"Secrets"

September 1996, 2 months later

This summer was the toughest one yet. Although, Circi had successfully ran from the manor.

She hated to leave the greenhouse but it was just a building- and she was just a child. Narcissa was particularly reluctant to bring her home when she got off the train but, it seemed, she was acting on the belief of what was best for Draco and what Lucius would want.

Upon returning to the manor, however, they were greeted with a guest. Draco was given a kiss and hug that forced him to tense up by a tall pale women with wild black hair and a deranged look in her eye. It didn't take an idiot to recognise Bellatrix Lestrange, she looked exactly like her headshot.

Their introduction was cold, the way Bellatrix caressed Circi's hair as she spoke about her fondest memories of Serenity unnerved Circi. And the stories- tales of burning students' ties, tossing kids down corridors with a flick of her wrist, murdering friends and family. Not to mention she forced her own sister into hiding and Cissy would never do that.

She felt sick and was glad to be able to shut herself in her bedroom. It was on that first night she determined to leave. While she could not take a trunk, she could take a small bag and determined to take only the essentials. This, of course, included the journal she kept in the greenhouse. So that night, when she was certain everyone was asleep, she dressed up too warm for the weather despite the cold night and crept into the garden.

In the greenhouse, she squatted on the makeshift bed of dirt and shifted her belongings around in her bag. She pushed her homework, textbooks and spare parchment to the back and slid in her journal. Then, she folded up Serenity's old scarf and her own along with her gloves and pushed them against the bottom before lying a pot of ink, two quills and her wand on top of them. There was a weeks worth of socks and underwear along with a spare change of clothes but she was banking on finding someone to help her before running out.

The plan? Use the floo network to get to diagon alley. It was the only place she could think of and she had enough pocket money to afford a night or two at the Leaky Cauldron where she would write a letter to Christian for help.

It was all in motion and she was just leaving the greenhouse when she realised there was a square of light cast over the guarden that hadn't been there before.

Her initial thought was Draco, his room looked over the garden but he would never snitch. Not on her at least. But she soon realised it was the window below his room. The room where Bellatrix was staying.

The woman herself approached the window and waved down at her.

Just that simple motion struck fear in Circi. She would be damned if she failed at her second attempt of running away. And, of course, when she finally reached the kitchen door, it was locked. Bellatrix had locked her out. To anyone else, Bellatrix for example, this may have caused panic; Circi simply ran around the edge of the house and crouched down to knock on the window of the basement where the elves resided during the night.

Soon enough, she was in the house and searching her father's draws in his study for the floo powder.

No one had come to stop her so she assumed Bellatrix simply thought her to be having a gander around the garden during the night and nothing more. She still worked speedily and allowed a triumphant 'aha!' upon finding the power.

And when she stood in the fireplace, fistful of powder held aloft, she didn't care much if anyone heard her because she would soon be gone.

"Diagon Alley!" She called out into the darkness. A flash of green briefly blinded her as the green flames rose up around her but soon she was travelling. Almost like falling down a steep, winding tunnel, she landed on the ground of a fireplace dazed and covered in soot. By some stroke of luck, she had landed in the Leaky Cauldron's back room that only ever saw floo travellers.

On her way out of the room she was hit by a strong gust of wind which blew the soot off of her and, upon finding the landlady, purchased a room for two nights with little to no questions asked. Her letter was sent within an hour and her night was full of rest.

The next day at breakfast she was sat in a dark corner of the food hall, unwilling to be seen or recognised. When a shadow fell over her table, she refused to lift her head and ate quicker until her company cleared their throat.

"Are you going to ignore me for two months?"

She looked up, eyes wide, and took a moment to recognise Christian. A beat passed between them and he smiled faintly. Finally registering what his presence meant, she climbed up onto the booth seat and clambered towards him. Throwing her arms around him, she buries her face in his neck and feels the tension in her shoulders deflate.

"You came," he hugs her back.

"Of course I did."

-

"What happened after that?"

"She moved in with her granddad, duh." Mica swings her legs off of the back of the couch and rolls to sit upright. Leaning over Leslie, she rests her hand on Circi's thigh and smiles gently. "You don't have to tell us everything if you don't want to, Circ. No matter how many questions he asks." She narrows her eyes on Leslie, who huffed and crossed his arms but agreed nonetheless. She sat back, sighing and looking around the Slytherin common room and sticking her tongue out at a student sneering at her presence. "I have homework to do and Ginny Weasley offered to help, I'll see you guys later."

