Important Notice: I have finished writing this story (there are 28 chapters in total) you will be pleased to know that there is a sequel. I haven't decided on a name yet, but I will let you know as soon as I think of one :) x
Chapter 17
As Trinity quickly got ready for school the next morning and packed her bag, she couldn't help but wonder what Ron had meant when he'd informed her that 'Malfoy said he'd seen you with Zabini in the corridor together'. She tied her hair into a messy bun as she descended the stairs into the common room where Ginny had her Charms textbook out and George and Ron were going through the Quidditch schedule.
"We'll be against Hufflepuff next." George was stating, "and Ravenclaw will be against Slytherin. The next match will be in two weeks, so we'll have plenty of time to practice."
"Good morning, Trin!" Ginny smiled at the raven haired girl as she got up to hug her.
"Shall we head to breakfast?" Trinity asked, hugging Gineva. The Weasleys' nodded before picking their bags up and stepping out of the portrait; into the corridor.
They quickly descended the moving staircases and it wasn't long until they reached the Great Hall. They slid onto the Gryffindor bench and the two boys' made a start to fork some bacon, sausages and egg onto their plates.
Ginny began nibbling on a slice of buttered toast, watching Trinity pull out her timetable, "what day is it today?" Riddle asked.
"Wednesday." Ginny replied, "what lesson have you got first?"
"Divination." Trinity replied, "and then Purebred."
Ginny pulled a face, "straight into it then. At least you can try and talk to Malfoy." Trinity nodded and put her timetable away, looking up as the owls began flying into the Great Hall to deliver post. She could see her Uncle's scruffy owl flying towards her, a black enveloped in his clutches. The Dark Mark on her arm began to tingle as the letter was dropped infront of her.
"What is that?" Ron asked, noticing the black letter in Trinity's shaking hand.
"I don't know." Came the quiet reply, "I've never recieved one before." She turned it over - preparing herself to open it - when she noticed the dangerous looking scrawl written on the back 'open alone'. Trinity looked to her three friends before slipping the letter into her bag. Sensing eyes on her, Trinity turned around. The first year Hufflepuff's were staring at her intently, but noticing her watching them, they carried on eating their breakfast. The raven haired Gryffindor looked over at the Slytherin table. Noticing Malfoy wasn't sitting with Blaize - but with Pansy, butterflies formed in her stomache when his steel grey eyes glanced her way. Malfoy then stood up, and swiftly made his exit from the Great Hall. Trinity's heart fluttered longingly.
"Don't worry," Ron began, a mouthful of sausage. "Our table is beside his in Divination - and you sit beside him for the rest of the day."
Trinity sighed and looked down at her untouched plate, "he's never going to speak to me again, is he?"
Ron shrugged, "he probably will. But not nicely - not until he hears the truth about what happened."
"I don't understand it." George joined the conversation, "he said he saw you in the corridor - we were in the library practically all day!"
Trinity shrugged, she didn't understand it either, "and you're not the type of girl who would do that." Ginny added, "especially in public." Trinity sighed, and when all the students in the Great Hall had finished their breakfast and got to their feet, she made her way to Divination with Ron.
They sat at their table, beside Draco and Blaize, and waited for Professor Trelawny to begin the lesson. Once again, there were tea cups on the table, so it was obvious they would be reading tea leaves again. As the introduction to the lesson was given, Professor Trelawny asked the students to finish their tea and read their leaves.
"You can do mine." Ron passed his tea cup over to Trinity once he'd drunk it.
"Okay," Trinity nodded, placing her finished tea back onto her saucer so she could read Ron's first. "You have a clock, a coin...and a cup."
Ron opened the symbol book and smiled, "the clock - means better health, that's good." He turned a few pages before finding the cup, "I'm going to recieve a reward - even better!" Then he found the coin, "I have money coming in!"
Trinity smiled, "and it's at the top of the tea cup, which means a better fortune."
"Hey, Riddle." Blaize tapped her on the arm, "read mine."
Trinity made no eye contact with the Slytherin as she took the cup from him, "the cat."
"Means deceit." Ron stated, pointing to the reading in the symbol book. "Someone has decieved you."
"A knife."
