Cardigan

.. but i knew you..

Emersyn

___________

Nobody suspected anything when Emersyn slipped into the great hall while that headmaster was talking.

She quickly found her friends and sat down next to Luna at the Ravenclaw table.

"Did I miss much?" she nodded to Dumbledoor giving his speech, he was talking about some new bullshit that was going down this year.

Frankly, she was distracted and didn't care.

"Where have you been?" Cho whispered shouted the questioned at her

"I was at the prefect meeting and I had to stay behind to do something." she hoped that this answer was good enough for her to stop questioning.

Draco entered the great hall moments after him.

There he was. He looked depressed. Tired. Upset.

His hair was messy. Fuck, he looked like shit.

Was it because of what just happened in the library?

She had no idea why she acted the way she did. He had no right to call her a whore. But, it turned her on.

"You know, Harry Potter had a broken nose today. I fixed it for him." Luna said dreamily to her friends at the table.

"When did he have a broken nose? I saw him on the train and he was fine " Cho shuffled, putting food into her mouth as fast as she could. "I'm really hungry, guys."

"After everyone left the train. He didn't tell me what happened though." She wandered her story into something she saw in her magazine and Cho nodded.

Sometimes they had no idea what the hell Luna was talking about but she was always so passionate about it so they listened.

Emersyn barely touched the food on her plate. She was hungry but her mind was not processing the fact that she hadn't eaten all day.

Absentmindedly, she started to think about a conversation she had during the summer.

"What do you mean, Gran?" She was showing Emersyn a beautiful photograph of her father and his friends when he attended Hogwarts.

"This is before all the evil happened. Before your father vowed himself to He Who Shall Not Be Named."

She traced his face on the photo with her finger. Next to him was Lucius Malfoy, "Gran, do you remember who this man is?"

"Ah yes, that's the Malfoy boy. He was your dad's best friend. He's the one who led him down the wrong path." Her eyes started to fill with water.

"Darling, If I had a time turner, I would go back in time and stop your father from ever associating with that family."

She glanced up slightly to the slytherin table.

Draco.

She noticed he was not sitting there anymore.

She got up, "I'm going to go unpack." she mumbled before they could protest.

Usually they wouldn't let students leave early, but she was a prefect so no one questioned her when she excused herself from the hall.

She heard her Grans voice as she told her the history of the Malfoy family,

"Do you know them, Emersyn?"

"Yes, Gran. Draco is Lucius his son. He is my best friend."

Her Gran's eyes filled with fear and rage,
"Emersyn. You must stay away from that boy. He will follow in his father's footsteps."

"No, I know him. He wouldn't do anything like that. He wouldn't hurt me. And he especially wouldn't kill anyone."
"You know him? Or, you -knew- him?"

Emersyn's brain felt like mush.

It's late. He left because he's tired. He needed to unpack. He was fine.

Students will leave dinner soon and start piling into the halls.

She walked around faster and faster, her breathing was getting loud,

Where did he go?

She needed answers. She couldn't sleep without answers.

She could feel herself starting to have a panic attack in the hallway.

She needed to sit down, get to her dorm, she needed water, she needed Draco. She needed her best friend.

No, No, No. You don't need him. You don't need anyone.

Everyone is lying to you, everyone knows but you.

Everyone knows but you.
Everyone knows but you.

The loud voice in her head wouldn't stop.

"Just shut up. Shut up." she mumbled to herself out loud.

Was she going crazy? Who was this voice in her head?

She heard someone else in the hallway,
"Drakie, we have so much catching up to do. It's been such a long and hard summer." she heard Pansy Parkinson in a sing-song voice and her arm was wrapped around the blondes robe. The robe that she just pulled at in the library.

No.

Her footsteps halted at Pansy's voice, but her breathing did not slow down.

How could you be so fucking daft, Emersyn.

Draco's girlfriend. Does she know?

Everyone knows but you.

She tried to turn around to go back to the other side of the castle but she tripped over her feet.

She was embarrassed. She let Draco Malfoy call her a whore in the fucking library.

She felt her whole friendship with him was now ruined. She fucked it up.

Take it back, take it back, take it back.

The voice in her head slithered down her spine like a snake, winding and winding her breathing up.

She couldn't take it back.

"I can't." she whispered

All these years she dodged being another story that made up Draco Malfoy's reputation.

He was her best friend. He was there for her all these years. Everyone knows that. Everyone.

Everyone knows but you. Everyone knows but you.

Micheal knew.

She had fallen to the ground when students started spilling out into the halls.

Refreshingly a familiar voice appeared next to her, "Emersyn? Emersyn? Are you okay?" It was Hermione Granger.

"Harry, go get a professor right now" she demanded to him. "It's okay, Emersyn. It will all be okay."

The scary voice got louder in her head as she tried to breathe normally,

Don't be scared. It will all be okay.
But don't you understand?
I knew you, Emersyn Osborne. I know you, silly girl. I'm the only one who has ever known you.