Draco’s eyes opened just barely to notice that he had indeed made it back to his room the night before. Though, he seriously doubted that he received any sleep for he kept tossing and turning. He hoped that it was a dream that it had been Granger that he had seen leave last night, but the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach told him he had honestly seen Granger run from him the night before. He had been so sure it was Cree that had been sitting with him. Though, that didn’t make much sense either, speaking Cree had been dead for six years. Draco sat up and opened his eyes fully. He ran his hands through his hair.
"Nothing makes sense anymore." He mumbled to himself as he got out of bed. He grabbed his clothes and walked into the bathroom. When he locked the door behind him, the other door locked too, only to insure that no one would disturb whomever was in there. He smirked slightly as he heard Granger talk to herself in the other room. She was mumbling things very quickly and nothing really made sense as a whole, but one thing you could tell was that she was very shaken about something and Draco knew exactly what it was. It was the same thing that was bugging him. He shrugged it off, ignored the small worried voice of Hermione Granger, and stepped into the shower. He made sure the shower was quick because he wanted to get out of this girl’s presence as quickly as he could. Being around Granger on a normal day was bad enough, but when it nearly sounded as if she were to be going crazy, he did not want to stick around so see what would happen.
He dressed quickly and walked back to his own room. He ignored all thoughts of Hermione Granger’s loss of sanity at the moment and Cree. Today, he was sure of it, would be a normal day and he wasn’t going to let anything stop him. Draco opened his door and walked slowly to the spiral stairs by his door. When he looked down from the top, he noticed Weasley sitting on the couch.
"May I ask what you want Weasel?" Draco spat dangerously.
"Well obviously not waiting for you, so why don’t you take a guess? Unless that is too hard for you?" Draco glared at him and then walked down the stairs. He walked swiftly past Ron, but stopped and turned around.
"I’d make sure Granger hasn’t lost a few screws before you take her out there." Ron ignored
Draco until he left the room completely. Draco smirked as he stepped out into the hall. It was way too easy to get beneath Weasley’s skin.
"Draco are you going to tell me why you were out so late last night?" Draco stopped in his tracks, but did not turn around. He already knew who it was and decided to make her walk a bit. He listened to her shoes hit the cold stone ground of the corridor until she came into view in front of him. Draco eyed her curiously, but did not speak. "Well?"
"You suddenly taken role of my mother, Pansy?" Draco’s voice bored and annoyed. Pansy sensed this, but did not let it go.
"I saw you outside last night. Why?"
"Because you had the sudden urge to look out the window?" Draco smirked.
Pansy growled dangerously and stepped closer to him. "Draco!" she glared at him. "You know very well what I mean. Why were you outside?!" The last string of Draco’s temper snapped. He stepped forward and pushed Pansy out of his way. He didn’t even bother looking back when he answered, "Parksinson, what I do on my own accord is my own business and I do not need some noisy little rich girl buzzing around in it! Do you hear me!?" He listened to her stomp away mumbling how he used to be her best friend until now. Draco just rolled his eyes and made his way slowly to down to the Great Hall for breakfast. He of course sat in his usual seat and everyone else in Slytherin placed themselves accordingly to how close to him they wanted to be. Draco had developed quite the name for himself in Slytherin. No one dared to bother him, but he knew it was for his last name and the fact that Crabbe and Goyle were much bigger than half the people sitting at the table were.
