Christmas. The thing that Lili was looking forward to the least this year. She had to go home for the holidays though, it wasn't like she had any other choice. And she was dreading going home to face her father. She grabbed her small bag from her room and began to head towards the Great Hall, where she was going to meet with Draco.
When she arrived, Draco looked impatient. He sighed when he spotted her. "Oh, hurry up Lili. We don't have all day. McGonagall says that we have to take a flying sleigh home." He started walking in the direction of where they would be picked up, and Lili had no choice but to follow him.
The twins boarded their designated sleigh, earmuffs on their ears. Even though Draco seemed fine to be heading home, Lili was still dreading seeing her father. She knew he would react badly, and she was a little but scared to see exactly how he would react. She just knew it wouldn't be good.
--
The moment the door to Malfoy Manor was opened, Lucius was there. Lili barely got through the door before she was grabbed by the arm and hauled into a separate room. She had to stop from crying, both from her father's firm grip and from fear of what he would do.
"You have ruined our reputation, Lilianna! Ruined it! The first Malfoy to be sorted into a house other than Slytherin!"
"Sirius was sorted int-" Her words were stopped short by a hard slap from Lucius.
"We do not speak of that blood traitor! We are talking about you and your blatant disregard for our family's namesake!"
"I'm sorry!"
"You have to be punished." Lucius grabbed Lili's left arm tightly, and she was unable to pull it away. "Incendio," He said, and his wand lit up in flames. He held it against Lili's wrist, and she screamed in pain. When he was satisfied, he let her arm go. "Now go to your room."
--
In her room, Lili took shaky breaths. Her wrist was clearly burned, and likely would not heal before she went back to school. She sat on her bed, hands shaking. "Episky," She attempted, hoping that the burn would be minor enough to be healed by the spell.
But apparently not, as the spell did nothing to alleviate the wound. "Ferula," Lili attempted again, and this time it worked. The burn was covered in wraps and bandages, and she could feel a salve on the wound underneath. She was worried that Cedric would immediately notice something wrong the moment he saw her, or anyone else for that matter.
The next two weeks would be hell.
--
Lili never would have guessed that she would be this excited to go to school. But after two long weeks of hell at home, it was the only place she wanted to be. The moment she stepped onto Hogwarts ground, she felt safe. As she split off from Draco to head towards the Hufflepuff common room, she made sure that her wrist was hidden by her robes.
With every step that Lili took, she felt safer. She didn't know what it was exactly, but maybe it was just the fact that Hogwarts wasn't Malfoy Manor. Lili got into the common room through the correct combination of barrel tapping, and was expecting to go straight to her room.
"Lili!" She heard the moment she entered, dragging her bag in after her.
She looked around to see who called her name, and was delighted to see Cedric. She ran up to him and gave him a big hug, squeezing him tightly. "I missed you so much."
"Hey, I missed you too. You're my favourite little short stack."
"Hey! I can't help that I'm short! Maybe you're just the one who's tall."
"Perhaps...hey, what's that on your arm?"
Lili inhaled sharply and tried to hide it. "Oh, nothing."
"Hey, no." Cedric grabbed her arm, concerned. "Why do you have bandages on your wrist?"
"I just burned myself in the kitchen at home. Nothing huge."
He clearly didn't buy it. "I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that you, a Malfoy, would have been in the kitchen cooking for your family." Lili looked down. "Now, what really happened?"
"Um..."
"Lili."
"Okay, fine. Father burned me because he doesn't like that I'm in Hufflepuff. Says that I'm a disgrace to the Malfoy name and should be lucky that I'm still apart of the family tree. If I'm being honest, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm disowned by the end of the year."
"Does Draco know?"
"Oh, he doesn't care. Mother and Father's views have gotten so into his head that he's terrible. Now that he's in Slytherin, he's not fun to be around anymore. Just a simple difference in house seems to have pushed its way through our relationship."
Lili sighed, then realised she was rambling a little bit too much. "Oh, I'm sorry. You probably don't want to hear anything about what goes on with my family behind closed doors. How was your Christmas?"
"Lili..." Cedric trailed, still extremely concerned. But he could see that Lili didn't want to talk about it, so he let the subject go. "It was okay, I suppose. Scarves like always. Nothing new. I guess you want to go put your stuff away."
"Oh, yeah. Probably should." She picked her things up and began to move towards her dormitory. She stiffened a little when Cedric grabbed her arm again, but it felt different. His grip wasn't tight, not like her father's.
"Hey. I'm here for you if you need me, okay?"
"Okay. Thank you."
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