| Puffskein
Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Canada
Posts: 2,438
| 
Chapter 25
The Bruises
Draco avoided me at all costs the next day. He had a bruise on his face from where I hit him and let it show. I felt a little proud at the way his pallid, milky skin so easily deceived the truth of what had happened. The way the discoloured patches formed a hand mark on his cheek told its own story. He left a similar mark on me, though, one I had to cover up with make-up.
“Do you have anything to do with those marks on Malfoy’s face?” Harry asked with a muffled voice.
I scoffed. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”
He smiled sheepishly, which caused a small dribble of light brown drool to fall from his mouth. I winced, mildly disgusted, and watched him clean up while chewing. The part of me that didn’t find this gross thought it was kind of endearing; I’d never seen anyone do such a thing. Then again, whenever I have gone to Hogsmeade, whoever I was with never bought bag after bag of Honeydukes chocolate in order to hoard it for what should be a study session. It was the weekend finally, and we found a quiet niche in a dead corridor to curl into together in order to spend some of our sacred spare time with each other.
When he swallowed, he spoke again. “The marks on Malfoy’s face...”
I smiled, cutting him off. “I know what you said.”
He rolled his eyes mockingly. “All that time wasted.”
I chuckled. “You could’ve choked anyways,” I replied, patting his arm. I left my hand on it, letting it lightly rest against the middle of his forearm. I thought quickly as to whether or not I should tell him the truth. If I lied, a new rumour about what happened would spark, but at the same time... everyone in Slytherin heard what happened; our fight, I hit him, he ran out. Aurelia didn’t want to confess she had hit him too, so she let me take all the credit. Maybe the story had been passed on; what if this is a test?
Well, it’s Harry. I doubt he’d test me like this. It’s probably mere curiosity; I can’t blame him after all, since I’d be badgering people about this sort of thing to find out facts. Who would’ve thought Draco could be harmed by anyone besides himself?
“Well?”
I was brought back to reality, my eyes meeting Harry’s expectant emerald orbs. “Yeah, we got in a fight.”
“Remind me of your powerful arm if we ever get in an argument.”
I laughed. He smiled and let me fall against him. When my chuckles subsided, Harry’s arm looped around my shoulders, keeping me close while removing his other arm from beneath me so he could play with my fingers before taking my hand completely.
“What happened?” he asked softly, looking from our hands to me.
I quickly decided on telling most of the truth. “I called him out on meddling in my life and when he justified his reasons as what any sane person can see to be completely ridiculous... I told him if he has such problems with such an uncontrollable person, he can mail my mum, which is something he’s been doing apparently. He said I ‘need’ someone to ‘guide me’ and then he said I’ve messed up my life because of stupidity that is ‘entirely my fault’. I hit him and told him to take it back but he didn’t. When he tried to threaten me, I cut him off and said ‘what’ll you do? Write to my mummy?’ and walked off.”
Harry’s smile was a devilish smirk. “Congratulations. I’ve never been more proud of you.”
I smiled. When he kissed me, I pushed myself even closer and kissed him back. My thoughts raced as fast as my heart as Harry’s hand pulled away from mine to trail its way up my arm and cup my face. When he applied light pressure to my cheek, I winced, instinctively pulling away.
“What?” Harry pressed with a tone of confusion and slight anxiety.
“Nothing, you just hit a painful spot.” I considered saying it was a sensitive pimple, but that sounded a bit too disgusting for my taste.
“What?”
I didn’t reply. Harry’s eyes narrowed on my cheek and, next thing I knew, he was lightly brushing my cheek. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration, but they rose with his eyes, wide in shock.
“What happened?”
“I tripped in the common room,” I replied nonchalantly.
His eyes narrowed in suspicion, turning from the bruise to meet my eyes. “I’ve been in your common room years ago. If memory serves correctly, there’s only one step leading to the girls’ dormitories and it isn’t much of one.”
“It’s a step nonetheless,” I replied indignantly. “I can be a klutz sometimes, and how in Merlin’s name do you know what my common room looks like?”
