You're Safe With Me ( Draco Malfoy )

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"No way." Alice whispered, looking to Hermione with wide eyes as she was nodding in confirmation. Alice let out a scoff, shock all over her face. "There's no way that Snape was the Half-Blood Prince."

The girls were sat on Draco and Alice's bed cross-legged, gossiping and catching up in a way very similar to how they used to spend their time in their old dorm room at Hogwarts. Since Hermione and Ron returned, most of Alice's time had been spent catching up with the two of them. Hermione was informing Alice of the shocking revelation that was made just after she and Draco disappeared, when Snape revealed his true identity to Harry while fleeing Hogwarts.

"I know, no wonder we couldn't find it in any of the books." Hermione muttered, frowning at how much time she wasted that she could've spent studying. "Other than that, we mostly spent our time worrying about you, and trying to stop Harry from going absolutely mad." She admitted, causing Alice to wince. Of course she missed Harry dearly, and was sure that she would be just as worried if he disappeared like she did.

"I feel terrible that I couldn't write, but my dad said that it was a safety risk." Alice explained with a frown, getting a sympathetic look from Hermione.

"He certainly isn't wrong, and Ron and I knew we would've heard if something bad had happened to you, but Harry just wouldn't listen. Eventually we managed to convince him that you were okay, but I don't think he ever really believed us." She grumbled with a pout. Both girls turned when there was a knock on the door, watching it swing open to reveal Bill on the other side, a smile on his face as per usual.

"Ladies, the meeting is starting." He announced, patting the doorframe before heading down the stairs, the girls following a few seconds later.

The kitchen was full of people, all members of the order ready for the days meeting, which was to be led by an ever-grumpy looking Mad-Eye Moody. Alice noticed Draco stood next to Tonks, the two of them talking and occasionally laughing.

Tonks had been making pretty regular trips to the burrow in an effort to get to know her younger cousin, and it had actually been going rather well. The two of them bonded over their mutual hatred for their aunt, but went on to realise that they actually had a fair amount in common. Alice was thankful that Draco finally seemed to have found family who had wholly good intentions with him, and from what she knew so far, Tonk's was just the type of family that he needed.

"Alice." Daniel greeted, walking to his daughter and pulling her in to a hug, which she gladly returned. "How have things here been? Everything going okay?" He asked with a smile, pulling down his jacket sleeve from where it had ridden up slightly when he hugged Alice.

"Yeah, dad, everything's going fine." She reassured. "How's work going?"

It was painfully obvious that his work had been taking a toll on Daniel. It looked as though he'd dropped a significant amount of weight, the usual rosy colour in his cheeks having been removed pretty much entirely. As well as that, the usually neat curls in his hair had been replaced with a messy mop, highlighting the dark circles beneath his eyes.

"It's..." He paused, thinking of the best way to word his thoughts. "It's stressful, to say the least."

After talking to Daniel, Alice and Hermione sat down at the table next to each other, but the spot on Alice's other side was quickly taken by Fred. Draco, obviously, noticed this, and shot Fred a killer glare, his jaw tense and his hands made in to fists. Fred very pointedly didn't look to Draco, while Alice was blissfully unaware of the tension as she chatted to Hermione.

Everyone's conversations were stopped, however, when Mad-Eye slammed his walking stick on the ground a few times, making a loud noise as to catch everyone's attention. Draco couldn't help but think how cute it was when Alice jumped slightly at the loud noise.