Chapter 9
Instead of the morning routine she normally went through, Trinity only brushed her hair and tied it into a ponytail, the end of her hair reaching her mid-back. Then she put on a thin layer of mascara. Trinity had two free lessons this morning, well, the Gryffindor Quidditch team did, and for that reason they had been given the priority of the Quidditch pitch to train in for the first two hours of the day in preparation for the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff Quidditch match on Saturday.
Trinity pulled on her fitted cream trousers and her red Quidditch jersey which read 'Riddle' across the back in gold lettering. She grabbed her broom, boots and cloak before jogging downstairs to meet George and Ron - who were already in their Quidditch attire, on the couch.
"Good morning." She smiled nervously as she bent down to pull on her knee-high brown boots. "I seem to have lost my gloves." She stated, "do any of you know where I put them?" She asked.
"Oh yes," George stuffed his hand in his pocket and pulled them out. "You left them on the bench the other day during practice."
"Thank you." Trinity pulled the fingerless leather gloves on and flexed her fingers. "Is Ginny still in bed?" Ron shook his head. "She went down to breakfast early, something about Dean Thomas." George rolled his eyes, not liking the relationship Ginny was forming ex-boyfriend wise, but glad of the relationship she was forming mate wise.
"Let's head down to the Great Hall." George stated, grabbing his broom as he got to his feet.
The three of them walked in content chatter before reaching the Great Hall. Trinity - once again - recieved looks from the Hufflepuff students from the table to her left, and quite a few male Slytherin students.
"George," she whispered. "Is there something on my face? Why're they all staring at me?"
An arm draped around Trinity's shoulders and she refrained herself from trying to slap them. "Well, well, Riddle." Malfoy smirked. "Potter may have been the youngest Seeker in a century - but you are more certainly the finest."
Trinity blushed and shook him off before pulling on her cloak and sitting at the breakfast table opposite Ginny. George was chuckling, and Trinity glared at him, "I think that answers your question." He grinned before putting two slices of toast on his plate with a couple of sausages and two rashers of bacon. "Isn't it great, Ron?" The second eldest Weasley looked up, "now we have Trinity on our team we're surely going to win. All the Slytherins are going to be distracted, especially Malfoy - and then we'll get the Snitch."
Ron spat out his water, "George, I don't think she can take anymore attention." The Weasley's looked over to see a bright red Trinity twiddling her thumbs on the table awkwardly.
Ginny chuckled, "welcome to the team, Trin!" She patted her raven haired friend on the arm before getting to her feet, "you coming to the pitch?" She asked.
Trinity nodded and shot to her feet, quickly following Ginny outside.
It wasn't long before the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team joined them. George made them line up, Ron as the Keeper, Dean and himself as Beaters, Ginny, Nathanael and Whitney as Chasers and finally, Trinity as Seeker.
"I understand you've got some tricks up your sleeve for tomorrow." George said to Trinity who nodded her reply. "What about you Chasers? Do you have a game plan?"
"The arrowhead." Nathanael stated, "we'll form a triangle around whichever Hufflepuff has the Quaffle, that'll discomfort them."
George nodded, "sounds good, Ron?"
The Weasley shrugged, "I just stop the Quaffle going through the hoops."
"Good." George looked proud. "It's nice to be able to relax knowing that you know what you should be doing." Ron growled, "Dean and I will keep the Bludgers away from Trinity and the Chaser who has the Quaffle."
Everyone nodded before preparing themselves for practice, Trinity smiled shyly at Nathanael once she saw him staring at her, and then went to take her place above Ron. She wasn't really looking foward to Potions, but if she got there early, perhaps she could talk to the Professor and ask him if he would be kind enough to set her some extra assignments that may help her boost her grade, just enough so that her Uncle wouldn't see her as a failure and use the Crutiatus curse on her again.
