ruins ; harry potter [1]

thirty eight ; draco confesses

Written by Diana Riddle on a torn sheet of paper.

Sometimes, I think I see her in my dreams. My mother stands before me, smiling at me like she was so proud, like I was so brave, her hand outstretched for mine. She stands in a beautiful, flowy blue dress. It looked like she was being caressed by water, streaming over her limbs and body like a great river.

Dumbledore told me no one knows what happened to her. By now, most people assume that she's dead, as did I for a very long time. But now, if Tom Riddle really had created a Horcrux for her--

Interrupting her from her mindless scribbling, a great, illuminating, silver orb flew into her bedroom. For a moment, it merely floated before her, but then, a familiar voice boomed from it like a speaker:

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Now."

Severus Snape's incorporeal Patronus vanished into thin air, and before she had processed what she was doing, she ran.

She ran from her room with only her wand in hand and through the copious corridors until she reached the bathroom of the famous crying ghost. Behind the door, she saw Severus Snape crouched over a bloodied body and Harry not standing too far away.

As she approached the body on the ground, her eyes couldn't stop watching the crimson blood float in the water on the flooded floor like dye. It traveled like a cloud through the sky, but it didn't leave blue sky behind--it left contaminated poison in its wake.

Draco Malfoy was unconscious on the floor. Myrtle screamed nearby, but Diana could not hear it. Her eyes flicked from Harry to the bloodied body of Malfoy and back, before finally settling on Severus.

"What happened?" she asked him. Her voice was strong, but she did not feel strong.

Harry stuttered a stunned reply. "I didn't--I didn't know--"

She turned her glassy eyes to him. "What did you do?"

Snape continued muttering the countercurse as the wounds seemed to be healing right under his hand.

"Diana," said Snape, "take Draco to the hospital wing. Now."

And that's what she did. "Wingardium Leviosa," she muttered, and Draco's body lifted from the ground until he was floating in the air, and she ran to the wing, with his body trailing in front of her. She ran, her hair whipping in her wake, students ogling them with horror, but she did not care.

She pushed open the hospital wing doors and ran to the nearest bed, laying Draco on the bed carefully. Madam Pomfrey squeaked in surprise but rushed to the bloodied boy.

"Dittany," said Diana breathlessly. "He needs Dittany, now."

Madam Pomfrey was one step ahead of her. She had already conjured the small bottle and then began applying it to the boy's wounds. Diana stood nearby, her eyes plastered on the pale face of Draco Malfoy. It was red, like he had been crying.

Diana had never understood anyone right now more than she thought she understood Draco.

++

Diana did not eat, nor did she do anything but sit in her bedroom, staring into the blazing fire. Many hours later, she finally stretched her stiff legs and walked slowly out of her room and down many stairs and corridors until she arrived at the great double doors of the hospital wing. She pushed them open with ease, and the large room held only a quiet Draco Malfoy and a bustling Madam Pomfrey, though at the sight of Diana, she hustled into her office and closed the door behind her.

At the sound of the doors opening, Malfoy looked over. Again, it looked like he was crying, but as soon as his eyes settled on Diana his face morphed into one of pure terror. He scuttled clumsily up into a sitting position against the headboard and his eyes were wide and watery.