It's Slughorn inviting his favorite students to dinner parties. Mother warned me this would happen- he did it when our parents were at Hogwarts too. He likes to remain connected in society and so he collects students. Those he anticipates being successful, at least. From what Mother said, he has a high success record."

"And he wants Selwyn?" Pansy asked doubtfully. Her passive aggressive jabs were growing more and more direct. The group did their best to ignore her attacks though. It seemed everyone grew tired of Pansy's antics.

"Guess so," Malinda replied, returning to her book.

"You're right Draco," Pansy sat back into the sofa and rested her head on his shoulder. "Who cares about some dumb club?"

"You're only saying that because you haven't been invited," Blaise retorted.

"Neither have you!"

"Yet," Malinda said ominously.

Blaise chuckled and made a move on the board. He smirked, "Check mate."

...


...

Sweat dripped down Malinda's forehead. She bent over, panting slightly, then stood upright. "Again," she breathed. "Let's go again."

Professor Dumbledore nodded and they took their positions. With a flourish, he sent a spell at her and she raised her wand, willing the shield to appear. His jinx collided into her shield with a snap, he sent another, then another.

After a few more attempts, he lowered his wand. "Very good, Malinda. You've made excellent progress this week."

"I know some more fifth year spells," she scoffed. "Great. I'm still behind."

"You have learned an extraordinary amount of magic in a very short period of time. I'm confident that we'll not only have you caught up with your classmates by the holidays, but you'll be ahead."

"Good. That's when we should start hunting the other horcruxes."

"We agreed that I would set the timeline," the headmaster told her with an authoritative edge in his tone. "Once I am sure you can properly defend yourself, we will begin. Now, how are things with Mr. Malfoy?"

"It's been two months and he barely talks to me," Malinda shook her head. "It's sad, sir. He's so distant from everyone… It's not just me. He sits by himself at meals now, doesn't spend any time in the Common Room anymore, and apparently keeps his bed curtains closed. Blaise's worried too. Draco is isolating himself. Even Pansy leaves him alone now and they're engaged!"

"Professor Snape and I have noticed his behavior," Dumbledore agreed. "Do you still think you can help him?"

Malinda nodded. "Yes. He's disappearing more often, I think he's becoming obsessed with the vanishing cabinet. When he is around, he seems frustrated and scared."

"Perhaps he's feeling vulnerable now, it may be a good time to engage Mr. Malfoy more aggressively."

"I'm trying-"

"You've attempted to befriend him in the usual way of befriending his friends. While you've found great success there, I believe you need to focus directly on Mr. Malfoy now."

Malinda nodded and bit her lip. "D-Do you think he'll figure it out? That the vanishing cabinet is being controlled?"

The headmaster smiled softly, "I highly doubt it. My control over the cabinet is firm but subtle. Mr. Malfoy is not old enough to be familiar with them and even if he was, I can assure you it's charmed to act like a broken cabinet. He'll find his experiments to be failures and will likely blame himself. Now, it's time you return to your house now, it's nearly midnight."

"Yes, sir." Malinda wiped her damp forehead on her sleeve and put her wand away. She felt somewhat bad for Draco- spending hours trying advanced magic to fix a cabinet that could never be fixed. During the summer, she'd shown Dumbledore the real cabinet and he immediately took control over it, tracking its use. Next, they'd found the diadem and hidden it deeply in the castle. It, along with Marvolo Gaunt's ring, were already collected. Soon they'd hunt for the others, preparing for the oncoming war.

She walked the empty halls confidently. Dumbledore had given her his personal invisibility cloak and under it, she could explore the castle freely. Two prefects walked past her, doing their last rounds, completely unaware of the sneaking Slytherin.

When she arrived at the Common Room, the green lanterns were dimmed. The room was dark and cold, the fire nearly out and only a few embers remaining. Malinda removed the cloak as she entered and froze.

Draco Malfoy sat by the fireplace, still dressed in his uniform. With the tie pulled loose and his shirt messily hung outside his trousers, he looked quite the mess. As usual, a book was open on his lap, but his eyes weren't on the text. Instead, they were fixated on her.

"Taking a late night stroll?" He drawled, his eyes accusatory.

No point in lying. "Yes, actually." She walked over and sat across from him, settling into the armchair. "Late night studying or trouble sleeping?"

When he didn't answer, she clicked her tongue. "Trouble sleeping then. You know Draco, the whole pale face and icy blond hair thing is great and all, but you don't have to add the sleep-deprived look to go full zombie."

"Nice invisibility cloak," Draco snapped. "You could get in trouble for having that."

"Right, because I'm sooo worried about you tattling on me," she chuckled.

His eyes narrowed. "Where were you?"

"I could ask you the same question."

Draco's nostrils flared. "What?"

She raised an eyebrow, "Don't think I haven't noticed you disappearing off on your own. You're going somewhere, when you think people aren't paying attention. Like last night, when we were here for Daphne's birthday, I saw you leave early. You were gone for hours."

