In The End

Chapter 6 - Green Apple

Draco spent the next week avoiding Eliza, as he had done many times before. He had become painfully aware of the fact that they were becoming a little too close lately. Despite the confusing feelings he'd been dealing with, he needed to constantly remind himself of the whole reason why they hated each other. She was a mudblood, for Merlin's sake!

Eliza had noticed this change but shrugged it off. It was nothing new. Draco was many things, but most of all, he was predictable. Over the next while, she spent more time alone with the vanishing cabinet, trying out different charms to repair the damage.

One afternoon, she had a free lesson and decided to go and test out yet another mending charm she had read about. She made her way to the Room of Requirement, throwing yet another green apple between her hands. She wondered how long it would take for the house-elves to notice all the apples that had been going missing lately. 

When she arrived, she locked the door behind her and placed the apple inside the cabinet, as she had done so many times before. She took out her wand and pointed it at the cabinet.

"Harmonia Nectere Passus," she chanted.

Nothing happened.

"Harmonia Nectere Passus," she said again, more firmly this time.

She was careful not to be too forceful - every other time she had done that, the apple had exploded and she was left with another sticky mess.

"Harmonia Nectere Passus," she chanted once more.

This time, there was a distinct warping sound, instead of an exploding one, so she immediately opened the cabinet to find that it was actually empty inside! She stopped herself from getting too excited. She still had to bring it back, after all. She closed the cabinet and took a deep breath to focus.

"Harmonia Nectere Passus," she said again, hearing the same whooshing sound as before.

She yanked open the cabinet excitedly and found the apple. She felt positively light as she picked it up until she turned it over to find that there had been a chunk missing. She let out a tired sigh.

Still, it was something. Perhaps she should show Draco...

She shoved the apple into her pocket and strode purposefully towards the dungeons. When she arrived at the entrance to the Slytherin common room, she repressed her discomfort and cleared her throat.

"Pureblood," she said clearly, waiting for the password to be accepted so she could enter.

She walked inside to find Draco sitting on the same sofa she had found him on a mere week ago, only this time, Pansy Parkinson was pressed up to his side and Blaise Zabini was sitting in an armchair nearby.

"Malfoy, I need to show you something," she said coolly.

"What would a little mudblood such as yourself want with Draco?" Pansy sneered.

"Don't fret, cupcake. I'm not going to steal your precious boyfriend. I just need to pass on a message from one of the professors," she rolled her eyes.

"Then can you not just deliver it right here?" Draco asked in an annoyed tone.

"Well, I could, but I'm not sure you'd want me to," Eliza replied smugly, as she pulled out the apple with a chunk out of it and started throwing it up and catching it.

As realisation dawned on him, he cursed under his breath and removed himself from Pansy before rising from the couch and striding towards the door.

"See you soon Draykie," Pansy said, blowing a kiss.

Draco looked rather unimpressed by this, which only delighted Eliza more.

"Come on, Draykie," she smirked, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the common room.

As soon as they were alone in the corridor, Draco jerked his hand from her grasp.

"Why would you do that?" he asked, his cheeks starting to redden.

"What? Don't you like being called Draykie? I think it's adorable," Eliza grinned, not waiting for Draco to follow as she spun on her heels and quickly made her way towards the Room of Requirement.

"Bloody hell, Macnair, do you have a death wish?"

"Why? Am I supposed to be afraid of Pansy?" she scoffed.

"No, you're supposed to be afraid of me!" he spat, as they stopped outside the door.

There was a pause.

"Ha! What could you possibly do to make my life worse, Draco?" Eliza met his eyes with hardened eyes.

This caught Draco off guard. He had never really considered Eliza's life before. He realised he really didn't know anything about her other than the fact that she had muggles for parents and her uncle was Walden Macnair.

Eliza rolled her eyes impatiently before turning and opening the door, Draco following her inside without a word.