𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓: 𝑫.𝑴

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 5: 𝐑𝐞𝐧é 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞

(TW: Draco talks about/gets hit by his dad)

Valérie's POV:
I was sitting at breakfast enjoying my fluffy pancakes with golden, maple syrup. Me and Leo where chatting about Umbridge, and how she was very much compatible with Snape. They both where in Slytherin, and both doesn't seem to like students. Perfect match, right?

Me Pansy and Daphne had told everyone about the owner of the new dress shop In Hogsmeade. The rumour had spread like a fire around the castle, everyone knew it. Mostly thanks to Pansy, she was a real gossiper.

When I had almost finished my food, I saw my brother walking up to our table. He looked stern, serious. This wasn't like him, his lips where always curled into a big smile and he was always cracking everyone up with his jokes. I wasn't used to seeing him this serious, and it worried me.

"Valérie, as-tu une lettre de maman et papa? grand-père s'aggrave" (have you gotten a letter from mom and dad? Grandad is getting worse) He spoke.

All my friends had their eyes glued to us, they
looked at me waiting for me to respond to Theo. I noticed Draco looking over at Theo and then to me before turning his gaze down to his plate again. It felt weird, normally he wouldn't bother.

"combien pire?" (How much worse?) I said to my brother as I felt my voice break. Worse? Why had he gotten worse?

"pas aussi grave que cela pourrait l'être, il est à saint mungo en ce moment et il reçoit un traitement cet après-midi, ils pensent que cela pourrait aider"(not as bad as it could be, he is at St mungos right now and hes getting a treatment this afternoon, they think that could help.)

After he had finished his sentence he embraced me. He held me tight in his arms as I felt tears threatening to form in my eyes. I thought everything was going to be alright, that he was fine. I thought his last treatment worked. I didn't want to think about it. I wanted to forget, because I couldn't let myself overthink this. The thoughts would take over me, burry me in its sorrow.

"They will write to us after, Val, he's going to be okay, try not to worry about it before we know, alright?" He said as he looked at me. "Go to class and try to be distracted, well talk later" My brother gave me a reassuring smile as he patted my back. I didn't answer him.

"I don't want to leave you right now but I think it's best to focus on other things, we can't do much from here, yeah?" I nodded in respond this time. I didn't want to talk since I suspected that my voice would betray me.

I just watched as my brother walked back to the gryffindor table where he sat down with his friends. As I turned around to sit down again, everyone was looking at me.

"Val, what happened?" Daphne asked in a serious tone, she sounded worried.

"I-I have to go, I'll talk to you guys later" I stammered as I got up and walked out of the great hall. Daphne gave me a understanding smile, she knew I would tell her and Pansy later so she didn't push it further, and I was really grateful for that.

I needed to go somewhere and just be alone, think everything thru. I didn't want to talk about it with anyone, not now at least.

As I rounded a corner I felt a large hand grabbing my arm, the hand yanked me backwards and made me turn around to face the owner. As I turned around Draco where standing there. What a surprise. He was the only one who simply just couldn't ask If I wanted to talk, he had to grab me like I piece of meat. For a brief moment I wondered to myself why he had followed me out here, and that's when he spoke.

"What has happened to your grandfather?" He looked directly into my eyes as he spoke.

"How did you—" I totally ignored his question. "My dad made me take french lessons over the summer" he cut me off by saying, "business stuff" I rolled my eyes at his last words.