(y/n) - your name

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"Malfoy. Malfoy!" Snape hisses when he finds the boy pacing down the hallway in the dark, wiping away his face quickly of the red lipstick that stained his lips. The professor knew who Draco was with, knew the dangers of them being together. "You said you would stay away from her-"

"-I know! I know-"

"-do you? If you want to keep her safe, stay away from (l/n)! You swore she meant nothing to you, that she wasn't a liability. If you want to protect her, forget she exists! And protecting her does not mean cursing Miss Bell!"

"Maybe I did hex that Bell girl. Maybe I didn't. What's it to you?" Snape shoves Malfoy against the wall in fury.

"I swore to protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow.

"I don't need protection! I was chosen for this! Out of all others. Me! And I won't fail him."

"You're afraid, Draco." of course he was. Hearing the Dark Lord threaten him by taking away the one thing he truly loves if he failed his mission terrified him. "You attempt to conceal it, but it's obvious. Let me assist you-"

"-No! I was chosen. This is my moment!" his moment to show that he could keep his love safe. 

The dark concealed the two Slytherins conversing, also concealing a certain Gryffindor who had followed them to overhear their conversation.

~~~~~~~~

The Hogwarts Express chugs through a snowy countryside, a warm day illuminating the pearly white snow and the trees the train moves past.

"Unbreakable Vow. You're sure that's what Snape said" Ron asks Harry who nods, the latter laying against the chair with his back against the wall and the Half-Blood Prince's potions book in his lap.

"Positive. Why?"

"It's just, well, you can't break an Unbreakable Vow." 

Harry rolls his eyes. "I'd worked that much out of myself, funnily enough."

"No, you don't understand-oh, bloody hell..." Ron gets cut off by Lavender who puts on a scene of drawing a heart with their initials in it on the glass until she walks away and he complains about his girlfriend wanting to snog him all the time. The boys look up once more when they see Hermione who passes by, breaking her stride when she spots Lavender's handiwork on the compartment window. She glares at it and storms off to find (y/n) back in the compartment the girls were sharing away from the boys.

"So what happens to you? What happens if you break an Unbreakable Vow?" Harry asks again, trying to get the conversation back to what was important. 

"You die."

Harry purses his lips, leaning his head back against the wall with guilt eating him up inside. He winced at the dull pain on his nose that Luna had fixed after Draco kicked him, remembering the kiss he shared with (y/n) and the hurt expression on her face when he did it.

I shouldn't have kissed her.

But he just wanted to see if he had a chance, a sliver of hope that maybe she would see him the same way he saw her but he finally let it sink that all of her love was for Draco.

And now I ruined our friendship...

Hermione sneers at Lavendar as she shoved past her, walking into her compartment and slamming the door closed while pulling down the blinds to get privacy. "Lavender is such a-" she pauses when she sees how quiet (y/n) was, staring out the window with her walkman in. The Hufflepuff explained what happened between her and the Slytherin after everyone at the party saw Harry kiss her and get pummeled in by her ex. "Hey..." she calmly says, touching her friend's shoulder and she flinches back from how cold she felt, like an iced marble statue.

Oh (y/n)...

~~~~~~~~

"If the boys are causing too much trouble, you can always stay with me and my parents." Hermione suggests, smiling at (y/n) who gives her a weak one back.

"Hey, we're not that bad!" Ron exclaims, being completely ignored by the girls and he grumbles to Harry who doesn't listen to him either, the Weasley storming off to his father who was waiting by his car.

"Thanks, Hermione but I'll be ok. I can always fly over when I need to." the girls hug tightly, separating for their Christmas break. Harry, Ron and (y/n) put their belongings in the trunk before they got into the car, Arthur flying them off back to the Burrow where his non-children would be staying with his actual children for the break. The man notices the silent tension between the kids and frowns, usually expecting laughter and jokes being told between the three of them but it was deadly silent.

Something went wrong at school...

He didn't dare intrude, driving silently all the way back home. Ron and Harry started speaking in hushed words, not daring to wake up (y/n) who slept in the car. They both know she desperately needed it when Hermione told them how she had been crying in her dorm the night before. Everyone got to the Burrow as soon as it got dark, Arthur calling out for the twins to help him put the luggage away for (y/n).

"Fred, our princess has been crying."

"George, as soon as I get my hands on Malfoy, he's dead."

Fred nods and carefully picks up the girl in his arms from the car, making sure to not wake her as George takes her bags to her bed with Ginny. The twins carefully set her down on the bed, letting their mother take care of her. Molly carefully takes (y/n)'s shoes off, putting them down on the floor and her glasses to set them down on the bedside table, tucking her in beneath the blankets before leaving the bedroom.

