(y/n) - your name

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"She's been like this the entire time..." Hermione mutters out with a sad frown seeing (y/n) standing outside the compartment, leaning against the wall of the train as she watched the scenery fly past her. Ron looks over sadly as his friend kept to herself, worried for her.

"So what was Draco doing with that weird-looking cabinet? And who were all those people" Don't you see, it was a ceremony. An initiation." Harry says.

"Stop, Harry, I know where you're going with this." Hermione hisses, looking over at (y/n) with worry.

"It's happened. He's one of them." he argues back.

"One of what?" Ron, oblivious as ever.

"Harry is under the impression that Draco Malfoy is now a Death Eater." Hermione sighs out.

"You're barking. What would You-Know-Who want with a sod like Malfoy? Plus he would never do it. He wouldn't do it for her." Ron says, looking at (y/n) to make sure she couldn't hear the conversation.

"Is this why he broke up with her?" Hermione whispers to herself as the boys argue.

"I need some air." Harry says sharply, quickly taking his invisibility cloak and hiding it as he got out of the compartment. "Wait, where's (y/n)?" he asks his friends who look past him to see her gone, not realising that she had turned invisible to go to the Slytherin compartments further up ahead on the train.

(y/n) needed some answers, dodging people as she walked down the pathway. She stopped quickly at the compartment's open door when she saw Draco, her heart racing as she frowned. She noticed his sad smile as he took a book out of his bag, the boy flipping through the pages as he stopped at a certain one.

The Slytherin's heart hurt as he traced the image of his love's face, leaning against a door as he tried to remember how her bright smile made him feel over the moon. All he had were her gifts, her letters and the drawings he had of her. He didn't have the heart to throw them away, he didn't want to. They were the only things that consoled him, reminded him of his freedom on those long nights he couldn't sleep in his cold bedroom.

Draco's vision soon turned dark when the air around him turned black, coughing from the dark smoke as he quickly put his book back. (y/n) was trying to hold in her coughs from the sudden black smoke, looking around to see who could've done that and she catches a glimpse of a ripple and familiar-looking glasses.

Harry?

There was chaos and panicked voices until the mist thins, the darkness eerily receding. "What just happened? Blaise?" Draco asks, looking around and he unconsciously spins the gold ring around on his finger. 

Blaise was tense himself. "Don't know." he answers but Pansy just scoffs.

"Relax, boys. It's probably just a first-year messing around. Come on Draco. Sit down. We'll be at Hogwarts before you know it." (y/n) narrows her eyes at Pansy patting the seat.

"Hogwarts. What a pathetic excuse for a school. I think I'd pitch myself off the Astronomy Tower if I thought I had to continue on for another two years." Draco simply says, not realising his love could hear him and she pales at his words. He didn't want to do this, gripping his left arm painfully tight to try and overcome the sick movement on his skin that he had tried to scratch off. "Let's just say I don't think you'll be seeing me wasting my time in Charms Class next year." Confused, Pansy glances at Blaise who snorts derisively. "Amused, Blaise? We'll see just who's laughing in the end." Draco says, a deep frown on his face as he looks up and notices a bag suddenly shifting on the rack above him.

(y/n) noticed this too as she walked into the Slytherin compartment still invisible, narrowing her eyes at the space knowing Harry was up there.

What is he doing?

She glares up at the space the Gryffindor would be taking, hovering in the air and sitting crossed-legged the entire trip to Hogwarts. Which wasn't long since the train arrived at the platform as soon as the sun had set and the night blanketed over the sky. The Hufflepuff, hung high up on the ceiling of the train, avoiding people hitting her as the compartment was soon empty except for Draco who lets his friends go off first before him.

"You two go on. I want to check something." He gets up and grabs his back, walking to close the compartment door shut and pulling the blinds down. He waves his hands, the windows all being covered by the blinds and he turns around with a sneer on his face. "Didn't mummy ever tell you it's bad manners to eavesdrop, Potter?" before he could cast a spell, (y/n) held his arm quickly and appeared in front of him. His entire demeanour softened, eyes glazed with tears. "(y/n)..." he whispers with a shaky voice, dropping his arm quickly as she frowns at him. 

