The Slytherin Princess | Draco Malfoy x Reader

Chapter 46: New rules

Hogwarts with the new headmaster sucks, to put it lightly.

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Hogwarts under Snape's iron fist was hardly Hogwarts at all. There were no trips to Hogsmeade. There were no students lingering in halls after classes. There were no students speaking and laughing in the Great Hall at mealtimes. The only time you heard the voices of your fellow students was when you were in your room with Juniper or other friends, or when your new head of house, Alecto Carrow, was not present in the Common Room and your fellow Slytherins felt safe enough to speak out loud.

The dark cloud that seemed to hover over the once-bright and lively castle grew by the day. Students were beginning to lose interest in the spells and charms that had once enveloped their young minds. Multiple seventh-years dropped right out, unable to continue on under the circumstances surrounding Hogwarts. Unfortunately, this meant they were leaving you and the rest of the sixth-years more or less in charge.

You tried not to focus on the new boot camp-esque scene that Hogwarts had become. The chains on the wall at the front of the Great Hall helped keep your eyes glued on your plate at mealtimes. You couldn't bear to see fellow students chained up during the day there, blatant evidence that they had disobeyed one of the many, many rules that Snape had instated the minute he'd taken Dumbledore's place.

You also couldn't help the massive guilt you felt at seeing everything that was happening. You knew you had started this. You had killed Dumbledore, that's what had set this all in motion. The culpability you felt at this heavy knowledge was like cinderblocks on your shoulders that you had to carry around all day every day. You couldn't even turn to Draco for support. He was having to carry on his own act, continuing to serve under Voldemort and pretend that he was mourning your untimely demise all at the same time. You felt even worse every time you remembered that. You couldn't even be there for him, because he had to stay as far away from you as possible.

You tried your absolute hardest to stay under the radar, keeping your Dark Mark covered with magic and your nose in your books. You didn't speak in class unless you were called on, and your free time was usually spent holed up in your dorm room, your quill to your paper and several books strewn about your desk or your bed. You were rarely seen outside of your Common Room if you weren't in class or in the Great Hall, which you supposed helped you keep up your persona as Ravena. This time last year you would've wanted to be anywhere but your Common Room before bedtime, wanting to spend more time with Marin and Juniper and Silver outside in the courtyard, playing pickup games of Quidditch, or you'd be in actual Quidditch practice with Arlie and the rest of the Slytherin team, preparing to wipe the field with Ravenclaw the next time you played against each other.

However, despite all of your careful, calculated attempts to slide through your sixth year undetected, you were unable to completely protect yourself from the Carrows in your Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

You found yourself sat in their classroom one ugly afternoon. Ugly in the sense that it was gross and humid outside, yet still raining. The weather brought down the mood of the school even more than usual, and your newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professors did absolutely nothing to help.

You had been tuning in and out of the lecture that day, your mind wandering to Draco and how much you missed him. You twirled your quill around in your hand, snapped out of your reverie when you heard your name called by Amycus Carrow from the front of the class.

"Ravena," came his grating voice. You had learned the hard way how annoying his voice really was to listen to. You weren't sure if it was just annoying or the fact that he was also a Death Eater, but you knew deep down it was likely a combination of both.