“Long story, it happened in second year,” he replied, adopting my nonchalant tone from moments before I realized what he’d said about being in the common room. “And either way, you’d have a broken nose, maybe a black eye and a much bigger bruise than that because there’s a wall. What happened?”
I looked into his eyes, unresponsive. I didn’t need to know the entire truth; it’d only hurt him emotionally and, most likely, physically. I imagined him hunting down Draco and...
“Did he hit you back?” he whispered.
My jaw clenched, trying to hold back the words that desperately wanted to escape my mouth. Harry’s jaw clenched as well, but this time out of fury; he realized he was right. Letting go of me, he got up and stepped around me.
“Harry, don’t...” I started to call, scrambling to my feet.
“I knew Malfoy was a prick, but this is a new low,” he snapped back. “He deserves more than a smack to the face, one of which came from you before it happened.”
“My friend also hit him!” I exclaimed, my mind racing, trying to think of anything that could get him out of digging me deeper into this mess. “She saw it and called him a vile little cockroach just before hitting the same spot I had moments before. Just let it go.” I caught up to him and grabbed his arm. He shrugged it off just as we came to the stairs.
“Not until he gets what he deserves,” he growled, pulling his wand out of his pocket.
“P-p... please, Harry,” I begged, stammering on the word I never had to use in my life. “It’s a waste of time.”
“Why’re you trying to protect someone you loathe?”
“Because I’ve already got something planned for him.”
Harry stopped dead, causing me to run into him. He stumbled forwards and caught himself just in time for me to use him and catch myself.
“Really?” he asked flatly.
“Yeah. And to top it off I hear a certain poltergeist has some plans to get him.” I knew this was a lie – Peeves didn’t need a reason to prank someone after all - but I realized I really didn’t have a plan to get back at Draco. There was something about thinking of such a thing that just made me unable to do it. He already got publicly (to the Slytherins) humiliated by not only getting hit by me, but by Aurelia as well. On top of it, he wasn’t just avoiding me but was totally shunning social contact with any other living being. It was kind of weird really – he was even avoiding Crabbe and Goyle. The rational side of me figured this was enough, avoiding being ostracized by ever Hogwarts student by becoming a loner.
It freaked me out; since when did my rational side become so tame?
“Peeves goes after everyone.” Harry spun around again, continuing down the stairs and storming down the corridor full of people. Some watched him as he pushed past, keeping their eyes on him until he disappeared. I followed at a bit of a distance until I heard a loud crack. I picked up the pace and heard another similarly loud noise. The noises began to overlap each other as I spun around the corner and hurried towards Harry. It’s amazing how fast he can find the people he wants.
“What’d you do?”
I jumped, shocked to hear a voice so close to my ear that I could feel the warm breath on me. I turned to see Aurelia, surprised at my reaction but still curious about what was happening.
“Harry had a smart moment,” I sighed.
The cracking of spells ceased, but the grunts, huffing, and thuds made it a clear indication that this fight was far from over. I dared to look over and, surely enough, Harry and Draco were on the floor, attempting to physically maul each other. They were almost even, but Draco was just a bit stronger than Harry, just enough to keep him pinned long enough to get a decent hit that made me wince and look away.
“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!”
Harry took advantage of Draco’s split-second surprise and rolled so he was able to hit back. I stepped to the side to get out of the way of whichever professor arrived. My eyes found the whipping robes of Professor McGonagall heading towards the two. With a simple spell, she had them paralyzed just long enough to pull Harry up off of Draco.
“You two again?” she snapped. “My patience for your fighting has run its course; it’s been seven years boys, learn to deal with each other!” She dropped Harry to his feet, but kept a firm grip on his shoulder just in time to stop him from lunging at Draco. Draco gave Harry a mocking smirk, which encouraged Harry to attempt to pull away from McGonagall.
“That’s fifty points from Slytherin, Mr. Malfoy. Another hundred for fighting.”