She flew slowly around the perimeter of the Quidditch pitch, keeping her green eyes peeled for any signs of the snitch. She heard a zipping of wings and saw the snitch to her left before darting off after it. She saw Malfoy watching her with a keen interest and she grabbed the Snitch quickly before flying down to ask him to leave whilst the Gryffindors' were practicing.
"New record, Riddle?" Draco asked, smirking as he took the Snitch out of her hand and let it fly off again.
"Don't you have somewhere more important to be?" Trinity asked, not meeting his gaze.
A sly smirk crept onto the Slytherin's face. "A certain Gryffindors dormitory maybe." He suggested, flirtily. Trinity's cheeks flushed pink and she dismounted her broom.
"What do you want?" She asked, her voice hinting at annoyance.
Draco laughed, "to see if my opponent has any tricks." He crossed his arms.
"I have." Trinity replied, "and you?"
"Many." He smirked, looking at her one last time before heading back inside the school.
Trinity sighed in relief before mounting her broom again and going after the Snitch that Malfoy had annoyingly released again.
Once Quidditch was over, Ginny and Trinity spent the last five minutes of their free lesson and fifteen minutes of break in the Gryffindor dormitory, taking showers and dressing in their robes for their lessons. Trinity pulled on her black tights and skirt before pulling on her white shirt, red and gold tie and her grey, Gryffindor badged jumper. She let her hair fall freely over her shoulders before picking up the rest of her necessity bits for her lessons, slipping her feet into her black dolly shoes as she made her way downstairs. Trinity felt funny as she pulled her black Gryffindor cloak on, she sat down and watched the images of the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Quidditch match play over again in her head, Zachariah's voice commentating everything that went on.
She was pulled out of her vision at the same point as last time, she was riding downwards, picking up speed as she did so and Harper - the Hufflepuff Seeker, was directly below her. Her eyes on the snitch and her hand held out ready...
Trinity stood up from the chair and pulled out a vial of orange coloured liquid. Madam Pomfrey had given her a few vials of potions to take incase she had a vision during classes. The difference between this potion and the other one, not only being the colour, was the after effects. They were the same, other than the clear one sent Trinity to sleep after consumption. The orange potion, therefore, was perfect for during school hours.
Feeling refreshed but not ready for Potions, Trinity shouldered her bag and left the common room, hoping to bump into Ron on the way past the boys' bathroom where he and the other male members of the Quidditch team would be. She met Ron, thankfully, and they began walking quietly to their lesson together.
"You're quiet." Ron stated, "well, you are normally, but not completely silent. Is there something wrong?" Trinity shook her head but could feel the tingling sensation in her eyes and across her nose and knew that she was going to burst out crying at any moment. Unfortunately, she wasn't good at timing, and as tears began to slip down her cheeks, Malfoy was there, looking at her.
Ron pulled her over to the wall of the corridor, away from the stream of students and put his arm around her - not knowing wether he should ask her what was wrong or not.
"I can't do Potions." Trinity's voice was muffled against Ron's chest.
"I can't either." He stated, "but I wouldn't get upset about it, Professor Slughorn will help you if you ask him too."
Trinity nodded and pulled away from the Weasley. "I'm sorry I keep crying on you." She wiped her eyes and sniffed.
"Doesn't matter, what're friends for?" He smiled reassuringly before hugging her once again. "Let's go, and I'll wait after class for you to talk with the Professor." Once they entered the classroom, their moods hit rock bottom when they realised, Professor Slughorn had also been told to change the seating plan. Everyone was sat beside their mate's and Trinity wiped the last of her tears away before taking her seat at the back of the classroom beside Malfoy, whilst Ron walked to the front of the room to sit with Lavender.
After the Professor told the students what they would be doing in today's lesson, he walked up the isle towards Trinity and knealt down infront of her. "Your Uncle spoke to me this morning." He stated, "if you want, I can set you some extra assignments?"
Trinity nodded eagerly, "did he say anything else?" She exclaimed before she could stop herself.
