Lazuli - Harry Potter Fan Fiction (Draco Malfoy)

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Our feet pound upon the stone staircases as we canter away from the courtyard and head up the moving staircases. I listen as Harry explains to Ron, Hermione and I what it was that he saw.

"Harry, are you sure?" Hermione whimpers doubtfully. "I saw it," Harry replies firmly, "It's just like with Mr Weasley, it's the same door that I've been dreaming about for months except I could remember where I'd seen it before."

We reach the top of one staircase and turn sharply left onto the next. "Sirius said that Voldemort was after something, something that he didn't have last time. And it's in the Department of Mysteries!"

I grab his arm and pull him to a stop. "Harry, please listen!" Hermione says forcefully. Harry stops running and turns around to look at the three of us, all with the same, terrified thought. "What if Voldemort meant for you to see this? What if he's only hurting Sirius because he's trying to get to you?!" The fear in Hermione's eyes is unmissable, and I don't doubt that mine probably look the same. Ron's certainly do. "So what if he is?" Harry stammers in response. "I'm just supposed to let him die? Hermione, he's the only family I've got left."

Hermione turns to look at Ron and I. Harry waits for our verdict, I know that if we tell him not to go, he'll just go anyway. "Fine, but you're not going alone." I declare for the three of us. Harry looks at me gratefully, "I can't ask you to put your lives in danger." He tries. I shake my head and climb to the steps above him. "So why have we spent 6 months training for this? So that you can run off and be the hero again? Harry, without help, you'll be an easy target."

I hold my hand out to him. "Fine." He says, taking my hand and running in front of me. "We'll have to use the Floo Network." Harry decides, and we begin racing up the stairs again. "How? Umbridge has them all under surveillance."

"Not all of them." I reply. The three of them turn to look at me. "The one in her office. She won't be back for a while because she'll be too busy trying to track down Fred and George - it's the perfect distraction!"

We agree to meet outside Umbridge's office in 10 minutes, so that we can change and collect anything that we'll need for the journey. I'm just tearing off around the corner when I crash into Dean. "Whoa, slow down. Why in such a hurry?" He asks, bending down to give me a kiss. "Dean, I can't right now. I'm sorry." I try to pull away but he's surprisingly stronger than he looks. "What's wrong?" He frowns. "Nothing, but you need to let me go."

Out of nowhere, Dean erupts with anger. "Why do you always do this? Run away from me and never give me a reason why?"

I stare at him, dumbfounded. "Dean, I..."

"Save it. I'm sorry Li, you're a good girl, but I can't date you anymore."

"Oh." That's all I can say. Dean takes a deep breath. "It's awkward, you're the sister of one of my best friends. I've been thinking about doing this for a while. I'm sorry, we've had fun and these two months have been great, but I need to concentrate on my OWLs with no distractions. Can you understand that?"

I know that I should have been upset, but at that moment I realised that I didn't care whether I dated Dean or not. I didn't love him, and he annoyed me with his constant casual nature. He's a good friend and can be fun to be around, but after a while it was obvious that I was only with him because I wasn't with Draco. And that wasn't fair on Dean.

"I understand." I say. Dean smiles boyishly and finally lets me go. "Good, because I still want to be friends." I step past him, taking the opportunity, and smile at him over my shoulder. "Of course! See you later!"

Before he can stop me again, I run down the staircase which leads to the Slytherin dungeons, gratefully meeting nobody on my way.

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