dark side • draco malfoy

22 | Apparition

Two weeks later, I found myself walking through the Hogwarts corridors with Hermione, Ron, and Harry, on our way to the Great Hall for our first apparition lesson. Of course, I'd have to wait until my seventeenth birthday in March to take my test, but the Ministry instructor only comes to Hogwarts once a year, meaning that everyone must take lessons at the same time, no matter when their birthday may be.

Hermione began to explain her new and improved ideas for S.P.E.W. to us, and I felt myself slowly zoning out and becoming lost in my own thoughts.

As much as I tried not to let it bother me, I couldn't help but notice that I hadn't spoken to Draco, or hardly even seen him, since we had returned to Hogwarts. I had only seen him in the classes we shared, and every time he caught me staring he would quickly look away. I wasn't sure why he was avoiding me, but I was determined to get to the bottom of it eventually.

Looking up, I realized that we had reached the Great Hall.

"Ready, guys?" Harry asked with a small smirk on his face, knowing that we were all probably going to be total rubbish at apparition.

"Hell yes. Let's do this." Ron grinned at his best friend. Ever since Fred and George had gotten their apparition licenses two years ago, he had been so anxious to get his license, and had been talking about it nonstop for the last week.

As the four of us entered the Great Hall, I noticed that the tables had been moved to the sides of the room, a small, pudgy looking Ministry wizard stood at the front of the room, and dozens of sixth years stood scattered around him.

"Silence, please!" Professor McGonagall suddenly appeared behind us, easily commanding the attention of everyone in the room. She nodded towards the unknown man in front of us, and we all turned to face him.

"Good morning, my name is Wilkie Twycross. I will be your Ministry apparition instructor for the next eight weeks, and I hope to aid you all in passing your apparition tests." The funny looking Ministry wizard greeted us with a noticeably forced smile.

"Malfoy, be quiet and pay attention!" McGonagall suddenly snapped, and I looked over my shoulder to see him angrily whispering to Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott. I silently wondered what they had been conversing about so aggressively, but decided to let it go and focus on what the small wizard in front of us had to say.

Suddenly, wooden hoops appeared on the floor in front of every student, and Wilkie Twycross proceeded to drill the three D's into our brains (Destination, Determination, and Deliberation). We were forced to endure several more minutes of his dull, monotonous voice explaining how to properly apparate and disapparate, and how not to get splinched, before we were finally allowed to begin trying it.

At first, no one was moving anywhere. But after awhile, a few successful students managed to apparate inside of their wooden hoops.

I found it extremely hard to focus on moving myself into the centre of my hoop because I was too busy wondering why the hell Malfoy was ignoring me. To be honest, he had been the only thing on my mind recently.

Finally, I managed to apparate, although I didn't necessarily end up inside my hoop. Instead, I landed on top of something warm and soft - Draco Malfoy.

"What the hell, Chapman?" He groaned under my body weight, rolling his eyes at me. I was surprised to hear that he had stopped calling me by my first name.

Hadn't we been making progress?

Hadn't we been friends?

Hadn't we kissed?

"Er, sorry Malfoy. I was aiming for my hoop, not you." I grumbled awkwardly, pushing myself off of him and not offering to help him to his feet. I watched his eyes travel down past my face, and I suddenly realized that the necklace I had been wearing had slipped out from beneath my robes.

"You're wearing it." He blurted out as his eyes widened in surprise that I was wearing the necklace he had given me for Christmas.

"Yeah. Why have you been avoiding me?" I shot back, ignoring his comment and glaring at his stupid, gorgeous face.

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

"Bullshit." I snapped, frustrated at his obvious lies and short answers. I was just about to begin questioning him further, when the Ministry wizard interrupted me.

"Good job today, everyone. I'll see you next week for another lesson!" Wilkie Twycross suddenly spoke up, giving us a weak round of applause before packing his bag and hurrying out of the Great Hall.

I shot Malfoy one last glare, and if looks could kill, he would've been dead. This was definitely far from over.

***********************************

"So, what was with you apparating right on top of Malfoy?" Harry asked, sipping at his pumpkin juice with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I uh, I don't know." I chuckled, silently praying that Harry wouldn't keep prying for information. Sadly, my luck wasn't that good.

"Don't you have to be really focusing on where you're going to apparate? What were you focusing on?" Damnit Harry.

"I was just thinking about what you told me in September, about your hunch." I came up with the lie on the spot. I could see that my answer seriously interested him, and I figured that he was probably excited that someone was finally sharing his suspicions about Draco Malfoy.

"Finally, someone believes me. I know I have no solid proof, but it just seems so obvious to me." Harry exclaimed, almost knocking his glass of pumpkin juice over in his excitement.

"I'm not jumping to any conclusions yet, I was just thinking it over. Listen Harry, I just remembered that I really need to talk to, uh, Parvati, so I'm going to head back to the common room. I'll see you later." I shot him a quick smile as the false words just tumbled out of my mouth, before grabbing my books and speed-walking out of the Great Hall.

I was sure that I left a very confused-looking Harry Potter behind me, but I didn't dare look back.