𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐞.

IX

The dark empty corridors were rather fond memories of students wandering around. However, there were no signs of any individual for a couple of days. Christmas night rose pretty quickly. Everyone in the wizarding—and muggle world had once again; made it one of the best events. However, I had locked the door to the common door, to disallow anyone from joining the Gryffindor's chamber. The feast wasn't difficult to procure; magic was surely the only way for me to survive.

But luckily, today was the day everyone was coming back.

Most of my time was spent thoroughly in the library. Sometimes it could take hours, sometime it'd take me five minutes. However, I caught the familiar blonde-haired Slytherin walking into the room of requirement almost every day. Every time I walked past the seventh floor, across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy; he always walked out of the chamber. As many times as I followed him, he was sneakier than anyone I've ever met.

And once another occasion, I stood in Hogwarts Library browsing books on the shelves. I was pretty fascinated by the category section of various powerful wizards, but my goal was to find anything related to 'Death Eaters'. After my last conversation with Draco Malfoy, I've kept myself away from him for three days. The incident between us was much more difficult than the previous one. Neither did any of us talk, but that's mostly my fault.

I slowly worked my way along the shelves scanning high and low for a mention of these motley collections, radical pure-blood supremacists under the section of Dark Arts. As my feet moved step by step around the tall frames, I mentally drafted a proposal to have the library organized.

That's when my eyes landed on the current book on one of the shelves. I bent over to pile it out of the organizing book sorted alphabetically.

"Is that the muggle whore, Melanie Belrose?"

My head snapped back to find an irritating girl with both hands clenched into fists; Pansy Parkinson. I watched in puzzled, gradually pulling the book out of the place while gazing into her eyes; which were two angry black points.

"Excuse me?"

A frown flashed across her face, and her mouth was in a tight pout. "You heard me very clear, Belrose. I listened from Lavender Brown, that you are dating Draco Malfoy."

I sighed miserably, hugging my book tightly while proceeding towards an empty table. However, Pansy was following me. "No, I'm not dating Draco Malfoy. We never were to begin–"

"–To hell with your lies!" Pansy suddenly barked, which startled me a bit as my feet came to a halt. "You have no right to be with a Slytherin, filthy whore! Not to mention you are nothing but a piece of meat!"

My eyes darkened with worry while staring into her facial expression of bitterness. "Pansy, I'm not sure what you girls are chatting about, but I have nothing to do with him."

Pansy chuckled humourlessly, followed by a winkling nose and a dirty grimace thrown at me. "Stop lying! You had your filthy mouth–"

"Stop it," I suddenly snapped with irritation. "You have no right to speak to me like this, Pansy. I'm not dating Malfoy, and neither did I wanted to be around him."

She watched me through furious eyes, scorning at the thought of it as if it was all a lie. And before there was anything further to say; I flickered past her and saw the familiar Slytherin standing in one corner. He didn't look amused with those piercing eyes bored on Pansy's back. His expression was completely difficult to read.

"This is not over, Belrose." Pansy hissed under her tone.

However, my attention was on Draco this entire time when he approached his fellow member; grasping both of her shoulders with an iron grip, and tossing her down on the table. It was so sudden that my anxiety came trembling back, paralyzed in my thoughts. Pansy began puzzling herself at the table, but he seemed to hold her down with his clutch.