Chapter 12

Monday rolled around too quickly in Trinity's opinion, and after a very bad night's sleep she wanted the day to be over before it had even started. She found herself already walking to her third lesson - Potions - with Ron. Although Charms was her favourite lesson, Trinity had found Professor Flitwick boring, which resulted in a good catchup of sleep. Herbology had been the same. Pansy Parkinson had all but forgotten their duel the previous lesson and had even pulled on her hair when Trinity had fallen asleep. Pansy had just laughed and shoved her hands into the pockets of her Slytherin robes as the raven haired Gryffindor shot up in her seat, wiping compost off her cheek when she did so.
As Ron and Trinity walked into their Potions classroom and took their seats, Professor Slughorn walked around the classroom, taking in the homework from each student. "Miss Riddle, how did you find the extra assignment?" He asked, "is Mr. Malfoy a good tutor?"
Trinity nodded and handed her work over to the Professor, yawning as she did. She felt her eyelids drooping and rested her head on her desk. Draco gripped the collar of her robes and pulled her up.
"Stop sleeping and pay attention, Riddle!" He whispered harshly as the Professor began his lecture.
Trinity must've fallen asleep again, because when she opened her eyes the other students were starting to pack up their belongings and shoulder their bags. She blinked before putting her bag ontop of the desk.
"Here you go, Miss Riddle." Professor Slughorn handed her a questionnaire sheet, smiling kindly.
"Only one sheet? I thought I was having extra assignments?"
Slughorn raised an eyebrow, "were you not paying attention? I didn't set homework. But if you'd like more than one piece, you can do this essay aswell." He handed her a piece of parchment with a title on the top 'explain the advantages and disadvantages of amortentia, how it is ministered and how it can be given'. Trinity stared at the parcement with her mouth hanging open.
"Are you serious?" She exclaimed.
"Deadly, Miss Riddle. I don't usually hand out detentions, but if you fall asleep in my lesson again, I will arrange for you to go to Hagrids hut at eight o'clock."
The Gryffindor shoved the parchment into her bag and stood up, yawning as she did so, before meeting Ron outside the classroom to go to the library for their free lesson.
"I might aswell hang myself now." Trinity mumbled.
Ron put his arm around her shoulders comfortingly and chuckled. "It can't be that bad." He said, "I'll try and help you do your questionnaire thingy, and I'm sure Malfoy will help you do that essay if you ask him...nicely."
"Thanks Ron." Trinity smiled up at the red head as they walked into the library.
They sat down at the table facing the butterfly window and Trinity pulled her questionnare, quill and ink out of her bag and placed them onto the table.
"When the owls arrived this morning at breakfast," Ron began, "did you see Malfoy? He got a black letter."
"A black letter?" Trinity asked. "Isn't that a howler?"
Ron shook his head, "howlers are red, but he's a Deatheater, so it could be something to do with that."
"He's a Deatheater?" Trinity asked. "So, does he have the Dark Mark?"
Ron nodded, "yeah. Hey - this could be what your tea leaves were on about. The Dark Mark."
"Possibly." She replied, seeing Malfoy walking towards them. Ron turned around to see what she was looking at and sighed as the Slytherin grabbed a chair and seated himself beside Trinity.
"So, Riddle." He began, rocking on the back two legs of the chair. "Want me to help with your essay?"
"If you wouldn't mind, please." She replied in a small voice, her eyes glued to his left arm.
"I will if you give me a nice thank you." He smirked, "and I don't mean just one peck on the lips." His steel grey eyes watching her as she blushed. "What do you say? Here after dinner." Trinity nodded and looked up as he stood up. "It's a date then." He smirked as her blush reddened before turning on his heel and leaving the library.
"Trinity has a date with Malfoy." Lavender Brown sang from behind them, throwing her arms around Ron's neck and kissing his cheek.
"Lavender, go away." Ron whispered.
