Chapter Seven: Halloween
"Aria," a soft voice called from behind her, making Aria turn and stop walking. She glanced around her, seeing the empty hallway. She had been walking with Hermione to the Halloween feast, Harry and Ron and a few other Gryffindors were walking a few feet in front of them.
"Whats wrong Aria?" Hermione asked, glancing back in confusion.
"I left my wand in the dorms, I'll be right back," Aria said, turning around.
"You don't really need it do you? It's just dinner," Hermione called after her.
"I know, it just feels weird, not having it on me," Aria called back then disappeared around a corner. She waited a moment to make sure Hermione wasn't following, then turned to face the wall. A doorway and a dark staircase leading down opened in front of her, and she rushed down a few steps, then came to a stop in the center of the room she had come to know very well in the last month.
"Whats happened? You've never spoken to me outside of the room before," Aria said, glancing around the room. "And tonight is important. I have to be there when they fight the troll," she said, though she sank into her usual place in the center of the floor rather then trying to leave. She couldn't help but feel comfortable here, it was her escape from reality.
"Draco Malfoy took the staircase tonight," the voice said, making Aria sit up straight again, alert.
"He did?" She asked, suddenly nervous. "Where is he now? I shouldn't be here when he gets here, should I? I didn't think it would happen this fast, I haven't decided what to say," Aria said running her hands over her face in thought. "Why today of all days! What do I do? I need to leave, it's too soon, I can't do this right now," she said, getting to her feet and pacing in a tight circle in the middle of the room. "How much does he know? Did he already come to this room? Did you say anything about me? How much does he know? How do I tell him? What do I tell him?" Aria had widened her pacing circle, falling into her usual pattern of circling the room with a foot of space between her and the walls. "I don't know what to do," she said again, making another lap in silence. Her hands made multiple trip through her short hair, pushing it back over the top of her head, a habit she had picked up sometime in high school. She had passed the dark opening multiple times before her brain took notice of it and what it meant. She froze on the opposite side of the room.
"I'd say you tell him everything, but that's just my opinion," a voice said from the darkened stairway. He took a step forward and the stairs became a wall behind him.
"How- how long have you been there?" Aria asked, having to stop and clear her throat. Her arms crossed automatically across her stomach, her hands gripping the insides of her elbows.
"I was here before you were," he said, raising an eyebrow. He seemed to be making an effort to be polite.
"Oh," she said, her voice coming out as a whisper. She felt her back hit the wall before she realized she had taken a step away from him. "I… need to go," she said, resting her hands against the wall, which fell away behind her, becoming a door. She groped for the handle, afraid to look away from him.
"Wait," he said, and she froze as he took a step forward. "Please," he added, the word coming out harshly, as though he never said it. "Can you just… wait a minute," he said, taking another step toward her. She felt the door fade away, back into a wall, as she thought about it. She wanted to stay, she wanted to make a friend of Draco, but she hadn't thought about what to say to him yet. She hadn't expected him to come here for months, if not a couple years, and her mind had been so preoccupied today with what was going to happen.
"Why did you take the stairs tonight?" Aria asked softly.
"Everyone's busy right now, no one would notice me disappearing for a few hours," he said, shrugging. "And you? Why are you here tonight?" She eyed him with suspicion, not sure what to entrust him with.
"The castle brought me here," she said, ignoring the confused look on his face. "Why are you talking to me? I'm below you in status, you have nothing to gain from being here, you have no reason to not hate me," she asked, narrowing her eyes in anticipation of his answer. He frowned, but not in a mean way. As though he was thinking.
"I've been seeing the staircase for weeks," he began, and she nodded.
"I know, skip ahead," she said, ignoring his frown.
"I guess, I'm just curious about you. And as weird as this sounds, I feel like I'm supposed to trust you, like we should be," he paused, then swallowed before continuing, "friends."
She nodded, then considered. Either he was very good at acting, or he was actually telling the truth.
"You cannot lie here," the disembodied voice said from around them, and Draco jumped, whipping around. Aria nodded, not surprised by the voice anymore. She finally took a step away from the wall.
"Cannot, or should not?" Aria asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Cannot, I do not allow it, everything said here is the truth," it continued, and Draco whipped around to face her again, his face almost panicked, if she could call it that.
"Okay, I believe you," Aria said, facing Draco again. "Lets be friends then," she continued, almost laughing at the surprised look on his face.
