Little Bird

Chapter Ten

            It had been a week since the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw, so Blaise and Malfoy were finally on speaking terms again. I'd barely said two words to Malfoy since what happened in the common room nearly two weeks ago, only because I was doing everything I could to just ignore him. So far, it was working; maybe I could actually make it through this year as long as I kept this up.

            As I stirred the potion counter-clockwise to keep it from boiling over, Blaise started to peel some sort of pale brown root beside me. Across the table, Malfoy laughed suddenly and said, "Did you hear about what happened to Potter? He mouthed off in Umbridge's class or some shit and got a detention. I saw his hand yesterday, it's got all these scars on it—can you believe it? Who would have thought Umbridge actually has her shit together."

            "No way," Blaise exclaimed as Goyle laughed. "Dumbledore allows that kind of thing now?"

            "Dunno. But who cares?" Malfoy grinned. "I think it's brilliant."

            I rolled my eyes angrily, telling myself for the second time today to just ignore them. Despite myself, I was upset that Blaise was going along with it—even though I knew he had no reason to be on Harry's side. Ginny had told me days ago about what happened, and she'd been furious about it. I'd been upset about it too; what kind of professor did physical punishments nowadays?

            Snape walked by then, leaning over to glance down at each of our cauldrons. He said nothing and moved on, which I had now figured out to mean that we were actually doing it right. I started to mash the roots Blaise had peeled, doing my best to shut out the other Slytherins' conversation.

            "I still can't get over that," Blaise said, shaking his head as he stirred our potion. "I thought she was just a total bitch. I never thought she would do something like that, but it's Potter—so who cares?"

            "Exactly," Malfoy said. "Anyway, you're going to practice tonight right? You can't skip out again, Flint will lose his shit."

            "Yeah, yeah, I'm going." Blaise rolled his eyes, glaring at the smirk Malfoy was giving him. "I don't get why we've got to have so many practices; we don't play Gryffindor for another two weeks."

            As he stirred his potion lazily, Malfoy said, "That's what I told him. And we're gonna win anyway, so what's the big deal? We always do."

            I wanted to say that we didn't always win—Ginny had told me how many times they'd lost to Gryffindor over the years—but I figured it would be best to stay quiet, considering I was a Slytherin. Besides, none of them were speaking to me anyway.

            "I'm going to knock Potter off his broom this time," Malfoy added, leaning back in his chair now that their potion was finally finished.

            Blaise added the last few ingredients to ours as he said, "You say that before every match, Malfoy."

            "Yeah, but this time I mean it."

            My stomach burned with my usual anger at Malfoy, and as I removed the flame from under our cauldron I tried to calm myself down. You never tried to knock someone off their broom during a match—unless they were trying to knock you off yours. And from what I'd seen during the match against Ravenclaw, Malfoy hadn't even been that good.

            The bell rang as we finished storing our potions away, and Snape called over all the packing up for us to save the potions until next class. I shoved my textbook into my bag with a bit more force than what was necessary and stood from my chair, just wanting to get out of here before I said something to Malfoy that wouldn't result in anything good.

            The rest of the Slytherins were, as usual, taking their time packing up. As I pushed my chair in, Blaise leaned forward and began, "Hey, Eve—"

            But I didn't even hear him; Malfoy started to say something very loudly to Blaise, and I was already halfway to the door before I could realize he'd been talking to me.

            Still angry, I pulled the strap of my bag higher up on my shoulder and left the room quickly, wanting nothing more than to be away from Malfoy.

~*~

            That afternoon, I headed up to the Owlery to receive the letter my aunt had finally sent. It had been almost two weeks since I sent a reply to her questions about which House I'd gotten into, so she'd certainly taken her time in getting back to me. I nervously took the envelope from her owl, hoping her reaction to the news hadn't been that bad.

            I opened the letter right there, only because I didn't want to have to read it while Pansy and Millicent were just a few feet away back at the dormitory. I scanned over my aunt's words quickly, my heart beating quickly against my chest.

            I relaxed slightly as I came to the end of the letter, realizing my aunt wasn't tooupset. Sure, she was disappointed that I was a Slytherin and not a Gryffindor, but she wrote that it wasn't the House that mattered—who I was, that was what mattered. The corner of my mouth lifted up slightly as I tucked the letter away; at least my aunt wasn't taking the news too badly. But then again, it had taken her two weeks to get back to me...

            I was just glad I didn't have to be there when she found out I was placed into Slytherin.

            I headed back down from the Owlery, wanting to get back to the common room so I could finish all the Divination homework that Trelawney had given us for tomorrow. I sighed as I turned left into the next hallway, hoping that it wouldn't take me all night to finish.

            I was just about to turn the corner into the Entrance Hall when I heard someone call out from behind me, "Wait, Eve! Hang on—"

            Turning, I saw Blaise running slightly to catch up with me, and I grinned at him as he came up to me. He was breathless as he asked, "Hey, are you okay? You walked out on me after Potions."

            "Did I?" I asked blankly. I laughed a little as I told him, "Sorry, I just wanted to get away from Malfoy. He was being more awful than usual."

            "What else is new?" Blaise grinned, and I suddenly realized how close he was standing to me. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something. I've gotta run to practice, but will you meet me later tonight in the common room? I have to talk to you."

            I could feel my cheeks warming as I said, "Oh. Okay. Yeah, okay."

            "Great," he smiled, one eyebrow raised. He started to turn, saying over his shoulder, "Gotta go, I'll see you tonight."

            "Okay," I repeated as he took off back the way he had come.

            I pulled my books to my chest with a stupid smile on my face, turning to make my way down to the Slytherin common room.