And if we dream - Draco Malfoy/ OC
Chapter 16- Troubled.
Summary: Like some magnetic force, like some unbreakable bond she was drawn back to him again and again. And now, staying away was an inconceivable notion. "Always." she murmured, one hand finding his, the other tangling into his platinum hair, "Always."
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I'm re writing it to my story so the dialogue is not that same as it is in the books or films in the scenes you may recognise =]
I saw the Woman in black trailer in the cinema today when I went to see the incredible, Inbetweeners movie, and the sight of Daniel Radcliffe in something other than Harry Potter made me first, sad, because Potter is over and secondly made me feel the need to update, so thank you Woman in black movie!
Also.. On a side note that you might be interested in- I mention colin creevey in this chapter- I know Hugh Mitchell who plays him- he lives in Southampton like me and hangs in the same places. Also Ive heard of some of his sexual excursions. Yeah.. couldn't look at creevey the same after that! Aha… On with the chapter!
Draco in this chapter! Hope you enjoy!
I WROTE THIS WEEKS AGO BUT HAD NO INTERNET DUE TO A BROADBAND CHANGE SO COULDN'T UPLOAD ANYWHERE =[ SORRY.
Still don't at home but do at my mums boyfriends so thought id upload quicck! Hope you enjoy!
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Most curses are able to be performed wordlessly, however, the same cannot be said for Unforgivable curses…
It is magic etiquette that unforgivable curses…
Avery grinned as Snape's voice continued to drawl out information she already knew, she was incredibly happy that she had in fact changed her essay as to Malfoys information. If she hadn't, and the more rational side of her brain that had told her the Slytherin was playing a cruel joke and deliberately sabotaging her homework had won out, she would have left her answers the same and subsequently been wrong.
Luckily, the more irrational side of her brain had told her to take a chance even when she was unable to find any information to back it up. Hooray for being irrational!
She had of course wondered why she could find no information to back anything up but then again what information there was, not in the restricted section of the library, was rather limited as it was.
"Your essay wasn't terribly awful Greenwood." Professor Snapes voice broke through her thoughts, "I take it your last paragraph was a guess?"
"No sir," she replied at once, thinking up a lie, knowing the professor was silently accusing her of cheating or copying, especially if his raised eyebrow and glare were anything to go by, "It was brought up in a conversation, last year sometime I think. I just remembered."
"Hn." he scoffed and moved onto Hermione, grumbling something derogatory as was usual and Avery breathed a sigh of relief, glancing down at the almost top grade on the corner of her paper. Even that seemed to have been written reluctantly.
"Well done Avery," Hermione said happily, "I'm glad you found your essay on time."
"Me too, what did you get?" Avery asked, glancing at Hermione's top score, "Of course you did."
"You did well too." her tone a little strained.
"You say that as if it never happens 'Mione!"
"A number of your essays," Snape began, "Were frankly terrible," his beady eyes focused on Harry and Ron, "others were more acceptable," this time his eyes landed on Malfoy and Zambini, the former of which smirked widely, "I now have a grasp on your abilities, talents and levels, so we can truly begin with this module. As I may have mentioned before, some, if not most of you will not pass. I will not make acception to you simply because of your teacher problems over the last few years. Someone who is naturally good at this subject should excel despite any previous issues. Am I clear?"
"Yes." Avery mumbled along with the class, then, "We get it, we'll all fail unless we're Sytherin."
"Something to say?" Avery tensed, "Potter?" and calmed, Harry had obviously grumbled about something too, the boy had never known when someone was in close enough proximity to hear when he complained. Avery sometimes thought it might have been the glasses and his lack of depth perception.
"No sir," the saviour grumbled, avoiding eye contact with both the professor and Hermione who had turned around to glare at him.
"We will continue with the dark arts, and as per the title of this subject, the defence of them. Today's focus- the Imperious curse. An unforgivable. What is the use of the imperious?" Snape asked.
Avery raised her hand, only slightly slower than Hermione, knowing the answer to this one. "Greenwood?"
"The Imperious curse gives the caster the ability to control the victim." she answered.
"What else?" the bat like professor asked.
"Uh, well," she thought back to Alistair Moody's class years ago, well Barty Crouch Jnr's lessons, "It's not like the other unforgivable curses, if performed right, the victim is put into, like a trance," Avery had no doubt that Hermione could have worded this better, "and they'll do anything without really knowing they are doing it, anything from dancing to crimes to suicide."
