hello! sorry for my delay, i'm on holiday and didn't have access to my computer to post the chapters! so i'm posting two at once! enjoy your reading!
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tw : mistreatment, graphic injuries, blood, references to sex
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Draco
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"What would Granger do in this situation?"
That was all Draco could think about as he saw his friend's lifeless body, not knowing why. Why was he thinking about Granger at a time like this?! He had to help, to do something, to throw himself forward, but he just stood there, doing nothing. He was stunned, unable to make any movement, his eyes downcast on Theo.
Granger would surely have found a spell by now, she wouldn't have hesitated. She would have propelled herself forward to kneel beside him and help him. Her brain would have already run through the list of possible potions to wake him up. Draco had no idea how he could know that from a girl he'd hardly ever spoken to, and more importantly, why she was occupying his thoughts in this moment of urgency.
This lasted for a split second. The first to move was Pansy. She let out a muffled groan in her throat and reached down to touch Theo's back. He was covered in ash. She coughed and bent down to listen to his pulse, then turned to the two boys who were still planted in front of the fireplace like statues.
"Do something! Hurry!" shouted Pansy.
Blaise rushed to him, but Draco couldn't move his legs. He felt as if all the blood in his head had fallen out suddenly. Pansy, seeing that neither of them had any idea what to do, took matters into her own hands. She grabbed Theo's body and pulled him onto his back. His head rolled to the floor, his face covered in blood. Pansy let out another fearful moan through her teeth.
"No, no, no, no, Theo..." she whispered softly.
She took his head in her hands and tried to wake him up, to make him open his eyes, without success. Blaise put a hand on his chest to check that his heart was still beating. Draco managed to ask:
"Is he dead?"
His tongue felt heavy in his mouth, and he couldn't get his mind off the vision of Theo covered in blood. Blaise shook his head, looking as haggard as Draco:
"No, he's alive."
"Why is he covered in blood?" shouted Pansy, who was half crying. "Blaise, why?"
"I don't know!" he shouted, shaking with fear.
Suddenly Blaise had an idea and pulled the shirt up over Theo's arms. His arms were covered in bloody gashes, which formed lines all the way down and intertwined around his wrist to his shoulder. This seemed to wake Draco, who was finally able to move and rushed at Theo. He hadn't realised that his cheeks were covered in tears.
"A spell?!" exclaimed Pansy as she saw his arm, her eyes rolling back.
Blaise groaned, a terrible sound of panic coming out of his throat like a cry for help, then tore at Theo's shirt, which was all sticky. The lines went on and on, as if he'd taken a hot whip to the skin. When they saw this, the three of them recoiled in shock. Theo was still knocked out. If he didn't have all that blood on him, you'd almost think he was sleeping.
Pansy was the first to react. She stood up, her dress covered in soot and her hands full of blood, and ran into an adjacent room. She returned a few seconds later with several vials in her arms:
"I took this, I took this!" she repeated.
She put everything on the floor and grabbed several vials of different liquids. She spoke in a whisper, like a madwoman, going over the herbs with her trembling hands:
"No, no, not that, essence... essence of... no, that's the stems of... Here! That's it!"
Pansy took the vial in her hands and poured several drops over Theo's body. Greenish smoke rose from the open wounds, and for a moment Draco could see nothing. When the smoke cleared, he was amazed to see that Theo's skin had returned to normal and that the bleeding had stopped. His wounds had closed up and now looked like whitish scars, as if they had been healed for days.
"Essence of Dittany." explained Pansy, wiping her mouth with the sleeve of her robe. "We learned it in Herbology..."
"Well done, Pans'." gasped Blaise.
Draco was unable to utter a single word. They both stared at Theo and his mangled body.
"Theo?" called Pansy in a small voice.
It took him several seconds to react. He wanted to open his eyes, but he had a violent coughing fit from the ash he had swallowed.
"Put him on his side!" ordered Pansy.
Draco complied and moved Theo's body so that he could cough without choking. Then he opened his eyes: they were bloodshot.
"Pansy? Is that you?" he asked, blinded.
"Yes, I'm here, I'm here, Theo!" she said with a choked sob.
She put a hand on his shoulder and he grasped it, as if to check that she was really there.
"I did it... I did it..." muttered Theo in a hoarse voice.
And he closed his blue eyes again with a sigh of relief.
