Surprising turn - a turn for the better? Or into madness ... (Draco Ff)

Chapter 22 ~ It breaks you very slowly and draggingly ...

Victoria's Pov.

The Christmas holidays went by in a flash, yesterday all the students who drove home came again.
Draco and I were the only Slytherin students who stayed.
Draco and I didn't really feel like celebrating Christmas.
We knew that, like every year, we would not be sent gifts from our parents.
And so it was, when we entered the common room early in the morning, in which the Christmas tree was next to the fireplace, as every year, we saw, as always, no presents under the tree.
Many would find it sad, but since we didn't really know it any other way, we would have been more surprised to find some under the decorated tree this year.
My parents had never been interested in anything like that, regardless of whether they had spent most of my life in Azkaban, because the Malfoy's had never thought about Christmas or birthdays either.
Neither did my parents when they broke out and moved into the manor.
But when Draco and I sat down on the sofa, staring at the tree, to at least feel something Christmassy, ​​he suddenly tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned to him and saw that he was holding a small package out to me, I had to smile because I knew that Draco would give me something, which is why I had bought him something too.
I reached into the pocket of my cloak and also took a small package wrapped in green gift wrap from my pocket and held it out to him.
A loving smile formed on his face.
"Open up," urged the Ice Prince, wriggling like a small child.
I had to laugh because the sight of him was really very amusing and carefully took the little present in my hand, carefully developed it and opened the lid.
What I saw was speechless, in the package there was a beautiful black and green chain.
I carefully took it out of the box.
"Looks really good on you," Draco looked deep into my eyes and kissed me.
"She's beautiful," I said into the kiss and smiled.
When we broke up, I held my present in front of his eyes.
When he opened it, took it out and tied it around his wrist, he hugged me.
"Thanks," he said, still holding me.
“The bracelet should protect you, it should help you to make difficult decisions and bring you luck in the process.  It's an old talisman, it was given real powers. ", I related what the seller had explained to me a few days ago.
"I love you," Draco whispered in my right ear, giving me goose bumps.
"I love you too," I replied, pulled him down to me and kissed him.
The best Christmas we've had so far, but all beautiful moments will pass at some point, including this one.

As I said, all the students came back to Hogwarts yesterday and the castle, which was quiet throughout the holidays, was filled with dozens of voices again.
It was Monday morning and everyone was having breakfast.  It was a deafening noise, everyone was enthusiastically telling their friends what their holidays were like, what they had done, what gifts they got or how much they had been looking forward to Hogwarts again.
Only the Slytherins remained quiet and civilized.
We Slytherins are a very proud house, we would never go up to the level of the other houses.
But we Slytherins always told each other how the holidays were, only we didn't obviously do it in the great hall, but in the common room.
It's no secret that many Slytherin students come from Death Eater families, and so their vacations are not always particularly enjoyable, like those of the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws or Gryffindors.
The Slytherin house is often referred to as cold-hearted.
It's not entirely true, well, it really is the case with the others, but that's why we all stick together all the more, because we can't expect any help or understanding from the other houses.
Unfortunately, it has often happened that a Slytherin student came back to Hogwarts with bruises or broken bones.
Me too, but we leave this topic at that.
We all don't have it easy.
First the families who beat you or torture you if you don't live up to their demands.
And then also Hogwarts, where you are treated disparagingly by the other students.
We were never thrown anything in front of our noses.
We had to work everything out ourselves.
Of course, many of their parents have a lot of money, large villas or other expensive belongings.
But money is not everything.
What good is it if you are only tortured, beaten or treated badly by your parents.
It doesn't do you any good.
It is destroying you inside.
It breaks you very slowly and draggingly in the course of your life ...

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The young snow fell gently on Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.  Icy wind caressed the old walls while we students sat inside and listened more or less eagerly to the lesson.
Professor Slughorn explained in a voice trembling with joy how a potion had to be prepared that would make you lose your memories of the past 24 hours.
Bored, I stirred the blue soup in the kettle in front of me.
I was able to prepare the drink years ago.
We were challenged when Snape was still a potions teacher, but Slughorn's classes are just plain boring.
Thanks to Merlin, the class went quickly and ended on the ring.
But we had to go straight to the next classroom, since we now had Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Snape.
His classroom was dimly decorated and dismembered victims who had been hit by curses hung as pictures on the wall.
Just as the students had made themselves comfortable in their chairs, the door flew open with a loud crack.  Some students winced when Severus Snape entered the room.
The black-haired man with the piercing eyes did not dwell long on any unimportant things but growled:
"Open your books immediately to page 194 !!"
The students were quickly turning the pages of their books when their teacher hissed
"I think everyone has done their homework." Professor Snape was almost certain, because nobody dared to forget homework in their class unless they were tired of life.
"What am I hearing Potter?", Snape suddenly stood in front of him and looked down at him with a nasty grin, "Homework not done?"
Weasley looked back and forth between his friend and his teacher, confused.
I turned to Draco, who was sitting next to me, and grinned gleefully at him.
He couldn't help but grin, too, and would have loved to throw an insult at Potter if Snape hadn't been here.
"I'd say ten points from Gryffindor and Mr. Potter will be in my office for detention on Saturday afternoon."
Potter stared venomously, "With pleasure," he grumbled ironically.
Now it was all over to us, Draco and I could no longer hold each other and began to laugh gleefully, which is why we earned a fatal look from the golden trio.
For the rest of the lesson, we didn't do much other than copy a few pages from the book and then leave the classroom.

The rest of the day passed just as uneventfully, so Draco and I made our way to the Room of Requirement.
As I walked along the wall three times, the big heavy wooden door appeared and we entered.
As always, the room was full of old junk.
We made our way through the junk until we came to a stop in front of a large box covered with a sheet.
I stepped forward, grabbed the fabric of the gray sheet and jerked it off the vanishing cabinet.
"Okay let's go then," I said, rolling up my sleeves.
We did our best, tried all the spells that we had already used again and at one point dropped completely exhausted into one of the sofas that we had pushed next to the vanity cabinet.
"Are you ready to try it out?" Draco asked me, pale as a sheet.
"Not ready, but let's get it over with." I answered him and got up.
We stood hand in hand in front of the Vanishing Cabinet, opened its door, put an apple in it and closed it again.
I pulled away from Draco, took a deep breath, removed my spell, and took a step forward.
"Harmonia Nectere Passus", I said in a firm voice and then opened the door again, the apple was gone.
I let out a relieved breath, it worked - for now.
I waited a few more minutes and said again: “Harmonia Nectere Passus”.
With a trembling hand I opened the door of the Vanishing cabinet again and closed my eyes in relief.
The apple was there again, only this time with a bite mark.
"That must have been your mother," Draco stated and stepped next to me.
I hugged the ice prince.
"It works Victoria.", Said this.
"Now it just has to work with people" .....