Hey guys! Thank you for that awesome reviews! I just managed to update earlier! I hope you will like this chapter as much as you liked the previous! The suggestion about Harry was quite good, but I have still other plans for what he should discover...
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"MALFOY!", Snape shouted and Draco and Alanis detached from themselves, as Snape's voice surprised them and seemed to let the walls shake.
"What are you doing here? This is a restricted section!", Snape barked and Alanis wanted to jump into one of the toilet bowls to flush herself down the narrow pipes like Myrtle did, just to escape from Snapes rage and his black and vicious eyes which seemed to be able to kill with one sight.
But Draco was relaxed, even as Snape eyeballed them utterly, obviously aware of what almost happened.
"I had to get something from Miss Dumbledore back, Sir." said Draco and showed Snape his wand. But Snape didn't seem to be satisfied as he reckoned that Alanis had obviously taken Dracos wand.
"Detention! You both will show up this night in the DADA classroom, right after dinner."
This was when Draco lost his temper: "But Sir you know I can't afford detention! If my father will come up to know that-!"
Alanis couldn't help but laughed out loud and the both men stared at her if she went mad. Draco's father was still locked up in Azkaban and Draco's common excuse he had for years was now of little value. She immediately tried to hold herself back, but both Snape and Draco had grown angrier.
"Leave.", said Snape with a very low voice and Alanis knew she'd better obey. She almost ran to the door, but briefly looked back to Malfoy. There was nothing but tension she could read in his face, as he had to face Snape.
However, she reached the Gryffindor common room and let herself drop into one of the big armchairs in front of the fireplace. She watched the flames burn up the big logs and tried to collect her thoughts.
Apart from the fact that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy almost duelled themselves in public and that she herself took Draco Malfoy's wand by interrupting their fight, she almost kissed the snotty Slytherin boy, the archfiend of Harry Potter!
The thought of a kiss itself didn't bother her too much, it rather excited herself, but she feared that Snape wouldn't hesitate to tell it to everyone of her classmates, as soon as he got the chance to do it. How would her friends react?
Additionally she had to put up with detention at Snape's. How should she do that, in particular in presence of Draco Malfoy?
Her stomach seemed to rebel just at the thought of it. She wasn't able to think about her feelings for him and more impossible, his feelings for her.
She was sure that there weren't any feelings on both sides. Today they only were heated up for each other because of this very tense situation, there was nothing more. That they had grown lustful, had just been situational.
She took one of the golden pillows, buried her face in it and screamed. She screamed out all of her desperation and frustration.
"What did he do to you, Alanis?"
Alanis looked up from her pillow and swallowed down her tears. Hermione stood there, with a really worried look on her face, Ginny had joined her and looked irritated at Hermione's words. Would Hermione realize that Alanis and Draco came closer?
"Where are Harry and Ron?", Alanis asked with a husky voice.
"They went to look for you to prevent Draco from doing anything to you.", Ginny said and Hermione nodded firmly.
"But is everything alright? You look horrified!", asked Hermione and took a seat right next to her. Alanis nodded quickly. As much as she liked these two girls and trusted them, she couldn't tell them what happened in Myrtles toilet.
"Snape showed up as I gave Malfoy back his wand.", she murmured.
"You just gave it back?"
Ginny looked disappointed, but Hermione sighed out in relief.
"I don't want to imagine how this whole thing would have ended if you still had his wand. But I hope it will teach him a lesson that against us he will never stand a chance! The good ones will always win!", Hermione said assuaged and that seemed to even satisfy Ginny. But Alanis knew that Hermione was just hiding her reproval within it and waiting for a private conversation between them. Hermione's worries were more than legitimate.
"I fear I have a lot of those lessons left, 'Mione. I've got detention at Snape's.", Alanis answered.
"No!" Hermione grimaced.
"Blimey Hermione, I can't get away from it, but I think I have to see the useful side of it."
"What do you mean by that?"
Hermione's face got a worried expression but Alanis just smiled, not willingly to admit to Hermione that she would not ever intent to abandon her strange relation to Draco. But anyway, in front of Ginny she had to keep quiet about it.
