[1] Gasoline ✗ Draco Malfoy

thirteen

Chapter Thirteen;

"Thanks, Professor," Seohyun said. The tension that had been building up in her shoulders lessened and the tightness in her chest unfurled. The Charms concept that had been eluding her understanding like water through her fingers solidified into ice: slippery at first, but secure once she caught it in her grasp.

Professor Flitwick beamed. "Anytime my dear, anytime!" he chirped in his squeaky voice. "It is my pleasure to assist you sharpen your mind."

Seohyun laughed and hitched her satchel more securely over her shoulder. "I'll thank you by achieving top marks in our next homework assignment," she vowed, and left the room.

She hummed a Korean song under her breath as she meandered through the stone corridors. They were mostly deserted, warmed only by the flickering torchlight, casting both light and shadows in the building. It was strange, Seohyun thought, that light and darkness were always in conflict with each other: in lighting, the sky, the physical world, in humans. The two forces continued to gnaw at each other, trying to assert dominance, fighting back whenever oppressed.

It was the ongoing struggle in their world, which would never be won, only endured.

Goodness, what morbid thoughts. Seohyun pushed her hair back with a sigh.

She turned into another corridor, voices and smells from the Great Hall beginning to meet her senses. She smiled appreciatively and quickened her pace. 

Only she came to a halt again soon after. A voice, marred by the orchestra of multiple others from the Great Hall but sharpened by proximity, greeted her wars. Seohyun frowned and squinted, attempting to ascertain the voice's location.

Draco. She'd recognise it anywhere.

But... It was harsher than she was used to. Jarring. More... vile.

It wasn't the Draco she knew.

Fists clenched, Seohyun talked in the voice's direction.

The sight she stumbled upon made her groan and close her eyes.

A first-year stood against a wall, held bent. Draco sneered at the little one, hand outstretched as though awaiting some sort of payment.

Seohyun felt sick.

"Draco!" she thundered.

Draco started as though electrocuted. He turned, eyes wide. The child behind him gasped and his hands flew to his heart.

Seohyun shot Draco a glare before turning a softened gaze to the child. "Go on. I'll take care of this for you."

The boy smiled gratefully and scampered off.

Once they were alone, Seohyun rounded on Draco. She was strangely calm, thought it was the deadly type, like a cold-blooded assassin prepared to take out their target. She folded her arms to stop them shaking in fury.

"I can't believe you right now," she said flatly.

Draco flinched. "Seohyun, I -"

"Didn't mean for me to see that, maybe? It wasn't what it seemed? No, Draco! There's no excuses for this!"

Seohyun stood taller and squared her shoulders. She was shorter than Draco, but in the moment her cold fury reached every corner of the room, the fire smouldering and threatened to leap into flames at any moment. 

Seohyun stepped forward. "I've been standing up for you for ages, Draco. Months! All my friends have told me that being acquainted with you is a bad idea: they tell me you're vile and horrid. And each time, I have told them they're prejudiced, that you're different!" Seohyun accentuated each point with another step forward until Draco's back was against the wall, and she had to thrust her chin up to look him in the eye.

"I kept telling them that, yet they always had doubts. Now I understand why. Because despite everything, you still act like a spoilt, privileged prat."

Draco closed his eyes and flattened himself against the wall. "I didn't mean -"

"What? You didn't mean what, Draco? To scare that poor boy? To dominate him? To be cruel? Because you did all those things and made a conscious decision to do so. You revealed your true colours, Draco. I don't care if you're under stress, if you feel an expectation to act this way due to your surname and the expectations of your friends... It's just. Not. Right. And you know that, Draco Malfoy. I know you do."

Draco lowered his eyes. Seohyun pursed her lips until they turned white. The fire in her body simmered down to the surface, spitting and crackling.

"Look, I don't know if you've been putting up an act for me, or if this is an act so no one sees the real you, or you're confused. But this needs to stop, Draco. In no society is this acceptable behaviour." She paused and, when she spoke next, lowered her voice to have more impact.

"I've been trying to convince others that you're okay, Draco, that you're actually a decent human being and not a terrible one. Don't let yourself be the person to prove me wrong."

With that, Seohyun spun on her heel and marched back down the corridor.

"I'm sorry, Seohyun," he said to her retreating back.

"Don't apologise to me," she snapped. "It's the first-year you terrified and wronged."

She stormed toward the Great Hall, ready to ignore her troubles by eating them away.

+++

Seohyun wasn't going to forgive Draco easily.

Seeing him behave like that had been like a betrayal, a knife to the heart - no, actually, a knife in her back, put there by a friend. She was still terribly disappointed that Draco had undermined her trust and support. Her defensive words of him felt meaningless, and there were times when Seohyun caught herself wondering if her friends could have a point after all.

But slowly, things changed. Seohyun ran into the first-year boy by chance, who delightedly thanked her and told her Draco had apologised - a rough, brusque apology, but an apology none the less. Seohyun had blinked, but felt warmed inside.

"It was good of you to apologise to the kid," she said curtly, when she walked past Draco in their next Herbology class.

He shrugged. "There was truth in your words."

Seohyun rolled her eyes and moved on.

A full week passed, a week of terse exchanges and awkward looks. Draco did small things for her that she didn't fail to notice: he held the door open, picked up quills that fell on the floor. The gestures weren't large, but Seohyun appreciated  them all the same.

Finally, at the week's end, Draco approached her after Potions: they, once again, were the last two in the class.

"I'm sorry," he said. The words sounded almost foreign on his tongue. "I know I hurt you, Seohyun, and I know it wasn't right of me. I don't have an excuse but... I hope you accept these." He pulled out from behind his back a new paint set, of the highest quality.

Seohyun gasped and closed her fingers around the box, captivated by the beauty of the paints. She could feel her paintbrushes in her hands, itching to create art out of these rich colours.

"Thank you," she breathed.

Though the rift was mended, another week of awkwardness passed. "I'm not such a pushover that my forgiveness can be bought," she'd told him. Though they spent time together again, it was marred by the blemish of uncertainty.

It wasn't until she saw Draco open his mouth when Harry Potter walked passed only to close it (albeit grudgingly, she noticed), did Seohyun finally relent. 

Draco Malfoy wasn't perfect. But he was trying, and that was all that mattered.