I had no choice but to cut this one off. There was just too much to process, even for myself.

Chapter 33

Two months passed. It seemed for a while that the Professors were doing all they could to keep Draco and Raven apart. They would either have one do something after class and send the other on their way or they would catch the two just before they would meet and need to “talk” to one of them about something. Finally, it was getting too hard to keep them apart. The professors couldn’t find any more excuses and just accepted the spell driven relationship for the time being. When Raven was not in class or studying, she spent her time with Draco. They acted like two very happy, lovesick people. The new Hogwarts relationship had some people steering clear of the two. No one knew exactly why Draco and Raven got together; all they knew was that it was a suspiciously bad thing. Crabbe and Goyle didn't seem to mind the relationship; however Harry, Ron and Hermione did.

One night, Hermione came to her in a fit of curiosity and began asking her questions about how the relationship was going. When Raven told her everything was great, Hermione became frustrated and told Raven that she was only seeing Draco because of a potion and she needed to find an antidote before it went too far. Raven quickly dismissed Hermione by telling her she needed to concentrate on her own life instead of butting her nose into someone else's. Raven could sense her friend's irritation but couldn't understand where she was getting the idea that she was under a spell or potion. Since then, Hermione, Ron and Harry never had anything to say to her. Raven assumed that since they couldn't talk to her about anything other than her relationship with Draco that there was nothing else to talk about. It was disappointing to Raven; her friends meant the world to her. She hoped that one day they would come to accept her relationship and they could go back to being supportive friends.

Despite all of the rumors and whispers going on behind Raven's back, she never let her relationship with Draco wither. With every day, the two not only became stronger in their friendship but in their love as well.

One Saturday afternoon, Raven was sitting at the Slytherin table eating lunch when the conversation shifted from fun to upsetting for her. Draco, who had been talking about how much fun it would be to turn Professor Moody into a ferret, quickly transitioned to him making horrible fun of Harry.

"Draco, don't," Raven said, putting her hand in his. "He is still my friend. I don't expect you to like him, but please respect me enough not to make fun of him in front of me." Despite her friends' feelings for her right now, she had enough respect for them to defend them.

"Why can't you forget about Potter and his friends? You don't need them anymore. Besides, when we are married you two won't have any room to be friends." Draco, Crabbe and Goyle shared a wicked laugh. Raven pulled her hand away and looked at him like she couldn't believe what she just heard.

“Married?” Raven was baffled. Why would he bring up marriage?

"Yeah, father told me of a marriage contract between the two of us. So, it's not like you can invite any of your current 'friends' over for dinner. We don't get along. And it's high time that you get used to life without their company."

"Marriage contract? What are you talking about? Besides, we aren’t married yet and you shouldn’t make choices for me, married or not!”

Draco dropped his fork on his plate, which made a loud clanging noise. "There was a contract signed by your dad and mine shortly after I was born. Crazy, huh? Good thing we‘re together. Otherwise we would have had a hard time getting together. Besides, I may as well start being the man of the relationship and putting my foot down. You need to end your friendship." Draco looked at his friends and made a gesture to them that made them laugh.

Raven got the strange feeling that all of this was familiar. Regardless of the strange sense of deja vu, she wasn‘t going to give up her independence for a man. "I don't like your friends either. And so what if you’re the man, I’m the woman and can make your life miserable if I choose. If I am supposed to chuck my friends aside without batting an eye, then it should be no problem for you, too."

Draco rolled his eyes and picked up his fork to continue eating. "My friends are different. Father likes them."

Raven was grinding her teeth. It had been months since she became this angry. She almost forgot what it felt like. She quickly stood up and grabbed her bag.

"Well, we are not going to be living with your father, are we? You know? I can't even believe we are talking about this. We are so far off from our wedding day and you are already making decisions for me. You can take your plans for me and my friends and -"

"Raven?" said a timid voice behind her.

"WHAT?" she yelled, shooting around to see Colin Creevy standing in front of her, looking quite frightened. "Sorry, Colin," she said, wiping hair that got in her face, "What do you need?"

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to give you this." Colin reached out and handed Raven a folded piece of parchment. "He said it was important."

"Thank you, Colin." With those words, Colin scurried away. Raven looked at the folded parchment and turned around to finish her conversation with Draco. A quick glance over at the Gryffindor table revealed that she was making more of a scene than she intended. The Weasley twins and her friends couldn't take their eyes off of her. She wanted to yell at Draco more, but realized that she couldn't. She loved him too much to be mad at him. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'll talk to you later."

Draco nodded and Raven went on her way. She threw one of the doors of the Great Hall open and paced around like she didn't know where she wanted to storm off to. Eventually, she sat on the steps, rested an elbow on her knee and rubbed the anger out of her face. She then closed her eyes, stretched her back and tried to pop her neck, hoping it would relieve the tension in her body. After a few swirls of her head, she looked down and noticed two feet standing in front of her. Following the feet up slowly, she realized that George was staring down at her.

