Chapter 5
Trinity was glad she'd done well in Dark Arts and Charms. At least she was in a good mood before suffering her first detention with Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy. She didn't dislike them because they were Slytherin's, she didn't like them because of what the Weasley's had told her about them. Their reputation (mostly Draco's) kind of frightened her, but then again, it wasn't very hard to scare Trinity Riddle: the girl afraid of her own shadow.
"Right then you four, come on."
"Where are we going Hagrid?" Trinity asked, jumping down the steep step just outside the giants house. It was beginning to get dark outside and there was also a full moon out.
"Into the Dark Forest." Hagrid replied. "I have to feed Aragog, and Norbert of course."
"Into the Dark Forest?" She repeated, stopping suddenly.
"Great." Draco clapped his hands together, not noticing Hagrid passing Crabbe a box named 'Giant Flies'.
"Who's Aragog?" Crabbe asked.
"And Norbert?" Goyle added.
"Aragog is my spider." Hagrid replied, picking up another box labelled 'Flamed Meat' and handing it to Goyle. "Norbert is my dragon."
"Spider?" Trinity swallowed, "dragon?"
"They won't hurt you." Hagrid chuckled, "now, I've got to carry the lamp, Draco and Trinity are you good with spells?" The two students gave him blank expressions. "Stupid question, of course you are."
Trinity pulled out her corkscrew wand immediately whilst Draco drew his lazily. "How long is this going to take?" The platinum blonde asked.
"Well," Hagrid pondered, "we have to find the right path to find Aragog, and Norbert is in the opposite direction. So we'll have to split up." He chuckled again and began walking towards the Dark Forest.
Trinity followed behind the Slytherins' who were behind Hagrid, looking out for any signs of movement. "Have you all got your mates now?" Hagrid asked.
Trinity didn't hear him, she was too busy keeping her eyes peeled for anything that moved. "Lumos." She whispered, the tip of her wand let out a white glow, lighting up their path.
"We have the Patil twins." Crabbe repied, gesturing between himself and Goyle.
"For some reason they don't seem to like us." Goyle replied.
Draco snickered, "I can tell why, you idiots!"
The Forbidden Forest was incredibly dark and both Crabbe and Goyle were either stumbling over tree roots or bumping into one another. The trees loomed high over their heads, the moon set an eerie glow to their surroundings. Owls hooted and foxes yapped, Trinity wished she hadn't have slapped Blaize, (which was an accident) that way she wouldn't be here. She sighed, and also if she hadn't have annoyed Professor Umbridge, then she would be in the common room, relaxing and reading with Ginny, Ron and George.
"Right then," Hagrid stopped walking and turned to face the four eighteen year olds. "Crabbe, hand Draco your box-" Draco put away his wand and took the box handed to him "-Draco, you and Trinity go with Fang to feed Aragog, Crabbe, Goyle and I will go and feed Norbert."
"Hagrid." She whispered. "This is ridiculous...you're just going to leave us here? What if we get eaten?"
Hagrid chuckled, "you won't get eaten. Fang's not so much of a coward anymore - he'll protect you. Hopefully." The giant turned to the left. "Keep following the path that way, you'll find them soon enough. When you're done, meet us three back at my hut." The giant and two of the three Slytherin's disappeared into the forest and Trinity looked at Fang worridly.
"Looks like it's just the two of us, Riddle." Draco smirked. "What do you want to do?"
Trinity cleared her throat. "Get out of here alive." She pointed her wand towards the path Hagrid had told them to go in before stepping over some tree roots and walking carefully along the path.
Draco frowned, his tea leaves had shown the rabbit, which Professor Trelawny said meant a 'need for bravery'. Draco soon caught up with Trinity, walking at a steady pace beside her. Trinity saw two abnormally large spiders and gasped, dropping her wand. Fang growled, but carried on walking along the path.
Trinity picked up her wand before scampering after the big dog, Draco following closely behind.
They walked futher into a cave before stopping suddenly once two giant legs appeared at the top of a hill. Draco placed the box on the floor and pushed it fowards with his foot, subtley drawing his wand.
