Empire (D.M)

Part thirteen

The cold November winds crept into the cracks and crevices of the old castle, making the dungeons feel even chillier at night. Fires were crackling in every fireplace and frost adorned the tall windows and the grass.

She and Draco had found the dark vanishing cabinet underneath a dusty old piece of tapestry in the room of requirements on the seventh floor, and since then they had sneaked off to try and repair it. The mending part had turned out to be harder than they expected, and every item that they tried to send through came back broken.

Draco paced back and forth, frustration clear upon his pale face. She kneeled down in front of the old cabinet, trailing her fingers along the dark wood. She held her wand in her other hand, gently tapping it against the bottom of the cabinet as she thought.

"I don't get it" Draco huffed, sitting down on a old velvet couch nearby "if they try to travel through that cabinet they will surely lose one of their legs... or their fucking heads"

"That wouldn't be too bad" she mumbled, turning to face him with a amused grin.

"You got a death wish or something?" he asked, staring at her "I mean for fuck's sake Alice, I want to survive this and I want my father back in my house so my mother can stop crying"

"Yeah me too, of course" she sighed, putting her wand away "I miss my dad"

"I know you do" he scoffed, looking away "that's why we have to fix that fucking cabinet"

"And we will Draco, we'll figure it out"

The days passed but they got no closer to figuring it out, and she could see the stress starting to take a toll on the pale boy. 

Another Friday afternoon passed, and after two hours in the messy room of requirements she decided to go back to the dungeons. Draco followed her with sulking steps, and the two of them entered the Slytherin common room to find their friends sitting in front of the fireplace.

"Hi Alice" Marlize beamed "hello Draco"

"Hey" Draco mumbled as they walked over to the black leather couches.

"Where the fuck have you two been?" Ezra questioned, looking up at them from where he was laid resting his head on Marlize's lap.

"Out" Draco answered.

"Out? Where?" Ezra questioned.

"Just out Ezra" Draco scoffed, sitting down next to Blaise.

Ezra glanced at her as she plopped down next to Marlize.

"I don't know about him, but I went to the library" she said, trying to hide her lie behind a sweet smile.

"And you just happened to get back here at the same time?"

"Yeah" she shrugged "I met him in the staircase"

"Just like you have this whole week" Ezra huffed lowly, gazing between them "such a funny coincidence"

"Oh shut up Darkwood" Draco said, throwing a deep green cushion at his head.

"Fuck you Malfoy" Ezra groaned, throwing the pillow back as she laughed "it's just weird, that's all I'm saying"

"That I walk with Alice back to the common room? That's not fucking weird, we've literally been friends since birth"

"Oh don't listen to a word my brother says" Noelle sighed, looking up from her book "he's just looking for some ruckus, he's a bored drama queen"

"I'm not" Ezra protested, brushing his brown curls out of his face.

Draco laughed and Ezra groaned. Noelle went back to reading her old book and Blaise glanced over at the girl with the chocolate brown curls. There was something that clung to the air around them.

....

She walked next to Noelle, Marlize, Theo and Ezra down to the Quidditch pitch. Slytherin was playing the first match of the year against Gryffindor, and it was always a intense game that seemed to gather the whole school.

Blaise and Draco were on the team as chaser and seeker, and they had left early this morning. She saw them whirl by the Slytherin table as breakfast dressed in deep green and silver.

She wrapped her black coat around her body as the cold mid November winds brushed against her cheeks. On her coat she had her silver serpent brooch pinned, and around her neck hung her deep green and silvery striped Slytherin scarf.

She sat down in the stands next to Marlize who was chewing on some rainbow coloured sour jelly sweets. Marlize reached the box over to her, offering her some of the sweets. Ezra reached his hand down in between them and stole a sour stripe before he kissed Marlize on the cheek. Marlize laughed sweetly, and she shook her head before she took a sour stripe, putting it into her mouth.

The game started, and Ezra payed more attention to the platinum blonde girl sitting next to him. Ezra wasn't, and had never been, that interested in Quidditch. 

She saw Draco swish by on his broomstick, focus clear on his pale face and a eager fire burning behind his eyes. Blaise was soaring behind him, scoring a goal for their house. Everyone cheered, and for a second she could see Draco smirking at her.

In the end Slytherin lost the game to Gryffindor by a mere few points, and all the Slytherin students moped back to the dungeons. Ezra and Marlize walked next to each other, and he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Noelle, Theo and Blaise followed them. And at the very back of the group walked her and Draco. He was dressed in his Quidditch robes, and sweat had made his light blonde hair damp. He looked incredibly attractive she thought to herself.