The Same Mistake

Nothing. Months of rashly attempting to murder Dumbledore and Draco had nothing to show for it. He sat before the broken Vanishing Cabinet, head in his hands, as hot tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. Draco had skipped his classes today. He had walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts, told Snape he ill and wanted to see Madame Pomfrey. Snape reluctantly let him leave, the sneer on his face indicative of the fact that he planned on having another conversation with Draco later that day.

But Draco had brushed this off as he darted down the hallways, careful to avoid detection by any of the other teachers and completely avoiding the hospital wing. He rounded one corridor, dashed up several flights of stairs, and paced three times outside the room he wanted access to. Draco spent the entire day locked in the room, not bothering to have Crabbe and Goyle stand watch for him. This late in the game, things were looking more direr than ever for Draco.

Pulling himself upright, Draco turned his back to the still broken Vanishing cabinet. He had promised Ellie that he would meet her in the library that night, but currently, he hadn’t the slightest clue what time it was. Peering out one of the windows of the Room Requirement that was more than half hidden behind piles of old textbooks, Draco saw that evening had settled on the grounds of Hogwarts.

“Shit,” he mumbled, running a frustrated hand through his white blonde hair.

Draco slipped quietly and unobtrusively from the Room. He sped down the corridors and passageways arriving a few short minutes later in front of one of the entrances to the library. Staring out over the sea of bent heads, Draco tried to find Ellie, but after scanning the room three times, he couldn’t find her. Irritated, Draco began to move down the aisles of books, hoping he would come across Ellie tucked in a back corner. She knew he didn’t have a lot of time, he had lied and told her he had detention with Snape that night. Draco wanted to limit his time with Ellie as much as possible, he chose to believe it would make their ultimate separation more bearable.

Half-way down his seventh row of books, someone roughly grabbed Draco’s shoulder. He whirled back, wand drawn, lips already forming the words of his favorite curse, but the sight of blonde hair and blue eyes stopped his short. “Ellie!” He breathed, his voice coming out rattled.

“What – what did you –“ Ellie gasped, drawing in a deep breath to steady her words. It was then that Draco noticed Ellie’s eyes were red rimmed.

“Ellie?” Draco asked in horror, his heart sinking coldly within his chest. .

“How could you?” her voice shook, but whether it was from the tears or from anger, Draco couldn’t tell.

“How could I what?” Draco asked baffled. He reached toward her, wanting to comfort Ellie in any way he could, but she drew back from him, recoiled was a more accurate description. “Ellie,” again he moved to take Ellie in his arms, again she stepped away from him.

“Don’t – don’t touch me, you – you monster!” Ellie’s voice echoed off the books surrounding them, condemning him.

“Ellie,” he repeated more sternly this time, “come here. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it’s obviously you’re really upset, let’s go somewhere so we can talk without,” he waved his hand towards all the other students in the library, “everyone else listening in.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” Ellie’s voice trembled. Fresh tears filled her crystal blue eyes; she dashed the back of her hand against her face to prevent them from falling.

“Ellie, please.” Draco felt his hands start to shake; fear sent his heart thundering in his chest. This was what he had wanted; he wanted Ellie to choose to stay away from him so he wouldn’t have to push her away. But now that it was happening, without him even knowing what he had done to make it happen, he was terrified. “Come with me, talk to me.”

“There is nothing left to talk about!” Ellie’s tone was filled with accusations and disgust. The muffled sound of chair’s scrapping against the ground alerted Draco to the fact that they now hand an audience.

Without asking or pleading this time, Draco clamped his hand around Ellie’s wrist. Forcibly dragging her from the library, Draco didn’t stop walking until they reached an empty classroom. He roughly shoved Ellie into the dark room, locking the door behind them with a violent flick of his wand. Raising the wand above him, with one flourish of his wand, each of the torches burst to flaming light, illuminating the room and Ellie’s stricken face.

Draco approached Ellie slowly, leaving her room to escape him if she wanted to. When she didn’t run from him, Draco drew Ellie to him. He sat down on one of the classroom benches, positioning Ellie next to him. With two fingers, he tilted Ellie’s tear stained face up to his bleak one. “What happened?”

“You nearly killed him!” Ellie seethed, her blue eyes bright with passion. “He’s in the hospital wing, unconscious!”

Draco’s heart leapt to life within him. Dumbledore! He had almost succeeded, he had almost killed –! He had almost murdered the headmaster. His stomach rolled over, Draco shoved off the bench sprinting to garbage can near the door. Falling to his knees, Draco emptied the contents of his stomach into the cement container.