Chapter Seventeen

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"My dear, welcome!" I heard my father's raspy voice say as I came through the fireplace. I turned around and saw Wormtail standing behind the chair, cowering.

"Hello," I smiled. He frowned in return.

"You seem very...cheery."

"I'm in Slytherin!" I tried to contain my excitement. He nodded.

"Congratulations. You know the plan?" He asked. I nodded.

"Good... and don't tell Draco. Or any Slytherin friends you may make," he warned.

"Of course not," I nodded and turned on my heel.

"Keep in touch," I smirked before returning back to Professor Moody's office.

"Welcome back," he said once I stepped out of the fireplace. I brushed off my clothes which were covered in ash and smiled.

"He's pleased," I said. I've already begun to like Barty. We should be good friends. Barty snorted and returned to mixing a potion. Polyjuice potion perhaps? 

"Did you want to speak with me?" I asked referring to earlier. He paused for a second, tilting his head, before gruffly mumbling 'no', and returning into his thoughts. Whatever. I made my way out of his class and down the stairs. Before I knew it, I was running into someone.

"Watch it!" I snapped. Her brown eyes looked up at me and I sighed.

"I'm sorry, Claire."

 "Leah, I'm sorry I'm in Gryffindor!" she sobbed. I raised my eyebrows and crossed my arms.

"I thought you wanted to be in Gryffindor," I said sourly.

"I just wanted to please you. To make you proud of me," She whimpered.

"Befriend Harry and make sure he knows I'm a decent person, you can make me proud by doing that," I said coldly before stalking off.

"Wait!" she called. I stopped and slowly turned. She ran up and hugged me.

"I won't let you down, you're all I've got," she whispered. I frowned and actually felt sorry for her. I knelt down and hugged her.

"It'll be okay, I won't abandon you. I promise," I whispered as she clung to me tightly. I felt my shoulder getting wet and realized she was crying. I stood up and started walking up the stairs, Claire close behind.

"Why are you going up here?" She asked, sniffling.

"I'm going to talk to Harry, so I'll walk you up," I decided. She smiled and held my hand. We reached her common room and I looked at Claire expectantly.

"Balderdash," she chirped, and the portrait swung open. I walked in with Claire as she chattered excitedly.

"This tournament will be quite interesting! I'm glad you're not of age though because...well... I don't want to lose you. You're my sister, you know? We may fight but I still..." she trailed off when she realized the common room grew eerily quiet. I looked around and saw people glaring at me. Then I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders. I spun around and saw a semi- pretty girl with reddish brown hair and a pale face with very faint freckles. Not quite a Weasley, but not a pureblood...

"Who are you?" we asked at the same time. I glared and so did she.

"I'm Lavender Brown," she glared. I nodded and turned back around, searching for Potter or any familiar face.

"What's a Slytherin doing here?" She snapped. I waved her off and stalked over to a chubby and nervous looking kid.

"Do you know where Harry, Ron, or Hermione is... or anybody in the Weasley family?" I asked a nicely as I could.

"Um...Harry's in his dorm... so is Ron. W-would you like me to get them for you?" he asked, looking even more nervous.

"Yes please, um..." I said, waiting for him to tell me his name.

"N-Neville Longbottom, Leah," he said. I arched one eyebrow.

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"I remember you from the sorting," he smiled. I smiled back and he scampered up the stairs and into a room. I heard muffled voices and then Potter said quite loudly,

"Is it Cho?"

"No...." I heard Longbottom say but then his voice became quiet. Feet shuffled across the floor and then the door opened.

"Leah," Potter smiled.

"Hi, Harry," I smiled back. Weasley stumbled down the stairs and I put on a concerned face.

"Did I wake you?" I fretted. Potter laughed and shook his head.

"No, don't worry about it," he said. He looked around the quiet common room and sighed.

"Guys, Leah is a friend so you can stop glaring at her." They all seemed to unfreeze at once and began talking again.

"So, what's up?" Weasley asked.

"I just wanted to stop by since my talk with Professor Moody woke me up, but it's nothing to worry about. Thanks for not hating me," I said with a crooked smile.

"They couldn't ever hate you, Leah," Claire said, making me jump. I forgot she was there.

"Thanks, Claire," I smiled.

"She's your sister, right?" Potter asked. I nodded and he smiled.

"We'll get along just fine," he laughed. I smiled and glanced at the clock.

"It's past curfew, you might wanna head out," Weasley said. I could tell he wanted to sleep.

"Your right, I should go. Well, I'll see you lot tomorrow?" I asked hopefully. They all nodded and called goodnight as I headed out of the common room. I looked around and saw the outline of someone to my right.

"Well, well, look who's out of bed."

"So are you, Draco," I laughed. He laughed too and stepped closer.

"What were you doing in there? Tucking Claire in?" he teased. I sighed and shook my head.

"No, I'm befriending the enemy. However, Claire was distraught. I can't just walk away from her when she's like that. I'm not totally heartless," I smirked.

"Well, I saw what you did. That was...sweet. She needs you now that your parents are gone. It'd be wrong to leave her," Draco agreed.

I hummed in agreement as we started walking down to the common room. Our hands brushed against each other lightly as we walked. I frowned, not knowing if I should pull away or not. I didn't love the feeling, but I also didn't hate it. It was a completely foreign sensation to me; almost tingly. I clenched my hand tightly to make the feeling go away. He noticed.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just think you're a bit close that's all."

"Am I not allowed to be?"

"You are, I'm just not used to it I guess."

"You should probably get used to it," he glanced at me and I chewed the inside of my cheek.

"Aren't you with Pansy? I don't think she'd like that."

He laughed loudly, startling me enough to laugh with him, although mine was clearly out of shock. His was from amusement.

"I wouldn't worry about Pansy."

"I'm not worrying about anyone, I just-"

"Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Loveland, what are you doing out of bed?" 

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