They All Fall Down
I can make you see the beauty of a new sun
The fire I hold
Or
I can be the source of your desperation.
I always win.
Day I.
Draco was having one of those horrid, miserable days. When trying to pick the dangerous mind of Daphne Greengrass, it happened. He dug into the consciousness where her thoughts should have been, and found nothing. At first, he was amused. He had suspected that her mind was that blank before.
But it was kind of weird. There should be at least a fleeting thought, emotion, something. It was just a void. Then, it hit him. This was how it was normally. How it used to have been for him. Anyone could focus and stare as hard as they could at the back of someone's head; it didn't mean there was a psychic connection.
Damn! Draco focused on the simple mind of Pansy Parkinson. Greengrass must have had some kind of mental barrier up. But even Pansy's brain was inaccessible to him. Wildly, he tried to pry the mind of the dozen Slytherins lounging around the common room. Nothing. Draco cursed and stormed away. His powers were gone!
He stormed all the way to the Gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office.
"Lemon Drop!" he shouted. The stone gargoyle refused to move. It didn't even flinch.
"Fizzing Whizbees! Sugar Quill! Chocolate Frog! Fainting Fancies!" With the last Weasley's Wizard Wheezes sweet, the gargoyle leapt aside, revealing a twisting stone staircase circling upwards.
Draco pounded on the door, silencing an array of conversations inside.
"Come in!" the fool called cheerily from behind the door. Draco shoved the door open and stalked in.
"How come I don't have my powers anymore?" He demanded immediately, flopping with feline grace onto the spindly chair opposite Dumbledore's desk.
"Ah," said Dumbledore, and he laid down the sugar quill he had been scribbling with a moment before. He folded his hands serenely under his chin and gazed with a twinkly blue stare at Draco. Draco met his eyes with a glare.
"When a young veela is pressed to find his mate quickly," Dumbledore began gently, "extra powers are attainted to aid his search. Primal ligillimens is one of those powers."
"WHAT?" Draco exploded. "Are you telling me that now that I've got my mate I don't have—"he sputtered.
"Yes. With the exception of Miss Weasley."
Draco pondered this for a moment, and then reached out for her consciousness.
At the moment, Ginny was in Potions class, trying futilely to concoct the drought of living death. He felt her high frustrations and felt equally frustrated. Desperately, she dropped in a long, curly coconut shaving, and the potion began to slosh around, slopping onto the stone floor. She shrieked and jumped away from the puddle near her foot which was starting to sizzle through the solid floor. Her cursing brought Professor Slughorn's attention and he waddled over, vanishing the puddle with his wand and reprimanding her.
At that moment, Draco withdrew his presence from her. It had calmed him, and he was able to talk evenly with Dumbledore.
"Good. Well, that is all, headmaster. I should be in Herbology soon." And he exited the light-filled, circular room.
At five minutes to eight at night, Draco hurried along the darkened corridors to the dungeons. He knew Ginervra was furious with him, absolutely barking mad. For one, he had landed them both in detention for a month. And secondly, it was for the most moronic, brainless reason. At least that was what she told him.
In Transfiguration, Potter had slipped Ginervra a tiny swatch of parchment. Draco, who was perched protectively by her side, had read the untidy scrawl out of the corner of his eye.
Ginny, what are you, mad? You've betrayed us all. I can't believe you've done this to me; Hermione, and your very own family. For what? Surely you wouldn't pick that bloody bastard prick over me?
Ginny's jaw dropped in a silent gasp, and her slight shoulders shook. Draco gaped at her, watching a tiny drop of moisture trickle out of the inner corner of her eye. It rolled down her face, glossing over the dusted freckled skin of her nose, and dropped onto the scrap of parchment. She bit down on her plump lower lip, trying very hard to keep silent.
A menacing growl echoed in the back of his throat. He reached a pale hand over and snatched the piece of parchment out of her shaking hands. With a quiet rip, he tore the parchment to shreds with his long, lithe fingers.
He grabbed her hand and held her freezing, trembling hand in his lap, holding tightly. She gave him a disbelieving look, and then looked down. She squeezed back.
Harry leaned over and hissed, "Get your hands away from her, Ferret!"
Draco gave him his best haughty, iced stare. "Drop dead, Potter." He then smirked, as if to say, look who's got the girl.
Harry jumped up, completely flushed and furious. "RELASHIO!" he shouted, jabbing his wand towards their entwined hands. Involuntarily, they released each other, their hands stinging painfully. Draco lunged for his wand, and not even bothering to voice an incantation, waved his wand at Harry, who was tossed back like a rag doll, colliding with an absolutely flabbergasted Professor McGonagall. The force of the impact knocked them both into the professor's desk, sending stacks of papers into the air.
Ginny, far from being aghast at Draco's rash action, was equally furious. Her cheeks were stinging from an angry flush, and she jumped to her feet as well. Harry untangled himself from McGonagall and was trying to stand.
"HARRY! HOW COULD YOU?" She shrieked, drawing her wand as well. "You are the… biggest… prat in the ROOM!" Ginny brandished her wand violently, and great flapping bat bogeys were attacking his face. Harry flailed, trying to swat them away, and in the process, he fell over McGonagall and hit his head on her desk and slumped, unmoving.
Draco straightened his robes and came to stand next to Ginny, taking her hand in his. He unfurled her clenched fist, and it melted like butter in his hand. He wrapped an arm around her protectively, and they both somberly watched Professor McGonagall attempt to stand in a dignified way.