"It's alright." Trinity stood up. "I'll do my questionnaire at a different table," she smiled at the brunette beside her. "You can have my seat, have fun." She grinned at Ron and laughed quietly at his look of distress as she escaped from the library.
She gasped, forgetting that she was going to see Norbert with Hagrid after dinner today. But now she was seeing Malfoy. She quickly made her way out of the school and into the snow, stepping carefully as she made her way down the stone steps towards Hagrids hut.
She knocked politely on the door and waited patiently for the giant to open it, and once he did, Trinity was greeted with a warm smile. "Come in, Trinity!" Hagrid exclaimed. "I'm assuming you're on a free lesson?"
"Yes, of course." She smiled and followed him inside, taking a seat on the armchair beside Fang who was sleeping infront of the fireplace. "I was going to ask if we could go and see Norbert another time?"
Hagrid nodded, "of course that's alright, if you've got homework to do - you've got homework to do." He smiled and held up a pale pink porcelain teapot. "Tea?" He asked.
"No thank you." She shook her head and waited for Hagrid to sit down with his chipped mug before she started talking again. "What about Wednesday after dinner?" She asked.
"That'll be fine." He chuckled, "come anytime, just give me some warning though. The Deatheaters visit on Tuesday's to make sure everything's in order." He rolled his eyes. "How're your lessons going?"
"Not well today, Hagrid." She replied honestly. "I've been sleeping through them all this morning. I love Charms and I couldn't keep my eyes open - the same with Herbology and Potions. Professor Slughorn even gave me extra work ontop of my extra work!"
Hagrid chuckled, "I suppose you'd rather have a detention?"
Trinity shook her head, "the forest scares me at night, I mean, it scares me anyway - it's not hard to scare me - but...it's just so...dark...and scary."
Hagrid chuckled again, "why, nothing can hurt you in there! Not anymore anyway, at least there's nothing I can think of. Besides, every detention you've had, Malfoy's apparated you out of any danger you've come across." He frowned. "Which seems to be every detention you've had so far..." he shrugged and took a sip of tea.
Fang stood up and walked over to Trinity, his tail wagging. "Hello." Trinity put her hand out timidly and petted his head gently.
"He seems to like you a lot." Hagrid noted. "If I ever go away, I'm going to ask you to feed him. I asked Ron at one point-" he stood up and put his empty mug of tea by the sink "-but he forgot." Hagrid rolled his eyes. "Not to seem rude, Trinity, but there're students heading to their lessons." He walked with her to the door and opened it for her. "I'll see you Wednesday - unless you get into trouble for falling asleep."
"Bye Hagrid." Trinity waved before jogging back up to the school. She tripped and fell causing her black robes to be covered in white snow.

Trinity made it to Dark Arts just as Snape began his lecture. "Obviously making snow angels is more important than your education." Snape drawled. "Miss Riddle, stay behind after class. Hurry up and sit down." As she took her seat, Trinity pulled out her quill and ink before yawning and running her fingers through her damp tangled hair. All she wanted to do was sleep, but she was forcing herself not to close her eyes and everytime she did, Draco would elbow her.
The lesson was slow and painful, and when Trinity's stomach began to growl, she realised that the reason why she was so tired was because she hadn't eaten yesturday, and had missed today's lunch. Dark Arts finally finished and Trinity waited patiently for Professor Snape to lecture her for being late.
He placed his hands on the desk infront of her. "I've been looking for you for three days." He began. "Your Uncle would like to see you." Trinity nodded, not trusting herself to open her mouth to speak. "You may go." He moved away from her and sat behind his desk. Trinity packed away her things and scurried out of the room, walking over to Ron.
They silently made their way towards the Great Hall and ate. Trinity listened quietly to the Weasley's as they spoke and, once she finished her meal, she got to her feet. "I'm going to the library." She said.
"Oh yeah!" Ron chuckled, "she has a date with Malfoy!"
"A date?" Ginny roared with laughter from her seat beside Dean.
