I blinked at him, still trying to process what I was seeing. This couldn’t be Draco; it just couldn’t. Maybe it was just a distant relative of his’ that looked like him. ‘Inka?’ He spelled, his hands stumbling a little. Sh-. This is Draco. What is he even doing here? Most importantly, how did he get here? ‘Draco,’ I signed, ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘Could say the same about you’ He replied, ‘Everything is so strange. Five minutes ago, we were in battle-thorn Hogwarts and now it’s like none of that even happened!’ I stared at him, his blood-stained clothes making him stand out in the clean clothes of Hogwarts students. He must have been like me and Luna, accidentally sucked through time by a spell. Looking behind him, I saw more people who shouldn’t be here. Astoria Greengrass, Harry Potter, Pansy Parkinson, and Jake and Araena Malfoy Shoot, shoot, shoot. ‘Draco,’ I signed again, not really looking at him, ‘How many people came with you?’ Draco looked perplexed then started signing again. ‘Just me, Jake, Arae, Potter, Pansy, and Longbottom’ I sighed and stood up. ‘Just follow me, you need to get changed. People are looking at you’ ‘But why? Why is everybody acting like nothing has happened? And why are you wearing Slytherin robes? Aren’t you in Ravenclaw?’ ‘I said just follow me, not ask questions’ I snapped, singling the others to follow me too. They followed me to Dumbledore’s office to the huge griffon door. I tried knocking twice but there was no answer. Great, just great. I sighed turning back to the confused group. ‘Ok, so you guys are probably wondering why you’re here’ I signed, only knowing that just Draco, Arae, Jake, and Astoria could understand me. I only just learnt that Snape had assigned BSL lessons to Slytherin students after Draco snuck me out of the dungeons in his manor. ‘But you guys had been hit by a spell from a death eater. A spell that made you-’ My hands stopped moving when a tall, silver beard man arrived in the hallway. ‘Ah, Inka. It seems like you brought some more students with you’ He signed, his blue eyes twinkling at the sight of us. ‘Inka, what is going on?’ Arae signed, her hands moving with confusion. ‘Dumbledore will explain it’ I signed and pointed the old man. ‘But isn’t he dead?’ ‘Does he look dead?’ Dumbledore, seeming to not notice our conversation, singled us to follow him into his office. The griffen door had already rose and revealed a spiraling staircase. Climbing the stairs we reached Dumbledore’s office, the walls filled with books and a table in the middle of it all. The headmaster pointed at the chairs, saying something that read ‘explain’ Harry’s mouth moved quickly, I caught a few words like “war” and “Voldemort” but that was it. Dumbledore had that face where you knew he was listening deeply and analyzing every word. After Harry was done explaining everything that happened Dumbledore had said something that looked like it read “You're in the past”. This caused Neville to look shocked, Astoria looked the same as I did when I found out that I was in the past; shocked and momentarily confused, Harry asked what year it was. Dumbledore’s mouth m oved again for several more seconds that made Pansy until he brought an old, wrinkled hat and placed it on Astoria’s head. The hat stayed there for a while until it declared her new house and the headmaster took off the hat and made Astoria join me standing awkwardly not being able to hear anything. ‘What house did you get?’ I signed, watching Dumbledore place the hat on Draco. ‘Slytherin, as always’ Astoria signed back as she did fidgeted with her hair. She tried to act confident, but I could see the small bits of tears welling up in her eyes. I was about to ask her what happened when the hat yelled Draco’s house and that made her smile a little. ‘What did he get?’ I signed, thinking I was probably going to annoy her by asking what house everyone had got. ___________ rest in N/C
Gryffindor’ Astoria replied, smiling a little more but I could still see the sadness in her eyes. I smiled at that answer, thinking about Draco Malfoy in Gryffindor robes. Draco came to us as he crossed his arms and frowned. His mouth was moving a little, probably muttering about how he was such a disgrace to his family. The sorting continued. Harry, Pandy, and Arae were sorted into Slytherin, Neville into Hufflepuff, and Jake into Gryffindor (this caused Arae to laugh so hard that Draco had to hold her to prevent her from collapsing onto the floor). ‘Inka,’ Dumbledore signed to me as he smiled at Arae’s laughter, ‘You will direct Miss. Greengrass to her dorm room. There are fresh robes waiting on your bed. I will be asking the others some questions’ I nodded and me and Astoria walked out of the office gently. It was a quiet and awkward walk to the common room. We barely talked when we were in the present, the only time we did was when I was dating Theo in third year and that was just asking the question everyone was asking back then. Once we arrived at the dormitory, Astoria didn’t change into her fresh robes. Instead, she collapsed into the bed and pulled her knees to her chest, sobbing. I stood there awkwardly, watching the tears fall onto her blanket and signed ‘Is everything alright?'. I wasn’t sure if she could see my signs through her tears, but she replied with ‘I miss her, my sister. We were supposed to go through everything together. We were supposed to graduate and start this book-cafe business together. We promised that if she died then I would too but...’ she stopped signing, and more tears fell down her cheek. I didn’t know what to say to that. Her face reminded me of the time when I saw Hermione’s dead body; hopeless and wanting to forget this nightmare. ‘I’m sorry,’ I signed as I sat next to Astoria, tears falling down my eyes too, ‘I lost my sister too’ Astoria looked at my face, her own red from tears, ‘But you still have three other ones’ I didn’t reply to her statement but I didn’t leave either. Because we both lost something valuable in our lives. And the war still wasn’t ending in our minds. ______________________________ Araena: @Sneyalp123 Jake: @Jake-Malfoy (I hope your doing well) Inka and Astoria crying over their dead sisters is so funny guys. This is better than #inak or #inck or whatever you call the ship name. Also, sorry if this sounds rushed and soulless. I tried my best T-T Draco's in Gryffindor now guys, my life is officially ok :D
