10«Snap Back to Reality
As
Draco had said, rather yelled, to Justine he was already gone when Mr.
Tidewater knocked on the door and found the room empty. Although he did find one of the flower vases
smashed to pieces on the floor. “The boy
must’ve been mad enough to take out his anger on it,” he told his wife.
Justine
spent the rest of the vacation at her house, mostly sitting in her room
thinking about Malfoy. She felt so bad,
but she knew that it was all her fault.
Although there was one thing she kept thinking about. Draco had said something that she caused him
to fall in love with her. He knew from
what Harry and the others had said that his relationships never lasted long,
and that they doubted that he loved any of them. But he must have loved her, because why would
he say something like that?
When
she had returned to Hogwarts the day before classes were to resume, Justine sat
in the common room silently. Hermione
had come back with her and noticed how quiet she was, but she couldn’t get
anything out of her.
“Something
happened,” Hermione said to Harry and Ron.
“Draco wasn’t on the train, and she wouldn’t say a word to me.”
“Draco
came back days ago,” Harry informed her.
“I bet they got into a fight.”
“I
bet he found out,” Hermione said with sympathy.
Justine
was found by her three friends sitting on a couch looking out the one of the
windows. She seemed to be in a deep
trance. They sat around her and tried to
get her attention. When she slowly
turned her head to look at them, her eyes let out a tear.
“Are
you ready to tell us what happened?” Harry asked soothingly.
“What’s
there to tell?” Justine asked softly with deep sorrow in her voice. “I just made the biggest mistake of my life.”
“You
mean you admit that hanging around him was wrong?” Ron asked surprised.
“No,”
Justine choked mildly. “I brought him
home.”
Hermione
knew exactly what she meant. She told
Harry and Ron that her house must have proved to him that she wasn’t a
pureblood, and that must have set him off.
“Did
he hurt you? I’ll go right now to the
Slytherin Common Room and give it to him good and hard!” Ron said jumping to
his feet.
“He
didn’t touch me. Just…yelled
a little.” She looked at her
knees. “Look, I really don’t want to
talk about it right now. You know what
happened, but please don’t try to cheer me up right now. I’m going to bed.”
They
watched her slowly walk up the stairs and out of sight. “And she didn’t even eat dinner!” Ron
commented when he looked at the time.
The
next day Justine walked around slowly and quietly to her classes. Herbology wasn’t that much of a problem,
seeing that she was thinking about other things. But when it was time for Potions, she wanted
to just run out of the room crying.
Malfoy
saw her walk in, but turned his head away in disgust. That alone was enough to make her cry. Justine, however, kept control throughout the
class, even though she was constantly looking up to see the back of his head.
Snape
dismissed the class a little late that day, and Justine was the first one to
hurry out of the door. She went straight
upstairs and out into the courtyard, hopefully being able to get away from him.
Hermione
followed her outside and sat down next to her.
“Are you alright?” She asked concerned.
Justine
looked at her crying. “No,” she
said. Hermione hugged her friend who
cried and choked as she told her the entire story of their vacation.
A
few days passed. Justine was feeling a
bit better, but that rip in her heart still throbbed every time she saw him, or
even if someone had said his name. And
she hadn’t said a word to him for the entire time. That is until she was heading to her
Transfiguration class.
Justine
was quickly turning the corner of the hallway, knowing that she was running
later than normal. When she did so, she
crashed into someone else.
“I’m
sorry,” she said getting a hold of herself and then looking at the person. Her eyes widened and she took a step
back. “Draco…”
He
looked at her with cold eyes and a mean expression. “Move,” he said shortly. She stepped away and he quickly continued on
not looking back in the slightest.
Justine’s
eyes followed him until he turned the corner.
She wanted more than anything to just run to him and jump into his
arms. She also knew that if she did,
he’d probably throw her to the floor.
“I
hate McGonagall’s tests,” Ron complained after the class ended.
“I
don’t think I did that bad,” Hermione commented proudly.
“You
never do,” Harry replied. The four
Gryffindors walked down the hall, talking mostly about the questions on the
test they had just taken.
Justine
stopped for a moment and checked her bag.
“Shoot, I left my Charms homework up in the dormitories. I’ll catch up with you guys.”
“Alright,
see ya later,” they said and continued on.
Justine
walked quickly towards
Lucius Malfoy, followed by Draco, quickly walked down the
hall and into an empty classroom. The
door was pushed to close, but there was a crack just big enough to look
through. The Gryffindor student crouched
down to view what was going on inside, and almost immediately, Justine wanted to
craw into a hole and never come out.
Lucius Malfoy stopped and turned to his frightened
son. “So, you didn’t think I’d ever find
out, did you? You deliberately went
behind my back after all that I’ve told you!
How dare you! You’re a disgrace
to this family, and I for one will not have it!” He spoke loudly and cruelly. Justine had never seen Draco so scared.
“Father,
I honestly didn’t know! I just found out
a few…”
“Silence!” Draco jumped a little. “You have done many shameful things since
you’ve been born, and this is the worst of them all. How dare you even consider matching up with a
mudblood! Its
outrageous, Draco! What do I have to do
to get it through your thick head!?”
His
face was turning red and he held his black snake cane in the air, waving it at
Draco’s head. Justine was anticipating
the elder Malfoy hitting his son.
“It
was obvious to me that she was just using you.
How could you not see it? She was
just like that other girl you were so fond of.
And look where it got you!”
“Father,
I loved her!” Draco’s eyes widened
quickly when he said that. And he didn’t
mean to say it either. His father
quickly saw red and swung the walking stick at his son, hitting Draco in the
shoulder. Draco’s body turned from the
hit, and had already felt a second strike his back. He fell to the ground holding his arms up for
defense.
Lucius Malfoy took his wand out of the end of the cane and
pointed it to the fright-filled teen on the floor. “If I ever hear or catch you doing something
as ridiculous as this again, I’ll make sure your punishment leaves scares. Feel lucky that you’re the only one to carry
on the Malfoy name…otherwise I wouldn’t be so easy on you.” He quickly turned, his cloak swishing behind
him in a fan-like motion.
Justine
stood up quickly and leaned against the wall just in time for the door to open
and barely miss her. She held her breath
as she watched Mr. Malfoy walking down the hall and not looking back. She gave a sigh of relief when she figured he
didn’t notice her standing there.
Draco’s
voice could be heard saying, “Damn” from inside the classroom. Justine thought if she should go in and see
if he was all right. Luckily, she didn’t
have to make that decision because Draco walked out of the classroom
slowly.
Only
this time, Justine wasn’t invisible to the sight of her former lover. He stopped short, surprised and embarrassed
that she stood there looking at him holding his arm. “What are you doing here?” He snapped at her.
“I…I
was walking by when…” she tried to get out.
“You
saw…” Draco said ashamed. “Well, don’t
think anything of it. I’m used to that
kind of crap. And don’t go telling
everyone!”
“I
won’t,” she agreed quickly. He turned to
walk away but was stopped by her voice.
He stood with his back to her and listened.
“I’m
really sorry. I didn’t mean for anything
like this to happen,” Justine explained.
“Well,
it did. And I was the fool to let it
happen.” He walked on.
Justine
left the conversation at that and continued to the common room, promising
herself that she would never tell a soul what she had just witnessed.