"No." Professor Slughorn shook his head, and Trinity sighed in relief and leant back in her chair, "but I'm not stupid." He then stated, causing the Gryffindor's head to snap up. "And I can probably guess what happened, Miss Riddle. Perhaps, to save anything like that happening again, it'd be best for you to find yourself a tutor."
That's when Draco joined the conversation, although he had probably been listening in anyway. "I can tutor her, Professor." He grinned at Slughorn who smiled in return.
"There you go, Miss Riddle." He gestured to Draco, "Mr. Malfoy can help you." Trinity kept her eyes on the desk and nodded. "Here're your ingredients." He placed various items on the desk, including Valerian Roots, a Sopophorous Bean and a silver knife.
"You can thank me later." Draco smirked and leant back in his chair, rocking it on the two back legs, his hands behind his head. She raised an eyebrow and pointed to the ingredients infront of them. Draco shrugged, "what do you want me to do?" He asked, "surely you can make this, it's easy."
"For you maybe. I'll probably blow the classroom up." She shrugged, "besides, I wasn't listening to the introduction."
Draco put all four legs of the chair on the floor and drew his wand. "Make sure you watch." He said, picking up the knife.
Firstly, he chopped the roots into even sized pieces and then crushed the bean using the flat side of the silver knife. After adding the ingredients to the pot, Draco then cast his wand to stir the cauldron once counter-clockwise and then once clockwise. He sat back in his seat, looking very proud of himself.
"What is it?" Trinity asked.
"Draught of Living Death." Draco replied, "we made it back in sixth year." He shrugged. Malfoy sat up to check the potion, and once it turned a pale pink colour, Draco took the spoon out of the cauldron and placed it on the desk before filling up three vials of the pale pink liquid.
"What does it do?" Trinity asked again.
"Puts someone into a deep sleep." Draco looked at her, "sleep." He repeated once she opened her mouth again. "It doesn't kill anyone. Hence the name Living Death."
Professor Slughorn came over and picked up one of the vials. "Excellent!" He exclaimed, taking all three vials in his hand. "Magnificent, this is absoloutely perfect!" Slughorn beamed. "You two may leave early," he handed Draco and Trinity a question sheet each and then handed Trinity another sheet of questions. "Monday, please, your extra work is in for Tuesday, Miss Riddle."
Trinity and Draco nodded before leaving the classroom, once they were out of the room, Draco grabbed Trinity's arm and turned her around to face him.
"Why were you crying?" He asked. "Before class. Why were you crying?" Trinity shrugged and looked down, "don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about, Riddle. I saw you."
"I don't want to talk about it." She whispered. He held her arm again and pulled her along the corridor and towards the library. "We have twenty minutes until Dark Arts." Draco stated, "you can tell me in that time."
"Why do you care?" Trinity asked, her voice slightly defensive.
"I don't know." Draco mumbled, honestly. "I'm just curious, and before you say it's 'none of my buisness' - I'm your mate, so technically it is." He pushed open the door to the library and sat them both down at one of the tables by the window overlooking the Black Lake.
Trinity sighed, if she was going to tell anyone about what had happened in her Uncle's office, she would've told the Weasley's first. She remained silent, letting her eyes wander to the moving sapphire blue stained glass butterflies.
"I'll make us both late to our next lesson, if you don't tell me." He said sternly, his eyes staring transfixed on her face. She pulled out the book about Dragons from her bag and looked at the pictures, not bothering with the words. There were the names of dragons that she could read, but didn't bother with the captions.
A pale hand appeared on the book, and Trinity looked up to see that Draco had moved to sit beside her. "Parseltounge?" He asked.
Trinity tried to read one of the sentances, and found out - suprisingly - that she could. She shook her head, "dracore." She said, remembering what Professor Snape had told her. She frowned and began to read the captions underneath the pictures, a smiled spread onto her face.
