Кассандра Клэр: Draco Sinister

References :

"Well, did you try looking under the sofa in HELL?" —

Buffy.

She's breaking up with me," said Harry.

"She's what?"

"Breaking up with me," said Harry again, still with the same look of utter, blank astonishment.

"She's not," said Draco, with conviction. "You're reading the letter wrong. Give it to me."

It was doubtless a mark of how very shocked Harry was that he did so, holding it out mutely for Draco to take. Draco snatched it, and read it quickly.

Dear Harry, I saw Viktor this afternoon, and realized that I have really loved him all these years and still do. I am going with him to his home in Bulgaria where we can be together. You will always be a dear friend of mine, but I have realized that my heart belongs to Viktor alone.

Please don't try to contact me.

Hermione

"Not a lot of room for interpretation there," said Harry in a doom-laden sort of voice. "Pretty straightforward."

"She can't be in love with Viktor Krum, she just can't be," protested Draco, scanning the letter again in an attempt to find some other analysis of Hermione's short missive. "I mean, I always figured if she left you, it would be for me. Sorry," he added, looking up at Harry.

"But, really. Viktor Krum?"

Harry just looked at him blankly. "Why not Viktor Krum?"

"Because he's a big stupid Neanderthal who can't even pronounce her name!"

"It doesn't matter," said Harry hollowly. "She doesn't love me. That's what matters." He took the letter back from Draco, looked at it as if it were a weird foreign object, and stuffed it in his pocket. "I guess we'd better go to class."

"What?"

"Class," said Harry. "We've got Lupin's class at nine."

"You mean you're just going to go to class, as if…as if nothing…"

But Harry had already turned around and was wandering off down the hallway. Draco stared after him in disbelief. He couldn't quite understand why Harry was acting like he'd just been given the Dementor's Kiss. If it had been him, he'd be yelling and throwing heavy objects. Maybe Harry was in shock? Draco had read about people being in shock. You were supposed to make them lie down and cover them with a heavy blanket. However, knocking Harry down in the hallway and throwing a blanket on him seemed unfeasible.

"Ello, Draco!" said a voice at his elbow.

Fleur. Just who he didn't want to see.

"Fleur, I've got to get to class right now…"

"You 'ave class with Lupin, am I correct? I 'ave the same class. We can go together!" she announced brightly, and took his arm as he started walking. Draco picked up his pace until he was walking alongside Harry, who was still looking expressionless.

""Ello, 'Arry!" chirped Fleur.

Harry said nothing.

"Is 'Arry all right?" she said in an undertone to Draco.

He was spared replying as she spotted Professor Lupin coming around a bend in the hallway up ahead. He nodded a greeting as his eyes fell on them, then ducked into the classroom.

"Now 'e is very good-looking," said Fleur complacently. "Not like those other professors. This one, 'e 'as…"

"Animal magnetism?" suggested Draco.

"Yes," said Fleur, and smiled.

Draco was relieved when she let go of his arm and dashed into the classroom after Lupin. He turned quickly to Harry. "Potter, are you sure…"

"I'm fine, Malfoy."

Draco wanted to tell Harry that he didn't look fine. He looked as if he were going to be sick, as a matter of fact. But there was no opportunity. Students had begun pouring into the classroom, and Harry went with them. Draco followed Harry, and sat down where he could keep an eye on him. He wasn't sure what this weird calm of Harry's betokened, but was sure it wasn't good.

Draco himself felt fairly stunned. Hermione, running off with Viktor Krum? Being in love with Viktor Krum? It was about as in character for her as forgetting to study for final exams. Nobody knew Hermione like he did, watched her like he did, saw the way she looked at Harry like he did. So many times watching her watching Harry….she couldn't possibly not be in love with Harry after all. His world might be built on some strange foundations, Draco thought grimly, but dammit they were foundations, and if Hermione ran off with Viktor Krum then it all came crashing down. What the hell was she thinking?

"…very pleased to be teaching this class." Professor Lupin's voice broke in on Draco's thoughts, and he glanced up. Lupin was standing behind his desk, on which sat a large glass globe and a stack of books. He had just finished writing the title of the class on the board: FUNDAMENTALS OF MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION FOR

MAGIDS.

Fleur was sitting in the front row, staring fixedly at Lupin. Draco began to wonder what might happen if Lupin noticed. Fleur's direct stare had a tendency to cause males of almost any age to begin acting in an eccentric manner.

"Now," Lupin went on, "you all know that as Magids, you have access to abilities that other wizards do not. Whether you choose to learn to utilize these powers to their fullest is up to you, but you all have the potential. First, however, you must learn what these abilities are."

He turned again, and wrote another word on the board: TELEPATHIC

MAGIC.

A faint whisper of surprise ran around the classroom. Reflexively, Draco turned and looked at Harry, who was staring fixedly at his quill as if it held all the secrets of the universe, and didn't appear to have heard a word that Lupin had said.

"It used to be called the Art of Voiceless Speaking," Lupin went on, "but for many years, it's been considered a myth. For a Magid, however…"

Draco stopped listening to Lupin; he was looking at Harry again.

Harry was still staring at his quill with a blank expression. Draco leaned sideways towards him and said, out of the side of his mouth, "I was just thinking about this Hermione thing, Potter, and I-"

Bang!

The glass bottle of ink on Harry's desk exploded like a miniature bomb. Glass and ink flew in every direction, splattering an astonished Harry's desk and clothes. Draco touched his hand to his face and it came away black and red: ink and blood. A flying shard of glass had cut his cheek.

Some of the people sitting near Harry and Draco started to mutter in surprise. Ignoring them, Draco looked at Harry with sudden alarm.

Harry wasn't any good at controlling his emotions, in fact he was terrible at it, and if the shock was starting to wear off, then…

BANG!

The glass globe on Lupin's desk blew apart. Lupin jumped back, and several students ducked as fair-sized shards of glass flew over their heads and shattered against the opposite wall. Draco jumped to his feet and grabbed the back of Harry's robes. "Come on, Potter," he said.

"But I didn't-"

"Come on!"

Half-dragging Harry, Draco backed out of the classroom as Lupin and the rest of the class stared at them in astonishment. Once out in the hallway, he kicked the classroom door shut and let go of Harry, who sat down hard on the floor and looked up at him with a dazed expression.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Potter?" yelled Draco, fuming. He was covered in ink and bits of glass, and was fairly sure that his shirt was permanently ruined. "Get a grip on yourself!"

"I'm not doing anything!" Harry yelled back furiously.

CRASH!

One of the stained-glass windows set high in the wall above their heads shattered, raining down bright bits of glass.

"Stop it!" shouted Draco, covering his head. "D'you want to bring the whole school down around our ears, you stupid prat?"

Now Harry was starting to look worried. "But I don't mean to be-"

He broke off as a large, ominous crack appeared in another window.