CHAPTER EIGHT
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH AN ARGUMENT  
PREVAILS

. . .

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Cerise couldn't help it, the question slipping away with more than the intensity she had initially intended, but the anger pushed through as she slammed the door behind her. "Seriously, Draco, what the fuck are you doing?"

He shrugged, several steps ahead of her and already pacing across the rug before the fireplace, mind elsewhere, some place where fighting with his girlfriend simply didn't exist.

"Why the fuck would you tell them now?" Cerise knew it was severely unladylike to swear and if her mother knew just how bad her language could get then she would be the one chosen to clean up after the next husband, and only Merlin knew who Lucrezia would choose. But she did not mind that, didn't have the time to think about it - and besides, she had already had the sense to cast a silencing charm around the door before she even thought of shouting. "Draco - what the fuck do you think they're going to do now? What do you think they would even do with that information?"

He didn't say anything, staring up at her with that stupid, distant look in his eyes. "What does it matter, Cerise?" Draco asked. "Why shouldn't they know? We're going back to school in less than a week."

"And?"

"And I think they should know that I'm doing what I should be."

"You should be helping the Dark Lord kill Dumbledore, of all people?"

"That I'm following the orders of the Dark Lord and doing exactly what he asks of me." Draco's jaw clenched, gaze steely with newfound determination. "My stupid father had the idiotic idea of getting caught, and I have been chosen to replace him. And I intend to do what my father couldn't."

"It's not your dad's fault he's in prison, Draco." Cerise replied. "It could have easily have been Bellatrix who got caught, or anyone else who was in the Ministry that night. And why should you have to replace him? You're a child, you're not even seventeen yet, this is idiotic-"

"I'm doing more for the Dark Lord than my father ever has by agreeing to this." He insisted. "I thought that Theo and Blaise deserved to know, they were confused on why the Dark Lord was so insistent and-"

"Merde." The anger bubbling within the girl twisted in her stomach, eyes narrowed. "Another 'great thinker'. You could rival them all, Aristotle, Socrates-"

"Who the fuck are they, Cerise?"

"Do you British wizards not consume an inch of anything other than your own history. Are you all that self-absorbed?" She shook her head, taking another step away from him. "This is stupid, Draco. You shouldn't have told them. Theo, maybe, but not before we went back to school... but Blaise? You saw how he reacted to seeing the mark for the same time. He'll go to your mother, he'll-"

"If he's my friend at all, he won't tell my mother." Draco said. "There is a reason why she has been asked to remain outside as the Dark Lord informed me of my mission."

"Because, and I'm only guessing here, but maybe she would protest to her sixteen year old son being tasked with something that Voldemort didn't even delegate to a full grown adult?" Cerise blinked.

"Perhaps." Draco sniped. "But he trusts me to complete this before the end of this year, and I believe that my friends should be aware of what is happening. You've agreed, for so long, that under Dumbledore's power Hogwarts has dwindled from success, I thought that you were supposed to be supporting me in this."

Cerise faltered. "I do, I do support you." She said, head shaking as she pushed open the window, cigarette posed between her index and middle finger. "Which is why i'm telling you that it's a bad idea to have told Blaise now."

"Blaise won't say anything. I know him well enough to know that."

"He's my brother, Draco. You saw how my mother reacted when Bellatrix tried to have me take the mark as well. I may very well be here to support you, but my mother's beliefs certainly have been inherited by my brother. I know him that well." She frowned, lighting her cigarette. "It's so stupid."

"Yeah, I know it is. This is so stupid."

"No. Not this. You, telling those two about this." Cerise took a drag. "I can't believe it."

"They're my friends, Cerise. I wasn't going to lie to them."

"You were already lying to them, Draco." She said, incredulous. "Four more days, you had to lie to them for four more days and then you could have told them everything. Instead you decided to fuck things up." 

"He didn't even say anything after I told him, Cerise." Draco pointed out, and he was right. A moment had passed since those words, that admission, had left his mouth and Blaise had said nothing, stared in silence for a minute before stalking away, Theo trailing after him spouting something about the Dark Lord and his intentions or something and the other. 

"And that's somehow better? God, it's like I'm arguing with a brick wall here."

"You're telling me?" 

"Fuck off, Draco." Cerise scoffed. "It's not me who told the one person guaranteed to get your mother involved." 

"Why don't you fuck off, Cerise. I have enough to think about with you whining on." The words had left his mouth before he even realised what he was saying, and Cerise's gaze narrowed, glaring down at him like she would a first year. 

"Fine." She said, tongue pushing against her cheek. "Fucking wanker." She murmured, reaching to collect the leather travelling bag that had sat decisively beside the chest of drawers for the best part of the summer, shoving the spillage of clothes into it's endless depths. "Go fuck yourself, Malfoy." She added, slamming the door behind her.

And as she stalked out of the manor, she pretended not to notice the silhouette of her brother stood before one Narcissa Malfoy in Lucius's office.

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