If I Lose Myself

Chapter Six: Draco

Chapter Six: Draco

November 1996

October went by as fast as the first month back to Hogwarts. Two months have passed and Draco still didn't have any luck with the mission that the Dark Lord entrusted. Most people would consider him to be at one with the Dark Arts, but the last thing he wanted to do was murder somebody. He couldn't possibly do it – it was a violation of nature's law and not only that, but he couldn't bear to be the person to have to do it, that is, to kill Albus Dumbledore.

He used to be proud of the opportunity of course. He acted around his friends as though he was still upbeat about it, ready to perform it at any given moment. But deep down, behind the sneering pride, was the feeling of guilt—in spite of not having done anything remotely close to what he was supposed to... yet.

And thus, his stagnant progression in the matter had resolved to desperate measures. An attempt, being, to have a cursed necklace sent to Dumbledore second-handedly.

During his visits at Hogsmeade to practice Occlumency with his aunt, he had put Madam Rosmerta under the Imperius curse and cast a Protean charm on two coins, giving one to her, so that it'd be easier for them to communicate. He set the witch to give a cursed necklace to an unknowing Hogwarts student three days prior to Hogsmeade weekend, considering that he was stuck in detention with McGonagall that very day. In that instance, he knew it would work – for who could have guessed that the great Dumbledore's downfall would be that of a necklace cursed with the darkest magic? But when the student that was supposed to deliver the necklace – Katie Bell – touched a bit of it, everything went to hell. This depressed him in more ways than one, and had him spend three sleepless nights wondering what else could have gone wrong.

If he hadn't had any luck with that one mission, he hadn't had one with the case of mending the Vanishing Cabinet. He'd been going there every night since the start of the school year, having great difficulty every time he had come close to doing it. The books in the library have taught him that it takes several numbers of great concentrations to pursue the fixing of the Vanishing Cabinet, and despite his own version of "focus", he was unfortunately none the wiser.

Today was one of the biggest Quidditch matches to grace the school, Slytherin VS. Gryffindor. As Seeker, and perhaps had it been a normal school year, he would have had the heart to play for his team and beat those blundering Gryffindors while also watching Weasley make a fool of himself. He's seen the red headed moron play Keeper and he was the worst he'd seen in the history of the game. But as much as his ego wanted to play a big part in the game, he took this opportunity of free time to fix the Vanishing Cabinet. Hence, he paid someone else to take his place in the match.

"Malfoy, this is ridiculous. I'm not drinking this bloody thing." Crabbe complained as he threw in a bit of Flora Carrow's hair into the bubbling green goo of the Polyjuice potion. "It's repulsive."

"And why turn us into girls? Do you know how weird that would feel?" Vincent agreed just as he too put in a bit of Hestia Carrow's hair into his own bottle of the potion.

"If you two don't stop complaining, I'll have you both eating slugs for the rest of the week, you hear?" Draco told them tartly as he looked out towards the corridor, checking to see if anyone was with them there. The seventh floor was always quite abandoned, having little to no significance except of course for the location of the Room of Requirement and the stairs leading up to the Astronomy Tower. "Now drink those bloody potions down to the last drop or I'll have you both hexed with boils this instant!"

This seemed to have triggered their fear and with the two chugging down the disgusting potions, their bodies began to lurch and twist in odd angles. What was once Crabbe and Goyle, tall and tough in figure; turned into the small, petite forms of the Carrow twins. They examined themselves in disgust before laughing like a bunch of idiots.