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It took a long time to get Theo on one of the sofas in the living room. Blaise gave him a t-shirt of his own which Draco helped him to put on. As soon as he raised an arm, Theo winced in pain, his eyes still closed. Pansy was sitting on the same couch as him, and had positioned Theo so that he was between her legs so she could wipe his soot-covered forehead with a wet cloth. He smiled with satisfaction as he felt this:
"Thanks, Pans'."
Cooky brought in four new hot chocolates and after many long minutes of Pansy mechanically running the cloth over Theo's face and neck, Theo suddenly came alive and opened his eyes. He met Pansy's misty eyes right above him.
"Don't cry, Pans'. It's over."
"You scared us, Theo." she said with a sob.
"Sorry." the boy said with a small reassuring smile.
"What happened?" asked Blaise from the other sofa.
"My father." replied Theo, suddenly more gloomy.
"Did he do this to you?!"
"Yes. When he came home tonight, he was even angrier than he'd been the last few days. He called me into his office and asked me about these defence lessons he'd been giving me since yesterday. I answered... badly. I told him that the only person I had to defend myself to was him, because he was the Death Eater. It made him mad."
Pansy made a sound somewhere between a sob and a squeak of surprise, and Theo paused for a few seconds to swallow.
"He cast a spell on me, then two, then three, then four... After that, I lost count. I think I passed out. When I woke up, he was still on top of me, but he had stopped beating me. I could smell the blood and it made me gag."
Blaise and Draco listened silently, disgusted. Pansy, meanwhile, was now crying her eyes out.
"He's gone from his office. I don't know how long it took, but when I realised he probably wasn't coming back, I decided to run away. I reached for some Floo Powder, threw it down the office chimney and jumped in. I didn't say where I wanted to go, but I was thinking hard about you, so I guess it brought me here. But I didn't get a good jump on it, my legs were still in the office when I left. It took a while. I think I passed out in it."
He finished his tirade with a cough. He still had ash in his throat. Every sound he made was a testament to his agony, and cut through Draco like a blade through the ribs.
"You can't go back there." Blaise said fiercely.
Pansy and Draco nodded in agreement. Theo's head turned a little to the side, so he could watch Blaise as he sat on the couch next to him.
"I don't have anywhere to go."
"Of course you do. You have here. You can stay as long as you like in this Manor, there are so many rooms I couldn't even count them. There's no way you're going to set one foot in this house again."
"He's going to come after me." Theo said in a terrified whisper.
Draco had never felt as much fear as he did tonight. He knew Theo's father was a dangerous man, and even more so after what his mother had told him in July, but he never thought he could be so evil. He could see the scars on his neck through the collar of the t-shirt Blaise had lent him.
"He won't come near here." Blaise said firmly.
"Thank you, Blaise. And you, without you..." began Theo.
"Hush, hush." pleaded Pansy, who was still crying. Her tears had traced a path down her sooty face and revealed her porcelain skin. "Don't talk about that, I don't even want to imagine it."
"You were brilliant, Pans'." Draco said. "To think of Dittany at a time like this..."
"Yes. Without you, we'd never have managed to heal him." Blaise continued.
Pansy nodded slightly and leaned over to Theo to give him a little kiss on the forehead:
"You scared me, Theo." she repeated, over and over.
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Draco had no idea when they had fallen asleep, but he remembered that it was very late at night. When he woke up, he was still lying on the sofa, with a duvet half on top of him and half on the floor. Everyone was still asleep, it was pitch black outside. Draco had no idea what time it was.
Theo was still slumped over Pansy, and Pansy was sleeping with her head on one side in a clearly uncomfortable position. She obviously hadn't wanted to move away from Theo, because her arm was firmly around him, as if to protect him. Blaise, on the other hand, was almost asleep on the floor with his legs touching the ground, his head only restrained by the arm of the sofa.
He didn't wake them, because he knew that Theo absolutely had to sleep to recover, even if it was in such a bad position. He looked better after several hot chocolates and an extra dose of Essence of Dittany. His wounds were still white, but Pansy had warned him that there would always be small marks on his skin.
Draco got up and went to the kitchen to make himself a coffee. He could have asked Cooky, but his throat was swollen from the massive amount of smoke he had swallowed the night before, and he needed to do something with his hands. He couldn't do magic outside of Hogwarts, so he had to do it manually, which took about ten minutes and coffee spilled all over the counter.
