dear draco,

thirty-six

O N E M O N T H L A T E R

D R A C O ' S P. O. V.

~

Belly and I both stay at home after Easter, rather than returning to school. Hogwarts has become so bad that at this stage I don't know which is worse, the school or my house, but my parents don't give me an option. While my mother speaks through tears about how dangerous the wizarding world has become – how she can't bear to go another day with me out of her sight, my father rants on about how much more use I will be at home than at "that school"; how lucky they were that I was home for Easter holidays exactly when Harry Potter was caught, and all that. I think he might really be on the same page as my mother on this one. He just won't say it.

Belly's mother had been furious when she returned home after being here for more than a week. Alternating between sobbing and screaming, saying how much she needed her after her father died, and when Belly disappeared, she thought she had lost her as well. Belly says she doesn't regret coming here, but has never felt so much guilt in her life.

We don't see each other much; we both have our own homes, our own responsibilities. She writes me letters, well-worded and overflowing with love and concern. They're nothing compared to having her beside me, but keep me going until the magical moments I see her again. A couple of years ago, my parents might have cared if Belly came over, in all her fierceness and courage, but in the chaos that is today, they don't appear to give her much thought. My father barely sleeps and my mother has bitten her nails to stubs, but as far as love goes, my happiness on my terms isn't something they want to reject. For once.

That said, Belly coming here isn't always ideal. Not only is it unsafe, but the Death Eaters that come in and out of the house are often bored out of their minds, and consider the opportunity of picking on a pretty seventeen-year-old girl a treat.

I've just pulled her away from Yaxley, who had the nerve to actually play with her hair, and taken her outside to climb up the fountain in the middle of the garden. The Death Eaters barely come outside, but even if they did, the garden is huge and they would never find us all the way up here. I climb up after her, watching as she dangles her legs over the edge of the tall stone fountain wall, craning her neck to see if she can still spot Yaxley through the house's large glass windows. Thankfully, the sun is setting, and we can only see each other.

Her brown eyes flash, wonderfully dark against her fair hair. "He's quite a creep."

I grunt in response as I sit down beside her, still fighting the urge to go back and punch him.

"No offense," says Belly. "But the people here are pretty scary. They almost make me miss Snape." She pauses, then adds, "Not the Carrows, though. They're still the worst."

I nod slowly. "Snape's not actually as bad as you might think, you know."

"After being terrorized by him for nearly six years straight, I find that hard to believe."

"He's bad," I concede. "But he's not awful." When Belly doesn't reply; waits patiently for clarification, I sigh. "Snape, um." I shrug awkwardly. "I made a deal with him at the start of the year. If I helped him – just with random stuff – he would, well. Protect you, I guess."

Belly stares at me. "That's why you were always skulking around his office-"

"I wouldn't call it skulking."

"And that's why you came into my detention, when Snape needed Filch for something."

I nod. "In my defence, I didn't know that you were the wayward pupil in detention."