Wonder // Draco Malfoy

50. A Week Away

"You're not trying hard enough, Valentine!" Draco groans. I pick my wand off the floor in frustration and take a deep breath. "How do you think you'll survive this last challenge if you can't block a disarming spell?"

"I am trying, Draco! You're not even giving me a chance!"

Draco yells in frustration and rubs his forehead. "And what, you expect whatever is in there to give you a lifetime to choose how to defend yourself?"

It has been revealed that the final task is a maze. It scared me since it matched my nightmares, but I haven't told anyone about that. Draco knows that he has died in my dreams and that Lev is the perpetrator, but he doesn't know that it has always been in the maze.

"Give me a break, Draco! I'm exhausted!"

"I'll give you a break when I can sleep at night knowing that you actually have a chance of coming out of this alive!" Draco yells. Sparks fly from the end of his wand and singe the floor below him in his fit of rage.

I grab my bag and shove my wand in it. "I'm going to my dorm. I know there are people who won't yell at me when they're frustrated."

Draco begins to speak but I spin around and reach for the doorknob. I yank the door open and ignore Draco's attempts to stop me. The corridor is dark as it's barely before curfew and I turn down a different corridor than normal so Draco won't follow. I soon realize my mistake.

It's dark, the torches on the wall too far apart and barely lit. I reach for my wand and point it ahead of me. "Lumos," I whisper. My wand creates a light at the tip and the hallway is illuminated now. The people in the portraits stir lightly and I lower my wand as not to disturb them. Some of them mumble lightly but that doesn't worry me; the footsteps on the other end of the hall do.

I stop abruptly and listen carefully. I should turn back around. I shouldn't have walked away from Draco. As I begin to walk backward toward the lit hallway I just came from, the footsteps get closer to me. I try to run backward but I trip over a bench and fall back, the contents of my purse spilling and my wand rolling to the opposite side of the hallway. I try to reach for it but I blindly feel the floor.

A small light emerges from the darkness as the person looks down on me. "Valentine?" A man asks gently. "Are you okay?"

The man kneels in front of me and his face comes into view. "Fred," I sigh. "What are you doing here?"

Fred chuckles and helps me to my feet. He towers over me easily as he looks down at me with a smile. "I could ask you the same. Isn't your, uh ..." he trails off, looking behind me for any sign of Draco.

"Oh, I'm alone. Well, I was with him. But.. I got lost," I loosely explain. Fred is now picking up the contents of my purse and handing me my belongings. I thank him quietly.

"This is just a shortcut for when Filch gets too mad. Which is always," Fred laughs. I follow him as he trails back to the direction he came. The dimly lit corridor is nowhere near as scary if you aren't alone. Especially if the person you're with is so calm about it.

A portrait shouts at us to be quiet and I jump, a small shriek coming from my mouth. This causes us to laugh more, waking more portraits and ultimately being screamed at more. When the torches begin to brighten, Fred looks down at me with wide eyes. Before he can explain, a growl is heard at the end of the hallway.

"Rotten kids! Curfew was three minutes ago!" Filch screams. Fred and I begin to run away, Filch's heavy footsteps following us. I follow Fred up a set of stairs and when we reach the landing, he pulls me by my robe to the right and I recognize where we are. We're right next to the stairs leading to Hufflepuff common.