The Slytherin Princess | Draco Malfoy x Reader

Chapter 58: Preparing to leave

You, Juniper, and the trio are preparing to return to Hogwarts to fight Voldemort himself.

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December arrived far too quickly, and with biting wind and too much snow to boot. The end of the year was approaching more quickly every day, and you and your team of vagabonds were busy figuring out the best course of action to take down the Dark Lord himself. It was not an easy task, which was why it had taken the five of you nearly a week to come up with anything even resembling competence.

"I think I'm going to have to go back to the school," Harry admitted, late one night as the five of you were sat in the living room of Shell Cottage. He ran a hand through his dark brunette hair, sighing heavily.

"You're not going alone, though," Ron responded immediately. "There's no way Hermione and I are gonna sit back and let you go without us. Or y/n and Juniper, for that matter. They're a part of our group now too."

Your heart warmed at Ron's sentiments. You hadn't expected him to warm up to either of you so quickly. Juniper you could've understood, but you'd practically broken Harry's heart and you were a Slytherin. To hear kind words from Ron like that was very comforting for you.

"Yeah," Hermione breathed then, breaking you out of your reverie as she nodded in agreement. "I think we should go back to the Burrow first, though. Warn them and all, at least. Everyone needs to be ready."

"But what about Ginny?" Harry asked. "She's still at Hogwarts, isn't she?"

You felt so sorry for how worried Harry sounded. "The Gryffindors aren't getting treated super well, from what I saw while I was still there," you admitted, watching as Harry's shoulders slumped. "But I think Ginny was doing a pretty decent job of staying under the radar. She's probably okay."

Harry and Ron both sighed in relief, then Ron turned back to you. "We've got to find the other Horcruxes," he said then, "and we're pretty sure they're at Hogwarts. One of them has to be in the Room of Requirement, Harry and Hermione both are sure of it."

Hermione nodded at the mention of her name. "The only one we really don't know the location of is the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. But that thing's been lost for decades, nobody knows where it is."

"We could try asking the Grey Lady," you offered, and Ron and Harry looked at you in confusion. "Who's that?" Ron asked.

Hermione opened her mouth at the same time you did, but she closed it to let you continue, which you chose to take as a compliment.

"She's rumored to be either Rowena herself or Rowena's daughter Helena," you explained, watching as the expressions on both Ron and Harry's face changed, their interests evidently piqued.

"Either way," you continued, "if either of those are true, you know, we'd be able to ask her if she knows where the diadem is."

"Well, maybe the diadem is the one in the Room of Requirement," Harry said thoughtfully, and you shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, Chosen One."

Harry made a playful face at your nickname for him, and you laughed at the disdain on the poor boy's face. "I'm only kidding, Harry," you said then, gently elbowing the brunette Gryffindor before you leaned back into the chair you were sitting in. "Anyway, I like these plans. They seem solid, and we all know that's exactly what we need right now. We just need to figure out where to go from here. We get to Hogwarts, we split up to look for shit. Then what?"

"Well," Hermione interjected, speaking for the first time in what felt like hours, "first we need to figure out how we're getting into the castle in the first place. It's going to be very difficult for us to just waltz right in if Hogwarts is crawling with Death Eaters the way y/n says it is."