Chosen || Draco Malfoy

14 - Chosen

Things weren't much better with Chen.

Although he greeted me with a fierce hug when I finally came across him in the Entrance Hall, it was soon clear he felt highly uncomfortable around me.

"You do believe me, don't you?" I asked when he failed to respond to my comment about Hannah and Susan calling me a liar.

"Uh-" Chen nervously rubbed the back of his neck, his face flushing. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't visit when you were in the hospital wing, but everyone's been saying that you had a bad knock on the head and weren't making any sense. I didn't want to overwhelm you whilst you were in recovery."

"Well, that's very fucking thoughtful of you, Chen, but you didn't answer my question. Do. You. Believe. Me?"

"I believe you believe you."

I dumped his sorry arse.

I didn't know what do. Lord Voldemort was back and no one was listening to me; everyone around me was acting as though I'd simply lost my marbles.

Only Dumbledore knew it was the truth and that's only because he'd heard it from Barty Crouch Jr's mouth himself before a Dementor came along and snogged his face off.

Dumbledore: a supposed saviour who hadn't even been bothered to check up on me since that very night it happened. I tried turning up at his office numerous times, but I kept getting turned away when I couldn't come up with the correct password.

Well, screw him.

So, I concentrated on locating Ron and Hermione, anxious to share with them their friend's final moments before we departed for the summer.

But they too seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Frustrated and never feeling more alone than ever, I dramatically threw myself down on the bottom step of the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall and screamed into my hands.

"Trying not to think about it, are we?"

I looked up, my heart instantly racing. Striding towards me from the dungeon staircase, were three furious looking Slytherins; three Slytherins whose parents I had been trying to tell everyone were Death Eaters.

Oh... shit.

Draco Malfoy, closely flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom were simultaneously cracking their knuckles and trying to look menacing.

"Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"

"Go away," I said a lot more bravely than I felt as I shakily got to my feet, my hand gripping my wand - Harry's wand - beneath my robes.

"You've picked the losing side, Diggory!" Draco continued fiercely as he pushed his face angrily in mine, snapping his fingers tightly around my wrist and preventing me from raising my wand. "And if I hear one single word about you blabbing lies about my father again then you'll be joining Potter in the cold hard ground."

His fingers tightened around me, pinching my skin.

"Let go of me," I said vehemently, my breaths jagged and uneven. "And you know they're not lies!"

He was so close my nose tickled with the scent of his cologne and, out of nowhere, a memory flooded so violently into my mind. A memory of that night, in this exact spot.

I looked up into Draco's steely grey eyes, my own widening in shock. "It was you," I whispered.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Diggory?" He spat, but I noticed his grip slacken the tiniest fraction.