Youngblood: Retrieval {Year 5, Book 3}

= Chapter 10 =

"I bet you have a lot of questions..." Draco's voice trailed off as he stared into Aspen's deep, forest green eyes.

"Surprisingly only one... Why?" Aspen responded, inching closer and stopping to lean on the railing on the spiraling staircase. "Why do you hate me? What was that fake relationship with Ember? Why did you save me from the bludger? Why did you ignore me after that? Why did you bring me into the common room after detention? Why did you..."

"Okay... okay." He interrupted. "That was a lot more than one question but I will answer them all."

"That night, last year I think, when I said I wanted to be with you again and you rejected me-"

"I didn't reject you!" Aspen crossed her arms as Draco stared at her expectingly. "Whatever; continue."

"I began to torment you because I didn't know what to think and also because I was... sad, I guess you could say. Then I went to Ember and asked her to do me a favor. I thought that if she and I faked being together that you would get jealous and return to me, but you didn't. It got me so mad that you didn't that I became paranoid to the fact that Ember wasn't with me to get you back - only for her revenge on me for exposing her secret. So she embarrassed me in front of the whole school when she 'broke up with me'." Draco sighed, looking down at his feet as Aspen bit her lip.

"But that still doesn't explain all the events that happened afterwards." She pointed out as he nodded.

"After that I continued to harass you because I didn't know what else to do. If I unexpectedly stopped, who knows what would happen to my reputation. But then the quidditch game occurred and... I think you know what happened. I figured that I didn't care what everyone else thought of me or of you. I love you, Aspen." Draco clutched his ribcage, remembering when he leapt from his broomstick to block her from the bludger.

Aspen blushed a little, walking past him to gaze out of a nearby window.

"After that I ignored you because I didn't know if you'd feel the same way as me, then, as I was walking from my detention with Professor McGonagall, I found you lying there and couldn't leave you. Oh Aspen... I'm so sorry." He confessed, hanging his head.

"Woah, woah, woah, wait..." She cracked a smile, walking closer to him. "Did the one and only Draco Malfoy apologize to me...?"

Draco's lips curled into a smile as he looked down, chuckling a bit.

Aspen's face turned serious as she crept closer. "But I'm glad you told me, I'm glad you're... you. Thank you, Draco." She pulled him into a tight hug.

For a second he stood there, shocked and unable to move with Aspen's arms wrapped around him, but then he snapped himself from his shock and held her back, smiling warmly.

"I appreciate your honesty." She pecked him on the cheek before grabbing her book bag from the window sill and leaving.

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"Wow! I can't believe you found this place, Neville!" Ron said, looking around the Room of Requirements, shocked.

"Yeah - actually I remembered it from when Lillian used it to throw Aspen's sweet fifteen." Neville chuckled as Lillian laughed and Aspen blushed on embarrassment.

"Nice thinking, Neville!" Dove laughed, smiling warmly at Neville.

"Yeah, you've really outdone yourself!" Fred and George said in unison, giving each other a victorious smirk afterwards.

"Alright, attention everyone!" Harry spoke up over the chattering from the vast crowd.

Once the crowd had silenced, Harry spoke again, "So... you all are here to learn to cast defensive spells, like we should be learning this year. But we aren't. For our first lesson, I'm going to teach you the disarming charm - or expelliarmus."

Lillian and Aspen stood close to each other, feeling a bit out of place. Once Harry had finished his long, educational, and mostly boring speech about the incantation and uses of the disarming charm, he set all students in pairs to begin practice.

"Now, don't worry if you can't get it immediately, this is our first practice." Harry frowned, seeing the majority of the students failing the spell.

"Expelliarmus." Aspen said calmly, gently flicking her wand in the movement that Harry showed her in his presentation - still nothing. "Ugh! Again?"

"You're hand is too stiff, Aspen, loosen up." Harry said, passing by as Aspen nodded, trying again, this time listening to Harry's advice.

"Expelliarmus!" She said, using a looser flick of her wand and sent Lillian spiraling across the room. "Oh my gosh! Lillian are you alright?"

Both the girls laughed. "My turn!" Lillian said, smirking as fear filled Aspen's face.

"Expelliarmus!' Now it was Aspen's turn to get tossed across the room, landing on the floor on her stomach.

"Ow." Aspen said flatly, laughing afterwards.

"Brilliant! Great work, guys!" Harry congratulated, leaving both girls with huge smiles on their faces.

"Psst... Aspen!" Fred beckoned, verbally pulling her away from her conversation with Lillian.

"Yes Fred?"

"I'm having trouble with the... the spell. Could you help me?" He asked, almost embarrassed to ask.

"Sure. Does George have it alright?" Aspen replied.

"I think so." Fred shrugged. "He just told me to ask you. Apparently Baby Brother is 'busy'."

Aspen giggled, then looked back at Fred. "Alright then, let's see your stance."

Fred moved his hand up as if he was going to cast the spell, then moved his legs into a proper dueling stance. Aspen looked at his posture skeptically, then wrapped her hands around his, blushing when she realized what she was doing.

"Uhm... you're - uh - grip was too firm." Aspen blushed madly, nodding to Fred to tell him to cast the spell.

"Expelliarmus!" He said, smirking as he aimed his wand at George.

The spell hit George, sending him flying backwards and slamming against the wall. Both Fred and Aspen laughed loudly as George eventually caved in and laughed with them.

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"So you and Fred, then?" Mya asked Aspen, giggling as she watched her blush.

"No way... we're just friends." She replied, shaking her head.

"No, no, I thought I saw someone blush." Dove smirked as Aspen's blush spread across her face.

"Pfft- maybe you were hallucinati-" Before Aspen could finish her sentence, Filch crossed her sight.

He hammered yet another sign to the wall, the print huge to read and quite clear to understand.

Those wishing to join the Inquisitorial Squad for extra credit may sign up in the High Inquisitor's office.

"Another one of her rules." Aspen sighed, glancing back at the poster.

The back of her head said something else - that this wasn't the last mentioning of the Inquisitorial Squad she'd hear this year.