Chapter 56

                                    

                                          
"Nott? How are you even getting in here?" I asked the brunette boy who was leaning against the wall in the entrance to the common room, arms folded.
                          
"Head boy perks. No passwords needed. Although the Ravenclaw common room is still an issue, you have to solve bloody riddles to get in, I haven't got time for that."
                          
"You've been to all the common rooms?" 
                          
"Yeah, and I can safely say Slytherin definitely has the best one. This place just looks like an old library, and Hufflepuff? Don't even get me started on how much yellow they have everywhere." 
                          
"Right, well what's Slytherin got that we haven't then?" 
                          
"Money. Anyways, we're late." 
                          
"Late for what?" 
                          
"For night patrols you idiot. Snape's orders is that the head boy and girl patrol the corridors, alongside the Carrows, to make sure no one sneaks around." 
                          
"How come I wasn't told?" 
                          
"Do I look like Snape? Ask him! Come on, what are you doing, waiting for the grass to grow, Jesus Christ I thought you were meant to be smart." 
                          
Rolling me eyes I grabbed my cloak and pulled myself out of my chair, heading out into the cold staircase. 
                          
"So where exactly are we meant to be pratrolling?" I asked as we walked in silence, through the corridors. 
                          
"Seventh floor. I don't think I need to explain why Greenwood." 
                          
Remembering back to not only last year, but the year before that, when my spare moments would be spent heading to the room of requirement, he definitely did not need to explain. 
                          
"So Snape has us doing this to keep people from coming in, not making sure people aren't out of bed." 
                          
"Ahhhh, she is clever! Maybe you can solve the Ravenclaw common room riddle!" 
                          
The night was long. Exhausted from the events of the past few days, I kept feeling my eyes shutting uncontrollably, once or twice my head falling to the side, and being nudged awake by Nott, clearly annoyed. 
                          
"Oi, it's not nap time." 
                          
"Sorry, haven't really slept in a while." 
                          
"....I think you've been really good to him you know. I think he'd be long gone if he didn't have you." 
                          
"I didn't do much." 
                          
"No I mean since you came to this school Greenwood. He was this arrogant boy, obsessed with following in his father's footsteps. When he met you he changed, suddenly wanted to be an auror, got his head down in school. He's a good guy, Malfoy, he just comes from a well respected family with big expectations." 
                          
"There was me thinking when I met him that he was this horrible person. It wasn't until I started dating Harry that I realised it was him. He was the one for me. He wasn't perfect, but that's what made him perfect for me." 
                          
"That and the sex." 
                          
"Jesus what has he told you?" 
                          
"Don't worry, he's not said anything, he respects you too much to go around shouting about what you get up to....even though Pansy has tried to get it out of him multiple times." 
                          
"Who else knows about what happened last year? About what he had to do?"
                          
"Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, all the pureblood families pretty much. We were told to just let him get on with it really, and only help when he asked us to. The amount of nights he woke up screaming, absolutely terrified about what he had to do, all I wanted to do was help him out. Which is why I'm doing this now, looking after you for him, at least it's one less thing for him to worry about. Have you hid the thing by the way?"
                          
"Yeah I've hid it." 
                          
Truth is, I hadn't hidden the wand properly. It sat in my bedside table, secured in a locked box. I wanted it near me in case the time came that I had to use it, and with it close to me I felt better, rather than having it hidden somewhere far away. 
                          
"Don't tell me where it is. That way if it's location gets out then you know it won't have come from me." 
                          
~ 
The weeks dragged by painfully, Nott and I out in the corridors almost every night, discussing life and the future beyond Hogwarts. To be honest I was glad I was barely sleeping, as that's when the nightmares about bad things happening to Draco, or Harry Ron and Hermione began to set in. The only real glimmer of hope I had was an invitation from the Weasleys to spend Christmas with them, which was quickly rolling around. 
                          
"Cant think of anything worse than going to the Weasley's, blood traitors" Nott said, when I told him of my plans the night before we were due to go home. 
                          
"Oh shut up about your stupid blood shit will you!" 
                          
"Can't help it, it's how I was raised I guess. Having it drilled into you every day of your life really does embed it into your mind." 
                          
"Yeah well the Weasleys are good people, you remember that." 
                          
"I'll make sure to write it in my diary." I nudged him with my elbow in the ribs, hard, earning a groan from him. 
                          
"Keep doing that and you won't get your present." 
                          
"You got my present?" I looked at him, shocked. 
                          
"Don't get all sentimental, just open it." 
                          
He handed me a small box, wrapped in green paper. I tore it open to reveal two things. The first being a bottle of luxurious looking aftershave, which I knew immediately to be Draco's, the second was a Slytherin scarf. 
                          
"The scarf is just a joke present, maybe you can wear it to turn Draco on when you next see him or something. Mainly I just needed it to wrap the aftershave up in." 
                          
"You got me his scent?"
                          
"Figured you were probably sat in the potions classroom all the time brewing silly amortentia just to smell him or something weird like that, now you can just spray this anytime you want." 
                          
"Merry Christmas Theo." 
                          
"Merry Christmas Greenwood."