Draco Malfoy didn't dare move. He kept his chin held high, trying to remove that miserable girl from his sight. Unfortunately his efforts didn't obscure the malicious grins from the dozens of spectating students. Crabbe and Goyle were of no use. Their nervous eyes flashed pleading gazes at their prefect, bodies as stiff as Malfoy's.

"Haaa…" came the girl's sighing voice, a toad-like grin stretched across her face with big bulging eyes.

She was a year younger than Draco, a Slytherin girl. A sickly looking thing, perhaps more than sickly. Her manikin-white skin was as pale as Lord Voldemort's. She had a terrible look in her eyes too, pitch-black irises that made you feel as if falling into a void when you stared into them. Her short greasy hair clumped unkempt like branches of something dead. She was a monster, a graveyard ghoul as many would call her behind her back.

Her name was Hallownore, Nadalie Hallownore.

Ever since Draco started his sixth year at Hogwarts that girl had pestered him. The news of Lucius Malfoy's arrest as a death eater had reached everyone's ears over the break. The once prominent status of the Malfoy family had fallen from grace.

Hallownore couldn't help herself. Just as she'd tormented Potter the year before, she tortured Malfoy. The act that had put a grin on his face now made him frown. A pout, nearly teary.

She flicked the hood of her robe up and made herself bent like an old man. The crowd awaited with sick anticipation.

"My sweet, sweet Lucius…" she said weakly with a forced soreness in her voice. "How could you fail me again?"

Hallownore moved in, slowly, with a pause between steps. Her craned arms swayed forward and back like dinosaur limbs.

"Don't pout, Lucius… I'll take good care of your sniffling baby boy, good care… in fact, he's cleaning up my chamberpot as we speak –quite a nasty time I had on it, I'm afraid."

Draco's breathing had grown in ferocity. His nostrils flared like a mad pig, but he didn't dare look at her. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction. The girl called it her 'Voldy-Moldy' impression, a disrespectful mimicry of the dark lord. She had no idea how deeply the thought of Voldemort frightened him now, or if she did, she was horribly cruel.

Hallownore had gotten so close that Draco could feel her breath on his body. She turned her cheek and rested it on his chest. Her eyes squinted nearly shut. The girl looked more like a feeble baby resting in its mother's arms than the devious young woman she was.

"Sing me a lullaby, Lucius. Your Voldy-Moldy needs a napsies."

The feeling of her cold cheek caused a tremor across Malfoy's skin. He was caught in the idea that it was Voldemort's face that touched him, it was too much. Hallownore let out a surprised yell as Draco's hands shoved her away. She toppled over dramatically, obviously exaggerated.

"Haaa… Draco, it's bad manners to hurt a girl, don't you know?" she said, her head twisted over her shoulder. Her voice was its regular tone now. High, but not sharp. Youthful, but not sweet.

"You're not a girl," Draco spat. "You're a… a thing."

Hallownore showed the slightest wince of discomfort, but her toad-like smile reemerged within the second. It was never clear when her act had ended, or if it ever did. She was always like that, ever since her first year. Less like a human, more like a ghoulish thing imitating one.

"Now get off the floor, thing," Draco added, feinting a kick.

The girl scurried away on all floors, and the sniggering crowd dispersed. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were left alone by the bathroom door they'd come out of. His near daily nervous meltdowns could be heard from outside, so Hallownore had ambushed him.

Now that he was recovering, he stroked his hair back into place and pretended to retain some dignity. He could have sworn he'd heard Crabbe snort, but he ignored it.

Goyle on the other hand had not calmed. "I recon I could, you know, get a hit on her. Like have someone take her out of the picture," he said.

"No, I recon you couldn't. In case you haven't noticed Dullardore's still running things into the ground here. He'll have to be dealt with first before order can be restored."

"Dullardore," Goyle repeated with a stupid grin. "I like that one, heh."

Draco shook his head and started off to their next class. "That headmaster's got more than a few screws loose, letting subhuman filth like that in our school, let alone putting her in Slytherin. In any other place she'd be killed on sight, rightfully so. Haa…" His last laugh sounded a lot like Hallownore's sighs.

As the three rounded the corner, the hall became silent. Hallownore crept from her hiding place in the shadows. She was like a rodent feeling safe. The ghoul was gleeful, prancing around without an audience.

Her voice became sore again, resuming her Voldemort role play. "Crabbe, Goyle... teach Malfoy some manners, won't you? If he doesn't straighten up… ...well, I'm afraid I'll have no choice, but to put him on Pettigrew's pedicure duty. Haaaa…. "

The girl couldn't help but be humored by her own joke.

"Hallownore," she said to herself in a whisper. "It'll be a good year. This time, it will."

Her arms wrapped around her body and she cuddled herself delightfully. When she was satisfied, she trotted off. Her feet never made a sound when she moved, she was like a ghost in that way. All the way she went, scurried to her dorm to plot her next teasing.

Later that night, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson gathered by a fire.

"Well why not kill her?" Pansy said.

