RISE OF THE FALL | R.B.

LXXVIII.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.

*

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

"Draco, sometimes I hate you," Blaise sighed, forcefully grabbing Draco's arm, which caused the blonde boy to wince slightly.

"I was dying," Draco snapped, nursing his arm, "Did you see the blood?"

"I didn't," Atlas offered, which only caused Draco to roll his eyes.

Atlas wondered if he was really in pain, or if he was pretending.

Atlas hadn't been present when Draco had supposedly been 'attacked' by Buckbeak, as Pansy had so dramatically recounted, since he wasn't in their year.

But Atlas knew that his friends had a habit of making things seem more serious than they were. After all, Draco loved attention. And he had a bit of a flair for the dramatics.

And Pansy was giving it all to him—the girl seemed to be genuinely concerned about him, though. Maybe the attack had been real.

"Does it hurt much?" Pansy asked, worry lining her expression, "The attack was brutal..."

"Yeah..." Draco grimaced.

Pansy sighed, "You ought to be more careful, Draco." As she turned to talk to Theodore, though, Atlas saw Draco winking at Crabbe and Goyle, who broke out into snickers.

Atlas sighed, "Draco, you're pathetic."

"Well, you're an arse, Atlas," Draco shot back.

Atlas feigned offence, turning to Blaise for help, but the other boy just shrugged and said, "Don't look at me, I'm not going to deny it."

Atlas rolled his eyes, crossing his arms, "You're useless."

"Thanks," Blaise said dryly, "That is precisely why I'm not going to deny Draco's statement."

Atlas sighed, "You guys should go to class since you're all the way down in the dungeons, even though you'll probably be late anyway by now. Draco, try not to show off your arm too much." He cast the Malfoy boy a pointed look, which Draco ignored.

"Show it off?" Theodore scoffed, "Atlas, we'll keep an eye on him for you, but I'm sure he's going to be flaunting it."

"Especially to Potter," Goyle added, which Crabbe, along with everyone else, nodded in agreement to.

"What's the point if it's not about Potter, am I right?" Theodore said sarcastically, rolling his eyes, but Draco didn't seem to sense Theo's humour.

"You're right," Draco said determinedly, before he got out of his seat and started marching towards the dungeons, to the Potions Classroom.

His friends stared after him, stunned in silence, as he rounded the corner and vanished.

"Is he being serious?" Pansy asked, frowning.

"Um...Draco isn't exactly known for his sarcasm..." Theodore answered, furrowing his eyebrows.

***

"Black, skin Malfoy's shrivelfig," Snape demanded, casting Ariel an unpleasant smile as he stared down at her.

Ariel didn't even have the energy to retort—after Malfoy and his group had arrived late and received no consequences, and then Snape had made Ron cut up Malfoy's roots and then swap roots with him altogether, she couldn't be bothered to argue with the teacher.

He was so obviously biased towards the Slytherin House and Ariel knew that she wasn't going to be able to change that, anyway.

Instead, Ariel shot the Professor a furious glare, before she skinned the shrivelfig roughly and then threw it back at Malfoy without any protest.

"You're almost half as useful as Atlas," Draco taunted, smirking, even as Pansy Parkinson shot him an exasperated look and elbowed him in the ribs.

"I don't understand how he stands you," Ariel snapped back, quickly returning to working on her own potion.

"To be honest, Black," Theodore Nott drawled, "None of us do."

Ariel didn't know that Slytherins aside from her brother and parents were capable of making her laugh until that moment.

Okay, that was a bit mean to say, but honestly she rarely had ordinary conversations with Slytherins aside from her immediate family members.

She'd come to find, soon, that she rather enjoyed Theodore Nott's sarcasm.

***

Caelum couldn't decide whether or not he regretted asking to learn how to cast a patronus charm.

It was getting repetitive and tiring after about an hour of repeating the same action and incantation.

Remus urged him to go to sleep—it was almost curfew, after all, and Caelum had barely had any dinner, since he'd rushed here early in his eagerness to learn the patronus charm.

Now he felt like he probably shouldn't have skipped dinner because firstly, he was extremely hungry, and secondly, he wasn't exactly getting anywhere with his patronus charm.

"Chocolate?" Remus asked, pulling out a foil-wrapped chocolate bar from his pocket and offering it to Caelum.

Caelum sighed, slipping his wand into his robe pocket and taking the chocolate bar, examining the wrapper and seeing nothing extraordinary.

Sensing Caelum's curiosity, Remus explained, "It's a muggle chocolate bar. I usually prefer muggle chocolate over wizard chocolate."

"Why?"

"It's simpler," Remus shrugged, pulling out another bar from the same pocket and beginning to unwrap it, "Less elaborate. Besides, I'd always felt uneasy about eating a moving frog—chocolate or no."

"Why do you like chocolate so much?" Caelum wondered, as he took a bite out of the bar that his uncle had given him.

Remus hummed, seeming to consider his question before he asked, "What is something that you really like doing?"

Caelum thought for a long moment, and then answered, "I like watching Quidditch?"

Remus' eyes widened in what appeared to be pleasant surprise, "Really? I didn't peg you as the Quidditch type. What's your favourite position?"

"Beater."

Upon noticing his uncle's shock, Caelum chuckled, shaking his head, "Yeah, that's the reaction I usually get."

"Why is it you haven't tried out, then, if you like watching Quidditch so much?" Remus continued, seeming to be genuinely curious.

"Well, Hufflepuff's got Cedric, anyway," Caelum shrugged.

"That's not a reason," Remus said, his tone turning stern, "If you enjoy it—even just watching it and want to be a part of it, then you should try out."

Caelum shrugged again, having never really thought about doing such a thing, "We've gone really off-topic," he pointed out instead, ironically changing the topic once more.

"Not really," Remus objected, "My point was that the reason I like chocolate so much is the same reason you like watching Quidditch. I just do. There's not really a way to explain it."

After taking another bite of the chocolate, Caelum rewrapped it and tucked it into his robe pocket, "Mind if I keep it?"

"It's fine. It is rather good," Remus said with a smile as he put away his own chocolate and said, "Do you want to keep going, or take a break for now?"

Caelum slipped out his wand from his pocket, "I want to keep going."

And with the taste of muggle chocolate in his mouth, Caelum raised his wand.