I tried to buried that night deep in my head in the following days, but it was hard to so it, it would always come back to hunt me when I was less stronger, and getting weaker was not helping that.

I hadn't told anyone what happened, not even Blaise, the only thing I told him was that I was sorry for Draco not listening to me about Quidditch, he said it was fine, and asked me multiple times if I was okay, or if anything important happened...I always answered with a smile in my lips.

I was wondering if I made right choice by spending my holidays here, I was not ready to go home, not in this moment, and besides, almost all the school goes home, including Draco, he always made fun of the kids that stayed for Christmas, and - even if not sure - I knew that I would probably need to go to the Malfoy's Christmas Party, and I couldn't bare to be there, in his house, stepping the same marble floor I stepped when we danced.

Each word, each feeling, each touch we shared...it was all losted.

His cold and breaking words still lingered on my mind, those never left, those would let a mark that it's not physical, but can only be healed by what created them.

I was on the Great Hall, looking at my plate, almost feeling the urge to throw up, not because the food didn't looked good, but because I could barely eat anymore.

My palm was supporting my face, as I played the food with my fork, with no intentions to be even here, I just wanted to be locked in my dorm the all day, miss classes, Charlotte won't be there, luckily for me, she was going to spent her Christmas with her family.

Everybody had left me, everybody, in a way or another, they did.

Now, I was left naked in a empty world with nothing to support me as I tried to walk away from the darkness.

At this point, I would say that I was destined to be alone, but like I said, I don't believe in fate, it might be the thing that had lead my way into the right path, giving me cards to play against, trying to find the opposite of me at the end of the path.

But the end of the path, was blocked by a big and endless wall, that was getting stronger each time, making me look like a simple, small litlle flower, that would fly way and break with just a bit of wind.

"Hey are you awake?" I saw a snap of fingers in front of my eyes, as I came back to reality, and saw Blaise sat in front of me, and I was still in the Great Hall.

"Huh...I'm sorry, yeah I'm awake Blaise." I said softly as I fixed my posture.

There wasn't a lot of people in the Great Hall, the kids had almost all went home.

"Well you did look awake, you were just staring at my bloody cup of coffee like if you were seeing a ghost..." Blaise said amusingly.

"I was what?" I asked abruptly, it must have looked so embarrassing to look like that.

"Yeah, yeah, your eyes were so opened, that looked like you were doing a competition with the cup to see who would blink first." Blaise said as he let out a big laugh at his own joke.

"Yeah that's terrible funny, Blaise." I said sarcastically.

He kept laughing, pointing at my face - he probably was only trying to make me laugh - and trying to reinterpret the face I was doing while staring at the cup, and laughing even more at his figures, which ended up in a silly smile from my part.

I think he overreact while trying to imitate me, but that was even more funnier than the joke itself.

"Now, seriously...what were you thinking off." He asked after calming himself down.

"Why do you ask when you already know, Blaise?" I asked softly.

"Yeah you're right, I do know, I just want to know if you're okay." He said softly, and I shrugged as a response. "You know what?" He said exponentially.

"What?" I said, as I took a sip of the glass of water that layed on the table.

"You're going to go to a party with me." He said confidently, catching by complete surprise and I almost chocked on my water.

"Hmmm, I don't remember of agreeing with any of that...neither of knowing of some party, what did I missed?" I asked furrowing my eyebrows together in confusion.

"You know I'm on the Slug Club, right?" I nodded. "Well, Slughorn, is going to make a private Christmas party for us, and we're allowed to bring partners...I wasn't going to go with anyone, so I find it a very good idea if you would come with me." Blaise said confidently, I could see him really believing this was a good idea, and I would feel bad for disappointing him.

"Well, I'm sorry but, that's not going to happen." I said softly.

"Come on, a party would do good to you, you can distract your mind, lately your always overthinking, you need to relax a bit." Blaise aaid softly.

It was nice from him to try to help me, but I can't see how a party is going to help me.

"Blaise the last thing I need right now is a party." I said in a apologetic tone.

"Believe me, is going to help you relax a bit, trust me on this." Blaise said confidently.