The other two mumbled their farewells and sat in silence as she stood and left.

"Circ, you're blushing," Leslie smirked, shifting his glasses up his nose, "I know you lied last year about a kiss but I have to ask-"

"For the last time, we're just friends." He raised an eyebrow. Huffing, Circi rolled her eyes and leaned her head back. "And I'm still sorry about lying to you."

"It's fine, I get why you did it." Smiling gratefully, Circi shut her eyes.

She had been back at Hogwarts for a few days now and had yet to speak to Draco. He had looked so weary at dinner, only when he thought no one was looking. Part of her wanted to approach him, ask how his summer was, whether he missed her or not. But, at the same time, she was scared of him. He seemed to brood in the common room more often and the other night he had been the last to go to bed, spending the entire night watching the fire die.

At first, she and Leslie had dismissed him to simply be a moody teenager- something they could easily relate to- but upon closer inspection he seemed troubled. Call it cliche, but she could tell by the look in his eyes.

When she shut her eyes, she had become accustomed to tuning out the world around her. While she registered the noise, it was nothing but a low hum in an otherwise silent space. The dark was comforting, as if she was stargazing but the clouds were too dense, almost as though a feather duvet had been pitched over her.

She thinks a lot in those moments about comforting things. About those old flannels she left in the bottom of her wardrobe, the dirt bed in her greenhouse, Mica, sitting with Leslie in near darkness and whispering secrets to each other. She often reflects on her summer, how she and her mother had ransacked her mother's old wardrobe and put on a fashion show; Haley applied some light makeup and Serenity styled her while Christian and Dexter 'judged' all of her outfits to be a '10/10'.

But, sometimes, she thinks about Carmen. Those thoughts weren't too comforting, especially the thoughts of no longer having immediate access to her now that she had graduated. And, as usual, these thoughts were interrupted.

Dragged back to reality by a loud group of sixth years entering the room, Circi lifts her head and looks around to see Draco waltzing ahead of Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise and Pansy. He was tossing a small object between his hands and holding it over his head whenever Pansy tried to reach it. Pushing herself from her seat, she is across the room before Leslie can stop her.

"Draco," he spins around, grin dropping upon seeing her, "I want to talk to you."

"So?" He tries to walk by her but she grabs at his arm. He pulls his arm back, "why would I want to talk to you?"

"Draco, I-" he turns his back on her again and her cheeks flush red, "Draco Lucius Malfoy!" The common room falls silence and his shoulders tense up. "Don't walk away from me when I'm trying to talk to you." Every set of eyes is on them. Circi's chest is heaving as she anticipates his response. He hesitates, turning his head slightly before brushing down his robes, then slicking back his hair, and spinning around to approach her. Grabbing her arm, he drags her out into the corridor outside the common room and speaks in a low voice. His grip on her arm doesn't falter, in fact it tightens with every word he says as if to make his point.

"Do not test me this year. If you show me up like that again I'll-"

"You'll what?" She hisses in a matching volume, trying to tug her arm away but only managing to bring them closer together and talking in an even quieter voice. "You'll tell father? Go ahead, Draco, write to our filthy Death Eater of a father. Tell him how annoying your sister is being for wanting to talk to you after being away for three months, I'm sure he'll be furious."

"You ran away, you left me there alone."

"Oh, I'm sorry," her nostrils flared as she spoke, "I didn't realise you needed me to hold your hand every day. You're sixteen, grow up."

"I have." He let go of her, practically pushing her as he stormed back into the common room.

Running her hand over the sore spot on her arm where he had been holding her, she glances around the corridor before following him.

Leslie jumps off of the couch and meets her as she descends the steps into the middle of the room.

"Hey, you okay?" She nods, caressing her arm and looking around to see that everyone was watching her.

"I'm fine, just tired. Goodnight Les." He walks her to the stairs, determined to make sure she's okay but in the end they simply parted on another 'goodnight' and that was that.

A/N

draco's getting bold, someone need tap *bap bap bap*