Chapter Seven

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For once in her life, Merida had decided to behave for every teacher. Now that she had her mother around, and had another new friend, she did not want anything at all to ruin that. It was worth sacrificing a little fun in lessons to do. Even worth paying attention to Snape.

Another new thing in her life had also caused her to keep a low profile. Over the past few weeks, the young Scottish girl had become involved in a new Defence Against the Dark Arts group, headed up by her friends, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and a few of the other Gryffindor fifth years. The secretive society had been meeting in various different places, most recently The Hog's Head, where quite a few more members had been added to the group of fifth years, in support of Harry and his words.

Despite the keeping of the secret being imperative, Merida had come to trust her new friend, Draco, to the point where she had informed him of her involvement with the group. After all, he had told her a few secrets about Slytherin House and his life within it, so it seemed to be only fair that she did the same.

One day, as a topic in their conversation, Draco had asked his friend a simple question, though it was one that had caused the Scot to pause for thought. 'So, where do you meet for this club?'

At first, Merida was extremely apprehensive about telling the boy, given the secretive nature of the place. After all, all of her friends had said that the DA was not to be talked about, under any circumstances, to outsiders, for fear that Umbridge, the evil Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher would find out about their organisation and would stop them from practicing, something that was hardly an option, what with Lord Voldemort being on the rise once more.

But eventually, she had given in, and she had told Draco all about Dumbledore's Army, including where they had met for their practices recently. At the time, she had never thought that he would even think of betraying her trust, by conveying the information to his friends, or even to Umbridge. How wrong she had been.

In the meeting that day, they had been practicing a Stunning Spell, both theory and in practice. They had partnered up, Merida partnering with Ginny, and each had practiced trying to Stun the other first. It had been a brilliant activity, and all of them had learnt a valuable fighting skill. Unfortunately, they need it sooner than they had anticipated.

Suddenly, the walls and mirrors of the Room of Requirement began to shake. The dust began to fall off of chandeliers and the students within the room began to fall from side to side, the jolting room throwing them off balance. Then, just as quickly as they had begun, the tremors stopped.

Feeling that he was responsible for the safety of the DA, Harry stepped forward to see what had happened, flanked by Colin Creevey, who would hardly pass up a chance to help Harry, no matter what the danger was. For a moment, everything was silent and still.

Then, out of nowhere, a quiet voice from the other side of the wall sent the brickwork shattering in all directions around them, knocking the group flying onto the floor.

By the time Merida had summoned the strength to raise her head, there was a group assembled by the gap in the wall, headed up by the dreaded Professor Umbridge. Unfortunately, within the huddle of Slytherins, which, judging by their badges, were members of the Inquisitorial Squad, stood a very familiar boy, clutching violently at the shoulders of Marietta Edgecombe, a shaking Ravenclaw girl who Merida vaguely remembered from previous DA meetings. The boy was Draco Malfoy.

Merida was struck dumb with astonishment, unable to believe what her eyes were seeing. After she had trusted him with one of the biggest secrets she kept, though not the primary one, of course, Draco had gone ahead and betrayed her regardless. 'I never thought that he would be so horrible, so evil, so… Slytherin. I guess that I must have been wrong.' she thought, a tear surfacing in her eye, though being blinked back violently, so that Umbridge and her Slytherins would not see her cry.

"Take them to my office." Umbridge instructed, the sweetness of her tone almost sickening for the young woman, who knew from her mother's complaints that the nicety the woman portrayed was utterly false.

The Slytherins obeyed the woman immediately, each running in to grab a member of the society. Merida winced as she saw the huge bully named Vincent Crabbe, the one who had started all the nonsense with Luna a few months previously. She closed her eyes, preparing for the harsh grip that would appear on her arms, but it never came. Instead, far gentler hands clasped her shoulders, tightly enough so that she would not fall, but loosely enough not to hurt her. A quick glance upwards told her that it was Draco.

To her upmost surprise, when the group turned to the right, en route to the woman's office, but the young man turned left instead. He went no further than around the corner before he stopped, releasing Merida's shoulders with a smile on his face. The smile was not reciprocated by the other.

"How could you do that? How could you betray me like that?" Merida exclaimed, the annoyance evident in her face. "I trusted you, Draco, and you lied."

"I didn't. I swear on my life, I didn't say anything. I would never do that to you." Draco responded, desperate for the redhead to believe him, something which was becoming more likely by the moment.

"Prove it." she told him, though she did not expect him to do so. Contrary to her expectations, the young Malfoy was desperate for forgiveness, and so he did all that he could think of to prove himself. He leant over to Merida, put his hands on her shoulders once again.

And pressed his lips to hers.

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