"What else?" Snape asked again as Avery held back the need to glare at him, she should have realised that it wouldn't have been so simple to just answer one question.
"The curse can also give you talents you wouldn't normally posses," she thought back to the image of Neville performing magnificent cartwheels and spins, "so that you can carry out the order given. Like if you were ordered to kill someone, you would immediately know the correct curses."
"Who created the Imperious curse?" he asked her, smirking vindictively.
"I- I," Avery swallowed, she never had been one for history of magic, "Someone in the middle ages?"
"Good guess. Why?"
"For-" she glanced around the room for inspiration, most people avoided her eyes, apart from those few who knew the answer and felt the need to tell her so with their smug expressions, her eyes finally landed on a shock of blonde hair and a pair of hands that were moving, one hand wrapped around the opposite wrist, this was then repeated with the other. The wrists pushed together- miming something like- chains? Shackles?
"Slavery!" she blurted, realizing the answer, "It was created to brainwash people into slavery."
"And what happens if the curse is performed incorrectly?" the professor asked.
"I-" Avery flailed for an answer again to no avail, "I don't know."
"Of course you don't." Snape snapped, "Very few do."
Avery blinked and ground her teeth together, she hadn't exactly expected a barrage of house points but a nod of well done wouldn't have gone amiss. But then again this was Snape, Slytherin and possibly evil to the bone.
"Very few," the professors voice rose, probably trying to set some tension amongst the students, "save for those more experienced wizards, know the effect of an ill performed imperious, quite simply, madness, or perhaps death in more extreme cases. Some would say that death is in fact preferable. Those under a badly spelled curse will become disconnected, crazy, warranting long, if not lifetime stays in St Mungos."
Silence resumed in the class, save for an audible gulp from Ron's direction, "Needless to say we will not be practising the curse on each other." If not for Snapes stoic expression and monotone voice Avery might have almost believed that their professor was making a joke, "Can the Imperious curse be resisted?"
Blaise Zabini raised his hand, and answered as the professor pointed to him, "Some can resist the curse, with practice. Some take years, others with immense power can resist it after just a few tries."
Avery found herself, and apparently so did Hermione, glance surreptitiously towards Harry, not everyone knew of Harry's ability to resist the Imperious curse, it was information that was best kept secret in case said ability could one day come in handy.
"Correct." Snape agreed, "Now, as per Ministry rules we cannot learn to resist the curse as it cannot be performed in school." Avery detected more disdain than usual in his voice, "It does not hurt however to be aware of how to do this."
….
Avery practically fell though the door into the hallway an hour and a half later when Defence finally ended and even Hermione looked relieved to be free as she followed closely behind. "Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed, sucking in fresh air, "That man could talk forever!"
"My head is pounding." A Ravenclaw grumbled to her friend as they passed the group, both not so subtly glancing in Harry's direction eyes moving around the gathered 'ministry students' as they were now being labelled.
"I'm sad we didn't get to do any practical work." Hermione said, running her fingers though knotted hair as best she could, "I learned a lot though."
"I cant remember any of it." Ron grumbled, shouldering his bag properly and heading towards the stairs, "and I'm going outside, you guys coming?"
"Yeah. Free period." Avery said.
"What do you mean you cant remember Ronald?" Hermione snapped, "You might need to know that one day!"
"Well he said so much my brain turned to mush, I don't know which way is left and right anymore." Ron argued, as they moved closer to the blessed doors that led to the cool outside.
"What if you need to resist the curse yourself one day?" Hermione asked, shouldering her way through Harry and Avery to catch up with the ginger, "What would you do then?"
"Well Harry could teach us couldn't he?" Ron said, glancing over his shoulder to his be speckled friend, "I mean, if we still had Dumbledore's you know what."
"Well we don't!" Hermione said, as she and Ron pushed open the doors, Avery and Harry following closely behind. Avery grinned as the sun fell upon her face and basked in it. "And its not fair on Harry, especially when we have our exams!"
"I was just saying."
"How long will this one go on for do you think?" Avery whispered to Harry, "two days?"
"I think until about dinner. You okay? Snape went down quite hard on you in lesson today with all of those questions." Harry asked.
