The Slytherin Princess | Draco Malfoy x Reader

Chapter 64: T'was a see-you-later

Eighteen months have passed without Draco. You begin to wonder when you'll hear from him again.

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EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER

You were on the cusp of finishing the first term of your final year at Hogwarts. Despite the war, and your lack of studying subjects you actually wanted and needed the year prior, since you'd been Ravena and all, you had somehow managed to stay on par with where you needed to be to graduate only a year behind. Which was nice, because you still saw familiar faces in the hallways.

You recognized Hermione, and Ron, whose arm she was hardly ever seen off of, though Harry had not returned to the halls of Hogwarts. You also still saw Marin and Silver, and Arlie and the others on your Quidditch team.

You hadn't received a new roommate, which you were both relieved and saddened by. The empty room you had to return to each night only served as a reminder of the friend you had lost, the one who had died to save you. But you knew, deep down, that a new roommate would have been harder for you to deal with. Now, you realized, you knew how Juniper had felt when she believed you were dead, how it would've felt to have your best friend seemingly so callously replaced.

You also hadn't seen Draco since you'd left him at Hogwarts eighteen months prior, directly in the aftermath of the battle. You hadn't heard from him either, at least not directly. His face had been plastered in the newspapers for months, what with both his parents on trial for their crimes against the wizarding world. Lucius was back in Azkaban, for what you assumed was a life sentence. Since Narcissa didn't have a Mark, she had gotten out of more severe punishment, but from what you'd heard she hadn't left the Manor since her trial had ended. You assumed Draco was staying there with her, but you'd be lying if you said his absence didn't create a vacancy in your heart that you had no way of filling.

You were somewhat surprised that you hadn't been called to stand trial. You had your own Mark, you'd been directly responsible for the death of Albus Dumbledore. You supposed that maybe, since Voldemort had been trying to kill you, that people believed you weren't in his ranks, and had let you go. The only people who had seen your Mark had been Draco and other Death Eaters, after all. And Snape. But he'd been killed by Voldemort too.

A knock sounded on your door, bringing you out of your thoughts. You looked up from your Potions homework to call out, "Come in!"

In came Silver, his class robes still on. You gave him a quizzical look, and he smiled slightly in response.

"It's dinner time, dummy," he remarked, and one glance at the clock told you he was right. You'd been studying for your final Potions exam of the term for three hours.

"Oh shit, you're right," you said as you stood up, leaving your desk in exactly the state it was already in. Silver glanced over the parchments and books strewn across your workspace, sighing as he did so. "I can't believe we've only got one term left," he breathed, and you nodded. You couldn't believe it either. It seemed surreal, almost.

So you left your room with Silver, hurrying up the stairs to meet Marin outside the Great Hall. Arlie was right beside her, ready to join the three of you for dinner. You'd grown much closer to Arlie in the months since the Battle of Hogwarts, and you knew it was his way of distracting himself from the grief of losing his girlfriend. The two of them had been together since second year, you couldn't imagine the pain he was in.

"Heard anything from Malfoy?" Marin asked as the four of you dug into your dinner. She did this almost weekly, and you had yet to give her a positive answer.

"Nothing yet," you responded, shoveling mashed potatoes into your mouth. "I honestly don't expect to hear anything from him while I'm still in school. I think everyone assumes we've broken up."