Of Apples and Oranges

III: iii: Ex-Friend

Hopping off the train, Aurum twirled, humming. Draco lugged her rooster's cage off of the platform with a groan.

"Can you please focus for more than a second, Creste? You know Crabbe and Goyle ditched us?" Draco moaned.

Aurum shrugged. "I'm sure they just got split up." she smiled. Draco pushed the cage into her arms with a big shove. She furrowed her brow and watched as he began to stomp away from the train and castle path. "Woah. Draco, are you... okay?" she turned to him with slouched shoulders and a very hurt expression. She laid her rooster's cage down gently.

"Stop it." Draco demanded, forcefully putting his foot down.

"What? What am I doing?" Aurum threw her arms to her sides.

Draco paced back and forth. He stared at the other students who followed the given road to the castle with a grimace. Seeing Aurum's wide grin, he couldn't help but smile a little, but he soon dropped it. "You're doing it again. You're making things seem better than they are."

"Greg and Vince just got separated from us, that's all, Draco." Aurum scoffed. "You're worrying over nothing."

"No I'm not, Creste! You just saw them walk away from us! They didn't talk to us for the whole train ride!" Draco shouted. Aurum cringed.

"Geez, Draco. Let all the wizards of Hogwarts hear you." Aurum huffed. "They were just too tired, Draco."

"I wouldn't lie to you. I know what they were doing." Draco got quieter. He turned his back on her. "And it was because of you." his voice held venom.

"What do you mean? Draco?" Aurum cried.

"They think you're a dirtblood and that I'm a blood-traitor."

"Don't say that." Aurum crossed her arms and shrunk away. Draco ran to her and brushed the hair out of her eyes.

"But I'm not going to leave you like that." Draco gave a weak smile.

Aurum pushed him away meekly, but he knew his boundaries and stepped off. "Greg wouldn't leave me." she put her arms around herself and turned away.

Draco groaned and quickly put his arms around her waist, awkwardly trying to hug her. "People grow apart. You can't keep fooling yourself—" he loosened his grip as she shifted under it. Aurum arranged her head in the crook of his neck. "—I'm sorry, but it's true. If you're going to hear it, I'd like for you to hear it from me."

They parted and Aurum picked up her rooster cage. They stood for a second together in solemn silence.

"We should be going. We're late and I need to feed Dragon." she lifted up the cage with a chuckle. Draco put his arm around her and led her towards the castle.

In the Great Hall, it was dark. A flutter of sapphire butterflies announced their entrance. Aurum giggled, but Draco pushed her towards the Slytherin table, realizing that they had hijacked the ending of the Beauxbatons grand opening.

The two sat beside a tall and slender white-haired figure in brown, fur robes. He removed his glasses and squinted into Aurum's eyes, confused as to why she hadn't recognized him immediately. He smirked; it was Argentum.

He clapped a hand on Aurum's back and laughed loudly once her eyes shone in excited recognition. "Quill! This is my little sister, Aurum!" Argentum introduced her to a friend.

A sandy blonde boy sitting across from him and wearing the same outfit waved shyly. He pushed up his glasses, blushed carmine, and looked away as if trying to avoid any eye contact at all.

Argentum nodded. "That's my friend, Quilliam Peeper. We call 'im Quill. He's cool."

Aurum extended her hand across the lavishly food-adorned table with a wide smile. Quill took it, but only barely. He seemed to be focusing his attention somewhere else. Curiously, Aurum tried to look into his eyes. Noticeably, they were almost hot pink. She was almost becoming lost in them, but the boy rapidly turned his head as if reluctant to maintain any eye contact.

"Look over there." Draco mumbled, snapping her out of her apparent trance. He nodded his head towards the end of the table. He noisily crunched an apple, sneering at his object of attention.

Aurum gasped. Gregory and Vincent were hanging out with Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini. She puffed out her cheeks and groaned. She hid herself behind a large plate of steak.

"This would be better raw." Aurum commented. Argentum snickered, but Draco was genuinely confused. Aurum shrugged with a smile. "I like my steak raw."