"Harry still thinks of Draco being guilty of cursing Katie Bell with that necklace, right? Even of being a death eater and compassing something! Draco refused to accept Snape's detention, because 'he actually hasn't got any time for that'. I guess with Harry's point of view the whole thing is true. Draco's planning something.", Alanis said, but suddenly felt as if she treated Malfoy. She shook her head.
She had to be on the good side, at Harry's, at Dumbledore's. In other ways she wouldn't be worthy of bearing his name.
"Oh, not you as well! I thought you just wanted to comfort Harry earlier!", cried Hermione disappointedly, but another time she hid her true thoughts of it. She knew that Alanis would be honest to her friends, and really knew something about Draco, and therefore Alanis agreeing with Harry's suggestions was certainly of significance. Alanis had not yet told anyone about her discovering Draco Malfoy lurking around in the Room of Requirement and fixing the Vanishing Cabinet, but Hermione still supposed her having found out something, beside her being more and more attracted to the Slytherin prince.
"But everything seems to be logic, Hermione.", Ginny said.
At that moment the portrait of the fat Lady swung open and Harry and Ron entered, happy to see them. The three girls quickly informed them of the current situation.
"Sorry, Alanis, that we didn't help you and kicked up his arse!", Ron began, but Alanis shook her head and smiled slightly.
"I'm happy that you just didn't get detention like me. But if I can, I'll help Harry getting information about Dracos plans."
As she said that out loud, Hermione grunted sarcastically and Alanis wanted to ran away from her friends, away from the castle. How could she bear being involved with Draco like that?
"At first, I do not trust Snape, even if Dumbledore does. Secondly, we have to find out what he is always doing there in the seventh floor and why he always disappears from the Marauder's map!", Harry said excitedly.
Harry seemed to be right in every detail. Snape was a traitor and Draco some kind of a ticking time bomb, and worse, maybe a death eater yet.
Alanis looked to the ground. Should she really be revealing what she already knew?
However she decided, it would be betrayal to either of them, but to her own astonishment she couldn't imagine putting up with betraying Draco like with her friends.
What the hell did that mean? Did Draco already mean so much to her that he churned up her whole life and even changed her thoroughly honest attitude?
"I'll watch out for him.", Alanis concluded.
Harry, Ginny and Ron then smiled warmly at her, Hermione looked doubtful and Alanis felt horrible. With every second she reminded herself of the pleasure she was waiting for that Draco was about to give her.
It seemed that she could enqueue herself to Snape as the next traitor.
As much as she actually wanted to refuse to speak to someone about Draco, she urged to do it. And the one she could speak to was only one man.
Dumbledore.
"What do you want?", Draco spat at Snape, who looked at him as if he just had faced a boggart.
"You know that my offer has not changed, Draco. I still want to help you and you apparently need it, because what else than deep despair could cloud your mind and make you coming on to Alanis Dumbledore?", Snape answered and stepped closer, while Draco just tried to stare him down. How could that traitor Snape dare to interfere in his concerns?
Didn't he already make it clear that he needed no help? Especially not from a hook-nosed old man whom he even trusted less than the Dumbledore girl?
This traitor only wanted to dispossess his father to gain the Dark Lords favour. Lucius Malfoy was the most important Death eater, until he made these horribly humiliating mistakes and disappointed the Dark Lord.
His father was only a shade of himself and Draco was disgusted of this man. So he would regain and retain the Malfoy's glory. He had to be successful. For his mother's and his own sake. His father didn't count anymore.
"I'm very fine with my own skills, professor. I don't need help."
"I can see it in your mind that you still haven't been successful. Did you ever consider the consequences you'll have to face if you neglect your duties?", Snape growled and Draco flinched back, hastily trying to collect his thoughts to shut them away from Snape. Did that little scene with Alanis Dumbledore really affect him so much that he lost his power of disciplining his mind? Would his intention and his will to meet her again keep him away from his mission?
Holy crap. They still did.
