Heart of Darkness [#4]

Chapter Nine

Thanks for all the views, seriously you all are amazing. Even though this was published in 2012, as of 6/11/15 I have edited this series.

Chapter Nine:

Studying for my O.W.L.'s was killing me. Quidditch has gotten harder as well. Blaise had no idea what he was doing so to make up for that he was overworking everyone and scheduling super long practices. Quality over quantity Blaise. Harry's words stuck in my head too. He was so convinced Draco was a Death Eater. I highly doubted that, and paid attention to what Draco was doing. It was nothing too out of the ordinary. It was now the middle of October and I still haven't seen anything or heard anything suspicious from him.

           

Finally it was our first Hogsmeade trip. It was nice to not be coped up studying in the castle. I watched as Dasha left with Ellias and Eowyn left with her sister. This year was the first year I was going the normal way, because I had Silvius sign it before I left and that counted for me to go because he was over seventeen. Veronica and I walked down to Hogsmeade together. It was snowing out, but I enjoyed the cold. "Have you seen Draco?" Parkinson asked stopping in front of us.

           

"No," I replied. Did he even leave the castle? Pansy turned away from me and continued walking. That was strange, he usually loved going to Hogsmeade and spending all the money he had just to buy things other people couldn't have.

           

"Wonder where Draco is," Veronica said. I definitely agreed, why did he seem to be disappearing a lot lately. Harry's accusation kept ringing in my head, but it wasn't true. It just couldn't be.

           

We shopped for a bit but didn't buy much. Veronica told me Fred and George's shop was a thousand times better than Zonko's. Walking past the Three Broomsticks, we noticed Slughorn was talking to Harry. It was packed inside, probably because it was so cold out here. "Have you heard about that Slugclub?" Veronica asked me.

           

"Yeah," I replied, "I wasn't invited."

           

"Me either," she said with a shrug. "I wonder what it's all about anyways." I nodded. Neither of us would be invited. As good as she was at Defense Against the Dark Arts, it didn't matter. You could clearly tell Slughorn feared Death Eaters. Veronica and I didn't feel like going into the Three Broomsticks due to how packed it was. People were treating me differently this year now that they knew about my father. Plus, I didn't want to run into my Gryffindor friends.

           

The two of us continued walking down the snow covered path back towards the school. We heard a scream. In the distance I saw the strangest thing I've ever seen...Katie Bell was in the air? She was screaming and then crashed down onto the snow covered ground. Thankfully there was a thick layer of snow, otherwise she would have slammed into the hard ground. We rushed over so we could see closer. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were there trying to help. Hagrid came by and carried the girl away. "What happened?" I asked them.

 The three looked to be in a hurry, but Harry called back to us, "I think Draco Malfoy cursed her, I swear it was him!" Then they took off after Hagrid. Veronica rolled her eyes at Harry, but I couldn't help but wonder. Was he right? Draco did go missing and I hadn't seen him. No, it couldn't be true. Draco never came to Hogsmeade, I would have seen him.