As Draco ate, he searched the throngs of students for one person in particular. Granger was sitting with Potter and Weasley. They all seemed to be laughing and the Granger he had heard that morning seemed to relatively disappear. But that is when he noticed what was standing behind Granger. A blonde girl with pale skin and dark circles around her eyes smirked over at him. Her lips were seemingly purple and her skin so pale that her warm bluish veins shown through. She walked slowly to Hermione and looked at her face. Hermione’s expression soon changed. She looked distraught and cold. The girl smiled wickedly and then blew lightly on Hermione’s cheeks. They turned a rosy color and she shivered. Both Ron and Harry were looking at Hermione, both noticeably worried. Hermione pulled her robes tighter to herself. By this time most of the Gryffindor table was eyeing Hermione with curiosity and worry. The pale girl looked over and Draco again. This time, her look more serious then the time before. She ran her hand through Hermione’s now smoother hair. She smirked yet again and then leaned closer and kissed Hermione’s cheek. Hermione’s eyes rolled back and her head lulled to one side as her slender body slipped off the bench onto the floor. The Great Hall exploded with clamor. Everyone, including some Slytherins stood up to see what was going on. Harry and Ron her trying to pick her up off the ground, but she was lying in a very unnatural position. Ron Finally got Hermione lying just right and picked her up off the ground. Dumbledore was at their side as Ron and Harry left the Great Hall. Draco didn’t watch them leave. His eyes were plastered to the laughing pale girl now standing by the Great Hall doors. She smirked again and in the blink of an eye, she was gone.
"Cree." He whispered to himself. He stood up from his seat and left the Great Hall. Everyone in Slytherin was watching Draco as he mumbled to himself and left. He looked up the marble staircase and heard Potter and Weasley frantically trying to wake Hermione up, so he decided to follow. He quietly took up the stairs and followed the group to the Infirmary. Dumbledore opened the doors as Harry pushed past and made room for Ron to bring in Hermione’s motionless body. Madam Promfrey walked out of one of the other rooms and gasped.
"What happened to the poor girl?" The medi-witch asked as she examined Hermione.
"We don’t know," Ron answered worried. "We were talking and laughing and then she went all quiet and moments later she just fell motionless." Draco stepped a little bit closer and hid himself in the shadows of the room. He looked at Hermione for quite some time until he noticed something very small and delicate looking around her neck. Draco, not realizing, stepped closer for a better look. S small locket lay lightly on her pale white skin. The shimmering silver metal shone drastically against her pale white. Draco couldn’t shrug the feeling that he’d seen that locket before away. It was heart shaped as any other locket he’d ever seen, but behind the bared front piece was a small ruby. It was incased exactly in the middle. Like the heart in a human body. The thought played through Draco’s head over and over again. He stared at the small locket once again. Its shimmering white gold metal was too familiar to him to just ignore. He stepped out of the shadows and left the Infirmary. Harry, noticing Malfoy leave, followed.
Like the heart in a human body. He kept thinking about that one thought until he reached the Head dormitories. He raced inside and up the steps to his room, not even caring to swing the picture shut, and looked through his trunk. He did not have a clue what he was looking for, but something told him that this was where to look. He dug underneath his clothes and extra parchment until he found a small leather bound book. Something he had completely forgotten over the years. After the death of his best friend, he tossed aside many things that brought memories of her.
Draco lifted the book closer to him. He couldn’t remember why this tiny book held so much value to him until he slipped open the leather straps that were tying it together and opened it up. A picture fell from the first page of the book, but Draco ignored it. He flipped through the pages, eyeing the words every once and a while. The words were small, but neatly written. Draco flipped to the last page and read it aloud.
The sun shines brightly over the green hills
Casting a holy golden glow
I’m in heaven
Laughter and joyful singing
Can be heard from the valley below
I’m in heaven
Nothing can break the cheerful play
Even when the moon chases the sun away
I’m in heaven
But soon the heavens will come rushing down
And I will be left with nowhere to go
I’m in hell
I know what he said about this bond of ours
But you want me to never know
I’m in hell
You should have known
You should have guessed
I am nowhere
Nothing good can ever last
Draco seemed really bothered by this. It was the last thing Cree ever wrote and ever word on the page seemed full of pain. How could his friend feel so much pain in the end? Who caused it? "It was me." Draco tossed down the book and looked away. Finally noticing the picture he had dropped. He gently picked the picture up and looked at it and the first and only thing he noticed was the delicate necklace around Cree’s neck.
The locket.