The Hourglass

Chapter IV

Draco was sitting on his bed with Hera’s diary in his lap. He had finally decided to read it, but it still felt awkward and wrong. He opened it, read the first few lines and grinned.

“Dear Draco (I know you’re reading this, so dedicating it to a book makes no absolute sense, really):

Today I got the best birthday present I could’ve asked for. This is more than just a diary, or somewhere I can write my predictions in, as you kindly suggested; this is where I’ll finally express my most personal secrets and thoughts I could never and will never tell you, even though sometimes, there is nothing I would want more than to talk to you with all sincerity.

You see, Draco, you’ve just given to me the link between us that was missing, and I’m grateful to no ends for that. Within the following pages you will find the reasons for my actions and, most importantly, what I’ve been unable to express to you lately: my feelings.

You’re the best brother any girl could ask for. I love you with all my heart, Hera.

10-22-1998”

His gaze travelled through the leather on inside of the cover. There was something under it. He looked at the diary better and noticed a cut on the base, he slipped a thin finger under the cloth and took out a piece of parchment. On one of its sides, there was a drawing of a teenage girl in a Ravenclaw outfit with the name Lorelai Drowell on the bottom of the paper. It was written on the other side.

He hadn’t begun reading it when he heard the door to his room being opened. Hera, he immediately thought, even though it made no sense for her to be entering his room. He put the parchment inside of the diary and hid it under the pillow. Harry walked in and looked at the blonde quizzically.

“What are you up to?”, he asked when he saw the guilty expression on his face.

“Nothing. I’ve got to get to class.” He got up quickly and got light-headed. He stopped putting a hand to his forehead and, once he readjusted and regain his balance, he placed a kiss on Harry’s cheek and left the room.

“Draco? Wouldn’t it look more professional to ware shoes to class?”, Harry laughed.

He looked down at his green socks and his face went as red as a dehydrated rose petal. He walked back in and took his shoes from under the bed and put them on quickly. He kissed him again and left.

“Crazy bastard…”, Harry mumbled and, after a short instant, he glimpsed at the messy bed where Draco had been seated. He was about to start correcting a bunch of assays about the ways to fool a Boggart when curiosity took over him. The whole situation had been too uncharacteristic for Draco. He wasn’t a jumpy lad; there had to be more to it.

The brunette walked up to the bed and begun groping for something under the sheets, but there was nothing there. He looked under Draco’s pillow, but there was nothing there either. Finally, he lifted his own and found a small but thick book covered in black leather. He picked it up with shaky hands, stoking the fabric with his bony fingers as if it were Hera’s cheeks.

Not even for one instant did he feel tempted to open it, but he knew Draco had. He put it back under his pillow and slumped across the double bed. He didn’t want to know. He just didn’t.

~*~

“Have you ever held a wand, Miss Malfoy?”, Professor McGonagall asked Hera at the Transfiguration classroom.

“Yes, Professor”, she replied with her hands neatly placed on her lap.

“Do you own one?”

“You could say so”, she smiled. “I, somehow, inherited it.”

“Well, that may be enough for now. Have you ever tried to use it?”

“No… not really. If I were a witch, shouldn’t it have manifested itself a long time ago? I mean, there is a reason why I was locked up my whole childhood”, she snorted sounding a lot like her brother.

“You see, Miss Malfoy, magic is something even the wisest wizards can’t understand sometimes. Its behaviour may vary depending on the one who carries it. Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re a seer and not a witch, but what if you are? What if you weren’t meant to find out the extent of your powers until now?”

“I never looked at it that way…”, Hera said timidly.

“What are you waiting for, then? Do you have your wand with you?”, the old witch asked impatiently. Hera nodded and took it out of her pocket. “Come on, give it a swish.”

Hera swished, flicked and swished some more, a little more violently than the first times, but not even the tinniest sparkle came out of it.

“It’s fruitless… I knew it’d never work”, she said as she slumped backwards on her chair disappointedly.

“Here. Try with mine”, McGonagall said stretching it out to her. She took it, tried again a thousand times, but nothing happened. “Alright, enough. If these hadn’t been the appropriate wands, the classroom would be a complete mess, by now. I’ll talk to Dumbledore later and tell him to arrange a schedule for you. You may go, now.”

“Thanks, Professor”, Hera smiled desolately and got up to leave thinking for the very first time how she would love to be like her future classmates. She knew the years to come wouldn’t be easy in the least.

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to post a new chapter. I’ve been wicked busy lately… I just started a Harry Potter community at www.greatestjournal.com and that, even though I knew it would happen and I’m loving it, has taken the only time I had left. It’s still a bit inactive due to its lack of members, but for those who would like to check it out (and even join if have or get a journal, what would make me really happy =D), click here.