Little Bird

Chapter Four

            Maybe this year won't be so bad after all.

~*~

            Long after classes had ended, I headed up to the Owlery to receive the letter my aunt had promised she would send.

            I was feeling a lot better than I had the previous night; the rest of my classes had gone okay, and Neville had even sat with me during Transfiguration. The only other class I had with Blaise and his friends was Care of Magical Creatures, and they hadn't bothered me much—although Blaise kept smiling at me from across the room. Either way, I was starting to actually look forward to the next day of classes.

            It was dark in the Owlery, since it was now pretty late in the evening. I located my aunt's owl near the back and graciously accepted the scroll from her scaled leg.

            Wanting to waste as much time as possible before going back to the Slytherin common room, I stood next to the bright flame of a torch and opened the letter.

            It was the usual letter I received from her after my first day of classes: short, but full of questions about how everything was going. It was just the same as the ones I used to get back at Beaubaxtons, except this time she'd asked me which House I had gotten into.

            My heart sank. My aunt was going to be so disappointed when she found out.

            Sighing heavily, I decided I wasn't going to respond right away. I folded the parchment and shoved it into my robes before heading out of the Owlery, reluctantly returning downstairs to the dungeons.

            The castle was dead silent, and I couldn't really hear anyone else walking around. I didn't even think about it, assuming people were mostly inside their common rooms now because it was getting so late. At least there were torches every so often along the stone walls; this place would be seriously creepy if it was any darker.

            I was nearly to the staircase that led to the dungeons when a voice called out from behind, asking sharply, "Just what are you doing out so late?"

            Turning, I felt my stomach turn over as I saw McGonagall striding towards me. For a second, I was seriously confused. "I'm just coming back from the Owlery, that's all. I wasn't doing anything bad, I swear."

            "It's three hours past curfew," she said crisply, and my eyes widened.

            "...there's a curfew?"

            The professor looked at me as though I had two heads, and she was opening her mouth again to probably yell at me when a look of recognition suddenly crossed her face. "Wait, you're Evelyn Hawkings? You just transferred here, correct?"

            "Yeah," I said quickly. "I didn't know there was a curfew, I'm so sorry."

            Her annoyed face relaxed a little, and she told me much more kindly, "Yes, no students are allowed out after 8 o'clock in the evenings. I'll let you off this time, but if it happens again you'll be receiving a detention."

            I thanked her repeatedly, finally allowing myself to breathe again. Why was I always messing up? It was only the first day.

            As McGonagall nodded and began to turn away, I realized she looked down at the Slytherin crest on my robes before heading back down the hallway. I frowned, knowing she probably thought I was taking advantage of being new here and doing whatever I wanted. The thought made me oddly sad, because that wasn't what was happening at all. For the hundredth time, I was filled with the desire to be in any House other than Slytherin—it was definitely giving me a reputation I didn't deserve.

            I shook my head and continued down to the dungeons, cursing myself for not realizing there was a curfew. When I reached the Slytherin common room, it only took me a minute to remember the password before I was able to crawl inside.

           As the portrait shut behind me, I looked up to see that the entire common room was empty; except, of course, for Draco Malfoy.

            He looked up from his seat before the glowing green fireplace, leaning his head over the edge of the couch and watching me as I stepped inside. His face split into a smirk as he said in a voice mimicking Blaise's tone, "Hey, Hawkings."

            I rolled my eyes and automatically started for the entrance to the girls' dormitories. I had wanted to sit in front of the fire and do homework for a while, but that wasn't going to happen if Malfoy was in the room.

            "Wait, where are you going? Don't you want to sit with me?"

            His smug tone suggested that he really did think I was desperate enough to want to sit with him even after the way he always acted towards me. I looked over my shoulder and glared heatedly at him, absolutely hating the way he was grinning at me. "No, I don't, actually."

            "Of course you don't," Malfoy said sarcastically, still giving me that infuriating smirk. He had both arms splayed across the back of the couch, his feet lazily propped up against the black coffee table. I didn't know why I wasn't just turning away from him and leaving—because really, I didn't have to stand here and listen to him. "What were you doing out so late? It's your first day and you're already sleeping around? That's pretty low, even for someone like you."

            I felt hot tears pricking at the backs of my eyes, but crying in front of Draco Malfoy was the last thing I wanted to do. It had been one of the longest days of my life, and being around Malfoy was just too much right now. I turned away and started for the stairs, snapping over my shoulder, "Leave me alone. I'm going to bed."

            "Oh, have you got another guy up there? No wait, I bet you're going to get it on with Pansy, I always knew she—"

            "Shut up," I interrupted fiercely, whipping around to face him. There was nothing I could do about the tears now, but I was so angry and frustrated that I barely felt the drops sliding down my cheeks. "Stop being such an asshole to me, I've never done anything to you. Just—leave m—me the fuck alone—"

            As my voice started to choke, Malfoy started to stand from his place on the couch. When he spoke, the lofty and provoking tone was gone, and his voice sounded almost confused as he asked blankly, "Are you...are you crying?"

            But I barely even heard him. I choked out, "Fuck you, Malfoy", before turning and stumbling up to the girls' dormitories. He might have yelled another insult at my back, but I couldn't hear anything.

            I did my best to be quiet when I entered my dorm, and I don't think I woke up Pansy or Millicent. I threw myself onto the bed and ripped the curtains closed around the bedposts, shutting out the rest of the world.

            As I laid down and quietly cried myself to sleep, I told myself over and over again that nothing Malfoy had said meant anything to me. And it didn't.

            'Nothing he says from now on will ever mean anything to me.'

             And at the time, I had honestly believed that.