Beyond The Veil「 The Veil Trilogy Part Ⅲ 」

[14] A Deadly Secret

I don't think I have ever been so anxious to go back to Hogwarts.

I used Floo Network to reach the school as I certainly did not have the patience to sit through the entire train ride to the castle. Upon reaching, I busied myself in setting up my office after the break, but my thoughts were still all over the place.

I couldn't wait to see Draco.

He had been right in saying that I would have many questions once I saw the photographs. I wanted to know the whole truth and all those questions that I needed to ask from him swirled in my head.

Why was I abandoned if I belonged to such a known Pureblood family? Why did no one other than the Weasleys come to rescue me from that dreaded asylum? And why were the Malfoys so intent on keeping the truth of my existence a secret?

I had thought a lot about everything I knew about myself and everything I had overheard from others. I had also thought about the different way both Narcissa and Draco reacted around me which was opposite to the cold hostility that Lucius Malfoy had each time we encountered each other.

Combined with all that Dobby had told me without smashing his head to smithereens, there was a lot of confusion that I wanted to clear up.

I knew the first day back from the break would pass by with no chance of getting to see Draco. I also had a fixed schedule that I couldn't change so there was no knowing when I would receive all the answers I badly needed to hear.

Time passed in a painstaking wait, and finally, on the third day after coming back from the Christmas Break, Draco sent a message through Dobby.

He had asked me to come to the Room of Requirement whenever I was free and as I had no class scheduled for the day due to Quidditch practice sessions, I left for the seventh floor as soon as I could.

When I reached, Draco wasn't there but shortly after he turned up as well. He didn't say anything until we stepped into the Room of Requirement and I saw that the room had taken the form of a place that was unknown to me but at the same time, strangely familiar.

As if I had been to that room sometime in the past and forgotten about it.

It looked like a study with a huge collection of books and a working space. I knew Draco must have wished for it to be there because each time I accessed the RoR by myself, it either took the form of the Marauder's Lair or the Dumbledore Army's meeting place.

"This is what the library at Malfoy Manor looks like," he told me, assessing that I was wondering why the place felt familiar, "we used to play here often when we were not out in the garden."

Hearing him mention the garden reminded me of that memory I had used to create my first corporeal Patronus. 

"So it's true... I am your sister?" It came out more as a question than a statement and I watched him nod his head slowly.

His grey eyes looked sad, just the way I had seen him back when he had told me about losing a loved one and being able to see them every single day without the conviction of getting them back.

"Draco... Why didn't you tell me before?" The words were getting choked as it was too overwhelming to just accept that.

"Would you have listened?" He replied with a question instead, taking a soft sigh before elaborating, "I couldn't tell you because Mother told me not to. There are so many things I still can't tell you."

"Why was I left at the asylum? Why did you guys never come to take me back? Why the Weasleys... Why...?" 

Before I could sink under the overwhelming questions, he gently made me sit down on the comfy plush chair by the hearth.