"Need a neck rub?" he asked, as he sat next to her.

"Excuse me?"

"Do you need a neck rub?"

"I don't think that would be appropriate." Raven looked down and started rubbing her neck.

"You and Draco look pretty happy. Except for that scene in there."

"We are, except for that scene in there. He's having a hard time accepting who my friends are. What he doesn't know is that my friends want nothing to do with me since we got together."

"They still care about you. We all do."

Raven turned around and looked at George with concern. "Why are you here?"

He sank his head and started fidgeting with his fingers. "I can be your friend can't I? You looked like you needed one, so here I am."

"If Draco has his way, I won't have any friends except for his. I don't know why he's acting so mean all of a sudden."

"Perhaps because he is mean?"

"He is not! Draco is a kind and caring individual. He was probably just acting out in front of his friends. I think I just overreacted."

"Raven, two months ago, you despised Draco and you wanted out of that contract. How do you explain the two of you all of a sudden getting together and falling madly in love with each other? Other than the spell from that ring and that potion, I don't know how you can."

"How did you know about the contract? And how dare you insinuate that I was given a potion! Hermione said the same thing. I don't know where you all are getting this idea."

"We are not insinuating anything. We are simply stating fact."

"How do you know? Did you see this potion being given to me?"

George looked away.

"There. You don't know, so quit making these accusations!"

"How do you know you love him?"

"I don't know how I know. I just do."

George turned to Raven and when Raven wouldn’t look at him he moved in front of her and knelt on the steps.

"Raven, do you remember loving me at all?"

"Me? With you. No, that could never have been possible."

"How could it not have been possible? Is the last year and half gone from your memory?"

"There is just no way. I think I would have remembered being with you. That‘s a memory you don‘t forget."

"Then what do you remember?"

Raven was at a loss for words. She went back through her memories and couldn't remember most of the last year and a half. She remembered being sent to her uncle's house after her father died, bits and pieces of her first year at Hogwarts, going to Snape's house for the summer, and spending her time with Draco. After realizing that this time had passed and she couldn’t fill the gaps in her memories, she became distressed. However, she didn't let George see her frustration.

"What are you trying to prove?” Raven was getting irritated at his line of questioning. “The quicker that you and the rest of this school understand that Draco and I are together and we are staying together, the happier we all will be. If you can't accept it, then there is nothing more to say to you."

"You don't remember anything, do you?"

Raven wiped her forehead and sighed. "I remember lots of things. And nowhere in my memories are there any thoughts of you except for this annoying little moment right now. Now excuse me, I have things to do."

George looked as though he had more to say but Raven didn't give him the opportunity. She marched upstairs to her dorm room. She hated to fight with anyone but her friends were acting so peculiar. Raven plopped on her bed and remembered the note that Colin handed her from Dumbledore.

Miss Snape,
Please, come to my office at 9pm this evening.
Professor Dumbledore

She threw herself back on her bed. What could this be about? If this has anything to do with Draco, I'm going to snap! Raven didn't know how much more she could take today. She decided it would be in her best interest to take a nap before dinner. As she lay in bed, she searched her mind for the reasoning behind Dumbledore's need to see her but fell short of an explanation and eventually fell asleep.

Raven woke up several hours later and noticed that it was getting dark outside. The clock on her wall said that she was ten minutes late for dinner. After jumping out of bed and rushing to the bathroom to freshen up, she ran to the Great Hall to eat. Everyone had already started eating; some were almost finished by the time she sat down. When she finished eating, she knew she had enough time to go back to her dormitory and get some homework done before her meeting with Dumbledore.

As she approached the main stairs, she was stopped by Draco.

"Raven, I need to talk to you." He grabbed her hand and she turned around to face him but was still too angry at him to look him in the eye. "I want to apologize for today. I upset you. I shouldn't have said the things I did."

"I'm sorry, too. I never should have walked away without resolving the issue." Raven wasn't entirely sure why she was apologizing to him but she loved him too much to stay mad at him. One look at him seemed to melt away any reason why she was furious with him to begin with. "Draco, I would love to chat but I have a meeting with Professor Dumbledore."

"What does he want to see you about?"

"Don't know. But I need to go. I would like to get some homework done before I meet with him."

"Okay. See you tomorrow?"

"Of course."

Draco kissed Raven. "Let's not fight anymore. I love you."

"I love you, too."

By the time she was reached the common room, she realized that she wouldn't have enough time to do some homework. Instead, she left the common room and walked towards Dumbledore's office. As she approached his office door, she almost didn't want to knock. All of this seemed wrong to her and she couldn't explain why. The only thing she could sense was that she was going to come out of this meeting a different person.

Chapter 34