Ron flicked through the pages before finding the definition to the symbol, "means a broken friendship."
"And finally a finger." Trinity stated. "Pointing to the cat."
"The finger enhances the meaning. Which would now mean you've decieved someone."
Blaize smirked and snatched his cup back from the Gryffindor before snatching Malfoy's from him, "do his."
Trinity took the cup and looked at the tea leaves, "a closed book."
"That means, you need to investigate something." Ron stated, glaring at Blaize.
"A cat. We already know that means deceit. But there's no finger - so that means someone has decieved you." Trinity stated, "and finally the feather." She placed the cup down.
"A lack of concentration." Ron finished, closing the book.
Trinity picked up her own cup and began to read her own tea leaves, "an owl-"
"That means scandal." Professor Trelawny stated, appearing beside the raven haired girl.
"A wasp?"
"Romantic problems." The Professor nodded eagerly, urging the Gryffindor to carry on.
"And a Letter."
"News." The Professor stated, "where about's is it in the cup?"
"Near the handle." Trinity replied.
"Good news." The Professor stated, smiling, she heard someone slam their teacup onto the table and quickly hurried off to see if they needed her help.
Trinity looked back into her cup and frowned. "That's wierd." She stated to Ron. "I don't have the Dark Mark. I always do."
Blaize leant over to Trinity, placing one arm across the back of her chair. He cupped a hand to her ear and whispered, "That's because it's on your arm instead." Trinity's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish and she felt her face heat up, "how do you know that?" She stammered, frightened to know that he could potentially tell a lot of other people - including the Weasley's.
Blaize chuckled and brushed a stray hair off the Gryffindor's face. "Because I saw." He whispered again.
Trinity stared down at the table, her face still pink. Blaize took his arm away from her chair and crossed his arms on the table infront of him, smirking at Draco as the platinum blonde glared at him.
As Ron and Trinity made their way to Purebred, they overheard some students talking about how Professor Umbridge was in a bad mood and was handing out detentions for no particular reason.
Detentions with Hagrid had been stopped due to one of the Hufflepuff students being attacked by a Dementor. This upset both Trinity and Ron as they knew they were more likely to be serving future detentions with Professor Snape or even Umbridge.
They stepped into the classroom and sat in their assigned seats, "good luck." Ron whispered to Trinity as he crossed the room to sit beside Lavender Brown.
"You too." Trinity mumbled.
Draco entered the classroom and sat down, shuffling his chair as far to the edge of the desk as he could. Trinity sighed and glanced up at the Slytherin to find him already glaring daggers at her, she turned to face the front of the classroom, slouching lower in her seat.
Professor Umbridge began lecturing the class about the future, which was boring. "The males must hold a good job, whilst the females should be at home, looking after the family..."
Trinity felt a tingling in her eyes, quickly followed by a slight burning on her arm, she frowned, but not before an array of images flashed across her mind. She was in the girls' bathroom rinsing her face with a splash of cold water. She sighed and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
The bags under her eyes had darkened, due to her restless nights recently.
She splashed some more water onto her face before turning off the tap and turning around. As she did so, she came face to face with Pansy Parkinson, and two of the pugs room mates; Daphne Greengrass and Tammy Oliver.
"Oh, look, it's the little slag." Pansy glared at the raven haired girl.
Trinity took a step away from the girls' and shook her head, "I didn't." She whispered.
But Pansy didn't hear her, and continued fowards, bringing her hand up and giving Trinity a stinging slap across the face, making her whimper. Pansy continued, "I can't believe you would cheat on Drakey!" Daphne and Tammy came to stand behind Trinity, so that all three girls' were circling her.
Trinity came back to the present, still sitting in Purebred. Professor Umbridge slapped her wand on the wooden desk infront of Trinity, who shot backwards in her seat, covering her eyes.
"Late night, Miss Riddle? Would you like to inform me as to what or who you were doing?" Was this woman always assuming people had sex? What was with her turning something innocent into something dirty?
"Yes, why don't you enlighten us?" Draco crossed his arms and turned around in his seat to actually face her, a glare was still on his features. Her eyes were still clamped shut and stung painfully, she needed to drink one of the orange vials in her bag.