"I'll have one too, please." Blaise whispered behind his back.
Draco handed him a hot cup and they said nothing for several minutes, intermittently puffing on their coffees without looking at each other. Then Blaise finally muttered:
"'Strange night."
"The fright of my life." Draco admitted. "Do you think we should tell anyone? Your mother?"
"I thought about it yesterday. I even hesitated to send Cooky after her, so she could help us. But I didn't. I have no idea what our parents can do to help Theo, and I'm afraid he'll have to go back to that house."
"He mustn't." Draco said gravely. "He can't go back there, who knows what his father can do?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to find out."
Blaise took a sip of coffee, ignoring the burning he must have felt in his throat. Draco had never seen him so upset. Their emotions translated differently after a moment of panic like that - Draco was scared, Pansy was crying, and Blaise was furious. Draco could almost see the anger emanating from Blaise's body as he breathed.
"If I'd known..." Blaise said softly, his gaze fixed on the kitchen floor. "If I had known, I would have stopped him from taking those shitty lessons. I would have brought him here before his father could realize."
"You didn't know."
Blaise nodded, but his anger still hadn't subsided. Draco heard Pansy's voice from the other side:
"Hey, is that coffee I smell?"
Blaise took two more cups and returned to the living room, which was still pitch black. Pansy was half awake, and Theo had risen against the edge of the sofa. Blaise handed them the two cups of coffee and they both sighed with satisfaction.
"How are you feeling, Theo?" asked Draco as he sat down.
"Better. My shoulder doesn't hurt anymore, and I don't have that awful sooty taste in my mouth."
"Do you think we should tell anyone about this?" asked Pansy.
Theo opened his eyes wide and exclaimed:
"No! No, please don't say anything."
"Okay, okay." conceded Pansy, a little alarmed by his reaction. "We won't say anything."
"You have to promise me that! Pansy and Draco, make your promise, like the ones you make to each other, the promises of friendship or whatever."
Draco widened his eyes wide:
"What? How do you know that?"
"Promise it like you do with each other. Not to say anything to your parents. They're the same as mine anyway." growled Theo, almost threateningly.
"Okay! We promise!" cried Pansy and Draco at the same time.
He seemed reassured and repositioned himself against the couch again.
"How do you know about our promises?" asked Pansy, stunned.
"I'm just observant, that's all." said Theo, shrugging. "Even if we weren't friends at the time, I knew you long before Hogwarts. I'd seen you both plenty of times before, at dinner parties or Blaise's mum's weddings, but I never got close to you."
Pansy pressed her lips together but said nothing. Draco was a little embarrassed that Blaise and Theo knew about their promises, he wished it had remained a secret between him and Pansy.
Theo brought his cup to his mouth and winced in pain.
"Where does it hurt?" asked Pansy when she saw him blink.
"My stomach."
"That's because you haven't eaten anything," cried Blaise. "Cooky! Bring us some breakfast!"
The house elf brought a large tray, and Theo helped himself, thanking Blaise. But Draco wasn't fooled, he knew he was hurting, and that it wasn't from hunger. He knew that the wounds his father had inflicted on him the day before were still throwing him when he stretched, and it was driving him crazy with rage.
Draco
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Draco eventually returned to the Manor the next evening, having made sure that Theo was safe. He'd missed the nightly rendezvous with Pansy, who'd stayed at home, but he'd told her by owl that he was still there and that he should stay with Blaise. When Theo had finally fallen asleep in one of the beds at the Manor, he decided to go home.
When he got into his house, he saw that the lights were all turned off. He didn't know if his mother was still out or if she was already asleep, but he didn't try to find out. Either way, he was all alone. All the panic, fear and anger from seeing Theo fall down the chimney seemed to sink into him and he suddenly felt exhausted. He couldn't handle all these emotions.
He thought about what Theo had said that morning: "Your parents are the same as mine anyway." That sentence had stuck with him, but he hadn't dared ask Theo to explain it for fear that he would remember what his father had done the day before.
Or maybe Draco was just afraid to face a reality he had never imagined before.
