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DracoXOC Fanfic

Disclaimer: Not JK Rowling, But Elizabeth Marshall and alot of what gets twisted is of my own creation

Chapter Three:

"What is it Weasley? I have the least patience out of the three of us, spit it out." Elizabeth spat with a roll of her eyes. She turned as Weasley shot her a glare but then let out a sigh and looked her in the eyes.

"Why do you do it?" Elizabeth cocked a brow at him, a face full of confusion. "Hang out with those blokes, you're smart enough to know that all this pureblood bull-"

"Language!" She hissed.

"That too! Why do you always talk like an adult, and make everyone else try and follow suit." Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she turned back to her books.

"I'm sorry Ronald, but you are not privy to my psychological analysis, you barely even know me. Just know that I don't like being cursed at, and leave it at that." She stated firmly as she picked up her quill and turned to use it on her notepad. Harry huffed as he looked to his own book and Weasley was there to doodle on his own.

"Harry, do you think there will be a test on this?" Ron whispered.

"Ron." Harry warned.

"Weasley, why would you even ask that?" Elizabeth added.

"Because, he's kind of fallen into talking of war." The two of them looked up and shot a look to Ron, confusion. Neither had been paying attention to the ghost. "I get a feeling it's not going to be a test, but like, he's rather teaching like we're about to do some sort of project." Elizabeth rolled her eyes and looked down to her books.

"Binn never does group projects." She stated.

"WHAT A FANTASTIC IDEA MISS MARTIN-"

"Marshall!" She corrected with venom, before her face fell as she was taken aback. Great! He heard her.

"That's just what we need, a project to show what you all have learned. I will assign each table with a time period and that group will present next week on their selected war from their allotted Time Period. Remember, if you forget war, you are doomed to repeat it." Elizabeth's mouth hung open. Ron grimaced, his faced turned to Harry who shook his head. This would not be easy. The three of them were deathly silent, Elizabeth still in shock, until the ghost of the man floated to their table and placed a piece of paper on their desk.

They were excused and Elizabeth held still. Ron motioned to stand, but her hands shot out to grab their robes and yanked them down into their seats.

"Whoa! OW!" Harry snapped as Elizabeth shot him a look.

"Do either of you have another class today?" She hissed. Ron and Harry both shook their heads. With a dark look on hers, she snatched up the paper and shoved her things away in her bag, "Then you will both follow me to the library, and there will be no if's, and's, or but's, got it?" She snapped as she turned curtly on her heel and marched towards the door. Ronald opened his mouth to say something only to have Harry's hand instantly over it.

The two followed her out of the room where she stopped abruptly, turned to look at them expectantly. They looked in between each other with confusion. "Ready?" She asked. Ronald furrowed his brow only to nod. Elizabeth then took off at a brisk pace, her bag at her side. As they walked down the hall, she pulled out the paper and looked to it. "990 AD through 1090 AD, Well, that's going to be a bit of a challenge."

"What happened that early on?" Harry asked.

"Many wizard wars were fought before and after that time period. But around that time, Hogwarts was actually founded, it's a relatively quiet time period." Elizabeth stated point blank. Only to smile and wave to a fellow Slytherin who passed. She smiled and patted the hand and arm of a few others who passed, oblivious to their glares aimed towards Harry and Ron.

"It's like being in the looking glass." Ron whispered. "I wonder if they all see their lives through rose tinted glasses like that?"

"You think Gryffindors are the only ones allowed to love their house mates. This house pride and stagmate war we've created between them is ridiculous. Not all Slytherin are horrid people, some of them are the nicest people I've ever met." Elizabeth turned and looked to Ron with the softest look he'd ever seen directed at him from her since the classes begun a week ago.

"If you're an elitist." Harry snipped.

"Not true. If you're of value, see you guys don't see life the way we do. You think friends are just friends, no cause for anything, no need from them, just people to talk to. But to me, and every other slytherin, Friends are Allies. People who stand beside you, and if you're good to them, lift you up. You have friends so that they'll be useful, even if it's only to keep you strong when you're weak. Say you punched me right now, you broke my nose and everyone heard me yell. Every Slytherin within ear shot would be here to help me up, like an army of snakes, unafraid to defend my honor. Say if no one was here to hear, then the second someone saw me, there would be no mercy for you, no punishment they wouldn't look over to defend me. You think Gryffindors are the only ones with loyalty. Every house is loyal to their friends, for the very reasons they made them friends in the first place. If you looked at a person and was friends with them because they made you laugh, I looked at the same person, and made friends with them because their parents were of importance, or they had something I needed, or were intelligent and wise in an area of expertise I needed, it would matter to neither of us that they were halfblood or muggleborn. And that right there, is what you look over every day when you call us snobs and elitists, because those people are only about five percent of us, only few believe you have to be pure pureblood to be of use." Elizabeth turned and pushed open the library doors, she passed rows of tables with people at it and slipped into her own in silence as the boys caught up with everything she said.