"Just like that?" He asked, his eyebrows raising.
"Yeah, well, you heard the castle, its impossible to lie here, though I wonder what would happen…" she said, trailing off, already comfortable enough around Draco to ignore him as she did the room when she was thinking. She began to pace unconsciously, following her normal path, which led her around Draco, who had moved into the middle of the room. "Wait," she said, coming to a stop before she had even made one lap.
"What?" He asked, confused. She ignored him.
"If no one can lie in here… what about all the rambling I've done? There had to be something in there I knew wouldn't happen, thats a lie, isn't it?" She asked, frowning.
"A path exists while you are on it," the voice said softly. "And thoughts are thoughts, neither true nor false until put into action," it continued, and her face cleared as she nodded, then continued pacing.
"So what now?" She asked, coming to a stop in front of Draco, her hands tucked into her pockets.
"Now?" Draco asked, his face calm though his voice shook slightly. Aria frowned and stepped back to look him over. She had always been good at guessing peoples emotions, and maybe since there was nothing else in the room except for the boy in front of her, guessing his emotions was easier than normal.
"Sorry, you must be confused," she said, sitting down in her normal spot in the center of the room, a few feet away from Draco. "Sit, please." She gestured to the floor in front of her. The Draco she knew from the books would never do something as undignified as sitting on a brick floor… but then, that Draco would never have even a slightly civil conversation with her. He sat across from her but didn't say anything. "Ask your questions," she said softly, smiling.
"Who are you?" He asked, frowning.
"Aria Gray," she said simply, knowing that wasn't what he meant. "Next?"
"Where are you from?" He asked, his brows still drawn together.
"Wisconsin, in the United States," she said, smiling slightly. "Next?"
"What is this room then?" He asked.
"I call it the memory room, but it doesn't really have a name. You can share memories here, like a pensieve," she said, smiling.
"Share memories?" He asked, surprised. Aria nodded, then thought carefully for a second and closed her eyes. She brought back her favorite memory, one from the summer between 11th and 12th grade, when she had gone up to the bluffs by the lake and watched the stars for a few hours, and then the sunrise. It was one of the memories of just her, and she spent a lot of time in it when she was homesick. She heard Draco gasp in surprise and she opened her eyes to look at him. He was not, as she had expected, looking around at the scenery, but rather at her. She frowned, then realized what he was seeing and pulled herself away from the memory, becoming separate from her memory self. As she stepped away, Draco's eyes followed her memory self, his head tilted to the side in confusion.
"Next question?" Aria said, drawing his attention back to her younger self.
"Um," he said, blinking and shaking his head as though to try to clear his thoughts away.
"I suppose the obvious ones?" She asked softly, as though speaking to a spooked child, which she supposed she was. Maybe this was too much for an eleven year old to take in. But this particular eleven year old wasn't normal, he'd had to grow up fast in his family, with a father like his. He nodded, keeping his eyes on the grass covered ground. "This is one of my memories, from a few years ago, I am sharing it with you by thinking about it, it can only be done in this room, as far as I know. But we are still in the room, physically, and we can't interfere with the memory, just observe it." He nodded again but didn't speak, instead, he turned his head toward the other girl, then back at her, obviously making the connection, even though the other version of her had long red hair, rather than short brown. Her face was pretty much the same. "I'm not going to explain everything to you right now, though I'm sure you've guessed some things. You have to prove to me that I can trust you before I tell you everything." He looked back at her, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"And how do I do that?" He asked, frowning.
"I dunno," she said, shrugging, but her mouth formed a smile, and he smiled back as though he had no control over the action. Young Draco had really thrown her off her tracks, everyone else had been pretty much as she had expected them to be, but not this boy. "But I'll let you know when I do trust you. And then I'll explain everything." He nodded again, though his face was still drawn in thought. Aria turned to watch the sun peek over the horizon of the lake, throwing bright yellow light over them and the older version of her. She turned her face to the sun and closed her eyes, then let the memory fade out slowly until they were back in the room.
"What did you mean earlier, about fighting a troll?" Draco asked after a few moments, guessing, correctly, that Aria wasn't going to explain anything else about herself.
"Oh, well, someone let a troll into the school tonight," she said, not giving names. "And some students are going to get trapped in a room with it by accident, and they will fight it, and I should be there, probably," Aria said, frowning as she remembered the importance of the night.
