Scars

Eliza spent the whole day thinking of ways she could coax Malfoy into a conversation later that night. It was easier said than done, seeing as she was awful at making small talk and Malfoy seemingly hated her. She hardly knew anything about him besides the obvious: he was a pompous Slytherin that played Quidditch. Those facts alone didn’t provide much opportunity for things to talk about. She couldn’t ask him why he was an arrogant bastard, and Quidditch terminology was definitely not her forte.

She wished she could ask her friends for help, but she already decided that was a bad idea. For starters, Susan wasn’t the best at keeping secrets, and she couldn’t risk anyone finding out. It was all up to her, which, undoubtedly meant failure, but she at least had to try—for the greater good and all that.

She was surprised to find Hagrid in Filch’s office that evening. He took up almost the entire room, leaving Eliza to linger in the doorway.

“Hiya, Liza.” Hagrid said, waving his hand.

She smiled widely. “Hey, Hagrid, where’s Filch-”

“Move,” Malfoy said, pushing Eliza to the side. She stumbled slightly, but quickly regained her balance. She shot him an annoyed look but he didn’t see.

“Why are you here?” Malfoy asked, referring to Hagrid.

Hagrid tightened his jaw, visibly upset. “Err Argus is a bit poorly t’night. Dumbledore asked me to err look out for ye both.”

Malfoy rolled his eyes. “If the squib is sick we shouldn’t have to be here.”

“Dumbledore disagrees.” Hagrid replied. Eliza offered him a smile. Of course, she would prefer not to have detention, but she liked Hagrid and didn’t want to give him a hard time, and besides, Malfoy seemed to have that covered anyway.

“What’s our assignment?” Eliza asked. The sooner they started, the sooner she could get the humiliation of trying to talk to Malfoy over with.

“Some Acromantula have been dyin’ recently. I need ye both to collect their venom for testin’. I err ‘ave other matters to tend to t’night.”

“That can’t be safe. Acromantula eat their dead AND feed on humans.” Malfoy said, narrowing his eyes.

Hagrid vigorously shook his head. “No, no, no—I-I talked to Aragog. He said he would keep the colony away sos we can find out what’s been goin’ on.”

“Aragog?” Malfoy asked, raising a brow.

“He’s the colony’s leader.” Hagrid clarified.

“Hagrid,” Eliza said. Malfoy quickly turned to look at her as if he just remembered she was in the room. “Where are the Acromantulas?”

“The Forbidden Forrest.”

Eliza wanted to cry. Nothing about the Forbidden Forrest sounded like a place she wanted to go, especially at night. So far, she’d managed to avoid it during her time at Hogwarts, that was, until tonight. Hagrid supplied them with vials to collect the venom and sent them on their way. He instructed them on where to find the bodies. Apparently, other members of the colony had moved the bodies closer to the outskirts of the forest so Hagrid, or anyone else for that matter, wouldn’t have to travel to where the Acromantula actually resided. Still, any trip to the forest, no matter how far inside, was not a trip Eliza wanted to take.

At first, she and Malfoy walked in silence. They used a combination of Lumos Maxima and their wands for light as they trudged across the lawns, making their way to the heavily wooded forest. Her mind was racing a mile a minute as she searched for something to say to get Malfoy talking. He was walking ahead of her now, his long legs allowing him to cover more ground faster.

“Maybe a bit of light conversation would help make the time go by faster?” Eliza asked, attempting to keep pace with him. She was practically jogging.

“No,” he said, without hesitation.

“Oh, come on.” She said, looking up at him. His grey eyes glanced at her quickly before returning forward. “Humor me.”

“What could you possibly want to talk about?”

“Nothing in particular, I guess. Just something to fill the time. The possibilities are endless, really. Maybe we can start with how you spent your summer?” She suspected she sounded quite foolish; her thoughts were jumbled and rushed.

“No.” his answer was to be expected. What was she thinking? That a question about his summer would prompt him to spill all his Death Eater secrets? Stupid.