"What're you two doing here?" A deep voice boomed as the giant spider appeared from the horizon of the hill. Trinity whimpered and clutched her wand, her hand shaking with fear. Never in her life had she seen one spider bigger than her hand, let alone thousands of them and certainly not one three times as big as a Muggle car. That could talk.
"Hagrid asked us to deliver this." Draco stated, gesturing to the box with his wand, "Wingardium Leviosa." The box hovered in the air before gradually making it's way towards Aragog. Trinity remained silent and took a step back once the giant arachnid's eyes rested on her form.
"I sense," the spider sniffed, "the Dark Lord." He took a careful few steps towards the two students and then stopped. "You have brought danger to my children." One of his long, hairy legs stepped on the box, opening it and releasing a swarm of giant flies into the spiders lair. The insects were immediately caught in the giant webs hanging above them.
Fang growled before turning around and running out of the spiders lair, Trinity turned around to follow but stopped dead. "Malfoy..." She whispered, stepping closer to him and nudging his arm.
"What?" He turned around to look at her, but seeing the frightened expression on her face, he looked to see what she was pointing at. Loads of spiders were forming an army infront of the exit, and then gradually moving to form a circle around them.
"Diffindo!" Draco pointed his wand at the spiders infront of the exit, but once some of them were destroyed, more kept coming. As Trinity gradually moved backwards, Malfoy did the same on his side until they met back-to-back. A spider lunged at Trinity and she screamed as it bit down on her leg. "Stupeify!" Once the spider was gone, Draco grabbed hold of the Gryffindors wrist and apparated.
They landed just outside of Hagrids hut, Trinity fell to the floor because of the pain in her leg. She whimpered and reached down to examine it. Draco picked up her wand and knealt down beside her.
"Hold still." He stated, moving her hands out of the way and holding the tip of his wand over the raven haired girls wound. "Episkey," he muttered. Trinity felt her leg go really hot and then very cold before returning to normal once again.
"Thank you." She whispered, her eyes fixed on the floor. She remained sitting and after a few minutes, Draco sat down aswell, his back leaning against the wall of Hagrids hut. They sat in silence for a while until Draco looked over at the raven haired girl.
"You know," he began, a smirk on his face. "It looks like we're going to be here for a while before they come back." Trinity glanced at him before looking down at her hands. She chose to ignore him, but that didn't really go down well with the Slytherin. "I'm better than Weasley." Trinity ignored him still. Draco sighed and frowned, "I'm talking to you, Riddle." He stated, his tone on the verge of annoyed.
"I'm ignoring you." Trinity replied in a small voice.
"Why?"
"I've already told you. You're not my type."
"I'm every girls' type. Why aren't I yours?"
Trinity looked away from him and towards the castle, she shrugged. "I don't know." She was lying, of course she was attracted to him! For Merlins sake, he was one hot bad boy! No matter how shy Trinity was, she still had hormones.
"Well you're going to have to be at some point." Draco stated, getting to his feet. "Believe me when I say you will."
Hagrid, Crabbe and Goyle appeared from the edge of the woods, Hagrid raised his hand and waved. "We found Fang incase you were wondering!" He called, the dog ran fowards and just as Trinity got to her feet, she was knocked flat again. Fang licked her neck before jumping up the step to the hut and sitting patiently by the front door.
Hagrid opened the door to his hut and passed Trinity a damp cloth, the raven haired girl accepted it and wiped her neck, before handing it back to Hagrid.
"You four should head back to your dorm rooms now," Hagrid stated. "Trinity, do you know your way around the school yet?"
The raven haired girl paused, stuttering as Hagrid's question went right over her head. "No." She looked down at the floor. "I'm sure I'll run into Sir Nicholas though. Bye!" She quickly made her way into the castle and was immediately met by two Deatheaters.
"What're you doing out here, Miss Riddle?" One of the voices drawled, his pale hand reaching out to cup her chin again.
Trinity cleared her throat, her eyes staring intently at the stone floor. "You gave me detention." She replied in a small voice.
The Deatheater paused before releasing her, "so I did." He stated. "Draco, would you escort Miss Riddle to her dorm room?" He asked the platinum blonde Slytherin as he, Crabbe and Goyle rounded the corner.