He knew that Theo's father, Pansy's father and his own father practiced dark magic. That was a fact. He knew that his own father collected evil objects, that he did business with dubious people, and that he had once participated in a regime imposed by a Dark Lord who had wanted to kill Harry Potter. His knowledge of the subject was limited, but his father was not shy about practising this kind of dark magic, he even took pride in it.
Draco had never questioned his parents' beliefs. But as Theo's sentence echoed in his mind like a threat, he saw the door that led to the dungeons. Without taking time to think, he turned the handle and quickly descended the steps. He hated this part of the Manor. It was dark, damp, and there was a large empty cell where his parents had threatened to put him more than once when he had done something stupid.
He headed down the hall to his father's secret room where he kept all his valuables. Technically, he had a right to be there, his father hadn't really stopped him from going, and he even knew the password to get in. But Draco hadn't been inside in years.
He found himself facing a stone wall and saw the small box that had no letters or numbers on it. He typed in the combination his father had taught him and a door materialized on the wall. When he entered, an unpleasant smell came to his nose. The room was pitch black and Draco could hear the condensation on the walls dripping to the floor. He lit a torch beside him and looked into his father's secret Chamber.
Many items had been removed because of the Ministry's search. A rug was rolled up in one corner, and several shelves stood with empty spots, obvious locations of an item his father had sold. Only a few ancient relics remained, and black books piled up in small piles on the floor.
Draco ventured inside. There was a desk in one corner, a huge globe, maps hanging on the walls that represented places Draco didn't know. He walked over to the wall in front of him and looked at the frame.
It was a mask. It was silver, and decorated with black lines that were carved into it and reminded Draco of the scars on Theo's body with a shiver of horror. There were three holes in it, two for eyes in the shape of snake pupils, and a mouth that was barely ajar, as if it were sewn shut. Below the frame was a small text box : "Death Eater Mask - 1970-1981."
Draco felt a chill run down the back of his neck. He knew his father had been a Death Eater, he'd seen the white skull mark on his forearm several times before. But it was as if he'd just realised what it meant.
He sat in a chair behind the desk and thought. His father would never do what Theo's father had done to him, he had never hit him and his mother was against any form of torture. But had he ever done it to others? Had he hurt people in the same way as Theo? Had they deserved it?
Was his father really better than Pansy's and Theo's?
Another thought occurred, and Draco closed his eyes as he pictured Granger's face once again. She tended to appear a lot more often than she used to, lately. Why had he thought of her when he'd seen Theo, of all people? He hated her, she represented everything he hated, fake heroism and Gryffindors.
You thought of her because you knew she would have healed Theo, he thought unwillingly.
Would she have done it? Would she have bent over the same way Pansy had to help this boy she'd never spoken to, and who she supposedly hated because he was in Slytherin?
And why was he thinking about her again?!
Hermione
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Dear Hermione,
You'll never believe it. My dad came home tonight and told me that Harry had left his aunt and uncle's house! Apparently, he blew up his aunt like a balloon and she flew away! He must have been really angry to produce something like that without realising it. I wonder what she could have said to him to make him get so upset.
Don't worry, he's fine. He just got a warning from Fudge himself. He managed to get into the Leaky Cauldron and he's staying there until the end of the month. My mum suggested we go and see him on the last day of the holidays, we'll do our shopping then, and stay overnight and go straight to the station. Would you like to join us?
I'm glad your holiday in France went well, the town of Dijon looks very nice from what I've read. I'm not surprised to hear you've been doing your History of Magic homework though. Three rolls of parchment, Hermione?! Poor Binns is never going to get it marked in time. I haven't done it yet, but I'm hoping to add some information about Egypt that will give me some points.
Send Errol back to me and let me know if you agree to join us at the Leaky Cauldron the day before school starts.
Enjoy the last few days of your holiday! (and stop working!)
Best regards,
Ron
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Hermione
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"Here's your trunk and your travel bag."
Her mother put her things on the floor and took Hermione in her arms. When she pulled away, she saw that she had tears in her eyes. Her father hugged her too. The crowded Charing Cross Road didn't really help, because dozens of pedestrians were bumping into them, grumbling.
"Here's the rest of the wizarding money we exchanged last year. If you have any left over, get yourself a present for your birthday." her father explained in a low voice as he handed her an envelope which Hermione put in her pocket.
"Go on, then." her mother said with a small sob. "We'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too."