"Detention Miss Riddle. With me at eight o'clock this evening." Trinity heard the Professor walking away, and then took the opportunity to feel around for her bag. She pulled it onto her lap and felt around for the opening clasp and - once finding that - she began digging around for the familiar cold, thin glass tube. Trinity felt as though she had been struggling for five minutes before her hand brushed against another one.
"There!" Draco whispered snappily, placing the vial into her hand.
"Thank you." Trinity whispered, pulling the cork out of the vial and drinking the liquid contents.
It wasn't very much longer until class was dismissed, and Trinity felt disappointed with herself for not talking to Draco. Oh well, they had Potions after break - she could talk to him then. But perhaps it would just be better to leave it? Maybe Malfoy had had a lot of people in the past trying to explain themselves; to cover up lies. Maybe the only way to prove her innocence was to let it prove itself.
As she walked to the Great Hall with Ron, Trinity had the frightening feeling that someone was watching her, glaring daggers at her back. Assuming it was Draco, she didn't let it bother her. Ron and Trinity sat down on the bench opposite Ginny and George and began putting some snacks onto their plates.
Unusually, Trinity was quite hungry, so she picked up a few cubes of Treacle Fudge and placed them on her plate. She nibbled the fudge as she listened to Ginny explain how her Charms lesson went. Ron began to tease George about moving into a dorm with Kimberly, and George revealed that he was rather excited and that he'd already begun to pack his belongings. Trinity smiled, two of her friends were going to make such a sweet couple.
"We should probably head to Potions." Ron stated, screwing up the wrapper to his chocolate bar and leaving it on the plate. The two said goodbye to Ginny and George before making their way to Professor Slughorns room.
They sat down in their assigned seats and waited patiently for the lesson to begin. It wasn't long until Draco entered, and he seemed to be in a slightly better mood than this morning. Perhaps it was because he'd eaten? Or maybe Potions was his favourite lesson?
The Slytherin sat beside the Gryffindor, only giving her a side glance. This time, she wasn't looking at him, but at the table. He was tempted to ask her about the vision she'd had in Purebred, but thought against it. He wanted that explanation, and he wanted that apology. Silent treatment was probably the only thing that would work with this girl. Bullying her and treatening her would only make her fearful of him, and keep her silent. No, Draco had to make her feel guilty.
As Professor Slughorn handed out the instructions and the ingredients for the potion needed to be made that day, Draco set to work, still glancing at the raven haired Gryffindor. Was she having another vision or was she trying to make him feel bad and talk to her? If that was the case, then she'd better think again because Malfoy's didn't feel bad for anyone.
During his thoughts, Professor Slughorn had to come over and stop Draco from adding too much ingredient, or stop him from stirring the cauldron.
"Any idea why you're failing potions today, Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Slughorn asked as he stopped Draco from adding a fifth measurement of Knottgrass for the third time.
Draco cleared his throat, "none." As Slughorn warned him to be more careful and left, Draco glanced over at Trinity, who was looking down at her desk.
Why didn't she ever look at him like she looked at her friends? She was going to be more than a friend when they left school, so why didn't she like him? Not that it mattered right now, she owed him an explanation and an apology (not that he would forgive her anyway).
"Mr. Malfoy!" Slughorn rushed towards the platinum blonde and reached out his hands, "don't add too much Wolfsbane...you'll blow up the classroom."
Draco sighed, and placed all the ingredients back onto the desk. He ran a hand through his tousled blonde hair before picking up the powdered Bicorn horn and actually concentrating on the amount he was putting into the cauldron. Once he had finished adding all the necessary ingredients, Draco cast a spell on the wooden spoon, which began to stir the bubbling contents. All he had to do now was wait ten minutes for the potion to mature.
Draco glanced at Trinity, and couldn't stop himself from demanding answers from her. "What does Blaize have that I don't?"
Trinity snapped her eyes up, caught offguard by the question, she looked back down at the table and shrugged, "I don't understand."
"It's a simple question, Riddle. What don't you understand about it?" Draco snapped.
She looked up to meet his gaze once again, "I don't recall anything happening. I don't understand how you could've seen me."
"Maybe because you didn't hide properly?" Trinity looked down at the desk again, Ginny had told her to ignore Draco. Which is probably what she should be doing. "Why don't you just explain yourself?"