"How about you, Professor? You don't work for neither a side, you're just a coward of facing Voldemort's wrath or the other side's profound aversion."
"This is not about me, Draco! Let me help you, remember that he will be soon asking your progress!", Snape said and if he had to intensify his words, he grabbed Draco's arm. Draco suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm and stumbled back.
Snape was still a powerful follower of Voldemort, but Draco longed for the day when his father would gain the position back that Snape had stolen away from him. Or even better, the day when Draco was about to hold this position. Additionally, he would be safe again.
"You think he will summon me?", Draco asked and felt fear raising up in his heart.
"The Dark Lord never will be patient. He wants to be his tasks done as fast as possible. Beware of disappointing him Draco, I beg you!"
Draco just stared at the potions master. Did he just beg him to be careful? Was Snape really that worried about him?
Surely, he was not worried about him, just afraid of Draco failing and Snape missing to protect him, because then that Unbreakable Vow would cause his death. That's the only reason why Snape wanted to support him. Severus Snape would not let himself get killed by the actions and stubbornness of a teenage boy.
"If you want me to get ahead, decline my detention.", Draco snarled and pushed his arm away.
"That would just set Alanis Dumbledore on your track."
Draco frowned. Did Snape think that little Dumbledore could possibly really be a danger to him? But what about their time in Hogsmeade they shared? Well, walking silently didn't mean a lot, did it? But almost kissing her did.
"But I thought you don't want me to be with her?"
"She affects and keeps you from working seriously! You changed, you are no more that Draco that you have been! She makes you easily comprehensible, reckless and seducible!"
Draco grunted angrily.
"She is just a girl, Professor! Just a girl like any other in this castle! I don't care who she is and what she does to me! Because it doesn't matter, my days are numbered anyway."
He just tried hard to suppress him beginning to shout. Draco knew that his was true and it was the first time he really admitted it to himself. He would not be able to run away from Voldemort killing him, because he was not able to fulfil his task. And bloody hell, he wanted to live and enjoy his life as long as it would be possible, and that girl could definitely sweeten it.
"Well, be with her and see what it leads to, foolish boy!"
But Draco suddenly cried out, as he felt it his whole body burn, his arm aching as if it had been cut off, but pulsed heavily and sent bolts of pain through his body and through his mind. Fear filled his body up and let him shake, that he almost wasn't able to stand anymore.
What the hell was that?
Before he almost fell to the ground, Snape reached out for him.
"He summons you...", Snape gasped and shook Draco to catch his attention. "Prepare, Draco! Close your mind, keep your emotions low!"
But Draco just panted heavily, as the pain lowered, but left emptiness inside him. This emptiness weakened his thoughts and even crushed down his immense fear.
Now everything would be over.
He would just be helpless in the face of Voldemort, when he had to make his confession of his failure. Voldemort would punish him, for every day he'd failed and would not be merciful.
Draco would have to be glad if he would even be able to return back to Hogwarts, alive.
"No... I don't...", Draco just stuttered as his body trembled and convulsed uncontrolledly.
"Calm down, Draco! Focus!"
But Draco wasn't able to listen to Snape, as his wildest nightmares afflicted him, pictures of his foreseeable torture and even his death clouded his sight.
Suddenly Snape slapped him hard in the face.
"Look at me!"
Snape's sharp voice cut through his thoughts and made Draco look in this black fathomless eyes. He felt as if Snape absorbed him, caught him entirely and his breath calmed down. Draco recognized that his tears mingled with some beads of perspiration that were running down his cheeks. Snape unexpectedly reached out and put his hand over his heart.
"I didn't feel him summoning me as well, did he only summon you?"
Draco wasn't even able to indicate a nod at him and he just felt the weight of Snape's hand on his chest, which he on the one side immediately and intrinsically wanted to push away, but on the other hand it seemed to be the only thing that was now able to keep him on the ground.
"Just me... today... evening...", Draco mumbled and sighed.
Snape let go of him and nodded.
"Do you need my help?"
This time this was no eager question, not pressuring, just honestly solicitously.
But Draco wouldn't surrender.
"No. This is my task."
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