Cynical Relations

It had been later on that night when Lacie had awoken again. Madam Pomfrey had been bustling around her, casting certain incantations and fussing whilst she lay back in the hospital bed. Lacie had easily fallen asleep again with her mind and body both feeling completely drained of all energy.

***

Most of Lacie’s Saturday had dragged by with her not having much to do. The sixteen year old was feeling much better, just a little achy in places but still Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t let her leave as a precaution. It’s not like Lacie would have had anything else to do anyway but she would have preferred not to have had to spend her whole day in bed.

Lacie was a quarter of a way through Little Women when Madam Pomfrey entered the hospital wing. Professor McGonagall walked in with Ron Weasley and Luna Lovegood following behind her. Snape then followed, his hand gripping Draco Malfoy’s arm as he dragged him in behind him.

“Miss Horncroft,” Snape greeted as the six of them stood around her, looking to her expectantly. Draco however seemed to be looking anywhere but her brown eyes as he stood in Snape’s tight grasp. “Miss Lovegood and Mr Weasley were the ones that helped you here after the incident in the bathroom. They think they know who did this to you but do you remember at all? We don’t want to start making accusations.” Lacie heard Draco scoff before mumbling something about already being accused.

“I, um,” Lacie had placed her book down on the covers so that she wouldn’t lose her page. She was looking down at the plain white sheets and remembered the sheer look of panic on Draco’s face the night before when he had realised what he had done. It had been an accident had it not? “I was just practicing spells and one backfired, I don’t recall which. It was my own fault, no one else was there.”

“Are you sure Miss Horncroft, we have reason to belief that it was Mr Malfoy that did this to you?” Lacie glanced up as McGonagall spoke and her eyes couldn’t help but flick to Ron. He looked outraged.

“I’m sure. I never even saw Draco last night. It was just me in the bathroom,” She tried not to look anyone directly in the eye and ran her fingers over the book’s binding nervously.

“Well, I’m glad that’s all cleared up then but please Miss Horncroft, make sure you are more careful when practising magic. We do not want a repeat incident,” Lacie nodded her head slightly and gave Snape and McGonagall a weak smile.

“We’ll leave you to rest,” The woman uttered being ushering the others out.

“I just want to talk to her for a few minutes,” Ron stated and McGonagall nodded as the red haired boy backtracked. Lacie nervously smiled at the Gryffindor as he stood beside her bed, waiting until the others had gone before speaking.

“Luna and I saw Malfoy running from the bathroom Lacie, why did you cover for him?”

“I already told you, I didn’t even see Draco last night,” She mumbled, shifting uncomfortably in her bed.

“I thought you were different Lacie, but now your covering for that ferret. You’re more like those other Slytherin girls than you thought,” With that said, Ron turned and walked away from her and out of the hospital wing.

“It was an accident,” Lacie whispered as she felt tears threaten to fall from her eyes at the realisation that she had just lost her first potential friend at Hogwarts.

***

Madam Pomfrey had let Lacie leave just before dinner later that Saturday. Instead of taking her usual seat at the Slytherin table she moved so that she was no where near Justin or any of the other sixth years. She didn’t look up once throughout the whole of the meal until it was finally over and Dumbledore had stood up to address his pupils.

“This coming Friday is, as I’m sure you all know, Christmas Eve. All students in their fourth year and above are invited to the Yule Ball and will receive a personal invitation with the details. Now please, go and enjoy your evening,” Dumbledore had a twinkle in his eye as he stepped back towards the other professors and the students began filing out of the great hall, most talking excitedly about the ball and who they were hoping to go with.

Straight after leaving the great hall, Lacie went to one of her favourite spots in the castle. The amount of students passing her thinned out as they disappeared to their dormitories for the night. Lacie however was going to enjoy the silence for a bit longer. She was stood on one of the balconies of the castle and was leaning against the cold stone wall as she looked up.

The sun had disappeared and the sky was a mix of blues and pinks. Her brown eyes started to follow two bats that were dancing in the cool air. The creatures relaxed her mind with how easily they swooped and danced around each other in harmony. Lacie sighed softly and rested her head on her left hand as she stared up with a small smile.

She tensed suddenly when felt the presence of someone behind her. When she looked however, she saw nothing but the shadows that were cast by the castle walls. As soon as Lacie had turned back to look for the bats she felt the presence again but ignored it until she felt two hands suddenly grip her shoulders.

Lacie gasped in surprise as she was dragged backwards and then slammed against the shadowed wall. Pain spread across her still sore back and made her groan out sharply. The Slytherin went to scream out for help when another hand covered her mouth. Thoughts of Justin Chanmot filled her mind and it was undeniable to say that she was freaking out. That was until her eyes adjusted to the sudden change of light.

Lacie’s eyes widened and she slowly stopped struggling against the two smirking boy in front of her. The hand lifted from her mouth and Lacie could hear her own heart beating furiously against her chest. Draco Malfoy stood before her, hands still holding her against the wall, slowly bruising her skin even more. Gregory Goyle stood beside him, smiling in a disdainful manner at the startled girl in front of him.

“What are you doing?” She asked shakily. She would have pushed Draco away from her but her body was trembling so much that she was only standing still thanks to his hands still pressing her into the wall.

