The Mudblood

Chapter 113 : Year 6

The artwork of Lainey for this chapter was drawn by a reader from Quotev (:

"Ugh, I just don't like the way your hair looks this morning," Astoria complained, her hands in my braided honey blonde hair as we exited the Slytherin common room. Having been up until two in the morning, our entire House was like a horde of zombies trudging out into the dungeons on this early Monday morning. Though murmurs rang through the common room, everyone became quickly silent once out in the corridor—everyone except Astoria, obviously.

"You should be quiet, Greengrass," Anderson sang as he walked past us. Spinning to face us, he began to walk backwards and raised his eyebrows at her. "Don't wanna get caught by the big bad Carrows."

"Oh shut up, Vince," she snapped, yanking a bit too hard on my hair as she unraveled it. "This is worth risking detention. Lainey's hair is finally no longer that ghastly black, and so I need to make it perfect. I wish I had some of my magical styling gel..."

"Don't put any gel in my hair," I said, frowning back at her as she combed her fingers through my knotty locks. "Just re-braid it or something. I don't want anything fancy."

Astoria snorted. "Now we know why Draco's taken so long to admit his love for you. You like to look ugly."

I glanced around for signs of Malfoy, but then I remembered that he was far ahead of the crowd, leading the trembling little first years toward the Great Hall, as was his Head Boy duty. As Prefect, Ashley should have been with him, but instead she was behind us, scribbling Quidditch plays onto a piece of parchment as she walked, using her boyfriend's back as a writing surface. The fact that Snape had outlawed Quidditch hadn't deterred her dreams in the slightest, and though she hadn't said so, I assumed she had plans to group together some sort of underground Quidditch league.

"What's that booger on your nose?" Anderson said, slowing down to survey my nose. When he brought his finger to my nostril, I realized he was referring to my nose ring. "Why is it green? Wasn't it black before?"

"She's done being Goth, Vince, please catch up," Astoria droned as she tugged on my hair. "I thought the green jewel would look nice with her eyes and her Slytherin uniform. As usual, I was right."

Anderson shrugged as he resumed his backward strides. "Looks like a booger to me. Your makeup isn't as dark anymore though, which is cool."

"That is also thanks to me," Astoria said, flipping her own hair arrogantly. "If Lainey would just let me do her hair, her beauty would be so astounding that Draco would forget all about the fact that you allowed him to be thrown in a fire...after you practically cheated on him."

I grumbled something incoherent, hoping that Malfoy couldn't hear Astoria's loud yapping from where I saw him standing at the top of the stairwell. He was pushing students past mindlessly now, searching the crowd of upcoming students for, I realized when we approached him, me. Joining the three of us wordlessly, he paid no mind to the fact that Astoria was playing with my hair or that Anderson was still walking backwards and kept his gaze steady ahead.

"Everyone's talking," he muttered quietly, eyeing our peers with distaste. "And I know I'm going to get blamed."

"Just blame it on Pansy," I suggested coolly. Malfoy's eyebrows shot up as he met my eyes. "What, is that too cruel for the notorious Draco Malfoy? Have you really got a crush on Parkinson? How sweet. Your children will be a mixture of pug and ferret. What would you even call that?"

"Pugret?" Anderson offered. "Ferug? Furget? Perrug? P—"

"Enough!" Astoria nearly shouted, her voice echoing through the otherwise quiet entrance hall. Everyone turned toward us, but she was too concentrated on my hair to notice. "You are breaking my focus, Vince—"