The Slytherin Princess | Draco Malfoy x Reader

Chapter 36: Aftermath

The entirety of Hogwarts awakes to find Dumbledore's dead in his office, and after the chaos dies down slightly, you and Draco are summoned to the manor once more.

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Chaos. Chaos, screaming, and the thunder of who knew how many people running up and down the halls. That's what awoke you in the early hours of Monday morning, less than an hour before your alarm was set to wake you.

Opening the doors and following the tirade of Slytherin students down the stairs, you heard people shouting and others crying, and when you heard the word "Dumbledore" shouted out more than once, you knew immediately what this was about.

You didn't realize you were still in your pajamas until you made it to the Great Hall, at which point Juniper helped cover you up in her own robes as best as she could. It not only helped you from getting reprimanded for your clothing choice, but it also helped warm you up. Although you weren't quite sure whether you were shaking from cold or from nerves.

McGonagall ascended the steps towards the teacher's table in the Great Hall, raising her hands to cause the cacophony of chattering students to quiet down.

Once the many voices of the students had silenced, she folded her hands in front of her. It was strange to see the Transfiguration professor without her usual black hat on, her gray hair loose and cascading down her back. Her expression was grim and void of much other emotion, though her eyes were wide and clearly upset. You and the rest of the student body held your breaths as she opened her mouth to make the announcement you knew was coming.

"For those of you who aren't already aware, the rumors are true," came the Gryffindor Head's voice. "Dumbledore was found dead in his office this morning. We aren't sure of the cause, but we think he may have ingested a poisoned lemon drop. The wrapper was still in his hand when we found his body. We don't know how anyone could've gotten into his office, because it is locked and password-protected. If anyone has any information about this, please step forward or come see me. We are launching an investigation effective immediately. As such, no one is allowed on the fifth floor today, and until further notice."

Whispers and mumbles surrounded you immediately. You clutched on tighter to Juniper, suddenly feeling weak around the knees as you did so. Dumbledore was dead. You had known this would happen, you had known it the minute you and Draco had left that stupid office. And now you didn't even have Draco to turn to for comfort.

You searched for him in the crowd that turned to leave the Great Hall, but you couldn't even spot the Slytherin Princes' white-blond hair. Wondering if you'd simply missed him, you traveled back up the stairs to your dorm, not even knowing if you needed to get ready for classes for the day. Were they going to be cancelled?

When you hadn't heard anything an hour later, you got dressed and headed to your first class of the day, which happened to be Potions. Draco sat in his normal chair next to where you sat, but unsurprisingly, didn't even acknowledge your presence when you slid into the chair next to him. You were surprised he'd even shown up for class, if you were being honest with yourself.

Class began mostly normally, with Snape griping about turning to certain page and instructing you that mess-ups or failure to comply with instructions were subject to loss of House Points.

You sighed as you began your potion, noticing with a drop of your stomach that it was the Death Draught, a diluted version of the one you'd managed to perfect and use just a few days before. You supposed the truly venomous one was only present in the book Draco had gifted you, which made sense, considering it wasn't very smart to teach a bunch of teenagers how to poison each other.

You looked up across the room at your teacher, who looked up and made eye contact with you at just that moment. You tried to keep your expression at an impasse, but when Snape gave you the subtlest of nods, you felt at least marginally better.