Hermione hugged them one last time, picked up her shoulder bag and slung it over her head, her trunk in her hand, and walked back into the Leaky Cauldron. She looked around for Harry, but couldn't find him, so she decided to go straight to Diagon Alley. It was more crowded than the previous year on the last day of the holiday. All the Hogwarts students seemed to have come to buy their last minute missing supplies.
Just as she was getting out her list, she heard Ron calling to her from a little further away:
"Hermione! Hermione!"
He ran up to her and they gave each other a quick hug in greeting. He'd gotten quite a tan over the summer, he had even more freckles on his nose than before. Behind him was Ginny, whose red hair had grown out and was approaching the same tan as her brother.
"Hi Hermione!" she called out cheerfully.
"Hi you two! My parents left all my stuff here, and I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight." she declared, showing them her trunk on the floor.
"Great! Let's just drop it all off in your room and go shopping afterwards."
Hermione nodded, then wanted to bend down to pick up her trunk, but someone jostled her to take it for her:
"Leave it, I'll carry it." Fred offered. "Hi Hermione."
"Oh, thanks Fred."
The latter smiled, then picked up the trunk and grinned:
"Merlin, it's super heavy, what did you put in it?"
"Books." replied Hermione and Ron at the same time.
After getting a room at the inn, Hermione went back downstairs with Ron and Ginny to buy their new books. Ron and Hermione consulted their lists (Hermione's was much longer) and at the same time the manager of the bookshop approached them:
"Hogwarts students?" he asked curtly.
"Yes, we would need two Monster Books of Monsters, please." said Hermione, consulting her list.
The Headmaster suddenly looked uneasy.
"Really?" he asked in a shaky voice. "Alright, move over please..."
The bookseller approached a large cage and Hermione saw huge books snapping their bindings like jaws, in the manner of particularly rabid dogs. Her eyes widened as she glanced at Ron, who was as bewildered as she was. The bookseller grabbed two books with his cane and one of them slammed violently against his arm.
"Ouch!" the manager shouted, massaging his arm. "Damn books! Never again!"
He closed their books with sticky paper which he frantically wrapped around the cover and which prevented the book from opening again, even though it was still making little grunts, then handed both books to Hermione and Ron.
"Did you need anything else?"
The headmaster of Flourish and Blotts spent nearly half an hour taking all the books Hermione needed. Then they went to Scribbulus to pick up ink, quills and parchment rolls, then Ron went to Ollivander's on his own while Hermione went to Madam Primpernelle's with Ginny. She bought three bottles of the strawberry shampoo that Lavender had given her the year before, because she loved the smell and wanted to stock up.
Then Hermione went to buy some of the potions she was missing from her kit, and finished her shopping at Rosa Lee's shop, which she had never been to before. It was a tea shop with hundreds of different flavoured teabags displayed on shelves in dusty old boxes. She took several, but especially the cinnamon ones, her favourites that reminded her of afternoons in Hagrid's hut.
Finally, after all that, they took a break at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour terrace to enjoy some ice cream in the sun. Ron was describing the Sphinx he had seen in Egypt when he saw Harry in the distance in the crowd:
"Harry! HARRY!" he chanted, gesturing wildly.
He approached them with a big smile. His hair was even longer than the previous year, and still unruly.
"Finally!" said Ron as Harry sat down at their table. "We went to look for you at the Leaky Cauldron, but they told us you'd left."
"I've already bought all my supplies." Harry explained. "But how did you know I was at the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Dad." replied Ron as he sipped his caramel ice cream.
"Did you really blow up your aunt, Harry?" asked Hermione gravely.
"I didn't do it on purpose!" assured Harry. "I just... lost my temper."
"It's not funny, Ron!" said Hermione dryly as she saw him burst out laughing. Honestly, I'm amazed Harry wasn't expelled."
"Me too." admitted Harry. "Forget expelled, I thought I was going to be arrested. Your dad doesn't know why Fudge let me off, does he?"
"Probably because it's you." Ron replied, "Famous Harry Potter and all that. I'd prefer not to know what the Ministry would do to me if I had fun inflating one of my aunts. Mind you, they'd have to dig me up first, because my mum would have killed me on the spot. Anyway, you can ask Dad yourself this evening. We're staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight too! So you can come to King's Cross with us tomorrow! Hermione's there as well!"
"My parents left me here with all my stuff." Hermione explained.
