"I was a fool to think I could ever stay away from you as a kid. Just a taste of temptation and you'll have its sweetness on your lips forever."
Draco Malfoy and Estelle Vaile were allowed to care about each other once. How long can you ignore the...
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❝Look how quickly
He brainwashed Vaile.
You'd hardly know
She's one of us.❞
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Chapter 21
Christmas Polyjuice Potion
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The rush to the train to leave Hogwarts after the double attack was a stampede and nearly everyone left that could. Even Pansy changed her mind and went home willing to spend the holidays away from her precious Draco in exchange for her safety. It was only Harry, Hermione, Ron, and his family, Draco, Nott, Crabb, and Goyle left in the castle with a handful of others brave enough to stay.
There was one other Gryffindor that stayed. It was Talia Bridges from the year between us and Fred and George. Apparently, her family had to take a last-minute trip to America because her grandmother fell down and broke her hip. The injury was only a big deal because they were muggles. She was a fun addition to our group while we all enjoyed the rare run over the entire Gryffindor Tower. The common room looked rather large with the rest of the house gone.
The common room radio had never been better controlled. There was a perfect mixture of normal music and holiday music. It was played just loud enough to be heard over the intense games of exploding snap, and the only person it bothered was Percy, but he spent most of his time in the library studying for his exams. Talia wanted to be a radio show host one day and used her time consuming all kinds of music.
With so few people in the tower, the good velvet armchairs near the fire were always available to thaw out after a bout of chilly winter fun. For the first time in a while, the four of us eased into the lazy routine and let go of the intense stress that constantly sunk its claws into us. The only thing pressuring about the break was making sure the potion didn't spoil in the very last days of brewing.
Harry was actually able to catch up on sleep, and the dark circles quickly went away after a few nights of relief from the constant stares. The twins and Ron made sure to make Harry laugh as much as possible while there was a brief blip in scrutiny. Even Draco barely bothered us because of how easy the empty castle made it to avoid each other.
We had our fun. We played games in the warm cozy common room and occasionally ventured outside to build snowmen and have snowball wars. Hagrid was extremely happy to have someone to eat his mince pies, which nearly broke my front tooth from the hardness of it. We all just stuffed them in our pockets and let the happy giant man believe we enjoyed his festive holiday cooking. I had considered breaking out my ice skates but Hagrid warned me the menfolk might not take too kindly to that. Maybe, he suggested, Dumbledore can freeze you, kids, a pond to skate on.
