"I strongly dislike you, Draco Malfoy."
Evangeline Hastings is transferring from Beauxbatons to Hogwarts for her sixth year of school. While struggling with the death of her mother, she meets a mysterious boy named Draco Malfoy, who she can't help...
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"Draco," I breathed. "You're here."
He walked over to me and took a seat beside me on the couch. His face was even paler than it normally was. He looked thinner too, almost sickly.
"Why didn't you come on the train?" I asked.
He laid back on the couch and spread his legs out. "I had things to attend to at home."
"What—"
"I don't want to talk about it." He looked at me, his eyes sparkling. "Please?"
"Okay," I said softly. "We don't have to talk about it. Are you all right?"
"Fine. It's good to be back at Hogwarts," he said dully. He reached his hand up and ran it through his platinum blonde hair.
"How are you feeling, you know, after that night in the Astronomy Tower?" I asked, dropping my voice into a whisper even though we were alone.
He let out a large sigh. "Fine, I guess."
I raised an eyebrow. "You guess? What's that supposed to mean?"
He grimaced. "I guess I'm just glad that I didn't have to kill him. I don't think I could have done it."
I looked him in the eyes. "And your family, are they all right? You-Know-Who said he would kill them if you didn't do it, right?"
He met my eyes. "Yeah, they're fine," he breathed, relief in his voice.
"That's good." I swallowed. "It's good to see you again."
"You too."
We stared at each other for a few seconds. I flicked my eyes down at my lap. "Well... er... we should probably go to bed."
"Right," he muttered.
We stood up and I made my way over to the staircase to the girls dormitories.
"Goodnight," he called out.
"Goodnight," I echoed and made my way up the stairs.
* * *
The next day, I woke up bright and early to go to my first class of seventh year, Dark Arts with Professor Carrow. Carmen was right. They hadn't made a mistake with the name. They really had changed Defense Against the Dark Arts to just the Dark Arts.
I quickly dressed in my Slytherin robes and made my way to class. It still took place in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The classroom looked darker than it usually was, and that was saying something, since Snape was the old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he had made the room dark already. The blinds were closed shut, the only light coming from torches on the walls. There were no decorations. There wasn't even a blackboard.
