Another Year at Hogwarts

“How the hell did this happen?” I whispered to myself while staring out the window of my room. I nervously nibbled at the end of my fingernails and wondered about the situation that occurred last night.

How did Draco find out? I asked myself. This was probably the hundredth time I had asked myself this question. The only conclusion I could come up with was that Draco must have followed me to the pub and saw me changing back into my real self. It wouldn’t have been the first time Draco stumbled upon something I didn’t want him to.

I let out a disappointing groan as I walked away from the window and sat down on one of the two beds in the room. I then looked over my shoulders and stared at Draco, who was still fast asleep in his bed.

“Snape’s going to kill me,” I groaned before burying my face in my hands. “I’m dead. If not by Snape’s hands, then the Dark Lord’s. Just great…”

“What have you done now?” Draco groaned.

I gasped as I jumped out of bed and turned to look at Draco. “You’re awake!” I exclaimed.

“Why is it so bright in here?” Draco asked while placing his hands over his eyes.

“It’s called a hangover. You get them when you drink too much,” I said while crossing my arms over my chest.

Draco groaned. “What…what happened last night?”

My eyes suddenly widened. “Y—you…you mean…you don’t…you don’t remember?” I shuttered.

“No,” Draco sighed. He then clutched the side of his head as he said, “My head hurts.”

“Good! No, I mean…um…you—you stay right here then,” I smiled as I hurried towards the door. “I’ll see if they have a tonic or something downstairs for you!”

“I don’t need a tonic,” Draco informed as he slowly and painfully rose from bed. “Blood hell, it’s bright in here. Mind closing the curtains?”

“Are you sure you don’t want a tonic?” I asked.

“No,” repeated Draco. “Just…ugh, just close the curtains!” Draco ordered as he plopped back down onto the bed.

I shook my head in disappointment before closing the door and then the curtains. Afterwards, I walked over to Draco and sat down on his bed beside him.

I sighed heavily as I stared down at him. “You drink too much,” I commented.

“You took too long and I was bored,” he smirked.

“Don’t get smart with me, Draco Malfoy,” I said narrowing my eyes. “Don’t make me reopen the curtains.”

Draco’s grin widened after I said this. “Are you trying to be funny?”

“No,” I replied.

Draco flashed me a small smirk as he removed his hands, which shielded his eyes. “Anyways…about last night—”

“I really don’t want to talk about this,” I said.

“Why?” he asked. While holding my gaze, he slowly sat up and hesitantly asked, “Did—did something happen? Did I—I mean—did we,” Draco said gesturing at the two of us, “do anything?”

My jaw dropped and my eyes widened. I suddenly reached out and grabbed hold of his pillow and began to hit him with it. “Of—of course not! How can you even think of something like that you perv?!”

“That’s—that’s not what I meant,” Draco replied while shielding himself from my blows. And just as I brought the pillow down to strike Draco again, he managed to slip his arms away and caught my arms as they came down. “I’ll assume that based off that statement you just made, nothing did happen. Correct?” he asked with a slight grin.

“Of course nothing happened between us!” I shouted before slipping out of his grip and getting up. “Now, hurry up and get ready. We need to head back to Hogwarts.”

“Already?” he asked after I threw his pillow at him. “But I thought we had one more town to search.”

“It’s pointless to go to that town,” I informed from the opposite side of the bed. “It’s obvious that this rumor of Potter being here is nothing but a wild goose chase—probably was set up by the Order. We’re simply wasting our time.”

“And what if this last town is where Potter really is?” Draco questioned. “We should at least check out this last town before heading back, shouldn’t we? After all, if Potter is actually in this town and you and I failed to find him because we returned to soon… Well, that would be as bad as calling the Dark Lord and not having Potter.”

I exhaled deeply. “Fine. Hurry up and get ready then. I want to leave as soon as possible.”

“Fine,” Draco said as he stumbled onto his feet.

I gasped as I quickly ran to Draco’s side and helped support him before he could stumble over. I think he was as surprised as I was because he just stood there and stared down at me with the same stunned look I had.

“We…we should grab you a tonic before we leave,” I suggested.

“I don’t need one,” Draco repeated—his eyes still glued onto me.

“Just look at yourself!” I snapped. “You can barely stand on your own, Draco. How do you expect—”

“Are you worried about me?” Draco interjected.

“No!” I quickly replied. “I just…I—I need you to be useful. That’s the only reason why you’re here. Having a hangover does neither you nor me any good. Now, we’re getting you a tonic before we leave and that’s final,” I said while stepping away from him.

“Whatever you say,” Draco smirked as I made my way to the door.

“I’ll be downstairs waiting for you,” I said as I opened the door. “We’ll leave once—”

“Well,” grinned the tall man with tangled brown hair in front of me, “‘ello there, gorgeous.”

“Who are you?” I asked as I slowly took a step away from the door.

“I’ll be the one asking the questions ‘ere, love,” the man grinned widely.

