Chapter Seventeen

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As Merida strolled through the corridors at Hogwarts after the weekend, when she had finally been deemed well enough by her mother to return to her classes, she was aware of the sheer number of eyes on her. Admiring eyes, jealous eyes, venomous eyes and disbelieving eyes, all of them watching her as she made her way to her next lesson, Potions with Professor Snape. 'Fantastic!' she thought, the sarcasm evident even in her mind. 'I was involved in the arrest of one of the most prominent Death Eaters in society, and now I have to sit for an hour being taught by his best mate!'

However, if she had imagined that her troubles would only begin once she reached her lesson, she had been utterly wrong. For as she descended the steps to the dungeons, she felt hands grab tightly onto her arms, hauling her off her feet and into an alcove, dragging her into the darkness. She tried to kick at them, to yell and hopefully frighten them away, but it was no use. She knew that, down here, no one would hear her and that if they did, they would not come to help.

Her captors moved at such a sickening pace that the first time she became aware of her surroundings was when she was dropped to the floor in a darkened chamber, one that she had never set eyes on before. She assumed it was some secret place known only to Slytherin House. It would not surprise her; it was known to all that below ground, in the dungeons, snakes ruled high above lions, in deed if not in name. This was their place and she had no power here, nor did any of those who might want to help her. There was only one person who could help her here. Her heart sank as she thought of Draco and all that he had meant to her. All that he still meant to her. 'He might have loved me once,' she thought. 'But he would never help me now.'

Students had begun to circle around her now, Slytherin students, of course. The vast majority were boys, aside from one girl who Merida recognised as Pansy Parkinson, the girl who had been all over Draco like a rash ever since they had first met. She also recognised his henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle, as well as Blaise Zabini, who Draco had begun to spend a lot more time with of late, suddenly interested in the mysterious young man, who had always preferred to remain alone rather than in a large group. 'Now, it's Draco who's always alone.' she thought, before clearing her mind of the platinum haired boy. 'He's not coming to help me, so I need to forget about him.'

"What am I doing here?" she asked, though she knew as well as they did what the answer would be.

"Potter and his little gang of Gryffindor freaks called on the Order of the Phoenix during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries." stated Blaise Zabini, his teeth bared in a gesture closed to a snarl. It was that snarl that prevented Merida from pointing out the numerous errors of his statement, as she usually would have done. "The Order alerted the Ministry to what was happening, which resulted in a great deal of the Dark Lord's followers being captured. Draco's father was among them."

'I know.' she thought, thinking of the pain she had so briefly seen flash across the boy's features in the Great Hall at breakfast, when he had read a letter from his mother, informing him of his father's imprisonment. She had tried to go to him, to tell him how sorry she was, but Draco avoided her at every turn, hiding himself amidst his gang of Slytherin Purebloods.

"But you see our problem, don't you?" Pansy Parkinson simpered, her smile as sweet as a poisoned blade. "Potter needs to pay for what he's done, but Dumbledore practically has him under lock and key since the Dark Lord's return. His little friends are always with him; we could never get any of them far enough away to make a difference. Any except for you."

"What do you want with me?" Merida asked, no longer able to conceal the tremor in her voice. She could feel her hands trembling and for the first time was glad that they were secured behind her back.

"Like I said: Potter needs to pay, but we can't get to him." Pansy repeated, speaking slowly as if to a slow little child. Her cold metallic smile still remained, but Merida's eye was drawn from it by a flash of light; flames were dancing in the young woman's hand, near reflections of the flames in the torches on the wall. It took her a second to realise that they were reflections. "So I suppose you'll have to do."

The dagger, jagged and polished 'til it shone like a mirror, was being twirled around in Parkinson's hands. The falsified sweetness of her smile had mutated now, into the cruel smirk of a hunter who had cornered their prey. Merida began to wriggle, trying to get away from the glinting metal, but the students between them had cast a spell which would not allow her to move away.

"Pansy, you don't have to do this. Please!" Merida cried out, the note of begging ringing clearly in her ears. The young woman's smirk only widened.

"Yes, I do." she hissed, bending right down to speak in the redhead's ear. "Because this isn't about the Battle, or the Order, or the Death Eaters; not for me. No, this is about the boy you stole from me. Draco was always mine and always will be, no matter what tricks you try to play on us. Perhaps this will help you remember that."

Merida felt the scream die in her throat, the knife glinting with candlelight as she plunged it downward.

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