“Why did you cover for me?” Draco questioned, his eyebrows furrowed in anger. When Lacie just stared at him he began to get more annoyed. “Well?”

“I- uh,” Honestly Lacie was confused. She’d expected the blonde haired boy to thank her if anything, not demand an explanation quite viciously, “I was the one that had startled you, it was my fault. It would’ve been wrong to get you into trouble for my own misjudgement.” The truth was that Draco had thought she was going to try and blackmail him in the future by saying it had actually been he who had attacked her. He still had his suspicions though as he narrowed his eyes at the girl. Draco pulled his hands away from her and Lacie was close to collapsing as adrenalin still pumped fast and furiously through her veins. She knew that they could both see her visibly shaking so when Goyle stepped closer to her she tried to move away.

“No, you’re staying right here with us,” Draco muttered, nodding at Goyle who proceeded to grab Lacie. He pulled her away from the wall and to him so that her back was against his chest whilst one of his arms went around her stomach to hold her there. She whimpered slightly as Goyle’s free hand gripped her hair, forcing her head back. Draco had produced a small vial of what looked to be pumpkin juice but Lacie knew better. He stepped closer to her and Lacie could feel his lips ghosting over the shell of her ear, making the girl whimper even more.

“Now when I pour this into your mouth, you are to swallow-”

“No,” She uttered out, not knowing what vile potion he had got his paws onto. She began to struggle against Goyle’s hold, not wanting any unknown substances being poured down her throat.

“Yes, you will swallow it, Horncroft,” Lacie tried to ignore the initial shock of Draco being so close to her, “Because if you don’t, I’ll make your pathetic little life hell. Understand?”

“Yes,” Lacie managed to whimper out causing Draco to smile sadistically and bring the vial to her lips, tipping it back as he emptied it’s contents into her mouth. She swallowed obediently and it took a few minutes but Lacie felt the sudden need to spill everything about her life to the boys in front of her.

“Veritaserum?” Her eyes widened as she questioned Draco to have him simply smirk in response. Goyle’s grip seemed to lax a bit around her but he still held her against him whilst Draco paced in front of her slightly.

“Now I’ll ask you again Horncroft, why the hell did you cover for me?” Lacie tried to keep her mouth shut but it was useless.

“I couldn’t have stood it if you had been expelled because of me. The rest of Slytherin would have killed me. And at the end of the day it was my fault as I had come out of that stall with my wand at the ready. I startled you and you reacted. I probably would’ve done the same, I should have given you warning really. Yeah, sorry about that,” Lacie rambled out, her mouth working quickly without her wanting it to as Draco’s smirk slowly turned into a look of surprise; he hadn’t actually expected her to be telling the truth before. She could feel tears in her eyes, threatening to fall as she was forced to tell the truth no matter what he decided to ask her.

“Will you blackmail me?”

“No. It would be pointless would it not? Even if I did use it as blackmail you are too popular amongst the other Slytherins for it to do any damage and it would likely just backfire.”

“Why were you in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom anyway? No one ever goes in there,” Draco watched her carefully with narrowed eyes as she closed her own eyes briefly before opening them again, allowing tears to run freely down her cheeks.

“I was hiding,” Lacie’s voice cracked. She didn’t want to tell anyone about what had happened, especially not Draco and Goyle of all people.

“Why were you hiding?” Draco’s eyes had narrowed again as he got the wrong idea. Lacie shook her head, tears falling faster as she began to struggle in Goyle’s hold and fight against the potion. It was to no prevail though as the words seemed to spill from her mouth.

“I was heading back from the library after detention. That’s when he pushed me into one of those unused classrooms. He kept pressing himself against me, touching me where I didn’t want to be touched. I kneed him in the groin and made my run for it. I could hear him behind me though so I ran into Myrtle’s bathroom. When you came in, I thought you were him, that’s why I had my wand ready,” Draco didn’t know why but he felt concerned, still his face never showed any emotion.

“Snape did that?” Draco asked slightly confused.

“No! God, no,” Lacie gasped out, trembling in Goyle’s hold. Draco was stood so close to her, making her feel so small.

“Who did then?” He asked sceptically.

“Justin Chanmot,” As soon as the name had left her mouth she saw Draco tense.

“Goyle, let go of her,” Draco snapped and so Goyle did. Lacie almost collapsed when he let go but quickly shot her hand out, using the wall to steady herself. She was crying so hard that she didn’t notice that Draco was thrusting something at her.

“Drink it, it’s the antidote,” He muttered when she didn’t notice it straight away. With a shaky hand, she took it from him and swallowed the liquid like she had the first time.

“Go straight back to your dormitory,” Draco muttered however didn’t seem like he was entirely focused on Lacie anymore, “Go!” Lacie quickly moved away from the two, running in the direction of the Slytherin common room. Draco however snapped at Goyle to follow him and they went off in the opposite direction, a scowl on the blonde’s face.

That night it took Lacie a long time to fall asleep as she laid in her bed. She could hear the other girls around her gossiping about how she’d entered the dormitory out of breath and tearful. That year seemed like it was going to be a rollercoaster of emotions for her and it wasn’t like Lacie usually cried a lot, she never usually but all of the stress of the past few days was getting to her.