"Why are your eyes blue now?" He asked, frowning as he watched her face.
"Well the public story is that I'm a seer, and I have visions," she said, shrugging. "They turn blue apparently, whenever I am thinking about the things I know that haven't happened yet."
"Public story…" he began, but she shook her head, indicating that she wasn't going to elaborate. "Who would let in a troll?" Draco asked, changing subjects. Aria's brows drew together in thought. Draco was acting so out of character for what he needed to be that it threw her off every time. Aria just shrugged in response.
"We can't be friends out there," she said, waving her hand at the ceiling. "You have to hate me in public."
"Why?" He asked, frowning slightly. He wasn't upset, chances were he didn't want anyone to know about this weird room, or this weird friendship.
"It's just easier that way. For now," she said. "I need to go," she said, and a doorway formed on the wall behind Draco. "If you ever need to speak to me just come down here and ask the castle to get me," she said, smiling now.
"The castle?" He asked in confusion.
"The castle is alive too you know," she said. "You talk to it sometimes, it told me. If you stay here after I leave you can ask it to show you," she said, then disappeared through the door before he could respond. The door opened into an empty hallway, a few paces from the door of the girls bathroom. She listened for a moment, but didn't hear anything from inside, which hopefully meant that she hadn't missed the troll. She pushed open one of the wide doors, making sure it didn't fall shut behind her.
"Hermione" She asked softly, moving farther into the room. She heard a sniffle from the last stall and sighed in relief. "Hermione, I was looking for you, I just heard from Lavender that you were in here. I'm so sorry about Ron, he's an idiot."
"I know," Hermione's broken voice came from the stall. Aria pulled the door open and leaned against the doorframe. She smiled at Hermione, who smiled back and tried to wipe her tears from her face.
"He was wrong you know. You do have friends. I'm one of them, and Neville is another," Aria said, offering her hand to Hermione. Hermione took it and Aria pulled the girl up to her feet. As they exited the stall, the door slammed shut loudly and a horrible smell filled the room. Hermione screamed and Aria whipped around to face the troll, pulling her wand from her robe pockets. The door flew open a moment later and Ron and Harry ran in, both holding their wands in front of them and staring up at the troll. Hermione's wand, and school books, lay scattered on the floor from where she had dropped them, and though they were within reach, Hermione was frozen in horror, staring up at the troll which had spotted them and begun to clamber toward them, swinging its club as it went and knocking the stalls apart. Aria pulled Hermione underneath the row of sinks as a particularly large pieces of stall flew towards them.
"Do something!" Hermione screeched as it came closer to them.
"Hey!" Ron called, making the troll turn towards them. It stumbled as it turned, nearly falling into the sinks.
"Over here," Harry called, waving his arms above his head. The troll took a step toward them and Aria tried to drag Hermione closer to the door, but she wouldn't budge.
"Come on," Aria hissed at Hermione, not wanting to draw the trolls attention back to them. The beast was dangerously close to the boys now, and clearly, neither of them knew what to do. Aria was out from older the sinks and across the room before she knew what she was doing.
"Hey stupid!" She yelled, and the troll turned toward her, lowering it's upraised club that had been positioned to crush Ron. It grunted, then stumbled as Harry jumped onto its back, his wand going straight up its nose. The troll flailed around, crashing into more stalls, then a couple porcelain sinks.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Ron said clearly, stressing the right syllables and moving his wand correctly as Hermione had corrected him on just that morning. The trolls club flew from its hands into the air above its head, then fell with a loud thunk. The troll's eyes rolled back and it collapsed forward, unconscious. Harry climbed off its back as Aria turned to grab Hermione's things from the floor and shove them back into her bag.
"Come on," she said, dragging Hermione up by the hand. "Someone must have heard all that noise. We should-"
"Going somewhere?" A cold voice drawled from the doorway, making Aria's words cut off. The four of them exchanged a look, then fell silent as Snape entered the room and looked at the troll, then at the two boys, both covered with water from a burst pipe that Aria hadn't noticed until now. Then he looked at the girls, his eyes narrowing at the sight of Aria, clutching her wand in one hand and Hermione's hand in the other.
"What on earth-" Professor McGonagall began, running into the room, followed by professor Flitwick.
Aria let out a breath of relief as Professor McGonagall began chastising them.