I didn't replied, I thought about this clearly, seeing my chances, I didn't had nothing to loose anyways, besides, I intended to spent the holidays locked in my dorm, enjoying the fact Charlotte won't be here, so it's not like I can give an excuse to Blaise, he'll keep insisting.

"I'll think about it." I said firmly, and he smiled at my answer.

"Well think quickly, because the party is in two days." Blaise said softly.

"Well, I'll tell you-" I cut myself off when I saw Draco stepping inside the Great Hall.

I thought I was hallucinating at first, at least until I saw Blaise also staring at him, Draco never stays for holidays, he made fun of the ones who stayed but now he's staying too, that doesn't make sense, that doesn't make sense at all, why wouldn't he want to go home.

He sat way far away from us, his elbows on the table, as he eyed the wall right in front of him, not even bothering to touch his food.

"Did you know Draco was staying?" I asked Blaise without removing my eyes from Draco.

"No, I'm as surprised as you are." Blaise said firmly.

Suddenly, I saw Cormac, a Gryfindor, get closer to Draco, and stop near him.

"Aww, look who's staying for Christmas?" Cormac said mockingly at Draco, but he didn't even flinched. "What you don't have your daddy to spent the Christmas is that it?" Draco kept unmoved, and unbothered by Cormac's words."What, is mommy out of money to host a Christmas party?" He said firmly.

Draco stood up abruptly at his last sentence, and almost hit Cormac of it wasn't stopped by Blaise, who was pulling him backwards, I was so focused in Draco that I haven't noticed Blaise standing up.

"Ohh, did I hit a nerve when I spoke about your mommy is that it?" Cormac said amusingly, and Draco prepared himself to punch him, but Blaise grabbed him, and Draco's punch missed Cormac's face by mere inches.

"Shove off McLaggen!" Blaise shouted firmly, still grabbing Draco back, as he was still trying to fight with Cormac, and all the eyes were on them.

Cormac gave a laugh, and slowly walked away from them, and sat by the Gryfindor table.

Draco got himself free from Blaise's tight grip, and shoved him off as he walked angrily away from the Great Hall.

Blaise looked at me, a worried look in his eyes, as he gave on last stare at the entrance of the Great Hall from where Draco had just disappeared from.

{☆~☆}

I ended up accepting Blaise's offer, and said yes to the such party, Draco wouldn't be there which is great.

But Draco wasn't the only person which the stay here surprised me, Charlotte did too, even though she had no reason to, unless some boy that was in the Slug Club had invited her, she wasn't doing anything here but annoy me.

I didn't asked her though, I showed that I didn't cared wether she stayed or not, and showed that didn't bothered me at all - even though it did - and didn't dared to look surprised or something, just to avoid a conversation with us.

Luckily I had lots of dresses with me, I always bring some for occasions like this, so that part was fixed.

One more of a reason into taking me accepting Blaise's offer, was that I wouldn't spent the entire day with Charlotte locked in the dorm, but wouldn't dare to leave it either and risk myself crossing paths with Draco.

I went for my dresser, and took out a simple emerald dress I had with me, quite simple, all in silk, showing my shoulders, waved and light in the skirt, it was beautiful but didn't contained lots of details, which was my point after all.

I only curled my hair a bit, I didn't intended to stay the whole party, I was only doing this to see if Blaise was right and I could relax with this party, I just hoped he was right.

When he knocked, I opened the door, he was all in a black, ceremony suit, and we went to the party together.

It had way more people than I thought it would have, I could regonize people like Harry, Luna, Hermione, Cormac, even Snape was there, until now everything seems fine.

"Ah, Blaise, how wonderful to see you, I see you brought Miss Blackwell with you." Slughorn said, and greeted him with a handshake.

Blaise took us to look around the party, but instead of examinating the room I was in, my gaze stopped at the last people I hoped to be here.

Charlotte and Matthew.

I was so distracted that I completely forgot about Matthew making part of the Slug Club as well, but that was one thing, a different thing was to find Charlotte as his company as well.

They were talking with some random people I didn't know about, and suddenly Matthew's gaze fell on me, his features were firm as he did so, and no matter how hard I tried to look of how unbothered I was, I still showed nothing towards him, I was still capable of hiding my emotions.