“No problem, I can go first.” Again, he glanced at her a quick second before looking away. She was sure she was just imagining it, but she could have sworn he was walking slower now. “I spent most of my summer in Devon. My Aunty and Uncle live there.”

“The Weasley’s, right?” he asked, and she nodded. She was slightly surprised by his question. It wasn’t a secret that she was related to the Weasley’s, but it wasn’t something she expected Malfoy to know, considering he hadn’t even known her name up until a few weeks ago.

“Yeah, we’re really close. I lived with them for a while when I was younger.” She felt weird sharing these things with him, or really speaking to him at all.

“Where are your parents?” he asked without any emotion in his voice. Eliza tried to hide the tinge of pain she felt. She never talked about her parents to anyone.

“My father is dead, and my Mum lives in Kent. She’s had some struggles with the wizarding world.” She said, attempting to keep her voice steady. He was looking at her now, staring hard, but she refused to meet his gaze. “Your turn. How was your summer?”

“Lovely,” he scoffed, leading Eliza to believe it had been anything but. “I had a lot of family things to attend to. My father is in Azkaban.”

She feigned surprise, but of course she already knew this. Anyone who read the Daily Prophet knew of the various men and women that were arrested last spring for conspiring with You-Know-Who.

“I’m sorry. I can’t even imagine-”

He lifted a hand, silencing her. “Don’t pretend to care.”

She hesitated. “I-I just know what it’s like, to be let down by one of your parents.” He raised a brow, and she continued. “It isn’t fair, and not many people understand that.”

Silence fell between them. She thought maybe he would try to defend his father, or refuse to agree with her, but after a long pause all he said was, “I guess.”

After what felt like hours, they finally reached the Acromantulas’ corpses. They were huge. Much bigger than Eliza ever imagined, and even though they were dead, being near them still sent a zillion shivers down her spine. She took a step back. They looked like they were merely resting and that at any moment, they could wake up and attack. Her stomach tightened when she thought about getting close enough to them to retrieve the venom. Each one had eight black eyes that were staring blankly into the distance, and their long, black hair was coated in dirt, probably from being dragged through the forest.

“I-I don’t like this.” Eliza said, biting the inside of her cheek. She could feel tears forming behind her eyes.

Malfoy looked at her, and, surprisingly, didn’t roll his eyes, instead, he reached towards her. “It’s fine. Give me your vials. I’ll do it.”

Eliza sighed with relief and handed the vials over. She hadn’t expected him to do that—to show any sympathy towards her. She watched quietly as he drained the Acromantulas of their venom. It didn’t take longer than 10 minutes for him to finish. Really, it was one of the easiest things they’d been asked to do during detention.

Silence engulfed them again on their walk back. Eliza felt quite accomplished with their talk earlier, however slight it was, and didn’t want to push her luck by unloading another set of conversation starters on him. She did notice that he was not walking several steps ahead anymore, and instead was matching her pace quite well without her having to jog to keep up. She didn’t know, however, if he doing this because he was tired from before, or on purpose. She liked to hope it was the latter because that would possibly mean she’d been the tiniest bit successful at getting him to hate her less.

“We’re almost to the castle now, so you can stop holding your breath. The dead spiders can’t hurt you.” Malfoy said as they finally reached the edge of the forest.

Eliza shot him a look. Did she really look that terrified? “They’re hardly spiders. Those things were the size of a carthorse!”

Malfoy laughed under his breath. “They were dead, regardless.”

“That doesn’t make them any less scary.” Eliza said, meeting Malfoy’s gaze. He immediately looked away, and she quickly added, “Thanks, though. For taking the reins back there.”

He mumbled something under his breath that Eliza couldn’t make out, but before she could ask him to repeat himself, he was several meters away, obviously no longer caring about walking at her pace. She really couldn’t complain though. She considered today a tremendous success. She’d gotten him to talk to her AND she made him laugh. Those were definitely feats she hadn’t expected to surpass—at least not so soon.