"I..." She felt her eyes turning watery. Why was she being accused for something she didn't do?
She shot to her feet and grabbed her bag before leaving the classroom. Trinity tore down the hallway and barged into the girls' bathroom at the end of the corridor. She sat down on the floor and began to cry. 'Malfoy's right.' She thought, 'I am pathetic!' Whilst she was alone in the bathroom, Trinity took the black letter out of her bag and went to open it, but then the most oddest noise echoed around the bathroom. She stuffed the letter into her bag and stood up, just in time to see a ghost with two pigtails, float out from one of the cubicles.
"Hello." The ghost said, tilting her head to the side, "who are you? I've never seen you in my bathroom before."
"I'm Trinity." Trinity replied, wiping her tear stained cheeks, "I didn't know this was your bathroom, I'm sorry."
"No, no!" The ghost floated over to her, wailing as she did so. "I'm Mrytle."
Trinity smiled shyly, "it's nice to meet you."
The ghost smiled childishly and hovered over to the sinks. "I'm quite glad someone came in, actually." Myrtle stated, turning around to face the Gryffindor. "I found something, suspicious."
"Suspicious?" Trinity asked, frowning, the last of her tears dribbling away. "Like what?"
"Well, I found some Polyjuice Potion flowing through the drains. It looked like it was coming from the boys' bathroom."
"What's Polyjuice Potion?" Trinity asked, frowning.
Myrtle giggled, "a seventh year doesn't know what Polyjuice Potion is!" Myrtle made a high pitched squeal noise before flying through the air and landing in the third toilet cubicle with an almighty splash.
Trinity sighed sadly before she made her way slowly towards the sinks and began rinsing her face with a splash of cold water. She sighed and stared at her reflection in the mirror. The bags under her eyes had darkened, due to her restless nights recently. She splashed some more water onto her face before turning off the tap and turning around. As she did so, she came face to face with Pansy Parkinson, and two of the pugs room mates; Daphne Greengrass and Tammy Oliver. Obviously class had just been dismissed, and it was now time for Dark Arts - Trinity didn't want to be late.
"Oh, look, it's the little slag." Pansy glared at the raven haired girl.
Trinity took a step away from the girls' and shook her head, "I didn't." She whispered.
But Pansy didn't hear her, and continued fowards, bringing her hand up and giving Trinity a stinging slap across the face, making her whimper. Pansy continued, "I can't believe you would cheat on Drakey!"
Daphne and Tammy came to stand behind Trinity, so that all three girls' were circling her.
"And Drakey is mine, so technically you can't have anyone!" Pansy started laughing, as did Daphne and Tammy. Pansy went silent, annoyed by the fact that Trinity hadn't tried to defend herself. "Which then makes your life as a Pureblood worthless." Pansy pushed Trinity back, and the Gryffindor stumbled backwards. "Which makes your life worthless." She pushed the girl again, but this time - to the floor. "So what am I going to do with you?" Pansy tapped her chin in mock thought before kicking the Gryffindor in the ribs and pulling on her hair.
"We better make this fast, Pansy." Daphne stated, pulling Trinity up by her right arm as Tammy grabbed hold of her left. "We don't want to be late for Dark Arts with Professor Snape!"
As Tammy and Daphne dropped Trinity to the floor once Pansy was finished with her, the three girls washed their hands and straightened out their clothes and hair before grabbing their bags and running off to Snape's lesson.
"Ugly!" They shouted over their shoulders. Trinity winced as she weakly pulled herself into a sitting position against the wall. Tears slipped down her cheeks and she touched a couple of fingers gently to her lip, wincing as the open cut stung. Trinity heard a wailing noise, and looked up to see Myrtle floating towards her.
"You don't look very good." Myrtle noted, crouching down infront of the Gryffindor. Trinity shook her head and buried her teary and bruised face into her knees as her arms pulled them up to her chest.
"There, there." Myrtle said comfortingly, pretending to pat the raven haired Gryffindor on her back. "At least you're alive."
Thank you for reviewing, favouriting and alerting! Please review and let me know what you think about this chapter, and about the upcoming sequel! :D xx