Again, he didn't answer. So she sat back and eyed his book. "Another curse book? My, my Draco. You have a very distinct interest in dark magic."

"Shut up," he snapped. He rubbed at his eyes tiredly and Malinda realized how pronounced the bags under his eyes were.

"Hey," she reached out, her hand falling on his shoulder. "Whatever it is, whatever you're going through, I'm here to listen. Maybe I can even help."

He shrugged, letting her hand fall away. "I have no idea what you're talking about Selwyn."

"Obviously something is eating away at you. Literally, Draco. From the day I've met you, it's clear you're struggling."

"Shut up-"

"You've lost weight, you're not sleeping, you never spend time with us-"

"I said shut up-"

"Do you realize how scared Pansy is right now? She's half-convinced you're going to end the engagement, it's all she talks about! She-"

"Not another word or-"

"Then there's your potions brewing. You and I both know I'm the only reason our potions are passable. It's like you don't even care anymore. It's like you're just fading away-

"SHUT UP!"

The fireplace roared to life as Draco's rage ignited embers. Flames rose, sending a heatwave through the room. Draco was standing now, the book knocked to the floor, and his hands trembled at his sides. "You have no fucking idea what you're talking about. Leave me alone!" He stormed away, disappearing up the stairs.

Alone and exhausted, Malinda stared up the staircase. He was falling apart and no one else seemed to care. No one else was trying to help. She sighed and bent over, picking up the book. She opened it to the page with a marker and froze.

It was instructions on how to curse jewelry.

He was getting desperate now that the vanishing cabinet refused to work. Soon he'd try to bewitch Katie Bell to deliver the cursed jewelry to Dumbledore. Soon he'd start the dangerous spiral into dark magic. The timeline was moving faster than she anticipated…

She needed to fix things and fast.

...


...

The next morning, Malinda arrived at breakfast early. As she suspected, Draco sat alone at the Slytherin table, his back to the entrance doors. She purposely sat across from him, dropping his textbook loudly on the table between them.

"Good morning, sunshine," she greeted.

He ignored her.

Malinda waved her hand in his face. "I said good morning. Rise and shine! It's a beautiful morning!"

"Fuck off."

"Were you always so charming Draco?"

"What do you not understand about leaving me alone?" He asked darkly.

"See, I have this rule," she explained, pouring herself some juice. "That when people tell me something stupid, I ignore it. And you were being quite stupid last night."

His face reddened. "Just because you're-"

"-New you won't be nice to me," Malinda finished, rolling her eyes. "Come on, I'm not even that new anymore. So, who are you trying to curse?"

He nearly spat out the bacon piece he'd bit into. "W-What?"

She leaned across the table, lowering her voice. "You've been reading multiple curse books and this one had a mark by the jewelry spell. Are you trying to get Pansy some diamond earrings that tragically end in her death? Look, I know you want out of the betrothal but maybe you should just end things less violently?"

Draco stared at her. "H-How- Wait, no. No, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Maybe you should just tell Pansy how you feel, instead of leading her on. It'll spare both of you a lifetime of shitty dinners togethers and terrible sex."

"Merlin," Draco continued to gape. "Do you not have any filter, woman?"

"I find honesty is the best way to communicate," Malinda waved off his horror. "Plus, I finally got you to smile."

It was true, the corners of Draco's lips had lifted slightly. At her comment, he scowled.

"It's exhausting, isn't it? Being so angry all the time?" She told him quietly and leaned across the table. "Look, you don't have to tell what's going on… But you can't keep carrying on like this Draco. Sometimes it's nice to get a third-party perspective on things but if you can't tell me, then at least let me help you with staying alive."

"What do you mean?" he sounded suspicious.

"Like helping you eat," she boldly placed a few more pieces of bacon onto his plate. "You eat like a bird and I'm worried you're just going to collapse one day.. Eat all of that and then we'll go to the library."

"What if I'm not hungry?" he snapped.

"Then I'll force it down your throat," she gave him a bright smile.

Draco shook his head, but picked up one of the new pieces of meat. "What are you going to do in the library?"

"We are going to get a head start on that potions essay," Malinda answered. "I'm tired of carrying your ass through the class."

He continued to nibble on the bacon piece as a few more students trickled in. Alec walked by them, towards his usual spot where his trio of half bloods sat, but he slowed as he passed. "Morning Selwyn."

"Hey Alec," she waved, before turning back and drinking from her goblet. Then she noticed Draco's cold eyes on her. "What?"

"If you want to become part of society here, you should stop talking to him."

"Who said I wanted to become part of society?" she challenged.

His eyebrows furrowed, "But you said…"

"That my parents were considering our family joining society here," Malinda shrugged. "I never said anything about my opinion on the matter. Hey, where are you going?"

Draco had begun to stand and gave her a condescending look. "None of your business."

"But the library-"

He ignored her and strode away.