"Who hurt the girl!?" she hisses out, everyone gulping at the very angry mother Weasley.

~~~~~~~~

The air smelled of sweet gingerbread cookies, of chocolatey pudding and the savoury spices of a home-cooked Christmas dinner. (y/n) opens her eyes as she slowly woke up, her body urging her to go back to sleep again and never wake up but her heart screamed at her not to. She stared at the wall in front of her, feeling empty and hollow as she forced herself to sit up stiffly. She looked down at her hands, no emotions coming through as she saw her fingers turned to marble stone. She struggled to stretch and bend them like any other human, the stone cracking and peeling to reveal the skin beneath again.

She didn't feel the worry or panic, didn't feel the relief or confusion. 

Her mind had turned off completely.

(y/n) slowly got up, going to the bathroom to change into something more comfortable. When she took her shirt off, she came face to face with her body turning to stone. It appeared on her chest where her heart was, spreading pure black and gold marble stone like a disease. Her vision darkened with a sudden flash, like she was snuffed out of the world and she stumbles before grabbing the edge of the sink for balance.

She knew she was supposed to feel scared but she couldn't. She simply freshened up with a shower and brushed her teeth before changing her clothes, heading downstairs where the loud chatter was spilling from.

"Look, George! Our princess is finally awake." Fred grins, quickly jumping up to pull her chair out.

"Yes, Fred. Our sleeping beauty slept away an entire day so she must be hungry!" George whisks up the girl in his arms, her blinking at him as he set her down in her chair next to Harry and Ron.

"I slept the entire day?" she mumbles out, her friends nodding.

"But you needed it." Ron says. Harry was too afraid to speak to the Hufflepuff, too afraid to even look at her as he pushed his food around on his plate. The Weasleys noticed the tense air between Harry and (y/n), looking at each other before they tried to cheer up the atmosphere again.

"Tea dear?" Molly asks, handing (y/n) a cup of the tea she always has in her cupboards just for her.

"Thank you..." it was almost inaudible but the mother smiles when she hears her, patting her head gently. The girl couldn't feel the heat of the cup against her shaky hands but takes a sip anyway, not registering the taste.

What's happening to me?

The Weasleys all celebrated Christmas together, talking and chatting together while they fed Harry and (y/n) and kept them in the conversation too. As soon as the dinner was over, a knocking was heard on the door of the Burrow and (y/n) simply went over to open it.

"Happy Christmas (y/n)!" Sirius grins, pulling the girl into a quick hug before hugging his godson who runs to greet him. "Harry! I missed you, my boy!" Lupin snickers at the two, excusing his friend as he walks into the house with Tonks.

"Happy Christmas little firecracker." Tonks grins at the girl.

"Happy Christmas." Her monotone voice sends a chill down Sirius', Tonks' and Lupin's spine, looking at each other before looking at Harry who grimaces. Everyone goes silent as they watch (y/n) walk back up the stairs to go to her bedroom before they erupted into an argument.

"You broke her Harry!" Ron hisses out.

"I'm sorry! I just needed to know if I had a chance to be with her!"

"WHAT!?" Molly yells out. "What did you do!?"

"He kissed her is what he did!" Ron snitches and Ginny gasps.

"You didn't!? How could you!?"

"I thought maybe she might reciprocate my feelings for her but now I know she only loves Malfoy but the git broke up with her-"

"-HE DID WHAT!?" Every adult in the room except for Harry, Ron and Ginny exclaims.

"I knew we should kill him." Fred hisses.

"When I get my hands on him." George cracks his knuckles.

"We are not having bloodshed in this household!" Molly glares at her kids. "Though the little shit probably deserves it..." she mumbles quietly.

"-can we stop please!" Harry yells out. "I overheard Snape and Malfoy talking about a mission Voldemort gave him ok! He's plotting something!" he explains to Sirius and Lupin, them nodding to Tonks and Arthur to join them in the living room for a meeting.

"Voldemort has chosen Draco Malfoy for a mission?" Sirius asks.

"I know it sounds mad-"

"-has it occurred to you, Harry, that Snape was simply pretending to offer Draco help so that he could find out what he's up to?" Lupin cuts in.

"That's not what it sounded like."

"Perhaps Harry's right, Remus. To make an Unbreakable Vow, after all-"

"-it comes down to whether or not you trust Dumbledore's judgement. Dumbledore trusts Snape. Therefore, I do." Lupin says firmly.

"But Dumbledore can make mistakes. He's said it himself-"

"-you're blinded by hatred!"

"I'm not-"

"-yes you are!" Lupin cuts in sharply, scolding Harry. Sirius puts a hand on his friend's shoulder to calm him down and he sighs, letting him speak to his godson.

"People are disappearing, Harry. Daily. We can only put our trust in a handful of people. If we start fighting amongst ourselves, we're doomed." Sirius says softly to the boy, Tonks giving Harry a furtive glance as if to say, 'Leave it.' She looks at Lupin and Sirius, nodding to him and the three of them get up to talk outside privately. 

Harry sighs, looking up and blinking in surprise as he finds Ginny holding a tray of tarts, sitting down next to him with a smile.