Her severe bun was falling out, wisps of dark silver hair falling messily in her eyes and past her shoulders. Her hat had slipped sideways, and her eyes were bulging. McGonagall tried to prop herself up on her desk, but slipped on the parchment littering the floor. Her robes were haphazard, revealing a protruding collarbone and frail shoulder.
Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil both rushed to her side to help her up.
When she was finally upright, she was so furious, she couldn't speak. Her mouth was a thread, and all the innocent students backed against the wall.
Then she swung her hand forward, pointing her finger dead center and the pair of Draco and Ginervra. "YOU! AND YOU! DETENTION!" She shrieked wildly, pushing rampant strands of hair away. She whirled, jabbing her finger at the unconscious Harry. "YOU TOO—Oh dear. Potter…"
Ginny had dragged him out of the class, yelling at him. "MALFOY, YOU PRAT! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO GO AND JINX HIM! OF ALL THE MORONIC, BRAINLESS THINGS TO DO—"
"YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT DECIDED TO JINX THE PRAT, REMEMBER?" he shouted back, slightly paler than usual. "YOU SENT THOSE BLASTED BAT-BOGEYS AT HIM! I STILL REMEMBER THE LAST TIME YOU DID THAT TO ME! LANDED YOURSELF IN A MONTH'S DETENTION WITH US, DIDN'T YOU, RED?"
Ginny stomped her foot, uttered something between a growl and a shriek, and stormed away. Draco hadn't seen her since that afternoon, and their very first detention was tonight. McGonagall, not being Draco's head of house, had collaborated with Snape to give all three of them the most foul detentions that they had ever imagined in the history of Hogwarts.
Hesitantly, Draco put his ear to the door of the potions room, where their first detention was to be served. He heard the muffled tones of his mate, low and furious. There was a silence, and then, Harry's plainative tones retorted something moronic. Draco flinched back from the door. He could hear Snape shouting about rash, incompetent nitwits…
Bracing himself, he pushed through the dungeon door. Ginny and Harry both were perched on desks on opposite sides of the room. A column of midnight-black robes, Snape, stood formidable between them. Professor Slughorn's squat form was hastily shoving parchment into his bag, bent over double by his desk, very clearly eager to quit the room.
"Ah, I see that the last rash, incompetent nitwit has decided to join us, five minutes late," Snape sneered nastily, folding his arms against his chest. "So that would be… five points from Slytherin for each minute."
Draco's back stiffened, and he ground his teeth. Potter had flashed a wide grin and gave a slight snigger at him from behind Snape's back.
The slimy git whirled onto Harry, and whispered sleekly, "And fifty points from you, for disrupting everybody's valuable time."
Draco smirked, and he saw Ginny trying to hide a smile from the corner of his eye.
"Now," he smiled demonically, "You miscreants will be doing unpleasant tasks for Professor Slughorn. The first thing you have to do is to take these frogs," he waved a hand at a barrel of dead frogs, "and remove their livers. The professor needs 400 frog livers. You will use no magic, and," he smirked, "no gloves."
Ginny cringed and tried not to gag.
"The only tool you are permitted to use are these scalpels," he held up three. "To dissect the frog and remove it's liver."
Professor Slughorn scooped up his bag and tried to waddle out of the room unnoticed, but his crystallized pineapple spilled from his pocket, and he cursed rather loudly.
Snape gave him a look of loathing, and he mouthed, "Sorry." He gave Ginny and Harry a rather sympathetic look and then sped out of the room.
Snape then billowed out after him, sneering behind him, "Get. Busy."
Draco stared, horrified after him. Then he gaped at the dead amphibians. He was going to… have to… put his hands… in frog guts? He'd be the first Malfoy in the entire bloody line to do anything of the sort! No bloody way…
Harry, who had already plucked a slimy frog from the barrel sneered, "What, Malfoy? Worried you might break a nail?"
Malfoy turned his back to him, and stalked over to Ginny. She glared at him, and when he reached a hand out for her, she swatted him away. He smirked at her and whispered in her ear.
"The thing that would infuriate your friend the most is the only thing that could possibly be pleasant for us," he insinuated, his breath on her neck making the hairs rise. She gave him an incredulous look, and then a slow, sultry smirk came over her face.
"Sounds good!" she agreed, and his lips crashed down on hers. They started furiously making out, pressed as close together as possible. Draco slid her back on the desk, and she wrapped her leg around his.
"UGH!" Harry shouted, dropping his frog. "THAT'S MORE BLOODY REVOLTING THAN THE FROG!"
Disclamer : We're sorry it took so long! We've been extremely busy with school.
Recently, something bad happened to someone I know, and this chapter is dedicated to him, because I'll never see him again. The person I lost was someone I knew since I could walk, and he was a dear friend to our family. He killed himself. Because things at home weren't so good. He hurt a lot of people.
Please don't think it's just teens who do those things. He was 49. Remember this: SUICIDE IS NOT THE ANSWER!
Beta/co-author note: Statistically, for every person who commits suicide, there are at least six people who are traumatized. Those people are called 'suicide survivors' and I'm so sorry that the author is one of them. Even if you feel like nobody would miss you at all, you would still affect these people in a horrible way. It's selfish. The pain that those survivors are experiencing sometimes leads to suicide as well. You're not just killing yourself, you're killing those close to you too.
I wanted to thanks my beta reader who's also my co-writer : xfinishedinadayx (go read her fanfictions! She's brilliant.)
I just want to send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed and waited for us! Leave another! The next chapter, coming much sooner than last time!