He couldn't believe that she was in front of him, thinking that he was having a hallucination but when he heard her voice he broke. "Draco..." she mutters, reaching up to wipe his tears away but he stumbles back away from her, quickly opening the door and slamming it shut in front of her before running off onto the platform. Draco breathed out shakily, blinking away his tears as he composed himself and walked away.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing!?" (y/n) snaps as she whirls around to face Harry who flinches back from her fury.

"I-"

"-you know what, I don't want to hear it!" the Hufflepuff rips open the door and slams it shut, walking off down the platform with the other students.

"There you are!" Ron and Hermione exclaim.

"Where were you? Where's Harry?" Hermione asks.

"Sneaking on the Slytherins with his invisibility cloak." (y/n) answers sharply, the three friends not saying anything else as they got onto the carriages. The Hufflepuff sighs, trying to calm down her anger and she leans her head back, looking up at the night sky that sparkled with stars.

Her heart wrenched remembering the Astronomy tower, turning her head to the side and quickly sitting up to see Draco with his friends on a carriage behind her. He was looking at her while she was stargazing but quickly looked away when she noticed him, clenching his fists on his lap.

The students all line up in front of the gates, names being checked off by Flitwick and being escorted by their house professors. Ron and Hermione watch as (y/n) glances at Draco who was arguing with Filch, being escorted away by Snape, before their friend was escorted away by Sprout.

"This is not going to be an easy year." Hermione and Ron sigh out, watching the couple split away and giving longing looks while the other wasn't looking, a shield being cast surrounding Hogwarts behind them.

~~~~~~~~

Chatter fills the Great Hall as students catch up with friends and share what they have been up to on their holidays, Ron and Hermione watching over (y/n) who sat glumly and pushed the jelly around on her plate. "This is hard to watch." Hermione sighs, noticing Draco looking over at her friend with a sad frown before looking away. "They're both miserable! And where's Harry?"

Hermione cranes her neck, looking for Harry, while Ronstuffs his face with pudding and mumbles with a full mouth. "Don't worry. He'll be here in a minute." Hermione glares at him along. with Ginny who shakes her head at her brother, the older girl wacking him with her book.

"Will. You. Stop. Eating! Your best friend is missing!"

"Oi! Turn around, you lunatic." Ron looks at her like she was crazy, Hermione spinning around to see Harry talking with Luna until they split apart and he sits down with his friends.

"What've I missed?"

"The couple being miserable." Ginny says, nodding to (y/n) and Draco.

"And?" Harry says, his friends raising a brow at him.

"...And the Sorting Hat urged us all to be brave and strong in these troubled times. Easy for it to say-it's a hat, isn't it?" Ron scoffs. Everyone soon quietens down as Dumbledore stands up at his podium to say his speech, greeting the new students and a new Potions professor to Hogwarts leaving Snape to take the DADA position. Everyone was clapping except for Draco, leaning his head on his hand as he watched (y/n), missing her smile and her eyes. He hated staying away from her but it was for her own safety.

And for his.

The speech soon ends with a warning from Dumbledore, sending the students to their dorms and Draco breaks out of his trance as his friends start to get up. He crosses his arms with a heavy sigh leaving him, glancing at his love once more. Even now she looks just as beautiful as she always has been to him. Even if she had changed, even if she dyed her hair, got new piercings, whatever it was... she was his beautiful Puff and he adored her forever more. 

"Let's go Draco." Pansy says, urging him to get up and he silently does so, not realising that (y/n) quickly got up when he did. She wanted to speak to him, reaching a hand out but stops herself when he leaves the Great Hall.

"(y/n)... let's go." Hermione whispers, gently holding her best friend's shoulders and leading her out of the Hall to her dorms. She hated seeing her friend so sad like this.