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I returned to the common room after being forced to play Draco's game, thinking to myself of as many ways I could avoid him over the coming year. I was willing to give Draco another chance – a million other chances. I knew he was not who he was pretending to be for the sake of others.
Pretending he was someone else to please his father.
About half an hour after I'd returned, I was curled comfortably in the common room reading a book I'd gotten from the library when Harry, Ron and Hermione burst through the portrait hole, panting as if they had run the length of the castle. Seeing me, they tripped over themselves getting to me.
"Are you okay?"
"Neville said…"
"Malfoy… common room…" They all began to speak at once. I looked at them blankly, unable to understand any one of their breathless and rushed sentences, and they stopped to catch their breath. Finally Harry began.
"Are you okay? We were looking for you, and Neville said that Malfoy dragged you off. What'd he do? He didn't hurt you, did he?"
Hermione and Ron began asking their own questions, and I held up my hands, to stop the flood of words, shaking my head at the three.
"I'm fine." I told them quietly, relaxing back into the chair I was in.
"What'd he do?" Ron asked. I glanced away from them, wincing at their bluntness.
"Nothing, Ron. I'm fine. Seriously guys, he's not as bad as you make him out to be."
I shook my head slightly at their prejudice – the pointless house rivalry that fuelled my brother, Hermione and Ron – before standing and leaving the common room, as it was clear they weren't going to leave me.
After leaving, I made my way down to the lake, finding a secluded tree, which branches arched gracefully to the ground, making a light cave. I sat at the base of it, rubbing the Mark on my arm, thinking.
My brother and his friends – his friends, as I'd been thinking of them – we just weren't the same. They were Gryffindor through and through, surely, but the Sorting Hat had hesitated before putting me with them. I wasn't a pure Gryffindor, like them, I wasn't brave and courageous, and I was a friend to Draco Malfoy. I'd spent some time with my brother at the beginning of the previous year – who wouldn't, upon finding their not alone in the world – but excluding me, protecting me from their adventures made it clear that I wasn't as close to any of them as they were to each other. We were friendly… but we were plainly not friends.
"Melancholy?"
"Why don't you come with us?"
"We'll cheer you up."
"Yea, come have a bit of fun."
The Weasley twins, Fred and George, dropped out of the tree, landing either side of me, on their feet, holding out their hands, to help me up. I looked at them suspiciously.
"What do you have in mind?"
They shrugged simultaneously, and grinned.
"A few pranks…"
"A joke or two…"
"Fun." They replied. I relaxed slightly, leaning back so I could look at them.
"What jokes?" I asked. They grinned even wider at their success.
"You know where Filch's office is?" One of the twins asked. I nodded.
"Well, when we were in there, in our innocent first-year…"
I snorted. Them? Innocent? Likely. They continued.
"Semi-innocent."
"Yea, well we saw a draw in his filing cabinet."
"Labelled 'Dangerous and Confiscated'."
I nodded, getting where they were going with this.
"We pinched this, while he was distracted." One of the twins held up a piece of black parchment.
"We'll teach you its secrets if you help us grab something else."
"Hmm." I mused, thinking it over. "Give me more details, and I probably will."
They grinned at each other.
"We thought, we could cause a distraction a few floors away, and you sneak in and grab something."
"But make sure Mrs Norris isn't around."
"Meet us back here when you're done."
"How long will you give me?" I asked.
"A few minutes." They replied in unison.
"And how much worth is that blank bit of parchment?"
"It's our treasure."
"It's not just a blank piece of parchment." Fred replied, feigning a hurt expression. I considered it for a moment, and then against my better judgement, I nodded.
"I'm in. When do we start?"
Ten minutes later, I was waiting around the corner from Filch's office, watching. And waiting.
Sure enough, several crashes and booms began, as I wondered briefly what they were doing. I watched as Filch and Mrs Norris sped out of the office. As soon as they were clear I snuck in.
Sure enough, there was that cabinet they mentioned, and I hurried over to it, pulling it open. There were several items of interest in there, and I grabbed a few, before shutting the cabinet, checking the room, and sneaking back to the tree by the lake. Fred and George were already there, their eyes gleaming with excitement. I sat down in my spot, and looked with interest at the seemingly harmless items, which now sat on the ground before me. There was a small, oval thing, which looked like a stone, and a small metal thing, bent into a weird shape. I looked at them curiously, then on impulse pointed at the rock.
"I call dibs on that."
The twins looked at me, then nodded. "Sure."
"Then we get that."
"Looks like a lock pick." They began to muse over it, prodding it with their wands a few times, before I interrupted them.
"The parchment?" I reminded them. They glanced up, guilty grins on their faces, and shoved the metal thing into a pocket, pulling out the parchment. They opened it, before laying it on the ground in front of me. I looked at it.
"It's blank." I pointed out. George pulled out his wand and lightly touched the tip of it to the paper.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
I sniggered slightly at the appropriate phrase, but from his wand tip, black lines began to spread across the paper. Amused, I watched, as it filled itself out. When it was done, I examined it for a moment, looking at the small dots scattered across it.
"It's a map." I said in surprise.
"Shows everything." They said, beginning to show me the whole of Hogwarts, all the secret passages in and out, shortcuts through, and just everything in general. So I began learning, watching the map intently. We had to wipe it hurriedly, however, as the map showed a dot labelled Draco Malfoy making it's way along towards us.
"Mischief managed."
Within moments, it was blank. And a few seconds later, Draco Malfoy strolled into the cover of the tree, smirking.
"Hiding from someone, Amy?" He began, and then spotted the twins behind me. His 'charming' look dropped from his face. "What're you two doing here?"
"We're with Amy." George said. "Sorry, Malfoy, but it looks like you'll have to wait."
I turned, opening my mouth to ask what he meant, but Fred covered my mouth. Draco's eyes flicked between them and me.
"Wait?" He asked scornfully. "Not likely." He grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me away from them. "Come on, Amy."
I shook my head at the twins as they made to grab him – I didn't need them in trouble on my account – and followed him meekly to the castle.