"I'm assuming he means Potions tutoring?" George chuckled. Trinity nodded before quickly making her way towards the library, she couldn't help but think about going to see her Uncle. Perhaps he would've forgotten why he needed to see her? Hopefully, but unlikely.
She would reluctantly go after meeting Draco in the library. She began to plait her hair over one shoulder and noticed that it wasn't all one length. She frowned and took a closer inspection of her hair, she stopped and examined the raven locks. It looked as though someone had cut an inch off. They hadn't even bothered to even it out all the way around, she had an inch missing from the left side. 'Oh well,' she thought.
She wandered down the corridor towards the library and frowned when she noticed two sneaky looking Slytherins passing ingredients to one another. It looked like Pansy and Blaize, but Trinity couldn't be to sure. She ignored them and pushed her way through the door and into the library where Draco was lounging on one of the chairs - rocking it on the two back legs, his feet ontop of the table and his platinum blonde head hanging over the back of the chair. His arms were crossed and he looked bored (probably from waiting).
The raven haired Gryffindor made her way over to the table and took a seat beside him as he looked up. She didn't say anything, just took out a piece of parchment, her quill and ink.
"Why're you so quiet?" He asked.
Trinity looked up, her eyes meeting his for a split second. She thought she could see worry reflected in them, but she wasn't convinced. She tore her eyes from his and fixed them on the table again. "I always am." She replied.
"What did Snape tell you?" He asked, "because he had been looking for you on Friday."
The Gryffindor cleared her throat, "my Uncle wants to see me." She replied. "And...I don't want to go because I'm scared."
"What's the title?" He asked, taking his feet off the table. "We'll get this done quickly and then...I'll come with you if you want me too?"
Trinity nodded appreciatively as she handed him the piece of parchment. She waited patiently and watched his steel grey eyes scan the line on the paper. "I'll write a list of notes." He stated, pulling out a blank piece of parchment from his bag. He took her quill and jotted down the advantages in his neat, cursive script. Draco then wrote down the disadvantages such as: 'does not really cause the person who drinks it to fall in love with someone' and 'the drinker does not forget what he or she did while under its influence'. He then noted down the effects: 'the consumer becomes obsessed with the target even if the target is not present when the love potion is consumed', 'the effects of a love potion vary depending on such factors as the weight of the person drinking the potion and the attractiveness of the person with whom the potion is supposed to make the drinker obsessed with' and 'effects of a love potion wear off naturally over time, but can be renewed by administering further doses of potion'. Draco went on to explain how it can be given: 'an item spiked with love potion can strengthen the longer the item is kept before consumption' and 'it can be given in food and drink, so the target consumes the potion, or on a plant so the target inhales the potion.'
Draco placed the quill back on the table and slid the piece of parchment across the table towards Trinity. They'd both forgotten about going to see the Headmaster.
Draco smirked, put the lid back on the ink bottle and wiped the the tip of the quill onto his trousers. "Put this away, you can write the essay tomorrow."
Trinity put her things into her bag and then leant back in her chair, looking at him; waiting.
"You don't always have to wait for me, you know." He stated, smirking. "It's more polite to thank someone when they don't tell you to." The bookcase obscured them from Madam Pince and the door and Trinity leant fowards in her chair to meet the Slytherins lips with her own.

Trinity collapsed onto the sofa in the Gryffindor common room beside George with a sigh. All three Weasleys' turned their heads in her direction. "How was your date?" Ron asked.
"Did you finish all your work?" Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother.
"Half." Trinity replied.
"Trinity, it's almost curfew, you've been in the library since after dinner - what were you-" George cut himself off when he saw the blush sweep across the raven haired girls' cheeks. "-You didn't..." He began. "You slept with Malfoy?" He whispered, making sure no one from the common room overheard their conversation. He couldn't believe it. Only two weeks into the school year and Draco had scored one of the new students. A Gryffindor no less.