"And of those few, you're friends with all of them." Ronald accused.

"Their beliefs are of their concern," Elizabeth retorted as she pulled out her textbook and the notebook, and settled them on the table.

"So if they attacked a muggleborn because they were muggle born, would you defend them then?" Ron stepped forward and Elizabeth shot him a warning glance.

"They would never harm anyone else without reason."

"Draco has." Harry added.

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" Elizabeth snapped.

"Hermione! Her name is Hermione Granger, and he constantly throws her blood status in her face like it's a disease!"

"WHAT IF IT IS!" The table went deathly silent as Elizabeth looked to both of them with wide eyes. "Being anything but a pureblood means being ostracized and bullied and it means nothing to the person, but everything to everyone else. Even if Draco didn't bully her, he wouldn't have been the only one! It doesn't matter who you are, how good of a person you are, if you're tainted, you're a cochroach under their toes and you can never crawl out once you've let them step on you. Being a Muggleborn is a sickness, the worst kind, because you can't cure it."

Harry looked at Elizabeth as she panted and looked to her book, "How would you even know?"

"Because I can't help any of them. I watch them all, be pushed around by the people you hate the very most and I can't save them. I can't make the hurt go away, I can't do anything. I have what is right in front of me, and that is all. I wish I could be like you and your imbecilic friends who think just because you scream and kick, that it'll make one bit of difference." Elizabeth lied as she shook her head. "Never mind, just, let it go. We've got an entire war to find in history and we have barely even figured out the time period completely."

The table was dead, the voices swallowed hard as Elizabeth flipped back and forth through her book. With an exasperated sigh, she shot up from the table and walked past the boys and towards the aisle of books. She searched aisle after aisle for the time period.

What could have possibly happened in that time period, the Founders made Hogwarts, that's all she could think of. As she came back to the table empty handed, she sat down with a huff and looked to the boys.

They looked as lost for words as she was.

"What are you lot up to?" Hermione joined them and Elizabeth jumped in her skin. Elizabeth's eyes caught the curled mess of a mane that Hermione always had, her head cocked to the side as she looked to both Harry and Ron, then turned her attention to Elizabeth.

"Know anything about 990 AD to 1090 AD?" Harry asked as Hermione winced and shook her head.

"We could always talk about the Goblin King." Ronald chuckled.

Only Elizabeth's face lit up like christmas, her eyes full of light as she bounced. "THAT'S PERFECT! THE HALF BREED WAR!" She exclaimed, ignorant of the glare that the librarian gave her. Elizabeth pushed her book away and stood up. "We'll do our report on the effects of Goblin and Wizard Warfare over the Half Breed war! Oh, Okay, you guys are free to go, I've got some reading to do. Both of you bring as much as you can to class!" Elizabeth practically skipped away with such a brilliant smile etched on her face.

"A nuter, that one." Ron grumbled.

"What the hell is the Half Breed War?" Harry asked.

~!~ ~!~ ~!~

"Have you seen Draco?" Elizabeth asked as she looked around the common room. Weird, he was usually here, waiting for them to start on potions. Even weirder, he had begun to slack off in class. When Slughorn was more demanding of notes and the such, he took none. Elizabeth would start the potion and Draco nearly killed them twice because he began to daze off in class.

He was unlike himself more and more lately, and worry sunk into her stomach as she fought her way up the stairs to his room. His books, his quills, his everything was there. Where the …?

Elizabeth dropped her things on his floor, expecting to be right back to collect them once she found him. Maybe he was terrorizing a first year or maybe lounging outside. Her mind thought of a million places he could be, but within the first hour of bouncing from wall to wall in the castle, she found neither hide nor hair from him. He was gone! Like a feather in the wind that was full of leaves, he slipped under the radar.

"Where could the bugger be?" She mumbled as she turned and turned over the castle. Two hours of search from the basement to the top, she even searched the Slytherin Common room a second time. No where. She began to believe in the worst. That he was in the hospital wing. No, no one was there but a fueled and energized Pomfrey. He was in detention, but when she walked down the steps and knocked on Snape's Office, she looked inside.

He was not there.

"Miss Marshall?" Snape asked without even looking up.

"Have you seen Draco, by chance? He's missed our study hour and I've walked this castle from top to bottom and can't find him. It started with just worry that he forgot, but now I'm legitimately worried for his self." She explained as she stepped inside. Snape looked up as she couldn't help the words that fell out. "And he's been slacking in classes! I have never known him to give up the chance to one up everyone with his grades and the such. Then, he's got these… circles under his eyes, which is not like him, because he's such a hog for sleeping to the max amount of hours. And, Ontop of that! Pansy told me that he was talking of not wanting to be here on the train before I got to the compartment. I'm worried, Professor." Elizabeth broke down everything that had been buzzing in her head completely.

