the girl who lost it all [d.m]

thirty five: mereor

mereor: deserve, merit, earn

———

DRACO stared at the sight before him, wondering how the hell he'd ended up in this position.

It had already been a long day. There had been a meeting with the other Death Eaters that he'd had to attend—one in which they decided what their moves would be for the next month. Dolohov had been there, leering at Draco from the corner of the room and it had set him on edge.

Then, he'd returned home to find his mother had come down with the flu—and seeing as it was mid-February and still quite chilly, he'd wrapped her up in a bundle of blankets, instructed Mipsy to make hot soup for her and would have stayed by her side the entire day if Astoria hadn't shooed him away eventually.

"I'll take care of her," she'd said as she all but pushed Draco out of his mother's room. Narcissa had been sleeping, curled up in a mountain of blankets. "You should go rest too."

But it had only been late afternoon and Draco had no intention of resting—so he'd headed off to Paisley where he currently found himself standing in the library, staring at the owner of said library who was attempting to rescue his fat grey cat from on top of the large bookshelf.

"Why don't you just Accio her?" Draco asked as way of greeting as he watched Orion balance precariously on a tall stack of books he'd piled up to use as a makeshift stepping stool.

"She hates being Accio-ed. Nearly killed her last time. She sulked for days afterward. There's a reason they tell you not to Accio living things," Orion grunted, leaning dangerously forward to try and grasp onto the feline. She only shifted out of reach, looking unbothered as she licked her paw. "Mochi, get down—now."

Mochi only gave her paw another long lick.

"She looks perfectly happy up there," Draco told him, sliding his cloak off and draping it over the back of one of the armchairs by the fireplace.

"Don't be fooled," Orion glowered at Mochi who gave him a lazy blink of those amber eyes in return. "She was yowling to be taken down before I got up here. Now that I want to help her, it seems she doesn't want to be helped."

Draco scoffed, flopping down into the armchair and slumping low into it. "She must be taking lessons from Elara."

Orion's tone was skeptical as he gave one last swipe at Mochi who remained out of reach. "Elara been getting up onto bookshelves lately?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Funny."

Orion chuckled as he finally turned his head to look over his shoulder at Draco. "She must've really bruised your ego, huh? You didn't even ask what I baked today."