Draco shot her a disturbed glance.

"I'm kidding… mostly," she corrected. "Anyway, she'll lose us the house cup if we don't do anything."

"That's for certain," Draco said. "That girl's like a Slytherin Longbottom, but without the wits to shut her mouth when needed. If it wasn't for Dumbledore she'd have been expelled ages ago."

Pansy shook her head. "Not even Umbridge crossed that road with her. Gave her plenty of detention, sure, but never threatened expulsion."

Draco contorted his lip into a sickly grin. "Right, detention. We should keep her there for the rest of the year. That'll teach her."

Pansy didn't share Draco's enthusiasm. Her mind was still mulling over something. "It doesn't make sense, does it? Dumbledore cringes at the sight of her, and Umbridge hated her nearly as much as Potter. Not a single teacher has a good thing to say about her. So why? Why is she still allowed back every year?"

"I wonder if we can use the whips," Draco muttered. He hadn't paid attention to Pansy, still fantasizing tormenting Hallownore in detention.

Another voice came out from behind Draco. It was thugish, slow, stupid. "Just lemme at her. I'll sneak into 'er bedroom and put a pillow-"

"-Goyle, this is a prefect meeting," Pansy interrupted, and she scrunched her face as if he stunk.

Goyle bobbed his head and bit at his lips. He turned away, but spun his head around one last time to add more. "Just a thought. It'd be real easy."

Now Draco's face was scrunching. "If you don't shut up about murdering students that aren't Potter, I'll give you a detention. Now disappear."

Goyle finally obeyed, still bobbing his head as he slid away.

"Now then, where were we," Draco said.

"Hallownore. Detention isn't enough, we need her expelled. If we can frame her for something really nasty, Dumbledore will have no choice but to throw her out."

"Come now, what's there left that she hasn't done already?" Draco said boredly.

Pansy put her fingers against her chin and thought hard on it. "Well, remember when that hulking halfbreed Hagrid got sent to Azkaban? I heard all it took to get him expelled in the first place was that he'd brought a man eating monster into the castle."

"Yes-yes, but how can-"

Pansy put her finger up to Draco's lips to stop him. "We don't need to bring anything in. All we need to do is convince enough people that she is a man eating monster."

Draco looked confused. He mulled over it for a moment, then a sinister grin emerged. "You mean the rumors. How they say Hallownore's really a flesh eating ghoul, you mean that?"

Pansy nodded. "There might be evidence. The Hallownore name was mentioned in a witch disappearance about fifteen years ago."

Draco's smile faded. "Yes, my father mentioned that incident when I told him about that girl. I wasn't listening, though. What exactly are the Hallownores? They're not pure bloods, not muggles, nobody heard about them until she showed up at Hogwarts. Are you sure she's not eating people already?"

Pansy went pale. "Well, no, I'm not sure."

They both gulped out of fright. Anyone who looked like the bastard child of Dolores Umbridge and Lord Voldemort was likely to eat babies. Hallownore had to have been a dark witch at the very least. It really wasn't a stretch to think she'd be a cannibal.

That night, Draco had a nightmare. He dreamed Hallownore was at the foot of his bed. She was adorned in a heavily torn cloak as black as her eyes and hair. She crawled onto his covers with her bare, unnaturally-white limbs. Creeping moment by moment she came upon his face. Her eyes, voids. They pulled Draco's soul from his body like a dementor.

"Haaaaaa…" she sighed with glee.

Then, her mouth gaped open, jaw unhinged. It was as dark and hollow as the rest of her. Rows upon rows of teeth enveloped Draco and closed on his fragile naked torso. He let out high pitched yelps of the most pathetic kind.

He awoke to Blaise Zabini's shoe in his face.

"I don't need to hear your wet dreams, Malfoy. Keep it to yourself," Zabini said.

Draco's lip pouted bitterly and he scowled at the Slytherin boy. He didn't say a word, however. The dream still made him shiver. Instead of risking a squeaky retort, he put his clothes on violently to convey his disproval.

On his way to the great hall he overheard that familiar terrible Voldemort impression. It made him cold, but quickly realized he wasn't the girl's target. It was her other favorite victim that she called out to, Harry Potter. He could see that small girl with her head lowered between her shoulders and her hood raised. She was struggling to keep up with Potter as he marched towards Malfoy.

"Harry Potter…" she said in her strained sore voice. "...the boy who lived… ...rent free in my mind, finally come to pay his-"

Potter flicked her forehead before she could finish. He hadn't even looked her way. Hallownore's arms swam to keep balance and she was left behind. Potter was far too interested in Draco to play her games. He wore a pouty scowl, the same that Draco had given Zabini that morning, and Draco returned it.

The two butt heads with a thud. Their brows and lips twitched with mindless fury. There was no need for either to know why they were mad, it was instinctual at that point.

"Potter," Malfoy growled.

"Malfoy," Potter returned.

They repeated each other's names a few more times.

Then Potter addressed the point of his aggression. "I'm watching, Malfoy. I know what you are. You're no different than your father." Spit came out with Potter's last word.

