Seventeen days after her nasty meeting with Draco, Clara awoke from a blissful slumber, stretching like a cat does when coming out of a deep sleep. As if he knew what day it was, "Crooks," the new name given to Crookshanks, jumped onto her bed and nuzzled his new pink nose into her face. Much like Hermione, Crookshanks had needed a new makeover to go with his owners. Instead of the fluffy, orange, smush-faced cat seen previously, Crooks was blonde and sleek, and a lot livelier looking than before.
A sharp ray of light reflecting off of a shiny object caught her face. She shielded her eyes with one hand and pulled herself up in bed with the other. Why was her curtain pulled back?
"Happy birthday Clara!" Jemma greeted. Clara smiled brilliantly. So her birthday wasn't forgotten!
"Oh, thank you Jem!" She got up to hug the girl tightly and then looked down at all the gifts at the foot of her bed. "Are these all mine?"
Jem laughed. "Yeah, and they're only from the family! Wait 'till you go downstairs!"
"Wait… what time is it?" Clara asked hesitantly. No one was in the dormitory.
"About seven thirty."
Clara's stomach dropped. She had slept in. Her. Of all people.
"What?" She raced to her trunk, grabbing the robes resting on top and hurried to put them on.
"Clara! Breakfast doesn't even start for another fifteen minutes!" Jem tried to reason.
"I never get up late! How did this happen?"
"Well, I thought you might like to sleep in a little on your birthday so I charmed your sleep…" Jem admitted sheepishly. Clara smiled from her perch on the floor.
"Thanks for the thought, Jem. It's really sweet of you." Clara told her cousin nicely. It felt nice to have a friend like Jem do these small things for you.
Once Clara was dressed, the two hurried downstairs and to the Great Hall for breakfast, which they were only slightly late for. That was nothing, though, compared to the uproar that greeted them when they approached the Slytherin table.
"Happy birthday Clara!" A group of people told her at once. The crowd was civilized, but still overwhelming. She looked around wildly at all the gifts being shoved under her nose.
In the past two weeks, Clara had become something of a starlet amongst her Slytherin classmates. More to the boys, however. The girls, especially ones who traveled with Pansy, despised Clara and her good looks. And again, the resentment mainly emanated from the fifth, sixth, and seventh year ladies. Clara did not particularly enjoy the fact that every girl felt this way towards her, or that every male within shouting distance of her decided to pick up a conversation. This meant many drafty nights in the library, versus the cozy comfort of a warm common room. Men do tend to love what they can't have.
"Er, thank you. Yes, thank you so much. Oh yes, of course." Clara accepted gift after gift, until she couldn't hold them any longer. She dragged herself over to her reserved spot in the middle of the attention seeking Slytherins and dropped her gifts on the wooden table. Not two seconds had passed before the gifts suddenly disappeared from sight.
"What happened?" Clara asked urgently. They were completely gone from the table, nowhere to be seen.
"They're in your room." Jem, always by her side, told her. "I alerted the house elves." She gave a knowing smile as Clara's shoulders sagged. Thank goodness for a friend like Jemma.
After that morning extravaganza, the day passed like any other day. In passing almost every Slytherin school mate had something to tell her. John Brody had a few smooth things to stay, all of which Clara took politely. His predictability was always laughable.
The only bad feeling she had out of the entire day occurred as everyone made their way to the Great Hall for lunch. She was chatting happily with Jemma about something she studied in Potions (a class, you may recall, that Jemma did not sign up for) when they came to a corner to turn at. Just on the other side happened to be Harry, Ron and Ginny, speaking in hushed tones, oddly enough. Clara stopped moving and talking, staring at them with wide eyes, a pain in her stomach. The trio realized other life in the corridor and looked up, expressions changing so quickly, Clara thought she might have imagined it.
Ginny's soft features took on a harsh glare, one reserved for her most bitter enemies. Clara had figured the hate came from her relationship with Draco, and what he had done to Harry on the evening of arriving. Ron looked uneasy, as if unsure what he should do with his sister so scary looking. Though Clara was sure he would make his decision soon enough, especially now that Clara was so favorable in the Slytherin House.
Harry was the only one she couldn't read. He was staring hard at her, like he was trying to solve some complex arithmetic problem. Clara stared back at him curiously. Was Harry undecided?
"C'mon Clara, we don't want to be late." Jemma urged her after a few seconds. Clara couldn't help looking back a few times at Harry, to make sure she was seeing what she was seeing. His expression remained unchanged.
For a time after that, all she could think about was Harry. He knew she had the Dark Mark – he was in the cabin on the Hogwarts Express, he had to have seen it on her arm. He knew she was engaged to Draco Malfoy – the entire wizarding world (and possibly bits of the muggle one) knew. Also, he knew it was her birthday. Something she shared with Hermione, which might be strange. And she was a new student, something Hogwarts almost never got.
In any event, she was back to the comfort of excelling in class, except Potions, of course. Studying was an easy way out of her worry, a way to forget about her future. So she delved straight into it, leaving no survivors.
Dinner went on as usual, too. Draco didn't say a word to her, Blaise joked around, and Jemma talked with her the whole time. Jemma had gained somewhat of an acknowledgment around the Slytherin common room, what with being Clara's constant companion. Deep down the lonely girl knew her popular cousin was to blame, but accepted it anyway. She was aware that Clara didn't much like the attention either.