Snape looked up with furrowed brows, "You noticed… all of that?" he drawled.

Elizabeth huffed and put her hands to her hips. "Yes! I notice the habits of my friends. If you remember, I was the one that noticed Pansy and her attempt at a crash diet for the Yule Ball. I noticed when Blaize was trying to cheat his grades, should I go on? I may always have my nose in the books, but I do look up every now and then." Elizabeth stomped her foot.

"Miss Marshall, change your tone or I'll reward you with another detention." Elizabeth clamped her mouth shut instantly.

"I suppose you know of what happened over the summer then." He groaned, only to stop short when he saw Elizabeth's face. "Child! Do you live under a rock?"

"You could say that." She mumbled to herself.

"Draco's father was imprisoned, Draco is feeling pressure to be the man his father could not be."

"Wait… Azkaban?" Elizabeth blurted out. "But, Why?" She felt her whole body turn to ice as Snape shot her a short look.

"It is of no concern, but please, don't concern yourself with Draco. He will perkin up, I believe, once he's realized his world doesn't revolve around his father's activities." But Elizabeth wasn't listening. She ripped around her her heel and bolted from the room, not a care to Snape who shouted for her to return. She had to find him now and apologize, or something.

She had not done anything wrong, but she felt like she had to apologize.

For not being there, for assuming everything was fine, for just going along with life and not realizing that the Draco she saw before her, was the healthy, in control Draco she always saw. How stupid could she be!

As she climbed the stairs with gusto, she turned down a hall and bolted down it, sweeping the level as she came upon Draco, just there, standing in the hall. As if his whole world stopped, his body held still and he was not alive. Everything about him said dead inside and she couldn't help it. She rushed right up to him, and without warning, she wrapped her arms around him.

It was a world in fast motion that blurred around her as everything seemed to happen at once.

Her body came in contact with his, twirling the two around as she tried to slow her speed and hug him at the same second. He woke up from whatever trance he was in and without a second to spare, pinned her to the cold stone wall and had his wand to her throat. His eyes held no recognition as he looked to her, then like ice on a warm surface, his eyes recognized her slowly. His wand hit the floor with a loud smack.

"Elizabeth." He murmured, his face softened.

"I'm sorry, I should have announced myself." She apologized with such a soft voice, it almost wasn't heard. Draco trembled as he gripped her shoulders tight, his fingers dug into the soft cotton of her cloak and blouse, his eyes devoured every inch of her face.

"I should have never," He breathed.

"You're fine, I'm fine, please stop. Your fingers hurt." He instantly let go. Elizabeth held still as she looked up at him, afraid if she even moved an inch, he would shatter before her. Elizabeth could feel the adrenaline from the whole scenario settle in her veins, hot acid in her body as she looked to the blond haired boy. His hand moved to the wall behind her, his head hung and she couldn't help it. A soft hand to his bicep, the other to his waist, she pulled him close. Like she did with Daphne when she had nightmares, when Pansy felt ugly, when anyone needed it for no reason, she pulled him into a hug. Her back to the wall, she pulled him close and allowed him to wrap his arms around her.

Tight, his grip on her tightened as if he feared she would disappear, she clung to him and nuzzled her face inbetween his head and shoulder in the crook of his neck. She could feel as the shivers died in his body.

"Whatever it is, whenever you can, tell me. Please. I can help." She breathed hot breath on his skin as he pulled her closer.

"No, you can't." He breathed back against her ear.

"You'd be surprised what I can do." She whispered with a smirk on her lips. She could hear the strangled, short chuckle of his. "I withstood a whole class with Potter and Weasley, and we have a group project that we actually started today. I even climbed this castle twice for you, and I'm not out of breath… yet."

Draco shifted as he pulled back just slightly, allowed her room to breathe as he smirked down to her. "I can change that." Elizabeth smiled softly as she put her face back on his shoulder and inhaled. They stood there for a moment longer than she meant and she felt it pull on her chest. Here he was having a crisis of some kind, with unknown reasons, and she was worried about herself. Selfish, Elizabeth had been called that many times, but never was it such a slap in the face as it was now.

"Will you be okay?" She whimpered into his clothing.

"I'll be fine, we should be getting down to dinner now." He whispered.

"Dinner has been done for two hours." The look on his face was that of a pout as she chuckled. "Come on, I have some snacks and the such in my bag, which happen to be in your room."

"If you left snacks in it, they'll be safe in the room with Blaize. Much better roommate than Crabbe and Goyle." He grumbled as Elizabeth knelt down and picked up his wand. Slowly, she stood up and turned towards him. Draco looked exhausted. He looked beyond beat up.