“He came at me!” he snapped defensively. I saw McGonagall’s smile, humouring him; the one time he tells the truth about being in a fight and no one believes him? Oh, sickly humorous irony...
McGonagall then looked down at Harry, who was still fuming. “Two hundred and fifty points from Gryffindor for whatever caused you to do this, Mr. Potter.”
“It’s not my fault,” Harry growled.
“Then someone tell me don’t you dare, boy,” McGonagall glared coldly at Draco, who was gripping his wand and had it tilted up at an angle from his side, pointed at Harry.
“He lies,” Draco replied, his tone just as cold as McGonagall’s eyes.
Harry scoffed. “If you hadn’t have hit a girl...”
“So that’s what this is about, eh Potter?” Draco demanded, his eyes narrowing on Harry.
“You... hit... a girl?” McGonagall sounded as though she was in disbelief. “You’re coming with me, Mr. Malfoy, and you better tell me who you did this to or...”
“Rosa,” Harry cut in.
McGonagall turned and looked at me. I looked away, down towards Aurelia’s feet next to me.
“We can go...?” Aurelia whispered.
“Sounds good,” I muttered, starting to turn around.
“No. Ms. Black, come with me.”
“Bu...” I started to complain. I wasn’t about to get in the middle of this; one wrong word and the truth would be laid out before everyone besides my friends all because Draco vehemently insists on announcing our disgusting ‘secret’ to the world. Harry would find out and he’d never forgive me...
“Now,” the professor cut in flatly. If I opposed further there would be consequences upon me, so I just gave in and followed the professor down the corridor and up a few flights of stairs, keeping my distance from her and the two boys that she dragged in her wake.
She pushed Draco into the classroom first. She followed, keeping Harry behind her. She waited for me to step in before shutting the door and letting Harry go. He stumbled forwards two steps before regaining his balance.
“What was it this time?” Professor McGonagall asked as she walked around us and headed for her desk. We all followed her until there was a few feet distance between us and her desk. I stood in the gaping distance between Draco and Harry.
“He came at me,” Draco snapped. “I was minding my own business with my friends when he tries to Petrify me. I was just defending myself.”
Harry snorted. “Is that the same excuse you’ll use for hitting a girl?”
“Don’t you dare,” I snarled, glaring at Draco as he loomed towards Harry, threatening to close the distance and knock him out. Draco’s grumble sounded like a growling lion as he turned away to look back at McGonagall.
“Mr. Potter?”
“He hit a girl – I wasn’t about to let him get away with that!” he snapped defensively.
“A girl that happens to be a Slytherin?” McGonagall asked with a hint of doubt in her voice. It sounded like she was discriminating, but we all knew that even she was aware of the tension between the houses.
Harry didn’t reply.
“He’s got it in for her,” Draco scoffed. “Just putting on a show. ‘Chivalry’ and all that crap.”
“It’s not a bad thing and I’d appreciate if you watched your language,” McGonagall snapped warningly. She then looked at me. “What happened?”
“I just saw Harry leap on him, I’m not...”
“I take it you were with Mr. Potter, here,” she gestured at him. “Before he ‘leaped on’ Mr. Malfoy. What happened?”
“We were talking about the day and a conversation that started with ‘why was every class with you two so awkward’ to this,” I replied, shrugging. It was the truth – I just left out the important part that actually led to Harry learning the truth about my bruises.
“No, no...” McGonagall’s eyes flickered from me to Draco for a moment. When she looked back at me, I got what she meant but wasn’t about to give it up without being outright asked first. “What happened to lead Mr. Malfoy to allegedly hit you?”
“Allegedly?” I started gently rubbing at the makeup on my face with my robes, only stopping when McGonagall’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “This didn’t come from a wall or the floor or a set of stairs! We were fighting in the common room last night and he got oversensitive and hit me.”
“Oversensitive?” Draco growled. “How the hell would you take being blamed for someone else’s faults because of being a ‘screwed up’?” he put air quotes around the words I spoke the night before.
