𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍

❃ familiarity

❃

𝑵𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗

Easter break had ended as soon as it had begun.

The frozen grasses on the grounds had started to thaw, the month of May in full swing as flowers began to spring from the moistened dirt. The weather was finally warming, every inch of snow washed away by both sunlight and rain.

Maybelle's favorite season had always been spring.

Theodore was ill one evening, and despite Draco knowing of his girlfriend's hate for mornings, he gently eased her awake anyway. He didn't want to go alone.

"Will you come with me to the cabinet? I promise there's a nice sunrise through the corridors on the way," he pleaded.

She was quite grumpy, as he'd woken her so early, but accepted his request so long as they got breakfast immediately afterwards.

Hand in hand they snuck quietly through the corridors, her eyes growing in wonder as the room of requirement appeared before them.

"Is this it?" she ran her slender hands along the chipped wooden cabinet door, the frame surrounding it formed by rusted metal.

"Yes, they've instructed me to use a bird," Draco took a cage from the top of a nearby chiffonier, a small white songbird sitting inside the circular enclosure.

Draco took it from the cage as it sat in his palm, the little bird chirping happily as it stared up at the boy's stern expression. He barely had to force it into the cabinet as it voluntarily hopped inside, chirping once more as Draco shut the door.

Maybelle stalked in wonder from the floor, where she sat with her legs crisscrossed on a couch cushion she'd found nearby.

"Harmonia nectere passus," he repeated the incantation three times.

When he opened the door, the bird had dissapeared.

"Harmonia nectere passus," thrice more.

There was a struggle.

Maybelle's brows furrowed at the sound.

Crack.

When Draco opened the door, he began to cry.

Maybelle was quickly by his side, staring into the cabinet where the white songbird rested on it's wings, it's neck fractured in half as a splatter of blood began to stain and seep into the dark wood.

"I-I didn't mean to-"

She hushed him as she shut the cabinet door, sitting him down on the couch cushion as he crumbled into her arms.

"I didn't mean to kill it Flower, I didn't know-"

"I know, I know, it's okay," she soothed him, wrapping her arms around the boy who was sobbing into her chest.

Draco never used another living being for his task again.

One morning, both Draco and Theo absent from their morning breakfast, the remaining members of the group noticed the sudden reappearance of Katie Bell.

"What if she remembers?" Blaise said quietly, looking up in worry.

"Draco is a perfectionist when it comes to obliviation spells. She won't," Daph sighed, her eyes hinted with small glimmers of hesitation and doubt.

"There goes Harry on his little Ministry of Magic type criminal investigation," Naevah rolled her eyes, watching as Potter began to speak to the girl. Katie shook her head with a 'no', leaving Potter clueless as she walked away with her friends.