"It was my fault, Professor," Hermione said, making Ron and Harry look at her in surprise. Aria, who was closest to Harry, nudged him with her elbow, and when he looked over at her, she gave him a look that clearly said to go with it. "I went looking for the troll. I thought I could handle it, I've read all about them you see, only, I was wrong. If it hadn't been for Harry, Ron, and Aria, I'd be dead," she said, her chin lower than normal as she spoke.
"Well," McGonagall began, looking between them. "Ten points from you, Ms. Granger, for stupid, reckless behavior. Return to your common room, at once."
Hermione's eyes met the floor as she lowered her head and left the room.
"You three," she began again, looking at them. "Not many first years could have taken down a fully grown mountain troll. Five points each, for sheer dumb luck."
When the three of them returned to the common room, Hermione was waiting for them. The four of them looked at each other awkwardly, then they all mumbled 'thanks' and went their separate ways. After that, they all sat together for meal times, and even Ron was civil to Aria, though she still wasn't sure what she had done in the first place to make him angry.
She didn't talk to Draco again for several weeks, though she could feel his eyes on her at meal times or during class. Sometimes she would look up in the hallway and catch his eye, but she would always look away before his face could form a questioning look. He hadn't been mean to any of them since the proposed duel in the trophy room, and she was growing concerned that when it came time for him to get Harry and Hermione detentions, he wouldn't be there. She would have to find some way to get him to Hagrid's at the right moment, so he could see the baby dragon.
The morning of Harry's first Quidditch game came quickly, and Hermione, Ron, and Aria were sitting around him at the breakfast table, trying to get him to eat.
"Come on," Ron said through a mouth full of food. Hermione gave him a disgusted look that he ignored. "You'll need your strength for the game." At that comment, Harry's face grew even paler.
"Harry," Hermione said, but she was cut off by Oliver Wood approaching them to drag Harry away.
"Good luck," Aria called after him, then returned to her own breakfast of toast and coffee. Hermione and Ron both hated the stuff and Ron would make fun of her for drinking it sometimes, but she didn't care. The taste of coffee was familiar to her, and it made her less homesick. She still visited the memory room nearly every day, sometimes to think aloud, sometimes just to watch the stars in her memory. The castle would always tell her if someone was looking for her while she was there, and she could leave to a different part of the castle, usually the library, and say she had been there all along. It had been a bit harder to go to the room now that she was friends with the boys, they didn't have any concept of privacy, so if she disappeared for too long, they would question her relentlessly until she could change the subject.
Aria wasn't going to go to Harrys game. She knew how it turned out and she was never really big on sports. Plus, she had a more important task to do today. She needed to see Professor Snape. She hadn't told the others she wouldn't be going, she would simply 'forget' something in her dorm and run back for it, then later she would tell them that she hadn't been able to find them in the stands so she had watched the game alone. She knew the game would last for just over an hour, short, compared to other games, and she would have to be at the pitch when it ended to make her story believable. The others started heading down after breakfast, even though the game didn't start for another half hour.
"Oh," Aria said as the others headed down the stairs of the castle. "I need to drop my bag off real quick," she said, gesturing to the book bag she had taken to breakfast only because she had spent all night awake in the memory room and rushed to catch up to them in the morning. Now it made the perfect excuse.
"Why do you have that with you anyway? Its Saturday," Ron said, rolling his eyes.
"I went to the library this morning to work on my essay for Defense and I forgot to drop it off before breakfast," Aria said, smiling at his impatience. "I'll meet you in the stands in a minute," she said, then disappeared inside before they could comment. She waited until the entrance hall cleared before making her way down to the dungeons.
She took a deep breath before knocking on Snape's office door and only had to wait a few seconds before the door flew open.
"Yes?" He drawled, his eyes narrowing slightly as he realized who was disturbing him. "Why aren't you at the game with your little friends?"
"I need you to teach me occlumency," Aria blurted out nervously. Snape's eyebrows rose, then drew together in suspicion.
"And why," he drawled, "should I do that?" Aria glanced down both ends of the hallway before speaking.
"Because you are the best one in the school to learn occlumency from, and because I know things that shouldn't be known by certain people," she said so quietly that he had to lean forward a little to catch it all. He sneered at her.