"Well, I'm sorry about that." Blaise said as soon as he saw them to. "I didn't know they would be both here." Blaise said softly.

"Lara, hi." A sweet voice behind me, made me broke the eye contact I had with Matthew, and turn around to find Luna.

"Luna, hey how are you?" I asked softly.

"Oh, I'm pretty good...hello Blaise." She said softly, smiling at Blaise.

"Good evening, Lovegood." Blaise said, as he gestured with the glass that was in his hand.

"Who do you came with?" I asked, but it wasn't necessary for her to respond as soon as I saw Harry getting close to us, and I made the counts.

"Luna, I'll be right back." Harry said at Luna, and then his gaze stopped at me. "Lara." He said firmly.

"Good evening, Harry." I said coldly, maintaining my lips in a firm line.

"I'm surprised you're not with Draco in the party." He said.

"Draco wasn't even invited to this party, and so I was not, so we couldn't come together, just for your knowledge." I said, maintaining my tone cold as ice.

"Oh, no, what I meant was that I'm surprised that you didn't joined him for his litlle party at night when he disappears from the castle." Harry said, looking proud by what he said.

My jaw clenched in furious, but I tried to maintain my posture, I wouldn't let him get the joy to see me frustrated or even slightly affected by his words.

"I actually don't know what you're talking about, Harry." I said firmly.

I did knew, my mind still wonders till this day to where is he going, and Harry must have tried to follow him as well.

"Yeah, sure." He said firmly, and stepped away from us before I could even reply to his sentence.

Luna and Blaise were just staring at us the whole conversation, and they were still silent when Harry left.

"Anyways, Luna, see you later." I said softly and she gave me a smile.

Blaise pulled us away, to give another look at the room.

The ceiling and walls had been draped in emerald, crimson and gold hangings, the room was stuffy by the red light casted by a golden lantern, hanged in the centre of the ceiling, and there was lots of staff, some were even students like Neville, dressed in white suits, walking around the room with a tray of food and drinks, serving the guests.

Suddenly, someone, accidentally, bumped in me, and when I saw who was it, I quickly thought that perhaps it wasn't by accident that Matthew bumped into me.

"Oh, I'm sorry...oh Lara, what a coincidence." Matthew said, giving me a smile, a obviously fake, and mockingly smile.

Charlotte was obviously by his side, I only gave her a quick look, when I turned to face Matthew again, and Blaise shifted awkwardly.

"Good evening, Matthew." I said firmly, to be honest, speaking with Matthew like if we were complete strangers was odd and highly uncomfortable. "Lovely party, isn't it?" I asked softly.

"Indeed." He said.

"I see you brought Charlotte with you." I said coldly.

I understood now why hasn't she went home for holidays, she would be staying here for the party, I just hoped she would leave in the day after it.

"Oh, yeah you see, I would have invited you, but I thought that you would say no because you would be with Draco, oh wait..." He stopped talking for a moment, to pretend to be thinking. "...you both are mad at each other, isn't that right?" He asked amusingly, and I felt my anger rise.

"Matthew stop..." I heard Charlotte whispered to him.

"Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt what it seems to be a lovely conversation, but we need to go." Blaise said firmly, as he grabbed my arm to pull us away, but my feet didn't moved, as my eyes didn't dared to broke eye contact with Matthew this time.

"You think you are the good guy, don't you?" I asked coldly, but he didn't respond me. "Well, let me tell you this..." I stepped closer to him, making our faces being only some inches away from each other. "...you're acting just the same as he did in the past." I said firmly, and his jaw clenched in anger.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Lara." Charlotte said, and my gaze diverted from Matthew to her, as she started pulling Matthew with her. "Just for you know, we just wanted to hang out with you today, trying to amend our friendship, but it's obviously useless with you two always arguing." She said firmly.

"Are you telling it's my fault?" Matthew asked indiganted.

"Just come." Charlotte said firmly, and pulled him away from us.

Blaise didn't said anything, and just pulled us into the other direction that Matthew and Charlotte went.

Until now, my mind was everything but relaxed, and the party has just begun.

"Mind me saying, but I don't like your friends." Blaise said softly.

"They're not my friends, not anymore...I don't have any friends." I said coldly.

