Slytherin's Girl

Chapter 19

“Talk to me,” said Draco. He pulled me into a hug and we settled on a couch in the common room.

A guilty look crossed my face. I was a horrible friend. I started to shut him out and retreated into myself. I didn’t even realise how much I neglected my best friend until he forced me to take a break from my own thoughts.

After that day with Severus… I just don’t know what to do and I didn’t want Draco to be pulled into the whole ordeal. A week later I still had no idea what I was supposed to do. I know I decided to be better than Dumbledore, but how? It’s far easier said than done.

“I’m sorry,” was all I could utter.

“You’re closing down again. I miss you, Salaza.”

I looked at him. A tear glistened in my eye and my throat pulled shut. I bit down on my bottom lip and gave him a helpless shrug.

“Speak to me,” he repeated. “What’s going on?”

“My life’s a lie,” I finally said. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Tell, me about it,” he said with no trace of sarcasm in his voice. It was scary, honestly.

So I told him. I told him everything. I told him about what Severus had said, I told him what I realised about Dumbledore. I mentioned Severus’s promise to stay at my side. I explained how I went to Grimnauld Place and got the horcrux and didn’t tell Dumbledore that I went.

Draco listened. He didn’t interrupted and he didn’t zone out half way through. He actually took in everything I told him. When I got to the part of Severus helping me he gave me a startled look. He refrained from asking anything and waited for me to finish.

“Why do you trust him?” he asked after a few moments of silence. “You hate him.”

“Draco…” I did not know how to tell Draco the truth. I knew the man was Draco’s godfather too. How do you tell your best friend that the two of you share a godfather, but nobody ever told you. I needed Draco to trust Severus. The two of them had become the most important people in my life at that point.

Draco saw me biting my lip in thought and I caught a glimpse of concern in his eyes.

“Salaza? You’re scaring me. What happened?” asked the blond.

I realized that there was no other way. I had to rip the bandage of, fast. I did and Draco’s reaction was immediate. A look of distrust clouded his feathers and he wiped away a tear of betrayal from his eyes.

“Why didn’t he tell me? I’m his godson. He always told me everything!” exclaimed my best friend.

I didn’t believe that exclamation, but decided against commenting on it. Instead I pulled Draco close to me and allowed him to whisper his broken words of betrayal in my ear.

“So you actually trust him now?” I could see that he was judging me and my answer could make or brake our friendship. I truly did not know how to answer without being blunt. A real Griffindor move, but I wasn’t a hatstall for no reason.

I decided to tell the truth, so I looked him straight in the eyes and deadpanned, “No.”

Confusion crossed his face, but I could find no sign of distaste in his expression. I guess I didn’t lose his trust, which was a relief, but it also meant that my further explanation had to be done with great care.

“He chose to pick sides in an argument where he shouldn’t have. He has a clear distaste for people that did nothing to deserve it and he does nothing to hide it. He doesn’t explain anything he teaches in class and he insults all of his student which breaks them down.”

Draco gave me a dubious look. “You know you just explained why he’s a horrible person. That’s not an actual reason to not trust him.”

I huffed in annoyance. It was true, what Draco said, but I did not know how to answer him. So I just stared at him in defeat. Draco met my gaze and stared back with the intensity of one of Snape's glares.

“He gave me no reason to trust him,” was the honesty he was met with.

He nodded and asked, “Are you coming back to class?”

“No, I would rather not waste my time like that. He gave me permission to study in the library instead so now I’m not breaking any rules.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“We are going to find that last horcrux,” was my determined answer. “I will not stop until all of them are destroyed.”

Draco had a thoughtful look on his face. “Didn’t Dobby say something about Auntie Bellatrix's vault?”

“Yeah, but how are we going to get in?”

“Well, I am her nephew, the goblins will probably let me in and secondly, couldn’t Dumbledore pull a few strings and get us in? You know, get a search warrant to look for potentially dark objects in a known deatheater's vault?”

“I… I actually didn’t think about that. I should go as Dumbledore.”

“Wait, Salaza! Do you trust him?”

“Who now?” I asked, distracted by my own hurry to get to the headmaster's office.

“Dumbledore, do you trust him?”

I gave him a confused look, but saw only pure interested and curiosity on his face.

“No.”

He smiled, nodded and gestured for me to proceed. I decided to question him about his own trust for the people we are forced to work later. First, I had to go and talk to Dumbledore. If we could just walk into the bank and take what we need… it sounded to easy, but it was a possibility we had to explore.

Voldemort will fall and once he does, Dumbledore will fall after him.