A Slytherin Secret; Draco Malfoy

T H I R T E E N

LAUGHING WITH LONGBOTTOM;

Draco's pov

When I saw Snape, relief flushed over me. I had never been so happy to see him.  Snape and I had a, how do I put it, complex relationship, only a few people knowing the reasoning behind our form of closeness.

Over the summer break of the 6th year, I had been chosen by the dark lord to complete a horrendous task. I had never wanted to do it, but I had to, for my family; more so, my mother.

Snape, being the imbecile he is, took upon making the Unbreakable Vow. So now I was stuck with him, him following me everywhere he could. The mark on my forearm haunts me every night, the pain, the meaning, everything about it I despise, but I mustn't tell a soul how truly lonely and empty I felt, not even Elle.

Snape cleared his throat and spoke with his usual smooth and deep voice, "Mr. Malfoy, do you know how much yours and Mrs. Miles's disappearance has affected the school?"

"Sir, with all due zero respect, me and Elle didn't choose to wander into this shit whole. Also, much offense, we really weren't worried about the well being of this treacherous excuse of a school."

Snape looked at me wide-eyed, I could see the anger rising up inside of him. "Mr. Malfoy, you shall not speak to me like that, also you mustn't ever speak about the school like that in front of me ever again!"

"Oh please, you don't give a bloody shit about this school, you never have. Stop trying to act one way, when you feel another." I sneered as he started my way.

I stood there, staring at him, him staring back. I felt like punching him in the face, that's how I usually felt around him now and days. I was about to, but then we were interrupted by a familiar and quite annoying voice. "ahem." I removed my gaze from Snape and onto Longbottom, "Is Elle around here?" he asks, looking firmly at me. "Erm, yes, that reminds me, I need to get back to her, you may follow," I said nodding at him, his reaction showed that he was obviously astonished.

We made our way back to her, I crouched next to her and flattened out her hair. "It's a good thing you guys found us, I didn't want to bring it up with her, but if her head wasn't looked at soon, something worse could have occurred," I said looking up at Longbottom, who was looking at me with a questioning brow raise. "What happened?" he asked making his way around me and to her.

I looked down and sighed, "It was my fault, she was comforting me and I pushed her away, literally, and slightly too hard. She tripped over a rock, hitting her head on another, whilst at the same time she twisted her ankle."

I looked up at Longbottoms enraged face, "Why in the Bloody hell would you do that?" he asked, flickering his eyes between mine and Elle. "It was an accident Longbottom, a messed up one, but an accident."

My face dropped, another wave of guilt flooded my body. My legs gave out, I dropped to the ground, bending my knees and resting my elbows on them. I looked up at the starry sky, taking in the beauty, then looked down at the ground again. Longbottom had made some torches around our spot to enlighten it, but thank Merlin it wasn't bright enough for him to see the tear running down my cheek.

I sat there, slouched next to the sleeping angel in front of me, while there was an angry and confused boy to the side of me, looking directly at me.

"Malfoy, you seem, uh... different," said Longbottom looking down at me. I sniffled, trying to stop myself from crying and embarrassing myself even more. I cleared my throat, "I don't know what you're talking about, Longbottom."

Longbottom sighed, taking a seat next to me. "Malfoy, for starters, you haven't insulted me at all since the time you've seen me."

I sat there and thought, "So?" I asked turning my head to look at him. "So... that's never happened before, you always get in at least one insult every time you even glance at me," said Longbottom shifting his body to the side. I thought about what he was insinuating, I had always used every chance I had to make fun of him and his family.