"Hmm, excuse me..." He asked amusingly. "You think I'm your pet or something, hell no." Blaise shouted amusingly, and I rolled my eyes.

"You know what I meant." I said firmly.

"Ugh, look, is that bloody McLaggen again." Blaise said coldly. "He must be looking for Granger, I've seen her slip away from him at least three times today." Blaise said amusingly.

We enjoyed the rest of the party, usually talking with some guests from Slughorn, asides from the part where I argued with at least three different people, this part was actually being relaxing.

All of our eyes diverted to Filch, who storm in the party, with someone shouting along with him.

"Take your hands off me, you filthy squid!" I soon realized that it was Draco that Filch was grabbing by the clothes, dragging him until the center of the room.

Our gazes locked together almost imediatly, Draco's face who was filled with anger and disappointment, relaxed at the sight of my face, but still looked broken.

He wasn't even trying to get out of Filch's grip anymore as he stared at my face, but when I saw regret in his eyes, he looked away from me, clenching his face in sadness like he used to.

"Professor Slughorn sir..." All the eyes were on them now. "I just discovered this boy, lurking in an upstairs corridor, he claims to be invited to your party-" Draco imediatly cut him off.

"Okay, okay, I was gatecrashing...happy?" Draco shouted abruptly.

"I'll escort him out." Snape said firmly, being now face to face with Draco.

With a shove from Draco's shoulder, Filch's hand lost it grip, and he released him, as Draco was now staring at Snape and his eyes went back to be filled with anger, and his mask was being extremely held in place.

"Certainly...Professor." Draco said firmly, and both of them walked away.

Suddenly as I watched them getting out of the room, Harry, who seemed to be rushing, bumped into me, and spilled his pumpkin juice all over my dress.

"Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry Lara." Harry said in a apologetic tone.

"Harry why the fuck where you even running?" I asked abruptly, hoping that at least he would help me clean this mess.

"I'm sorry...I need to go." Harry said as already running away from me, going in the same direction as Draco and Snape.

"Harry..." It was useless to call for him, he was long gone, and so I turned to Blaise. "Will you excuse me for a moment I need to clean myself." I said softly and he nodded.

I walked away, looking at the pumpkin juice already staining my dress, and I was walking in the direction of the bathroom, at least until when I saw Harry, turning into a corner, still seemed to be rushing, and so I went after him.

"Harry?!" I called but he didn't heard me. "Hey, Harry?" I called again.

I turned in the same corner as him, and saw him leaning his back against a wall, like trying to hide himself from someone, which I found odd, and so I walked next to him.

"Harry, what are you-" His finger in front of my lips cut me off.

"Shhh." He whispered, and I stopped talking, trying to understand what was he even doing.

"Maybe I did hex that Bell girl, maybe I didn't..." I heard Draco's voice, and imediatly peeked through the wall Harry was leaned to see what was happening. "What's that with you?" Draco asked, and suddenly, Snape throwed him against the hall, keeping him there.

Suddenly, I wasn't capable to see anymore, as Harry abruptly pushed me to hid besides him, leaning against the same wall he was.

"I swore to protect you!" Snape said firmly. "I made the Unbreakable Vow!" Snape said clearly.

"I don't need protection! I was chosen for this!" Draco said firmly. "Out of the all others, me!" Draco's tone didn't seemed glad by what he was claiming. "I won't fail him." He said after some silence.

"You're afraid, Draco-" Snape was cut off.

"No I'm not!" Draco said clearly.

"You're using Occlumency, right now...what secrets are you trying to conceal from him, Draco?" Snape asked firmly.

"Nothing." Draco said, taking his time to speak.

"You may be using Occlumency, but no matter how hard you attempt to conceal it, your afraid it's obvious, let me assist you-" Snape said firmly, but Draco spoke on top of him.

"No!" Draco said loudly. "I was chosen! This is my moment!" Draco said firmly, but the tone in his voice didn't matched the sentence he had just said.

"You're a fool, Draco..." Snape said. "And she will pay for your mistakes." Snape said firmly.

"She doesn't have anything to do with this!" Draco almost shouted as he spoke.

"He, does not care about that, Draco." Snape said clearly. "You heard what he said he would do shall you fail."

"No! I won't let