Cessation ⌁ Draco Malfoy [3/4] ✔

12

The Halloween feast was over almost as soon as it started. There was no proper meal for the students before the sweets were presented. It was just sweets. Many students were going to go to bed tonight with aching teeth and aching, rumbling stomachs. The kitchens tonight were bound to be full of students. 

Daphne didn't mind all the sweet food for dinner. Her satisfied smile remained on her face as her tongue lapped at her chin and upper lip, desperate to finish off what she couldn't at the Slytherin table. Emma didn't eat much and her stomach rumbled. 

"The bathrooms are definitely going to be full tonight," Emma joked, trying to keep her mind from her hunger. Daphne laughed. 

"And if Millicent and Pansy don't go at all, the dormitory is going to stink all night." Emma didn't know whether Daphne was joking or not. "Bombs will go off all night and I'll have to sleep out in the cold common room by the fire that isn't even warm. And I'll leave you to suffer."

"Oh, no you don't," Emma chuckled at her friend. 

"I'll keep you warm," said a voice from behind them. It sounded smug. Emma didn't need to turn around to see who had said it. She could sense the wink and the smirk in his voice. 

"Ew, Blaise," Daphne sneered as Blaise and Draco walked passed the two girls. "Emma, you'd better be careful leaving Draco alone with Blaise. He'll learn things from the prat."

Draco looked over his shoulder and frowned, but his eyes didn't meet any others. Emma knew what he was thinking, and she was thinking it too. She hadn't told Daphne that they had broken up. They were silent as they walked down the steps towards the dungeons, the whispers passed between no students other than those who were in Slytherin moving towards one of the coldest parts of the castle. 

Git Dementors, thought Emma bitterly, tucking her hands under her armpits.

There were hundreds of Dementors surrounding the castle, quite close, too, thus increasing the effect of despair and an icy chill that echoed around the corridors of the ancient school. Emma was surprised that she couldn't see her breath whenever she talked. 

"I'm so cold," Emma shuddered, rubbing her arms. Daphne nodded absently, rubbing her own hands. "If Pansy and Millicent do drop those bombs they'd better be warm."

Daphne laughed loudly and Emma caught it like an infectious cold and smiled. 

"I have something to tell you," said Emma as they entered their dormitory, and she was glad that Millicent and Pansy weren't inside. She sat on her bed and wrapped her blanket around her shoulders. "And I don't want you to make a big deal out of it. I've only just gotten over it and I don't want...just don't pity me. It'll only make me feel worse. I don't want to be sad about it again."

"OK..." Daphne said slowly, raising an eyebrow.

"You've been asking me about it a lot and I've been changing the topic conversationally."

"Wait, what? I have? You have?"

"Yes..." Emma said, keeping her eyes anywhere except on Daphne's. She was afraid she would see pity in them and it would hit her all over again. She had cried some nights about it and it made her feel over-sleepy in the mornings. "Last term...er...Draco kind of...broke up with me..."

Daphne gasped and made movement but Emma paid no attention. Her chest burned saying these words aloud. She didn't speak about it to anyone; she was afraid of the reactions. 

"He what!?"

"It's OK," Emma said softly. "I'm OK."

"That git..." Daphne hissed to herself. "And I was just starting to dig this relationship as well. Why'd he do it?"

Emma shrugged. "This whole You-Know-Who mess most likely. He just wants it over."

"He broke up with you because of that?" Daphne pulled a face and raised an eyebrow. "His parents are Death Eaters. Some of us know that much. How are you in any way relevant to You-Know-bloody-Who?"

Good question, Emma thought. Although she was deep in it, she still felt herself frowning. She was somewhat relevant to You-Know-Who had it not been for her deceased friend. Emma didn't even stop and think about the real reason behind why Draco might have broken up with her. She had been too busy crying and being angry with him and avoiding him and mourning the death of her mother to care enough to really stop and think about it. 

Her first thought was that Harry was right - Draco was a Death Eater. There was no denying it now. Voldemort had given him the task to kill their Headmaster and it was done, but not by him. It was still clear, though, Emma did not need to see the mark inked into his skin to know it. But she never really thought about the danger behind their relationship had it gone on. He and his parents were behind the Dark Lord now. She could see he was scared but hid it behind a stone face. 

"I'm sorry. I really want to be with you, I do..." she heard him saying, "but I don't think it's a good idea what with everything that's going on."

"I get it," she heard her own voice saying, and it was enough to bring the tears back. 

She didn't let them fall, though. It was dark and Daphne couldn't see them, which she was happy about. 

Draco had broken up with her to keep her safe. She was so stupid not to have realised! It was too risky for them to be together in times like these, she knew that, but she didn't even stop to use her brains and give a good long think about it. 

"Anyway," Daphne said after a long minute of silence, yawning. "Millicent told us last year that you two broke up but we thought she was just saying that to shut us up."

Emma shook her head and fell back against her bed. She hadn't even noticed the cold while she was away in her thoughts. Daphne was wrong about the fire in the common room. It did make a difference and most nights after the girls were asleep, Emma would sneak out into the common room and sit by the fire with a book, or would just listen to the words in her head. Sometimes she would sit there and think about her mum. Or James and Lily. Or even Harry. And whatever was hollow inside of her filled itself with guilt. 

"What are you thinking about?" the blonde's voice broke the silence.

"Nothing," Emma said quietly, staring up at green that was her bed. 

"You're an amazing liar," Daphne whispered loudly. There was another short silence and then, "you still wear his ring."

Emma didn't look in the dark but her finger distinctively twisted the mood ring around her finger. 

"My mum gave me my last mood ring," Emma told her, prodding the ring with her finger and her thumb. "I lost it, and then Draco gave me this one. It makes me think of her without getting sad. It's like a part of her..." Emma sighed loudly and forced a laugh. "I sound stupid, don't I?"

"Now, you do," Daphne said. "But you didn't. Anyway, this talk is making me depressed. Tell me something."

Emma furrowed her eyebrows and smiled at the roof. "Tell you what?"

"Anything. Blow my mind."

"OK..." Emma frowned as she used her brain to think of anything but Harry and the people who had died for her. "Oh! When I was a baby I had strawberry blonde hair."

"What!" Daphne cried. "Seriously?"

"Yep," Emma said proudly, knowing, now that she thought of it, that it was a cross between both of her parents' hair colours. "It just darkened over the years and by the time I was six it was brown."

"Well...you blew my mind, just like I said."

"Now we've just got to prepare ourselves for the bombs."

"And now we've just got to prepare ourselves for the bombs," Daphne repeated.