"So that's the language you were speaking in the forest." Draco leant back in his chair. "Read it out then." He challenged her.
Trinity frowned at him and looked down at the book. "The Norweigian Ridgeback is one of very few dragons that actually obey commands given to them by a wizard who can speak Dracore." She began. "The Hungarian Horntail - although one of the most unfriendly and dangerous of dragons - will obey a wizards commands. The Chinese Fireball on the other hand, cannot be commanded by wizards, but may be spoken to in the case of an emergency, such as, begging for their life."
"Norbert is a Norweigian Ridgeback." Draco stated, then he chuckled, "it's a good thing he's not a Chinese Fireball. What did you say to him?"
"Please don't eat us." She mumbled. "And I asked him if he'd eaten."
"Did he reply?" Draco asked.
Trinity nodded, "he said he did, and he also thanked me for talking to him." She looked up at Draco and glared at him, "we apparated before I could reply."
Draco nodded and then flipped the textbook closed. "Do you think you inherited Dragon tounge from your Uncle? He can speak Parseltounge can't he?"
The conversation changing to her Uncle, put Trinity on edge, and that reflected in her body language. "He's Parselmouth. But he can't speak Dracore."
Draco leant closer to her, smirking as a blush crept across Trinity's face, "if you don't tell me what happened..." he began, speaking quietly against her ear, "I'll kiss you."
Trinity glanced up at him, intimidated by how close he was to her. She rested her eyes back on the Dragon book and ignored him; refusing to feel anything although she couldn't help the butterflies that circled her stomach.
"You two should head to class." Madam Pince stated, looking up from her work. "Otherwise you'll be late." Trinity got to her feet and carried the Dragon book down the next isle of bookshelves, she then slipped it back onto the shelf.
She was then tailed by Draco out of the library and towards Dark Arts, just before she reached the door to the classroom, Draco pulled her away and into an alcove behind a statue. "Tell me." He demanded, inching his face closer to hers.
"No." She whispered, casting her gaze away from his captivating steel grey eyes and towards the floor. Draco's lips collided onto hers and he pinned her against his chest by slipping his arm around her waist. Trinity's mind went blank and it took five seconds for her to think about pulling away, but she didn't want to. He was a good kisser and she could feel the butterflies fluttering around her stomach. She fought with herself and then finally pulled away, escaping from him before disappearing into the classroom and sitting down at her desk, her face burning.
The rest of Dark Arts was painful, especially with Malfoy beside her. As soon as the lesson had finished, Trinity shot up and grabbed Ron, pulling him out of the classroom and towards the Great Hall for lunch.
"What's the rush?" He asked, "hungry?"
Trinity nodded, accepting that excuse, and as they sat down at the Gryffindor table for lunch with Ginny and George, Trinity could feel a pair steel grey eyes staring at her from the Slytherin table.
After lunch, they made their way back to the common room all the while Trinity couldn't shake away the butterflies.
"Password?" The fat lady asked.
"Draco." Trinity replied absentmindly. The Weasley's snorted - even the fat lady chuckled - and Trinity's face went Gryffindor red at her own stupidity. "Umm...Godric!" She exclaimed, stepping through the door and running up to her dorm room in embarassment.
The Weasley's were still in fits of laughter as they plonked themselves down on the sofas, "never in my life-" Ron wiped tears from his eyes, not able to finish his sentance.
George chuckled, "she has Malfoy on the brain."
Ginny slapped her brothers' playfully. "Leave her alone, he's probably making her like him. She did - after all - tell him that he wasn't her type. He's obviously doing it on purpose."
Ron shook his head, "unless he likes her?"
George cleared his throat. "Unless he's only after one thing?" He said questionningly. "You know what he's like. I bet she's going to get hurt."
"We'll be there for her though." Ginny said determiningly, settling down on the sofa beside her brothers and pulling her Care of Magical Creatures Questionnaire out from her bag.
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