"Headache," Avery said, "But I'm okay. I'll never answer a question in that class again but I am okay!"
Harry laughed as they neared the lake, Ron and Hermione still bickering ahead, the squid splashing languidly, also enjoying the sunshine.
"How did you know about the slavery thing?" Harry questioned, "You were worse than me in History of magic." He pulled off his robes and dropped them on the floor as he dropped down himself, sighing as his muscles relaxed. Avery smiled and joined him, "I don't know really." she replied, "Good guess."
"Today is a good day." Harry laughed as the squid splashed loudly, spraying water over Hermione and Ron whose argument abruptly ended in the spray.
A loud bark of laugher erupted from Avery's throat even as the two friends shot a glare their way, "That was brilliant! Where's that Creevey kid when you need him?"
"Off taking pictures of someone else probably." Harry grinned.
….
It was late that night when Avery pulled her robes closer around her body and stared out over Hogwarts grounds from the Astronomy tower, lessons had finished hours before and she simply couldn't find herself to be tired so almost without thought she had returned to the tower.
She always found the grounds beautiful at night, shadowed, dark, but still beautiful and quiet. She could vaguely see the dark lump of the squid sleeping soundly in the lake and a small smile flickered across her face at the memory of Hermione and Ron soaking wet, jerkily drying their clothes with equally wet wands. Harry was right, they had began talking again over dinner.
She heard a small shuffle behind her but before she had the chance to turn a waft of vanilla invaded her nose and she knew immediately who her visitor was, she didn't question why she didn't move to defend herself, this time Malfoy didn't seem threatening.
"Why are you here, again, Malfoy?" she asked instead.
"Again," Malfoy mocked, "I could ask you the same."
Avery sighed, "Hogwarts is peaceful at night and this place just epitomises it."
"It is rather peaceful up here, yes." Malfoy agreed, moving to lean on the rail beside her, he also remained in his robes and uniform, hair still groomed immaculately, not a strand out of place.
"So why are you up here?" Avery asked.
"Same reason." he replied elusively and Avery immediately knew that he was lying.
"You're a prefect Malfoy, aren't you kind of breaking your own rules?"
"They're not my rules." he answered, "I simply enforce them."
"Is that why you're here, to give me detention for being out past curfew?" Avery asked, knowing she was probably tempting fate, this was the second time Malfoy had seen her here after curfew, after all.
"No." came the simple reply as the blonde continued to stare out at the grounds, Avery noted with some disdain that he looked almost serene, relaxed.
Resigned to getting no answer to her question she turned back to the grounds too and they stood in silence for few seconds. Those seconds however, seemed like hours, and she felt awkward. Avery cleared her throat, debating whether or not to leave, on one hand this place had been her sanctuary, where she came to think for years, on the other it seemed that Malfoy too had discovered how relaxed, safe this place could make you feel and taken up root.
She didn't know which was worse, having nowhere quiet to think or having to think with Malfoy in such close proximity.
Leave? Stay?
"Snape thought I cheated on my essay." Make conversation? Check, "Because I knew that unforgivable curses couldn't be performed wordlessly."
"You did didn't you? Technically." came the Slytherin's reply.
"Well, no, you divulged the information willingly." Avery frowned, "Why did you help me by the way? You could have just left me to flail in there."
"As much as I would have loved to see you .. flail as you put it, I would much rather learn something when in class." He replied smoothly.
"You actually want to learn defence?" Avery asked with an incredulous snort, "Really?"
"Yes, really." Came accompanied with a roll of the eyes and unless Avery's eyes were mistaking her an almost smile. She found herself smiling fully and turned back to the grounds that her eyes had abandoned in favour of Mafoys profile.
She chuckled to herself, and said, "I'm starting to wonder Malfoy, if maybe you're not as bad as you seem."
From her peripheral vision she saw her companions face tighten, pale more if that were possible. The conversation had been jokey, light, his tone of voice to match, but now his jaw hardened and his voice sounded grave, "Trust me Greenwood." he pushed away from the railings and in a swish of robes that would make Snape proud moved towards the exit, hand on the doorframe he continued, "I'm worse than you know."
Then Avery was left to stare out at the grounds alone, only she didn't feel so peaceful, she felt troubled, strangely enough troubled for Malfoy.
"Just one night of peace." she grumbled, laying her head on her arms.
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Thanks for reading! More up soon!