"Yes, the knowledge of an eleven year old girl obviously contains the worlds most important information," he sneered. She rolled her eyes. She'd known he would be difficult, but she had really hoped she wouldn't have to tell him anything important.
"I know that you are in love with Lily Evans. I know the real reason you hate Harry so much. I know that when Voldemort comes back in three years you will serve him, but secretly you are always loyal to Dumbledore. I know…"
"Enough," he snapped, taking a step into the classroom. She followed him in, shutting the door behind her. He turned to glare at her. "Dumbledore has told me a little about the circumstances of you being here."
"Then you must know that I know things that could end this world," Aria said, purposefully trying to sound overdramatic. "I need to be able to shield myself from anyone trying to get into my mind."
"It has been discussed," Snape said, his expression defeated. "I will teach you occlumency every Tuesday and Friday at eight o'clock in the evening. If anyone is to ask what you are doing, you will tell them you are taking-"
"Remedial Potions," Aria said along with him, rolling her eyes. "Fine."
"I am still your professor Ms. Gray," Snape hissed, his face becoming angry again. "You will treat me with respect."
"Of course sir," Aria said, bowing her head slightly. He narrowed his eyes again, trying to figure out if she was mocking him or not.
"Now go away," he said, whirling away from her.
"Aren't you going to come see the match sir?" She asked, knowing he had to be there for at least the second half of the game when Harry's broom would be cursed. Snape had to be there to do the counter curse.
"No," he said, sitting in his chair behind his desk. "I told you to leave."
"It's going to be an interesting game though, Professor," Aria said, repressing a smile. Her eyes were bright blue as she spoke, which she knew would make Snape more likely to listen to her, especially if Dumbledore had told him about her 'visions'. "How are you at counter curses?" She asked, then disappeared through the door before he could respond. She took the darkened staircase that appeared in the wall before her without a second thought, hurrying to be gone before Snape could leave his office. She made a quick stop in her dorm to drop off her bag then found herself just outside the front doors of the castle.
"You make my life a lot easier, you know," she muttered to the stone wall. She stayed hidden behind a bush by the door to see if Snape would go to the game. She wasn't sure what she would do if he didn't. She didn't have long to worry though; the professor left the castle only five minutes later, maybe twenty minutes after the game had started. She let him get all the way down to the pitch before she left her hiding place to follow him.
She spent the remainder of the game behind the stands listening to the commentary, and watching the teachers section from her place. She saw when Quirrell started to mutter under his breath, it was only a few seconds before she saw Snape copy the actions. She didn't see Hermione, but less than five minutes later, Harry was rushing toward the ground, hand clasped over his mouth, and then the game was won. In the confusion of the leaving crowd, Aria managed to sneak into the pitch unnoticed, picking her way over to Harry.
"Nice job!" She said, coming within hearing distance of the team. She gave him a hug, which seemed to surprise him, then turned to find the Weasley twins to congratulate them. She had a wide grin on her face the whole time, matching everyone else's attitude.
"Hey! Where were you? Did you see the game at all?" Hermione shouted over the crowd of Gryffindor's. Aria waited until she was closer to reply.
"Sorry! I couldn't find you guys in the stands so I watched from over there," she gestured to the ground near the locker rooms where a few students had been sitting watching the game. "What was up with Harry's broom?"
"I'll tell you later," Hermione said, conscious of the people around them. Aria nodded and they both turned to join in the celebrations, somehow ending up back in the Gryffindor common room. Fred and George appeared later with snacks and things from the kitchens, and the party went on well past midnight. Aria stayed in the common room until it emptied to listen to the other three recount their versions of what had happened.
"It had to be Snape," Ron said angrily. The others nodded along while Aria shrugged her shoulders.
She went to bed that night exhausted, but unable to sleep. She tossed and turned for hours before finally giving up on sleep and making her way down to the memory room as was usual on her sleepless nights.
"Hello again," she whispered tiredly to the room. It didn't respond as she layed on her back in the middle of the floor and pulled up a memory of herself watching the stars last summer. She let the memory envelop her, closing her eyes, though she could still see the images of the stars that her memory self was staring up at.
"Would you trust me if I shared my memories with you?" Draco's voice startled her from her own memory several minutes later, maybe hours, she wasn't sure. She knew the memory had faded around her, but she didn't open her eyes, instead focusing on the same memory again.
"Probably not," she said softly, feeling the grass underneath her.