"I guess they could be troublesome." She whispered softly. Draco took his wand gingerly and followed her quietly down the stairs. Elizabeth actually reached back and lightly took his hand, of which he didn't take back, and just allowed her to lead him down to the dungeons. There had been faces and places that they passed as she silently kept her head up and made no notice to any eyes that stared. Only Snape's eyes made her focus. As they passed, she looked to him, her eyes catching his analytical gaze. He looked to their hands as Elizabeth looked away and walked down the stairs, Draco following as if a lost puppy on a gentle leash. He didn't even acknowledge Snape in the least.

The two were the last to go back to the common room, but she wouldn't be stopped. It was obvious what kind of mood that Draco was in, for Blaize stopped anyone from saying anything as Elizabeth sent him a soft smile. Blaize nodded to her, before he turned around on the couch and continued with whatever book he was reading. Though, Elizabeth couldn't help the curious, confused glance from Pansy and Daphne. There was an understanding between the three girls that Elizabeth would explain later as she lead Draco up the stairs.

They reached his room, still not a word between them as she opened it and lead him in. Draco felt like a lifeless bag under her fingers as she turned to him and detached her fingers from him. Soft eyes and soft fingers, she slipped his cloak off his shoulder and slipped them onto the hook on the wall. He stood there, his eyes watched her with hawk like attention, but such a stormy lost look. She turned back and undid his tie, her hands gripped his vest and pulled it up along with the loose tie, she hung the tie with the cloak and folded the vest. Then she took his hand and actually sat him down, as gracefully as she could.

Elizabeth was working, this was her work diligence, no need for words, just focus and a graceful hand with firm fingers. He didn't flinch as she undid his shoes and slipped them to the slide. She pulled off her cloak and slipped off her flats as she crawled up onto his bed.

"This is the weirdest Fourplay, I've ever had." Elizabeth swatted upside his head as he smirked and laid back. Elizabeth patted the pillow next to her as she laid on her side, her eyes on him.

"This way I make sure you go to sleep," She cooed, a hand brushed his blond locks. "Your hair is getting long, you should let Daph or Pansy cut it over the weekend." She added. Draco closed his eyes as he shook it. Elizabeth grinned, "Then I can cut it."

His eyes shot open and he turned to her immediately. "Absolutely not!"

"Then I'll tell the girls to do us both up pretty on saturday." She poked his nose gently and watched him narrow his eyes at her before he closed his eyes. He seemed relaxed more as he shifted so he was on his side, his back to her. He was going to try to cut her off. Just this once, he wasn't going to get that chance. Elizabeth watched as he settled himself more in the bed.

"You can go, Elizabeth, I'm fine." Only, Draco's body went rigid as Elizabeth slid up behind him and wrapped an arm around his torso and placed her face against the back of his button up.

"I'm not going anywhere, not until I'm sure you're getting a good night's sleep. If I have to harass you every night till you're back to normal, I'm willing to sacrifice my evenings to do so." She breathed as his shoulders shook with light laughter as his hand reached down and clasped hers, his fingers twined with the ones pressed against his stomach.

"I never guessed you to be the demanding one." He yawned, his shoulders slouched ever so slightly. She opened her mouth to speak again, but he was slipping and she didn't want to stop him. Instead, she let him slip into his sleep. Elizabeth curled around him for warmth, at one point she tried to pull his blanket up on him, but when she tried to move, he pulled her hand back and tightly held it. It was obvious he wasn't going to let her go in his sleep, any time soon.

Elizabeth pressed her face into his shoulder blades and inhaled slow, long breaths through her nose. He always smelled like clean, almost like one would expect when they walked into the shop of a good tailor, or a man you flirt with at the company party who is obviously too rich to need the job. That's what Draco always smelled like to Elizabeth, like a fine wine that was just perfect to the taste buds, and far too expensive for regular folk. But now, his regular scent was off, there was a scent of something thicker, almost dark. Dust but the dust from an abandoned castle that once housed the evil queen, or maybe even just the old musky air of something from Knockturn alley. One accidental mistep into that part of town, it was hard to forget the smell.

And of course, the people who mumbled to themselves. Plus, there was the goat guy who slaughtered goats on the cobble stone. Draco smelt like darkness, if it had a smell. Like dark fear, but so much more, because Draco was still there, hidden behind it all.

The sounds of his breathing kept her awake as she finally pulled her hand back, but never left the bed. She slipped up and pressed her back against the head board of his bed, one of his pillows on her lap as she ran light designs with her fingers on his pillow that he slept on, even brushed his hair affectionately to the side.

Funny thing, she could see loving Draco Malfoy. She could see lying in bed with him, wrapped up in his arms, the way he smirked and grinned when he laughed. Elizabeth could love him, it would be so easy.

And yet…

It would be so easy for him to hate her just as well.