"Great!" exclaimed Harry. "So, you bought everything, aren't you missing anything?"
"Look at this!" said Ron, pulling out a long dusty box. "A brand new wand. Fourteen inches, willow, containing one unicorn tail-hair. And we bought all our books. Have you seen this Book of Monsters? The bookseller nearly burst into tears when we told him we needed two."
"And what's all this?" asked Harry, pointing to the three bags sitting next to Hermione.
"This year I took more options than you did." she explained. "These are my Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Rune Studies, Muggle Studies..."
"Why study Muggles?" gasped Ron, scandalized. "You were born into a Muggle family! Your parents are Muggles! You already know everything about Muggles!"
"What I'm interested in is studying them from a wizard's point of view." she replied.
Ron had never understood the point of studying a subject, he spent his time trying to escape his studies as efficiently as possible.
"Are you still planning on getting any sleep or food this year?" asked Harry as Ron let out a mocking laugh.
Hermione ignored him and opened the envelope her father had given her to count her remaining coins.
"I've got ten Galleons left. It's my birthday soon and my parents gave me some money to buy myself an early present."
"Could you buy yourself a book, for example?" threw in Ron sarcastically.
"No, I don't think so. I really want an owl. Harry has Hedwig, you have Errol..."
"I haven't." Ron cut in. "Errol is the family owl. All I have is Scabbers." He took the rat out of his pocket. "And I'd have to get him checked out, I don't think Egypt did him any good."
Hermione looked at the rat, which was very skinny and its hair had turned grey in places.
"There's a magical creature shop over there." said Harry pointing to a shop with a purple front. "Why don't you go and see if they have a cure for Scabbers, and Hermione can buy her owl."
They paid for their ice cream and went into the shop. There was a strong smell of straw and droppings. As the shop assistant gave advice to a man holding a lizard, they explored the shop, which was filled with cages of animals of many different species.
When Ron finally approached the counter to have his rat examined, Hermione went to the owl perches and looked at the ones on sale. There was a rather small grey one that she liked. She reached up to stroke its head when she heard a loud noise behind her. Hermione turned around and saw a huge ginger cat that had jumped on the counter to chase Scabbers away.
"NO! THAT'S ENOUGH, Crookshanks!" cried the witch as she tried her best to get the cat back into its cage.
Hermione approached the counter as Ron and Harry rushed outside to catch Scabbers. The poor orange cat looked unhappy to be back in his cage. He looked at Hermione with his big sad eyes and tucked his tail between his bowed paws. Just before the witch of the menagerie could close the door of his cage, he suddenly managed to extricate himself and reached for Hermione's hand to lick it lovingly.
"He likes you!" the witch commented as she watched the cat.
"Yes, I think so." Hermione stroked his head and he purred under her hand. "What's his name?"
"Crookshanks. He's been around for years, but no one's ever wanted to adopt him. Still, he's a very intelligent cat, half-Kneazle."
Hermione had already read a rather brief description of the Kneazle, she didn't remember it very well but she remembered that they were some sort of very intelligent cats.
"How much is he?"
"Three Galleons and five Sickles, but if you take it, I'll give you the Sickles as a gift and the cage with it."
Hermione took one last look at the cat's adorable face and made her decision:
"All right, I'll take it."
"And your friend, does he take his rat tonic?" the witch asked as she showed her the little red bottle.
Hermione paid for Crookshanks and Ron's vial and walked out of the shop with Crookshanks in her arms still purring. She didn't have an owl, but she wouldn't have been able to leave that cat alone in the shop.
Draco
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Theo had spent the rest of the summer with Blaise. Draco, after studying some Potions books from his library at the Manor, had managed to gather several ingredients that could soothe his wounds. And along with Pansy's medicinal herbs, the mixture had managed to significantly lessen the marks he had. His scars were less obvious, but he was still exhausted and could hardly move his arms.
When he reached the platform of the Hogwarts Express, Draco quickly kissed his mother goodbye and boarded the train. Theo and Blaise were already there, sitting in one of the empty compartments and their suitcases already settled in the nets.
"Hey Dray." called out Blaise as he sat down opposite them.
"Your two sidekicks aren't here?" scoffed Theo.
Draco rolled his eyes as he realised he was talking about Crabbe and Goyle.
"No."