Malfoy looked around nervously. Thankfully nobody had stopped to listen. The whole student body had long since grown bored of their daily squabbles.

"Yeah?" Malfoy replied. "I know what you are too, Potter. A loser."

Their heads separated. They feinted charging each other with grimaced mouths for a moment, then Potter marched off. Malfoy mimicked throwing something at him as a last display of malevolence, then he turned to find Hallownore staring at him.

She looked different than usual. Rather than wearing a toad-grin and leaning in intrusively close, she was closed off and glaring nervously at Draco. Draco figured she'd understood what Potter's words had meant. It didn't matter what she thought, there was no proof. He thought it was good if she was afraid of him, thinking perhaps it would keep her at bay.

In that moment Hallownore looked like a normal girl. Small, meek, and uncomfortable. There was even a bruise between her brows where Potter had flicked her, proof that she had blood beneath her skin. Draco had to take a moment to question why he had ever been intimidated by her before.

"Out of the way, Hallownore," he said, his voice still harsh from his exchange with Potter.

The girl obeyed. She bolted away and out of sight, so silently that she could have been a shadow. That part of her eeriness still gave Draco a shiver. The grim understanding that you couldn't hear her coming. He carried on, lost in his thoughts until he sat down for breakfast.

Goyle started immediately as if he'd waited all night to get it out. "Alright, so hear this one out. I ask her to meet me out in the forbidden forest, when she's alone and vulnerable I take out my shiv-"

"-I'm eating, Goyle. And I told you not to talk about that stuff. People are going to start thinking you're unstable."

Draco paused for a moment, then continued.

"They'd be right, of course, but do try to shut up. You'll tarnish my reputation."

On Draco's other side Crabbe let out a snigger. Draco glared at the fat brute, but Crabbe stared off, pretending he'd done nothing at all. He'd always been quiet, but this year Crabbe had been unusually distant. On the other hand, Goyle bobbed his head dumbly and raised his brows in acceptance of his ineptitude.

Pansy Parkinson soon took a seat across from Draco. She waved to get his attention, and he begrudgingly gave it.

"Malfoy, this Hallownore business. I found the source for that missing girl story. Turns out it came from Gilderoy Lockhart's 'Gadding with Ghouls' of all places. It's only a small mention, but the girl was his niece, just about to join him as a student during his Hogwarts years. Apparently Dumbledore himself told him he suspected she was eaten by a ghoul named 'Hallownore'."

Draco's face drooped with boredom. He wasn't in the mood, he'd just wanted to eat.

"Come on, Draco," Pansy pleaded. "If we're going to get rid of Hallownore, I'll need your help."

A cup slammed the table, loud enough to grab Pansy's attention, but soft enough that it wasn't heard much further. When Pansy looked over, she went as pale as Voldemort. Her whole body tensed and she trembled.

Draco decided to check what had scared Pansy so badly. His head rolled lazily over and he stared at the cup that had sounded. An uncannily pale hand clasped it. Draco followed up the sleeve to see the girl attached to it. He shuddered for a moment, then grew interested.

She had all the hallmarks of Hallownore, deathly white skin, dark irises, but she didn't quite look the same. Her face was sharp rather than round. She was taller, and her hair was long.

"Hallownore?" Pansy managed to ask.

"Yes, Parkinson. How do you do?" the girl said. Her voice was elegant and gentle, a total contrast towards the Hallownore they knew.

"Nadalie Hallownore? No, couldn't be," Draco said.

The girl shook her head. "Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn Hallownore." A hint of pain entered her voice. "Nadalie, she's my little sister. We're both a year below you."

Pansy turner her head down defensively. "So there's two of them. Anymore we should be warned about?"

Goyle added his own question. "Twins? How else would you be the same year?" He was ignored.

Hallownore frowned. Her eyes got watery. "It's just us two. I beg you not to judge me by my sister's actions. She's a nuisance, even to me. I'd disassociate with her if it were possible, but alas I am cursed to bear her name."

Hallownore sunk her head between her shoulders and became small.

"Why haven't I heard about you before? I don't remember your face," Draco asked.

The pale girl drew her eyes towards Malfoy between her nearly shut lids. "Yes, that's understandable. I came here late, skipped my first year entirely."

Hallownore spun her cup around, staring at her reflection. Talking about the subject appeared to have a depressing effect on her. When she spoke again her voice had lowered in volume.

"Mother only wanted one, you see. She picked that no-good trouble-maker. It took Nadalie nearly failing every class before mother agreed to allow my attendance."

Draco and Pansy had to think hard to analyze her words, though Goyle nodded as if he understood.

"You're the spare," Goyle said with a dumb grin plastered on his face.

A flash of a hatred revealed itself on Hallownore, but only Draco caught it.

"Anyway," Hallownore said, then she'd risen up to sit proper. "To get rid of Hallownore…"

Hallownore turned her head dramatically and gave all three of them a moment to meet her eyes.

"…I desire nothing more. Haaa…." a gleeful sigh.