“Draco,” I said as I stumbled back into the bedroom area, “we may need to leave now.”

“Why?” he asked as he came and stood by my side. He immediately noticed the man before me, along with the small group of men walking down the hallway—dragging customers downstairs.

“Well, looks like I found us a pair of runways,” the man grinned. “

“We’re not runaways,” Draco corrected.

“Uh-huh,” the man said, though I could tell he didn’t believe us. “Well, you won’t mind
telling me your names, then.”

“He’s Draco Malfoy, you idiot,” I sneered.

“Oh, feisty one, aren’t you, darling?” the man laughed as he took a step closer to me.

Draco immediately stepped in.

“What’s with you?” the man asked as he glared at Draco.

“You have no business here,” Draco quickly said. “Leave.”

The Snatcher glanced from Draco to me, and then a smile formed on his face. “Oh, I get it. Two Muggle-born lovers running away together,” he laughed. “Now isn’t that sweet? Though, aren’t you two are a bit young for marriage?”

“Are you deaf or something?” Draco asked. “I’m Draco Malfoy—son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. Pureblood. Now, as I said, you have no business here, so move aside.”

“How do I know you’re lying?” the Snatcher asked, his eyes watching Draco for any sudden movements.

Draco scoffed as he pulled back his left sleeve and revealed his Dark Mark. The Snatcher immediately tensed up when Draco revealed his Dark Mark.

“Fine,” the Snatcher growled in disappointment. He then stepped aside and gestured for Draco to leave.

“Come on,” Draco said to me as he fixed his sleeve and walked towards the door.

Just as I followed behind Draco, the Snatcher grabbed me from behind, and I let out a shriek of surprise.

“What the hell are you doing?” Draco asked.

“Well, forgot to check this lovely lady,” the Snatcher replied as he held me tightly against him. “So,” he said as he stroke my cheek, “what’s your name, beautiful?”

“Victoria Baker,” I replied while doing my best to ignore the Snatcher’s fingers, which were gently tracing along my jaw-line. “Half-blood.”

“Well,” the Snatcher whispered in my ear, “it looks like you’ll be coming with me, love.”

“What?” Draco bellowed. “You can’t do this! She works under the Dark Lord!”

“It’s not my problem,” the Snatcher replied. “Orders are to bring in Muggle-borns for interrogations. Take it up with your Dark Lord if you have any problems with that.”

“But she’s not a Muggle—”

“Draco,” I said as I stared sternly at him. “Forget it. Just head back to Hogwarts and inform Snape. He’ll deal with this.”

“Victoria—”

“Draco!” I snapped.

Draco sighed heavily as he turned around and headed for the door.

“Now, my lovely Victoria, let’s head out of ‘ere and I’ll show you a good time before we visit the Ministry,” the Snatcher grinned.

“FLIPENDO!”

I gasped as the Snatcher beside me went flying backwards and smashed into the small desk in the back. I quickly looked to the door and Draco standing there with his wand pointed out.

“Draco!” I gasped as I ran to his side. “I told you—”

“You little twit!” the Snatcher roared. Draco and I quickly turned our attention to him as he stumbled onto his feet. “You’re going to pay for that!”

With that, the Snatcher pulled out his wand and sent a spell back at Draco. We both ducked and the spark went flying past us and hit the wall in the hallway. Draco pushed me behind him and sent spells back at the Snatcher.

“Why didn’t you leave?” I asked.

“Do you really think this is the time for this?” Draco questioned before sending a spark at the Snatcher. It hit him in the arm, but he stayed up.

“We have company,” I said as I peeked out the room and looked down the hallway. From the stairs, I could see the shadows of people ascending.

“Take care of them, then,” Draco ordered.

“Whatever happened to not causing unnecessary problems?” I asked while pulling out my wand and sending a binding spell down the hallway.

“Whatever happened to wanting to get back to Hogwarts quickly?” Draco asked back.

“You know,” I said ducking back into the room to avoid a hit, “answering my question with another question is becoming very annoying.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Draco replied. “STUPIFY!”

“We’re not going to be able to keep this up very long,” I informed while leaning into the hallway and attacking the other Snatchers, who were heading this way.

“Well,” Draco said as he stumbled back after taking a hit to the shoulder. We stood back to back as he asked, “What do you suggest we do then? Run?”

“More like Disapparate,” I replied. I then peeked into the hallway and said, “And I’d hurry if I were you. Seems like the other Snatchers are making their way up the hallway.”

“And why aren’t you knocking them down?”

“Because,” I said ducking back into the room, “there are five of them out there, and while two of them head this way, the other three are firing at me!”

“Good reasoning,” Draco smirked. “Well, shall we?” he asked as he held his free hand out for me.

“Back to Hogwarts, all right?” I said as I took hold of his hand.

“Got it,” he replied.

“GOTCHA!” the Snatcher in the room exclaimed as he grabbed onto Draco just as we Disapparated.