"Of course, father." Draco replied, smirking at the raven haired girl.
"Good boy, Draco." Mr. Malfoy reached out his hand once again to examine the girl's features. "You have beautiful eyes...very unique in colour." The two Deatheaters apparated before anything else could be said.
"At least you know your father approves." Goyle stated, nudging Crabbe and pointing up the corridor.
"Shut up idiot! Go back to the common room." Draco grasped Trinity's upper arm in a tight pincer grip as he pulled her along the corridor towards Gryffindor territory.
As they turned the corner, Trinity pulled her arm out of Draco's hold and rubbed it gently.
"Hurry up," Draco said irritably, "I don't have all day!"
"If you're going to talk to me like an asshole, I think I can find my own way back!" She snapped, glaring at him.
Draco raised an eyebrow before clasping his hand around her chin and pushing her back against the corridor wall, he turned her head from left to right before smirking, "my father's right. You do have nice eyes."
Trinity pushed him away from her and she couldn't look up to meet his gaze as she walked around him. She felt nerves fluttering in her stomach when she heard his footsteps behind her. Draco draped an arm around her shoulder and - just like she did with Blaize that morning - she turned around to slap him, but the impact never came. Draco caught her wrist and stopped walking.
"A bit fiesty today aren't we, Riddle?"
"I didn't mean to do that!" She defended herself.
"Well," Draco smirked, "how're you going to make it up to me?"
Trinity was glad the corridor was dimly lit as she could feel her face burning, "leave me alone." She said, walking at a quicker pace along the corridor. She was finally happy when Draco did leave her alone, although she felt bad that she had almost hit him. She shrugged off the feeling of guilt as she entered the Gryffindor common room and was suprised to see the Weasley's were sat on the couch - waiting for her arrival.
Ginny lifted her head from her Herbology textbook as the portrait swung closed. "Trinity!" She greeted cheerfully. "How was detention?" She asked, patting the seat beside her for Trinity to sit in.
"Don't worry about detention," Trinity began, "who're you're mates?"
"Dean." Ginny replied, her tone was almost content - as if she didn't mind.
"What about you George?"
The red head looked up, a solemn expression on his face. "Kimberly Lestrange." He replied.
Trinity nodded, "she's not like her mother. Trust me, we were home-schooled together."
George raised his eyebrows. "She's not evil?"
Trinity shook her head, "I don't think so." She replied honestly. "But we got along well together because we were both in the same boat - being taught by Deatheaters."
George nodded, feeling a little more positive, "let's talk about your detention with Malfoy then."
Trinity cleared her throat before telling them how Hagrid made them split up and made Trinity go with Fang and Malfoy to go and feed the spiders, which nearly ate them, she finished by telling them how Draco apparated them back onto Hogwarts grounds and healed her wound.
Ron stared at her open mouthed, "I hate spiders. I remember back in second year when Harry and I went to visit Aragog." He swallowed, grimacing at the memory. "We nearly got eaten aswell, then the flying car came along..." Ginny and George had heard this story so many times before. They both began drinking from their teas, and Trinity watched - zoning out as realisation struck her. The tea leaves, more precisely Draco's tea leaves. The fan and the umberella meant flirtation and a new lover, and seeing as he was told who his mate was the lesson after that, Trinity knew that meant her. Then there was the rabbit - a need for bravery. He had apparated them both out of the den to safety. Trinity frowned, she had the Dark Mark, the eye and the snake. The eye - meaning cautious - was prompting her about the spiders whilst the snake, an enemy yet protector - that was referring to Draco. 'Hmm...' Trinity thought. She'd always recieved the Dark Mark in her tea leaves, that could just be her family. 'Or my Uncle had always planned the class Purebred and had previously selected my mate for me?' Well, the Dark Mark could mean anything from her family to Draco's family.
The raven haired teenager opened her eyes when she felt someone gently shaking her shoulder, it was Ginny, the ginger girl smiled once Trinity sat up.
"You fell asleep," she said gently. "We should go to bed, otherwise we'll miss breakfast in the morning."
