Bones ⋆ Draco Malfoy (3)

| TWENTY-FOUR: Sectumsempra-ed

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TWENTY-FOUR SECTUMSEMPRA-ED

     T'WAS THE FIRST day of school after Christmas, and all through the house, the only noise audible is, "Where's that old deck of tarot cards—?"

     Briar's been staying in her old room more than usual, Livvy notes, over the holidays. She's yet to tell Livvy why she keeps on returning asking about random things — for example, the tarot cards that have been collecting dust since the late eighties — and then she disappears again. It's mildly odd, and also a little annoying.

     He doesn't think much of it. His sister's probably got the plan for world peace up her sleeve, or something, and she's just sneaking around to sort that out. He's got a feeling that, whatever she's doing, she's excited about it, because every time he asks her why she's searching for some random Divination thing, she grins at him.

     Anyway. The train ride back to school was just as awkward as the one in September, and the one back home in December. Livvy sits with his friends, but he feels wrong sitting with them. He misses Poppy — fucking hell, he misses her and he misses being able to leave his friends when they start talking shit because he's got someone else, he's welcome in Poppy's group.

     But they're gone. And although he hasn't spoken much to the other three, he misses all of them. He misses the year before. He misses when the only care in his brain were, how can I make my best friend like me back? and how can I sneak out tonight?

     He misses his life being simple.

     He misses being a kid, with grass-stained knees and a strong sense of self, because when he was younger, knowing himself just meant knowing what his favourite show was — and, although he never mentioned it, he knew there was a reason that he didn't look at girls like the boy down the road did. There was a reason he got all giddy when he spoke to that boy, and not the boy's sister.

     Hell, he misses being in the same place as at least one family member. He isn't. He's on his own in school now. He's gotten so used to having his sister — and then the couple years with either his mum working there, or both parents working as teachers — that now he feels weird being here without a relative. He misses Aster, too. He misses Aster, regardless if Aster's approach to "Haha you're going to be a Death Eater" was a little blunt. He misses having somewhere in the school where he can hide away in, because there's always been at least one classroom his relative, a teacher, could let him hide out in. And even last year, there was the Room of Requirement. But that room isn't the same anymore. Just like him.

     As he sits down for breakfast, timetables land in front of certain students. Livvy questions why (a) Snape isn't handing them out, and (b) why they're getting a new one. Their timetables last all year. He also questions why he isn't getting a new one, and the majority of his friends (friends?) are being skipped.

     Pansy seems to get fed up. She snatches a timetable off of a third-year, and she frowns. It takes her a minute to read it, to figure out why it's changed. And when she does, she looks up at Livvy, eyes wide.

     "You didn't say your dad's coming back—"

     "What?" asks Livvy. "Give me that."

     Pansy hands it to him. The third-year looks at them, and he glares. Blaise then looks at the little boy, and he returns to eating his toast; Blaise looks triumphant.

     Livvy spots the name Professor B. Lupin on the boxes for Divination. A grin appears on his face, as he thinks to himself, I should've known!