"You must miss them so much, how long has it been since you've seen them? Two months? Did you write them love letters while you were apart?" added Theo.
"Shut up, Nott."
The latter didn't answer anything but still had his evil little smile when Pansy entered the compartment in turn.
"Don't say anything, my father's on the platform." she hissed through her teeth as she sat down.
Draco glanced behind her and saw through the train window that Pansy's father was indeed there, in front of the train, watching her. He was wearing his grey suit and did not wave as the train started and pulled away. As soon as he was out of sight, Pansy removed her headband with a muttered insult and took out her pocket mirror to put on some lipstick.
"He's been watching my every move since yesterday. He's convinced I'm starting to develop 'signs of rebellion' and he wants to make sure I always act like a little saint whenever I'm around him." she explained, quite irritated.
"Now that's a fail." scoffed Blaise.
"Any signs of rebellion, seriously?" joked Draco. "Does he know you're not behaving since you were five?"
"No, he has no idea, and I hope he never finds out. At least not until I finish Hogwarts."
"Because then what happens?" asked Theo.
"According to him, I'll probably already be married." sighed Pansy.
That threw a chill into the compartment. Pansy didn't seem to mind, but Draco found it really sickening to think that she might be married in four years. Even if it was only in her father's head. It showed that he didn't know her at all.
A few hours later, while Theo was lying on the bench reading a book, Blaise was slumped against the window watching the landscape and Pansy was flipping through a magazine against Draco's leg, someone walked past their compartment door bursting into laughter. Draco turned into the corridor and saw Daphne Greengrass, one of Pansy's friends.
Daphne had pretty much the same hairstyle as Pansy, except the colour of her hair was very light brown, almost blonde. She was followed by another girl, shorter and blond, who looked just like her.
"That's Astoria Greengrass, Daphne's sister." Pansy explained when she saw the look on Draco's face. "She's going to start at Hogwarts this year."
Draco arched an eyebrow without replying, but Pansy continued in a playful tone:
"Blaise, you'll love her. She's blonde, just like you like."
Blaise snapped out of his contemplation of the landscape with a scandalized look on his face:
"She's eleven, Pans'!"
"I'm just saying. From what I hear, she's your type..." continued Pansy in a honeyed tone. "Like Sandra Norwood, for instance?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." replied Blaise with a smirk.
"That means I'm right! You slept with her!"
Draco waited for Blaise to rant, but he said nothing. Draco looked up and saw that he was still smirking.
"What?!" exclaimed Draco.
"Yeah, that's right." said Blaise simply, shrugging his shoulders. Then, seeing Draco's scandalized look, he added: "No need to be so shocked. You have to get on with it, you'll understand."
Draco turned to Theo. Seeing the look on his face, Draco saw that he too had not started "getting on with it", which reassured him a little.
"Who the hell is that?" asked Draco.
"Sandra!" cut in Pansy. "Don't tell me you never noticed Blaise sleeping somewhere else some nights?"
Draco pondered. He remembered a few times when he'd woken up and Blaise wasn't in his bed, but he'd just thought he'd gotten up earlier than he had. Never would he have thought that his best friend was in a girl's bed.
"Sandra?" repeated Theo as he turned to Blaise, dumbfounded.
The fact that Theo was as lost as Draco made him feel less alone.
"Sandra. A Hufflepuff student, sixth year." explained Blaise in a calm tone.
"A Hufflepuff?!" cried Draco.
"Why did you sleep with her?!" asked Theo.
"Because she was pretty." Blaise replied simply, ignoring Draco's outraged face.
"But she's a Hufflepuff!" insisted Draco.
"Yes, and she was pretty. I don't care about her House. She's nice, she's funny, she's pretty and she agreed to sleep with me."
"So what, you're dating now?"
"No. We just slept together. She knew I wanted to try and that I was looking for a more experienced girl, so she did it to help me. It was like a deal."
"And how was that?" asked Theo.
"Oh!" interjected Pansy, who took up her magazine again. "No details, please. Spare my ears."
"Leave her be." scoffed Blaise. "She's just jealous because I prefer light hair."
Pansy flicked her finger at him over her magazine and Theo glanced quickly at Draco's platinum blonde hair with a big smile, which Blaise intercepted.
"Girls! Girls' light hair, Merlin!" he corrected, rolling his eyes.