"No!" Her exclamation was so loud the other Gryffindors in the common room turned around to look at her. "No..." she said, much more quietly. "We...kissed." She looked around the common room to make sure no one was listening. "For a long time...behind the bookcases."
"I'm never stepping foot in the library, ever again." Ron shook his head. "Speaking about the library, was it today that you abandoned me in there with Lavender?"
Trinity nodded, "sorry about that - but I had to go and see Hagrid."
"It's alright." Ron replied, "we talked for a while and...she's actually quite a nice girl."
Trinity kept listening as she pulled out her parchment with the essay title, Draco's notes and her quill and ink, she began to write her essay, refferring back to Draco's notes practically all the time and when she was finished, she put everything back into her bag - except for the Slytherin's notes. Trinity say in her chair, admiring his handwriting. His writing was beautiful, strange because he didn't seem to be the arty kind of wizard. He moved almost gracefully and he was handsome what else was there to him?
Trinity sighed and headed upstairs to her dorm. She took a quick shower before pulling on her black tracksuit bottoms, white camisole and green hoodie. She scraped her hair back into a messy bun before yawning. She was relishing the alone time. She closed the curtains around her bed and cast a silencing charm before tucking herself under her bed covers. Trinity pulled the silver mirror out from under her pillow and waited for Kimberly to appear as her reflection in the shiny surface.
"I'm so glad you picked up!" Trinity began. "What's wrong?" She asked, realising that her friend was crying. Kim never cried unless she had an almost close brush with death or something really, seriously bad had happened.
"Your Uncle..." Kim began, wiping her eyes. "He's given me the Dark Mark."
Trinity's mouth dropped open. "Please, repeat that."
"Merlin, Trin! That's why you haven't seen me for ages! It's why he's asking you to visit him. He's going to give you one too!"
"I was suppossed to go to see him today! I completely forgot! He's going to be so angry when he next sees me!"
"Trin, it's so painful. I've been in my dorm for three days!" She wiped her eyes. "And it still hurts, Draco gave me some cream he used when he first got it. It helps, but it burns-" she sniffed "-and I'm so tired."
"Get some sleep, Kim." Trinity couldn't fight the tears that slipped down her cheeks, "I'll check on you soon, alright?"
Kimberly nodded and said goodnight before shoving the mirror back under her pillow.
Trinity did the same before hiding herself under her duvet, she was so frightened about what was going to happen the next day that she laid awake the entire night. She was awake when the other three girls took showers and went to bed, and she was awake when the entire Gryffindor tower had gone to bed. When she eventually did fall asleep, it was getting brighter outside. At least she didn't have a nightmare that evening.

The next morning, Trinity woke up late. She washed her hair in the sink and scraped it back into a bun. She quickly put on some mascara before dressing in her school clothes, grabbing her bag and rushing downstairs into the common room to meet the Weasleys', all the while dreading about what could happen that day.
She was so scared, she was silent, she nodded her good mornings to her friends, and she walked in silence with Ron for their double lesson of Transfiguration. Where Professor McGonagal had also done a seating plan. Trinity sat at the back of the classroom beside Draco, pretending to listen to the Professors lecture.
She froze in her seat when the classroom door ceaked open slowly and the entire classroom stopped talking.
"Minerva, could I borrow, my niece?" The voice of Voldermort echoed around the silence of the room. Trinity could feel fear surround her, suffocating her, her hands began to shake and she could see Draco looking at her from the corner of his eyes.
"Of course, My Lord." Professor McGonagal replied.
"Trinity, leave your wand with Draco, if you will." Voldermort stated.
Trinity handed Draco her wand, shaking as she did so. Her eyes met his, green filled with fear and steel grey filled with concern. Trinity rose to her feet and met her Uncle outside the classroom before following him along the corridors and towards his office.

Thank you to my reviewers :) I hope everyone reading this story is enjoying it :D More excitement and suspense is about to come up, don't you worry! Review x