Chapter 4
Myrtle was his company for several months.
He loved spending his time with her, it was fun for him to hear about various love stories his friend read, but then he had to comfort her because his friend cried that she could never have a fairytale love. In addition, it pained her to know that his friend wasn't only suffering from the attacks of her classmates, but that several petrified students began to appear at school. From the second he couldn't save her, but from the first problem he always sought to comfort her.
He whispered comfortable words to her and told her she should confront her abuser. "You must tell a teacher that Olive Hornby is bothering you, Myrtle."
Still teary-eyed "They just gave him a warning. Now she bothers me in empty places and has called more people."
"Then you must face her too, pester her for her oily hair" yes, maybe it wasn't the best advice, but he was tired of seeing his friend so sad all the time because of that stupid girl.
"What? I can't do that."
"Myrtle, if you don't confront her and the teachers don't do anything to stop her, then she'll keep bothering you."
His friend let out a slight sigh, "Maybe you're right."
"I will always be here, in this mirror, for you" when he wanted to be able to hug her, to make her feel accompanied, but he was just someone locked in that mirror.
"Thank you Draco, I appreciate you being my first friend" she whispered as she wiped away tears "I could never forget you" gave her a trembling smile.
"You're also my first friend Myrtle, I'm so happy we met" After those words, his friend took out her favorite book and began to narrate the story for the two of them. They were so focused on the story that when they heard the bathroom door closed, it scared them.
Myrtle's fright changed to anger a few seconds later "It must be Olive Hornby, maybe she's here to keep bothering me" she stood up and looking at him said "It's time to face her" Draco showed his thumbs giving her all his support.
Myrtle gave her a smile and put the mirror inside her robe.
He heard the door of the bathroom cubicle open and then Myrtle's scream. "Hornby, get out of the bathroom and stop bothering me! You're a girl with a head...!" his friend remained silent.
Then he felt that they were falling to the ground.
A loud noise, a thud.
And at the end silence. A cold silence.
He was waiting to hear her friend's or Hornby's voice arguing, but he heard nothing, just a slight hiss.
"Myrtle! Myrtle!" he shouted her friend's name, but there was no response. He wanted to see what had happened, but he was trapped in Myrtle's robe. What had happened? What happened to Myrtle? Why didn't he listen to anything?
"Please Myrtle, answer me," he whispered. "Please, please" closed his eyes and clutched his head, tears pouring from his eyes. I was worried, desperate to know what was going on out there.
She didn't know how long she spent crying, calling his friend. Without any response.
His heart was filled with fear.
When he opened his eyes he was back in the infinite sky, seeing the beautiful stars. It had been many months since she had returned here, at that moment she knew that something had happened to his dear friend.
She cried for a long time until she felt her painful eyes and a slight headache. He just repeated "Myrtle" over and over as he hugged himself.
And when he could feel that strange heat and when he opened his eyes he visualized that yellow light again, without hesitation he entered it. She needed to know how his dear friend was doing. He needed to know that she was okay.
"Draco. Are you there?"
However, the person in front of him wasn't Myrtle, it was that first young man he had ever met. He started to panic.
Where's Myrtle? Why was he with this rude young man now? Had an accident happened to his friend? She would never have handed it over to a third party, especially this unknown person.
"So that Ravenclaw girl had you" was what the brown-eyed young man in the Slytherin robes whispered "Now you're with me again. I can't believe I thought I could do all the work without you," he tried to stroke his cheek, but the mirror stopped him.
Why did that teenager talk to him as if he knew him? Why do I feel a chill when I looked at it? I was afraid and didn't know the reason.
Taking a big breath he spoke "Where's Myrtle?" this was vitally important "I was with Myrtle, I should stay with her"
He could feel a dark feeling radiating through those beautiful eyes and then be changed to a feeling of sadness "I'm so sorry Draco" seemed genuine in his regret "But Miss Warren was found dead in the bathroom three weeks ago"
He was shocked at those words. I couldn't believe it.
His dear first friend couldn't be dead.
It was a dirty lie of that young man because he despised him. It had to be that, a lie.
"You lie, you lie" the young man began to look blurred. Oh! It seemed that he was crying again "Why are you lying to me? Why do you hate me so much?"
His world was shattering, wasn't he going to be able to go back to Myrtle? Was Myrtle dead? No. No. No. No.
"I'm sorry Draco, but it's true, Miss Warren passed away because of a Gryffindor student who was hurting several students. The good thing is that student is already paying for his crimes."
"The petrified?" The teenager nodded. The place was in a long silence until he decided to break it because he had a doubt "Why am I with you again?"
He didn't understand, he remembered that Myrtle kept it in his robe before... of dying and now it was in the hands of this young man Why was she with him?
"You were kept on a shelf of Director Dippet, I understand that they were some objects of Miss Warren that her parents decided not to take, I recognized you and I took you"
"I don't understand why you took the mirror, if I am useless to you"
"Would you rather have stayed on a shelf for an eternity?" he sneered. I hated him, I hated this student, yet I didn't wish to be alone, not now that his heart felt so fragile, so sad.
"I wouldn't have wanted that"
The young man smiled at him "So, I'll introduce myself I'm Tom and I'm happy to let you know that you will be part of my investigation. That way you'll be completely busy and you won't have time to get depressed."
He looked at him doubtfully "Research?"