As the two girls headed to their dorm rooms, Trinity remembered the Dark Arts essay she had to finish for tomorrow, first period for Professor Snape's class. She sighed as she took off her uniform and pulled on her nightdress. As she tucked herself under the sheets, and dropped off to sleep, Trinity dreamt about spiders.
Draco sat in the common room, bullying some of the younger Slytherin students into doing his homework for him. He had more important things to do, like giving into his needs and for that, he needed Pansy Parkinson. But Umbridge had said about keeping himself contained. But he was Draco Malfoy, and when did he ever listen to teachers that weren't Professor Snape?
Besides, Pansy herself was too busy crying in her dorm room about how one of the new girls' had stolen her Drakey from her.
"That bitch is going to pay for this!" Pansy wailed into her friends shoulder.
Kimberly rolled her eyes and continued to read through her Transfiguration essay as she made herself more comfortable on her bed. "Shut up, Parkinson. Otherwise I'll hex you into never speaking again. I need silence, something I'm not going to find whilst you're wailing away."
Pansy sobbed, "leave me alone, Lestrange! Drakey must be as upset as I am-"
"-Keep thinking that." Kimberly mumbled, turning to the next page of her essay. There were a few more moments of the girl sobbing, her friends rubbed soothing circles on her back. Kimberly shut the curtains around her bed and cast a silencing charm so that none of the girls' in her dorm could hear her. She reached under her pillow and pulled out a handheld mirror, it was silver with black stones studded around it, the handle resembled a snake twisted around a sword - blunt, of course. It looked similar to the Dark Mark.
The mirror had a twin, and both had previously been owned by Trinity Riddle - who had given Kimberly one as a birthday present one year.
Trinity woke up to hear a faint echoed chiming sound and - knowing exactly what it was, she shut her curtains and fumbled around for her wand to cast a silencing charm. She panicked as she couldn't find her wand, she reached under her pillow and brought out a handheld mirror. There was only one other person who had the same mirror as Trinity, and that was Kimberly Lestrange. She took the mirror into the girls' bathroom and closed the door behind her as she looked into the mirror. Kimberly's face came into view, smirking.
"Thank Merlin! I thought you'd never answer! It's awful over here. I've got Pansy pissing pug Parkinson wailing away about her Drakey's been stolen from her, I mean, can't his girl get her head round the fact that he's not interested in her? I need someone to talk too, other than these Slytherin girls'." Kimberly sighed, "what's it like being a Gryffindor?"
"It's okay, Kim." Trinity replied honestly. "I've made three friends."
"Yeah, the Weasleys'," Kimberly chuckled. "Whatever possessed your Uncle to mate me with George Weasley - I'll never know!"
"Geoge is nice Kim. Just show him you can be aswell, and you'll get along fine. Trust me."
"Trin, he practically ignores me-"
"-Only because he thinks that anything you say to him you'll snap and call him a blood-traitor. Just start a conversation with him, nothing about the war, or Hogwarts Houses or anything that would cause an argument."
Kimberly nodded her head, "he's cute." She muttered, turning to look away from the mirror, causing Trinity to smile. "What about you? How're you getting along with your mate?"
Trinity flushed bright red and looked at her hands holding the mirror - just so that she didn't see the expression on her friend's face. "I think Uncle's made a mistake on this one."
"Why?" Kim asked, "who is it?"
"Draco Malfoy."
Kimberly roared with laughter, then began to cackle as she remembered what Pansy Parkinson had said about this girl 'paying for what she'd done'.
"It's not funny." Trinity whispered, "he uses his looks and...and attitude against me...I feel so intimidated-"
"-You feel that way about everybody." Kimberly made herself comfortable, then an evil smirk crossed her face, distorting her usually pretty features. "You're attracted to him aren't you?" Trinity was silent and wouldn't meet her friend's gaze. "You can tell me, Trin - you know I'm not going to tell anybody." The girl in the mirror sighed, but eventually nodded.
"Only appearance." She admitted, "he's arrogant; manipulative; cocky and...arrogant!"
"Don't talk about my cousin like that." Kimberly scolded, "I'll contact you tomorrow night, it's getting late." After the girls' said their goodbye's, they slid the mirrors back under their pillows before falling to sleep.
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