Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

43. Christmas

Chapter 43 - Christmas

I knew there was no sleeping now. Despite being safely tucked away within the confines of Grimmauld Place, despite the fact that Harry had saved Ron's dad thanks to a nightmare, despite the fact we had seen Mr Weasley on the mend and despite the fact that it was Christmas morning - I felt horrid.

It was upsetting me what I now knew I was missing during my infiltration of Umbridge's regime. And I was missing some very important things during my spying...things that I probably should have known to make everyone's life easier. I hadn't been privy to the fact that Dumbledore was ignoring Harry - which may have been why it came as such a shock to us to find out that Dumbledore thought Voldemort may be invading Harry's mind...at first Fred, George and I had thought that the idea was preposterous - but now, I didn't quite feel so convinced.

Harry's nightmares had been getting steadily worse all year - this was also something I hadn't known. And though none of them but the one a week ago depicted anyone's death or any noticeable form of clairvoyancy, I feared for whatever it was that Harry kept dreaming about. Something about a corridor, or being unable to open a door. I mean, who was really dreaming about it - Harry, or Riddle?

So now I had to confront Harry with my observations. My observations that he would not like. You know, because they condemned him.

The groups had separated over the past half week after we had heard about the supposed mind-rape. Fred, George and I had been closely monitoring how many minutes we spent apart and eradicating anything that tried stopping us while we made up for our lost time; Hermione - who had come at the scheduled time for all other Hogwarts students - was sticking close to Ron and Ginny; which left Harry, marginally, on his own.

Harry was never on his own.

I had never felt so out of the loop.

"Oh, you're awake," Ginny yawned, sitting up in her bed. "Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas," I echoed, watching as her eyes lit up and she fully awoke upon seeing the small stack of presents at the foot of her bed. It was strange, being with the Order for Christmas. Every Christmas I spent at Hogwarts, it was embarrassing to wake up to the presents at the end of my bed; and it was embarrassing because my roommates piles ended up dwarfing my own at a 6:1 ratio. But here, I had just as many presents as everyone else. Surprisingly more than I was used to: between one and two handfuls, nothing big or fancy or expensive.

Though I still hadn't touched any of them.

"Hermione, wake up," Ginny said. "It's Christmas!"

Hermione woke up promptly, just as she always did, and the girls dug into their presents. I watched them dutifully, trying to look pleased at their surprised murmurs and lighthearted conversation over the presents they had received this year. I turned my eyes to my own pile, memorizing the wrappings and trying to enforce the idea that I should be excited to open my gifts: a stack of eight brightly dressed mysteries. Within the pile I could detect some form of clothing knitted by Mrs Weasley and also something big and ridiculous that could only have been from the twins.

"Audrey," Hermione's voice broke me out of trying to identify my gifts without having touched them. When I turned my eyes to her she looked concerned. "Are you all right?"

"Peachy," I said quickly. "I'm going to go check on Harry."

Both girls gave each other a look - usually when people 'checked on Harry' they were driven away by his foul mood and sharp words. They were silly to fret: no foul mood could contest with one of Audrey Potter's 'foul moods'. They seemed to realize and smiled supportively, if not nervously anyway.