THE SECRETS OF THE MANOR (Draco Malfoy x OC) *COMPLETE*

A Sense I've Been Betrayed

CHAPTER TEN

"A Sense I've Been Betrayed"

    Aurora sat in the Three Broomsticks with Neville, her hands clutched around her bottle of Butterbeer, hardly even drinking it. The atmosphere had been different here. Just a few months ago while she was here, she was dancing all over Blaise, angry with Draco but somehow enjoying herself.

    Now she sat there, feeling like she could cut the tension of the room with the sharpest tool in the shed of the Herbology class. She noticed other girls from her year looking at her and laughing. Parvati walked past and giggled as she said "Wow, what a downgrade. She went from Draco to Blaise to Longbottom!"

    Aurora didn't care what Neville looked like. He was kind and a bit awkward but the entire time he hardly spoke. She remember Pansy telling her months prior that Neville had been wanting to ask Aurora out, but perhaps he was so shy because he liked her.

    "So Neville," Aurora started nervously. "How's everything? I heard you lot have a club-"

    "Shh!" Neville hushed her. "Not here."

    Aurora shrugged and tried to speak again. "Well, um, how's-"

    Suddenly she heard more laughter. She looked up at another table and saw Blaise, leaned over, tears pouring from his face as he laughed at her. Pointing and calling them losers. Aurora couldn't take it anymore. She rose from the table, drink in her hand and poured it onto Blaise's pants. He then looked as though he had wet himself.

    "Nice one Snape!" Goyle shouted from across the tavern. He got up and escorted her back to Hogwarts, the two laughing as they marched through the cold snow, back to the Slytherin common rooms.

    Goyle and Aurora were nearing the dungeons when Gregory stopped laughing and placed his hands into his pockets. "Have you uh, talked to Malfoy lately?" He asked.

    "Sort of," She replied. "Have you?"

    Gregory nodded. "He gave me a thank you letter after the play last week." He shrugged and then pulled it out and read it to Aurora. "I'm still not sure if I should trust him."

    Aurora smiled. "I think maybe we can slowly start to let him in again, he's made improvements, hasn't he?"

    With a bit of hesitation, Gregory nodded silently. They opened the doors to the common room to find that there weren't many students in there. Draco sat on the couch with a book in his lap, his eyes battling to stay open.

    "Looks like someone's studying for his O.W.L exams!" Aurora shouted with laughter as she landed on the couch beside him.

    Draco jumped and was then wide awake, rubbing his eyes and looked to her with a smile. "How was your date with Longbottom?"

    Gregory grunted loudly, clearing his throat and hinting to Malfoy not to ask about that. Draco got the hint and then dropped that conversation. He closed the book on his lap but not before Aurora could catch a glimpse that he wasn't studying for his O.W.L's. He wasn't even reading a book that had to do with school, he was reading a romance novel.

    She decided not to embarrass him in front of Goyle, so she gave Goyle a nod, a way of asking him for privacy with Malfoy. To which he quickly gathered his things and ran to his dorm. Aurora moved closer toward Draco and then sat sideways on the couch so she'd be looking directly at him.

    "I never got the chance to thank you for the roses," She smiled. "They're my favorite thing I've ever gotten."

    "Are they really?" He asked.