"Obviously everything is theoretical. How can immortality be obtained?"
Perhaps this can keep you completely occupied with your pain.
1994
He couldn't keep Draco alone to himself for long, this because Hermione one day saw him conversing with a mirror and was frightened thinking that he had lost his mind. He had to explain to him about Draco and how he got it to avoid any claims on his part.
And presenting them was the worst mistake of his life.
This is because now Hermione and Draco started talking about topics that he didn't understand because they were very theoretical or still didn't teach him in classes, and as Hermione liked to do 'light reading' he had more topics of conversation than talking to the beautiful blonde.
In addition, Draco now asked to talk to Hermione alone for at least an hour a day, supposedly because "I need to talk to someone who is a little closer to my intellectual level, Pottah" if he hadn't looked pretty at the time of insulting him he would have been angry, but he looked very adorable when he stuck out his tongue as if he were a child.
Agh! She had to stop falling in love with Draco, his love would be impossible, but someone warn his heart because it doesn't like to listen. Sometimes it was horrible to be so stubborn.
At this time the three of them were gathered in an empty classroom "The first test is getting closer and closer, and we still don't know what it can be" Hermione began the meeting looking at the two.
Draco was in his hands sitting in an armchair while placing his jaw in his fists in a pensive position "Of the few data recorded about the Triwizard Tournament, in total there are three tests" it was noted that the blond had been evaluating every memory he had on the subject "The first test is mostly a confrontation with a magical creature, Although there were years that this changed, they were fighting with a group of high-level magical students" looked at them worried "But that you will fight with something or someone, you will"
"If I'm going to fight someone, then I must improve my attack spells" he only remembered to use the 'expelliarmus' naturally, the other spells he must think about it for a few seconds in the wand movement.
"Not only attack Harry, you must also learn some defense" said Draco starting to write on a scroll, that made him very curious.
"That's the bad thing that we have had many teachers deficient in the subject of Defense" lamented Hermione and had to give the reason, except for Professor Lupin, the other teachers didn't teach anything in their classes.
"Then you will be happy to know that I have a lot of knowledge about attack and defense spells, it's always good to have a wide arsenal of spells, although I have never used them for being... locked up" could feel in Draco's voice a bit of resentment and understood it must be horrible to be limited in that mirror being a sentient being.
Hermione looked like she didn't notice Draco's feelings, because excitedly asked him "Could you also teach me?" the blond could only nod.
"I'm still making a list of spells you'll be able to learn up to the date of the first test, but now we need to talk about something more important" What could be more important than the first test? "The reporters"
"Reporters?" What did they have to do with the tournament?
Draco looked very serious at these words, although it seemed ridiculous he decided to listen to his friend. "Yes Harry, one thing I've been finding out is that reporters are vultures in these kinds of tournaments."
"I think you may be right, with Muggles there are some reporters who sometimes make up fake stories to have more readers in their newspapers" Hermione looked a little thoughtful, and now that she mentioned it she had read some Muggle newspapers that created stories of some celebrities.
"The scandals," he said, receiving a nod from Draco.
"There was once a reporter published a news story where each competitor insulted the family of the other competitors, this caused that competition to be very bloody. In the end it was discovered that it was all a lie" he was surprised by the power of reporters in readers.
He didn't want to antagonize the other champions anymore, if they already hated him for supposedly sneaking into the tournament, he didn't want to be hated now for lies invented by a dirty reporter. "What should I do with these reporters?"
"That can be very important knowledge," Hermione spoke beside him.
Draco next to him put a small blackboard on which was written:
- Be confident.
"You must not be intimidated by these malicious reporters, you must maintain confidence in your actions and your words. If you start stuttering, they will devour you whole" next to the words materialized a drawing of a little Harry being eaten by a person with shark teeth.
"Was the drawing necessary?" was a little amused, and next to him he heard a snort of laughter from Hermione.
"Shut up Potter, the adult is talking" Draco silenced him with an indignant look.
Hermione whispered to him "Adult? It looks our age."
"Draco says he's around 50 years old" the day he told him he was in complete shock, he had fallen in love with a very ancient object.
"What?!" shouted Hermione completely surprised, he totally understood her.
The blond began to applaud to get the attention of the two "Don't be distracted, this is very important"
Below the first tip appeared the following words:
- Not talking alone with the reporter
"Never talk to the reporter alone because otherwise you will not be able to run away from him, plus all the questions will be directed only to you, instead if you're with more people the reporter would look rude just to focus on you" now there was an image of a little Harry crying and talking to a reporter; on one side was another happy little Harry surrounded by other champions.
Hermione laughed this time.
"You make me so deformed on purpose," he complained because in the drawing he was big-headed and had a very small body.
"Shhhh Pottah"
"Nothing shhh Draco, I'm not ugly" Is that how the blond saw it?
Draco looked at him and let out a sigh "It was a joke Harry, I think you're very handsome" his words made him blush slightly.
- If you aren't comfortable with a question, you can redirect it to another competitor.
"When you feel a question becomes too personal, you can divert it to another competitor. Example: 'What decided you to enter the tournament? That's a question that other competitors can answer for you.' And the reporter will have to talk to the others," winked "And I wouldn't know what else to advise you," he raised his shoulders.
He hoped that with this advice he could face the bad reporters, although he prayed that they would never appear in the tournament. Maybe everything would be easier.