“Well did you expect me to accept being called an idiot because I’ve made mistakes like every other normal person?” I retorted.
“Be quiet!” McGonagall snapped. I clenched my jaw and turned to look at her, forcing a small smile on my face. “Look, it’s understandable for students to have issues, but when there’s abuse of any sort...”
“So when she hits me, and her friend hits me on top of that, it’s alright, but if I strike back in a moment I wasn’t entirely myself, it’s abuse?” he cut in, in disbelief.
“It’s how society works, Mr. Malfoy,” McGonagall replied simply. “Unless this friend of yours can explain what she saw...”
“I can get her,” I said.
Draco snorted. “Right, and feed her a false story? You are a rather renowned liar, dear. There’s no way...”
“First of all, don’t call me ‘dear’ or I’ll shove a real deer up where the sun don’t shine,” I cut in, my head snapping to him and glaring coldly while he scowled back. “And you’re no better?”
“Who is the girl?” McGonagall cut in, sighing.
“Aurelia Brunes,” I replied, turning to look at her again.
In that exact moment, the door opened.
“Minerva, we... oh.”
The three of us turned around simultaneously, looking at the professor who walked in. It was Slughorn, of all people.
“Perfect timing, Horace. Would you be able to find a student and bring her here? Aurelia Brunes.”
“Do you mean the eavesdropping student outside the door?”
I smiled to myself but hid it as quickly as I could. “That’d be her, most likely,” I inputted.
Slughorn shrugged and opened the door. Aurelia stumbled inside the room.
“Am I needed?” she beamed at Professor McGonagall.
“Yes,” Professor McGonagall replied, bemused by her quick entry and lack of embarrassment at being caught. “It appears Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Black had a bit of a... brawl?”
“Not exactly... they fight all the time; in the common room, in the corridors...”
“Classrooms,” Slughorn mumbled.
“And a few nights ago, it was no different.” She shrugged. “Malfoy said everything that goes wrong for Rosa is caused by her stupidity, she smacked him, he threatened her to ‘be careful’, she mocked him a bit, said he was a screw up, he hit her and said...” she cleared her throat and did an uncanny impression of Draco. “‘You. Watch. Your. Mouth’. I smacked him for smacking her and... he left.” She shrugged again. “That’s all that happened.”
I was so thankful she didn’t go into details about what was said during the argument. I saw Harry fists clenching and unclenching out of the corner of my eye.
“And I take it you saw what just happened?”
“Potter taking out Malfoy? A lot of people saw that.” Aurelia smiled.
Harry scowled.
“Well, you three... turn around, for goodness sake.”
We all did as she said.
“Mr. Malfoy, you’ve lost your Sundays for the next month. Detention with me.”
I was smiling inside; McGonagall’s detentions were infamous.
“And another fifty points from Slytherin for your actions.” Her eyes flickered to Harry. “You, too, have detention for the rest of the month. Sundays. You two will come to me every Sunday after lunch.”
“Bu-” Draco started to complain.
“It is final, Mr. Malfoy,” she cut in with a warning tone. “And I will be talking with you – extensively – about this in the weeks to come. You all may go. If I catch so much as a whisper that happens again, consequences will be worse.”
“Bu...” he started again.
“Go!” she snapped, pointing towards the door. I was the first to walk out, Aurelia by my side.
“How’d it go?” she whispered as we rounded the corner.
“Didn’t you hear?” I replied, smiling.
She mock scowled, but I could see a tiny smile on her lips in response.
Draco stormed out, going in the opposite direction of me and muttering to himself about how unfair life is and it ‘wasn’t his fault’ and ‘they wouldn’t hear the last of this’. As soon as Harry came out, he looked at me, smiling in a small, sad way and going straight, avoiding my direction and Draco’s altogether.
__________________ 
Siggy from Lissy and Anna's Shop of Super Frazzling Graphics
Last edited by MalfoyzBeloved; 09-28-2010 at 10:24 PM.
Reason: deleting un-story-related comment
|