The World and Her Stars: One Shots

Eavesdropping

(PRE-WAR; on the train to Hogwarts to start their 6th year; the TWAHS version of events)

***

ROSE POV

My eyes snapped up to the compartment overhead where our bags sat, and immediately, unease settled over me.

The bag moved.

I know it did. I heard it. I saw it.

But I doubt any one of my friends was even paying attention. Blaise and Theo were acting as if everything was fine and dandy, and Crabbe and Goyle were too worried about getting their sweets off the trolley. Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent were blissfully unaware as they always were. They had no idea about the true state of things, and no idea what weight the marks on Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, Theo, Draco, and I's forearms held.

They didn't have a thing to worry about. No weight on their shoulders. No secrets to hide. No worries besides what they were going to wear to the first Room of Requirement party of the year.

But I felt it. The pressure. The expectations. The weight of the ink in my skin that burned no matter how hard I tried to ignore it.

Potter and his rag tag bunch of idiots had interfered with a mission the Dark Lord had sent our fathers on at the end of our fifth year. Malfoy's father and my own were the ones that had gotten themselves locked up in Azkaban, with Nott, Goyle, and Crabbe's father's escaping before the Auror's arrived. We were marked a week after, once the Dark Lord's rage had simmered.

And from that moment on, my alert went up, and I didn't ever see it coming back down.

My eyes zoned in on the bag, watching and waiting for it to move again, as I tried to think of what the cause of it could be.

First the entire train compartment goes pitch black, and now bags are moving all on their own, with no magical interference?

This wasn't a coincidence. This wasn't me being paranoid or me jumping to conclusions.

There could only be one explanation for this, of course. Someone was trying to listen in on the whisperings of the Slytherin car, trying to get information on Salazar knows what. As if we would talk about such topics in the middle of the bloody train. We were idiots. 

But it appears our eavesdropper is. 

Potter.

Because who the hell else could it be. 

I pulled my eyes away from the bag, swallowing the lump in my throat, when I was immediately met with another set of eyes. Grey ones that nearly matched the clouds outside. Eyes that held the same suspicious awareness as mine.

Draco saw it too. 

Why that made me feel relieved, I didn't know. I was just glad at least one person here was paying attention to something other than themselves. Can't say I'm not shocked that it's Malfoy of all people though. He's usually the one furthest up his own ass. Maybe 6th year will be the year he looks away from the mirror—or from me—or from the other witches in short skirts—long enough to take things seriously.

Although, I highly doubt that. 

Right now, though, it appears that Malfoy and I are on the same page. For once.

He raised an eyebrow at me, silently asking me if I saw the bag move as well. I breathed out, trying to appear casual as I nodded my head just slightly. I reached up, pretending to brush some hair from my forehead, knowing that Malfoy would know what—for who—I was referring to.