PRETENDING TO LIVE~ {The Lestrange Daughter #2}

𝟕𝟓. Poof

Draco, who was not yet allowed to stray too far from his bed, had demanded to know everything that had happened with Philips as soon as he caught wind of it. 

Valentine had been planning on telling him eventually, only she intended to use an abridged version of the events. Draco was already stressed enough without hearing all about his cousin getting temporarily abducted and jumping off cliffs, even if the cliffs in question, weren't all that high. She thought it was better he did not overexcite himself. The others didn't seem to have the foresight to think about that.

Leah had told the most of it, in vivid, exaggerated detail before Valentine could stop her and it had stressed Draco out as much as Valentine thought it would. 

They would have talked about Draco's injury or what happened in the Forbidden Forest, but everyone quickly became more focused on Liam being back with them. He'd slid back into the picture seamlessly. Blaze and Leah had filled him in on everything he missed. Even Draco had been happy to see him and very little seemed to make him happy at all these days.

Valentine visited the most. With Jane Philips removed from the school near immediately and Liam with friends, things were a lot less hectic. It didn't put Valentine's nerves at ease however. The school year was ticking away, Dumbledore's curse was spreading. There was still the case of Slughorn's memory and she had already begun to devise a plan to carry out the task herself. 

So, in the next three days, she visited Draco, irritated Snape and offhandedly reminded Leah and Blaze of the mass pile of school work they'd fallen back on. She ditched half of her classes in favour of reading Olivia's diary. Most of the teachers didn't say anything. They all knew what had happened Philips and probably assumed she was trying to process the ordeal. Which she wasn't but she took the opportunity none-the-less. And, of course, she made sure to be extra cold towards the students. 

The Ravenclaw's were too close to praising her actions for her own comfort. She'd worked too hard to cultivate her terrifying reputation to let it all crumble because she's gotten rid of one nut, albeit a rather unhinged one. She just did her best to remind people that she did it all because Jane had put her hands all over the property that didn't belong to her. That's what she told every Ravenclaw with the courage to thank her at least. She had enough confidence in the common opinion of her to fret all that much about it. It was what the six years had afforded her.

Valentine had come from the hospital wing when she stepped into the common room, literally kicking a first year out of the way.

She had gone to him right after dinner and Draco had spent the entire time brooding. For once it wasn't about himself. He'd wanted to do something the second Leah had blurted it all out. But his threat of 'Just wait until my father hears about this', didn't mean what it once had. His father was imprisoned and the Malfoy's didn't hold the same power they had before their fall.

Valentine had assured him that she didn't need it. She could only imagine the pain Jane Philips would be in at the thought of never seeing her again. It certainly allowed room for her vindictive side to come through.

She headed up the stairs to her dorm. All she really wanted was to get Olivia's diary and leave which she was thankfully able to do so without issue as Leah, Blaze and Liam were all sitting by the fire trying to scrap together passing grades and hadn't even seen her come in. 

With the diary tucked away in her robes she stepped back out into the hall and started on her way up out of the dungeon. Tonight she was going to start working on Slughorn. 

She was going to ask him for extra tutoring or help at the very least. Did she need it? Not at all, but since she'd been missing classes for days now since the Jane Philips incident, she thought it would be easy enough to pretend she had fallen behind. Slughorn liked her after all and if she could get him alone long enough, maybe spin some story but the trauma she was suffering from being abducted, then she could soften him up and crack him open. She was confident that she could do it, she just needed to use the time she had left of the school year before it was too late.