Not long after Father left, Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall re-entered the room, the latter looking really worried. I didn't know why, since they couldn't see anything that might tell them what had just happened — I'd made sure to use my hair to hide where Father had struck me, and he'd been careful to keep the rest of my punishment to where any marks would be hidden by my uniform.

Once I'd quietly answered their questions in a way I knew Father would find acceptable, I left the office, trying not to wince from the pain my injuries were causing me. Lost in thought, I went to the edge of the Black Lake and sat down, staring out over the calm waters without really seeing anything.

"Dora?"

My brother's voice shook me from my musings, and I quickly looked around, forcing a smile and a casual, "Hey, Dray." I could tell he wasn't fooled.

"Father had one of his talks with you?" he asked, worry in his voice.

I nodded, moving my hair to reveal the angry red mark on my cheek.

"For my sorting," I said softly.

Draco silently sat down next to me, and I leaned into him, trying to ignore the wave of pain the action caused.

"Everything's going to change now," I said eventually, my voice shaking slightly. "Father will be less forgiving, and you won't be able to protect me anymore, and — and — Dray, what if I get disowned?"

"I won't let that happen!" He hugged me, making sure not to put too much pressure on any part of me that he thought Father might've hurt. "And I'll still protect you as much as I can, Dora, just like I always have. Your sorting doesn't stop us being twins, does it?"

I slowly shook my head.

"No, but—"

"And if we're still twins, nothing has really changed at all," he said, cutting me off.

I shook my head again at this statement.

"That's not true, Dray! You know Father's plan for me — go to Hogwarts, get sorted into Slytherin, make friends only with Slytherin Purebloods, get high marks in all my O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, get married to a 'proper Pureblood husband' as soon as I've graduated Hogwarts, and spend the rest of my life like Mother." I reeled off the list without even having to think about it, so used to hearing these things that they'd become ingrained in my memory.

"And?" Draco asked. "You've only missed one of those things, Dora!"

"But now that I'm in Gr—" I swallowed anxiously as I started to say my house name, remembering what doing so had just caused in Dumbledore's office. "Now that I've been sorted where I am," I amended softly, "the people Father wants me to be friends with are going to hate me, and no 'proper Pureblood' is going to want to marry a Gryffindor blood-traitor... at least, not without using the Allure..."

The Allure was just one of the joys of having a Veela as an ancestor — Calixta Malfoy, my great-great-grandmother. Technically, all of the Veela powers should have died out after so many generations, leaving only the unnaturally good looks of a Veela descendant, but Mother had explained to me when I was younger that somehow — nobody really knew how or why — they had awoken in me, as strong as they would be if I were a quarter Veela, or perhaps even half.

Out of all of these powers, the Allure was by far the most annoying. It attracted people to me; made them lose their minds trying to get my attention. Thankfully, until I became a teenager, people would only be affected by the Allure if they were usually attracted to girls of my age, and it would only work properly on people who were already naturally attracted to me to some degree. Once it got more powerful, and started working on more people, I knew I would have to learn how to control it, but Mother didn't think I was quite ready for that yet.

"Maybe just try to keep mixing in the right circles," Draco said, pulling me from my thoughts. "I certainly don't mind you spending your time with myself and the other Slytherin Purebloods, and I'll make it quite clear to them that they're not to be mean to you."

"You know what they're like, Dray," I said softly. "They'll hate me even more if I pretend nothing's happened. And spending my time with all the Slytherin Purebloods would mean nobody from my own house would want to be my friend either."

Draco opened his mouth to speak, but I quickly cut him off.

"I know I shouldn't want to befriend them anyway, you don't have to tell me that. But suppose I did get — get disowned... if I didn't have a single true friend, I don't know what I would do..."

"But befriending them is more likely to get you disowned in the first place, Dora," Draco said, sounding worried.

I gave a quiet noise of sadness and frustration. Why was life so difficult?!

"Maybe I can just tell Father I'm pretending to like being in — in my house?" I frowned slightly as I tried to work it out. "He knows I asked not to be sorted how I was — that I asked the hat to be put in Slytherin. So if I were to tell him that I'm only pretending to befriend the people in my house, and something about the political power that could come from it... he wouldn't be too angry then, right?" I looked hopefully at Draco.

"It's worth a try, I suppose," he conceded. "Just don't go crazy and befriend half the Gryffindors, Dora... even Crabbe and Goyle wouldn't fall for the 'I'm just pretending' thing then."

"Well, I don't know, I think they might," I said, the tiniest of smiles on my face. "But fine. Point taken."

I looked out over the lake again, catching sight of a few tentacles waving lazily above the surface for a moment, more than likely belonging to Hogwarts' legendary giant squid.

"I hope Mother's alright," I eventually said, breaking the silence that had fallen. "Dobby too."

"Mother is fine, I'm sure," Draco reassured me. "As for Dobby, I really don't know why you care for him so much, Dora. He's a house-elf, for Merlin's sake!"

I looked at my brother with a slight frown.

"He's kind to me, Dray. And besides, he's a living being; he should be treated with kindness. How would you like it if someone decided that actually, you have to do everything they tell you, otherwise they'll hurt you?"

An uncomfortable silence descended as we both tried to ignore the erumpent in the room — that what I had just described sounded exactly how Father treated me.

"We should go back in," I said softly. "I need to do my homework, and I want to check how bad this is before too many people want to use the bathroom." I did a quick motion to make sure Draco knew that I was referring to the injuries from my punishment, then slowly got to my feet, wincing.

The two of us went up to the castle in silence. A couple of the people we walked past threw some insults at me, but Draco just put his arm protectively around me and told them to do something that I knew would've got him into trouble with Mother if she'd heard.

"See you at dinner, Dray," I said, as we reached the point where we'd have to go our separate ways to get to our different common rooms.

"See you at dinner," he echoed. "And Dora?"

I'd already started to move away, but at my name, I stopped and turned back to him.

"Yes?"

"If he comes to see you again, do tell me as soon as you can." He hesitated, then added, "Please."

I nodded, giving him a small smile.

"Of course."

***
A/N: oop sorry this chapter's a day or so late!! I rely on an alarm to remind me to update this book, and I think I may have just slept through it last Friday 😂

Word count: 1333