"Why not?" He sounded frustrated.
"Because I know the person you are supposed to turn into and I wouldn't trust that person very much," she said, sighing. She heard him settle onto the grass a few feet away from her.
"So you won't trust me because of something I haven't done yet?" He asked, and she could hear the frown in his voice.
"Yeah, I guess," she said, shrugging against the grass, not sure if he could even see her. "Usually I'm a bit more lenient with who I trust, but in this case its too important to make mistakes." He was silent for a few minutes.
"What can I do to change your mind?" He asked at last, and she finally opened her eyes and moved her head so she was looking at him, drawing herself out of her memory self, now lying beside her much older body, and closer to him.
"I don't know yet," she said, watching his face as he stared up at the stars. "Actually," she said a moment later, sitting up. "You can start by making fun of Harry Potter about the game," she said, and his eyes flew to her in confusion.
"Isn't he one of your friends?" He asked and she smiled slightly.
"Yes," she nodded. "But you are supposed to be his biggest enemy here, for a few years at least. You are supposed to hate him."
"Um, why?" He asked.
"I don't know, thats just how it's supposed to be," she said, shrugging.
"This has something to do with you knowing the future doesn't it?" He asked, and she gave him a grin in response. He was silent for another moment.
"How do you know all these thing?" He asked, frowning. "How do I know you are telling the truth?"
"I'm a seer," she said again, shrugging. "I have these visions, sometimes I just know. But it's always true." He looked her over, a frown on his face.
"I don't know if I believe you," he said, sitting up to face her. She let the memory fade again, bringing them back to the memory room.
"That's okay. I don't trust you so why should you trust me?" She asked rhetorically.
"I don't know," he answered anyway, looking down at his lap. "I just feel like I'm supposed to trust you." They were both quiet for a moment, but without the distraction of the stars, it grew awkward.
"Just so you know, I like this version of you much better than the one I was expecting you to be," she said at last.
"Thanks, I think," he said, and she let out a small laugh. "So, being mean to Potter?" He asked, raising an eyebrow in a way that had become familiar to her over the last few weeks.
"Yep. I would start with using a comparison between him and a wide mouthed toad," she said, smiling. He laughed.
"Thats a good one," he said, also smiling.
"You would think so, you came up with it," she muttered under her breath. He raised an eyebrow again, but she didn't elaborate. "You should also think about going home over Christmas break," she said, bringing it up now even though it was only the middle of November. His face fell a little.
"I was planning on staying," he said, and this time it was her tilting her head in confusion.
"Don't you want to see your mother?" She asked. She had thought he had gotten on with his parents during school.
"Yeah, she's fine," he said, shrugging. "She wants me to come home for the holidays."
"You should go. It's only a couple weeks, you can avoid your father for that long if you need to," she said softly. His face hardened immediately, but then the mask fell again, as though he was putting an effort into being open with her. "Sorry, it's none of my business, I know. It's hardly fair of me to make you share things with me if I'm not sharing with you."
"It's alright I guess, I'm just not used to…" He trailed off, trying to find the right words.
"Having friends?" She suggested, not unkindly.
"I guess. My father thinks its better to keep to ourselves and just show off how great we are," he said. She nodded.
"It must have been lonely for you, growing up alone in a mansion with nobody else your age to talk to," she said softly. She had no idea what it was like to be alone as a child. Sure, her parents had shared custody so she spent summers with one and school year with another, but she'd always had her sister, and a few friends at both places. Draco just nodded, not concerned that she knew more about him then he had told her.
"It wasn't really lonely, just kinda… boring. I never did any of the things that normal children do, but neither did any of the other pureblood children. We were all raised to be polite and taught how to get our way in the world. We had house elves though," his voice brightened at the mention, then he frowned. "Father was not happy when he found out I spoke to them. He forbid me from talking to them unless I was giving orders."
"I'd like to meet a house elf some day," Aria said wistfully. "They sound wonderful."
"They're okay I guess," he said, shrugging. "So how does it work? The things you see? What do you see?"
"I only know whats important to the outcome I want," she said.
"Outcome of what?" He asked, and she hesitated before answering.
"Outcome of the war," she said softly.
"War?" He asked, his face not surprised.
"Voldemort is going to come back, and there will be a war… and when there is, I'm sorry Draco, but when he comes back, you have to be on his side."