But that evening, back at Slytherin headquarters and after Clara had opened all her gifts and read all her warm birthday greetings, Clara crept downstairs alone, scanning the common room incognito. Only two people were in the room – on the couches. And it looked to be the only two people who hadn't wished her a happy birthday all day long. She hurried to them.
"Good evening, boys." She greeted Draco and Theodore.
"Good evening, Ms. Claret." Theo said while Draco said nothing. "I didn't quite get a chance to congratulate you on your sixteen years." He smirked slightly.
Clara smiled. "That's every kind of you, Mr. Nott."
"Please, call me Theo."
"Call me Clara." She responded. The conversation flowed gently after that between the two. They talked about nothing of importance, school mostly, and Theo inquired of Jemma once.
"Jemma is your cousin, yes?"
"Yes, she is." Said Clara.
"Is she well?" He asked off-handedly.
"I think so. Sometimes it's hard to tell." Clara told him truthfully. She had not realized until that moment how sad Jemma looked at times.
"Hm. How did you find the spell we performed in Defense Against the Dark Arts yesterday?" And that was it, Jemma seemingly gone from his thoughts.
A short while passed and Theo stood up.
"Well, I hope you have had a good day, Clara, but I must get to bed. I shall see you at breakfast, most likely. Draco." With a nod at the silent remainder, Theo headed to the boys dormitory. A restless silence fell over the room.
"Er, I guess I'll be off to bed then." She was two inches off the sofa when Draco stopped her.
"Clara." She dropped back down. "Here." He fished around in his pocket without looking at her and came up with a slim, deep burgundy box. He thrust it into her hand. "Happy birthday." He mumbled. She stared at it for a moment, completely caught off guard by the abruptness of this gift giving, but opened it nonetheless.
A pretty antique bracelet rested inside. There were thin silver chains that linked small green diamonds together. The silver matched the color of her wedding ring.
"Draco, this is…" Clara trailed off, at a loss for words.
"A matching set, yes." He finished for her. "Hope you like it." He mumbled before he rose quickly from the couch and up the stairs. Clara stared after him, dumbfounded.
Why was he so distant? And here she thought he was going to complement her, but perhaps that was asking too much… Still, the bracelet was lovely, despite its Slytherin-esque hue. She undid the clasp and snapped it onto her small wrist. It melded perfectly with her ring, a permanent item she looked at only so often. Both pieces glittered in the light, each green acquainting itself with the other, like long lost sisters meeting for the first time. Clara smiled ever so slightly.
The common room was silent, save for the jingling of her diamond bracelet. It's funny how fast these nice moments get broken up, though. Crabbe and Goyle were just coming from the Great Hall, enjoying sweets they had no doubt snuck out of the kitchens. Clara got a sudden idea.
"Hello Crabbe, Goyle." She greeted politely. They stopped mid-motion.
"'Ello… Claret." Crabbe said through a mouth-full of something chocolaty. She smiled.
"Call me Clara."
"Alright… Yeah, OK." Goyle said, unsure at first, but quickly warm to the idea. Crabbe seemed on the same boat.
"Could you boys, er, help me with something?" She asked sweetly. They nodded enthusiastically. "You see, I haven't really spoken to Draco in a while, and I was wondering if you could… tell me how he is."
They scratched their heads thoughtfully for a moment. "Yeah, he's alright, I 'spose." Crabbe informed.
"And what do you think about the… task he's given you." Their expressions became uneasy.
"W-well, maybe you should talk to Draco about this. I could go get him, if you like." Goyle said.
"No, no. That's fine." She said quickly. "I only wanted to help you…" She looked away shyly, praying that her silly antics wouldn't be in vain.
"Well… I mean, it could be better." Crabbe said.
"Like how?" asked Clara.
"Like sneaking into that room on the seventh floor." Goyle responded eagerly. "Oh, what's it called…"
"The Room of Requirement." Clara said automatically. The large boy smiled.
"Yeah, that one. We have to go in there and stand by that silly cabinet with him."
"Really…" Clara said, immediately lost in thought. A cabinet? Like the vanishing one at Borgin and Burkes?
"How many times have you done this so far?" This time it was harder to conceal her excitement.
"Uh… maybe… how long has it been?" Goyle asked his friend.
"Two times." Crabbe answered Clara. She nodded and stood.
"Thank you both so much for your help." Clara gave them a sweet smile. "I'll be sure to keep it in mind. In the meantime, try to keep this conversation between us, yeah?" She headed towards the girls dormitory.
"Er, yeah… sure." Crabbe said.
"Happy birthday, Clara!" Goyle yelled. Crabbe smacked him across the head in embarrassment.
Clara would stay up for a few more minutes, pondering the new information before drifting off into a blissful slumber. Sweet dreams of her defeating – er, advancing – Harry in Potions kept her content in sleep.
And much like the wedding ring, her new bracelet would become quite a common sight on young Clara Claret's tiny wrist.
What did everyone think?
Now, to answer more questions…
anangelwithnoname: The person who followed Clara will be revealed soon enough. In the mean time, any guesses?
aridnie: Yes, Hermione does know that Draco has to kill Dumbledore. She's just trying to figure how he's going to do it. To add to that, the only person at Hogwarts who knows what he has to do is Clara, so Blaise doesn't, but he can see that something is bothering Draco. I like to think that Clara and Draco have a special kind of bond and relationship because they are both going through similar problems, though Draco's are little tougher than Clara's.
OK, so I've been saying this for a while now, but I really don't know when the next chapter is going to come out. School has started (blech) and is kind of stressful, but I'll keep writing! So maybe not that long.
Until the next chapter!