𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐔𝐒 2008

You Can Run But You Can't Hide (2/2)

You Can Run But You Can't Hide Part 2 of 2

In a way, it was kind of nice having a companion. He wouldn’t have called the panther a pet necessarily, because that sounded much too harsh. A pet was an animal that was tied to a lead or put into a cage. But this panther…was free to roam as it pleased. And that was what was so magnificent about it. Draco couldn’t help but envy the creature for its mysterious nature. Where it went when it didn’t come to visit the garden was beyond him. It sounded better to say the panther was his friend after all. One that he could talk to about whatever was on his mind, even if the panther only nodded or listened to him most of the time. And in return, Draco brought out a bowl of ice cream for it on a daily basis.

It had started with Draco sitting under the birches as usual, flipping through Hogwarts, A History. He remembered it had been one of Granger’s top favourites, which made him cringe as he continued to read. On one side of him lay the panther, and on the other, a bowl of strawberry ice cream. It was rare for Draco to have sweets, as the mere taste was enough to make him sick. Sweets brought back the nauseating smell of the cellar, where prisoners and dead bodies had been held. But the strawberry ice cream was light and simple. It was also made from scratch, thanks to the expertise of the house-elves.

“I can’t believe I’m actually reading this rubbish,” commented Draco, spooning some ice cream into his mouth. He licked his lips slowly relishing the taste before going for another spoonful. “And yet, it states the truth. No Apparition within school grounds. Filch’s rules…area size of the castle…no wonder Granger was always up everyone’s arse about everything.”

The panther poked its head up, baring its teeth as it growled ferociously. Draco raised his eyebrows, leaning back a bit. It was interesting…first Potter, now Granger. It was like this panther knew everyone Draco did.

“Easy there. I was just saying…unless you knew her, you probably would have agreed she was a bit mad too! She read the whole bloody book before classes even started in our first year! Half of us couldn’t even read properly!”

The sound of a loud purr eased Draco as he began reading as a section about secret passages. He couldn’t help but shiver as he skipped over the tale about the Chamber of Secrets. All he really knew about the place was that his father had had something planned for it. Some of the pieces had added up, but for the most part, it remained an unsolved mystery to this day. Draco could only attribute it to that leather journal his father used to carry everywhere until he dumped it in Weaselette’s cauldron at Flourish and Blott’s. Why he did that, Draco had chosen not to ask his father. Lucius Malfoy wasn’t stupid to give control up that easily, but there had been something dodgy about the whole scandal, if Draco could call it one. Eavesdropping on his parents had only gotten him so far…to find out that the Dark Lord was behind this somehow. But he hadn’t been able to figure out anything else.

He had already known what lived in the Chamber, a basilisk, but the master…well, his identity remained anonymous. Only an heir of Salazar Slytherin could have had access to control the creature. And as much as a coincidence it was for Potter to speak to snakes, it didn’t fit. It still didn’t fit. If it had been Potter, why had he killed the basilisk? And Potter wasn’t a hater. That much had been obvious, as Potter hung out with riffraff like Weasley and Granger. Potter had only been playing his role as the hero, to Draco’s disgust. That was something that never changed, even now.

Draco frowned, dwelling on these last thoughts about this incident as he set his book down. Mind occupied, he blindly reached for his bowl, except his hand met solid grass instead.