The Mudblood

Chapter 122 : Year 6

"Oh—Lainey," she blurted, brushing some of her messy blue hair out of her face. There was a slight puffiness to her eyes that could have been from sleeplessness or crying. Either way she didn't seem well, and I wouldn't have expected her to after the events at the party. "I...didn't think I'd see you here. Everyone's zonked after last night... And you disappeared with Malfoy..."

"So you automatically assumed that we'd bonked in the Slytherin dungeons and wouldn't show our faces today?"

"Well, I dunno..." she mumbled as she traced her foot along the floor. "You two were fairly, um...intimate at the party."

"I don't want to talk about Malfoy," I lied as dismissively as I could. "I'd rather discuss what happened with you...and Harper?"

She cleared her throat and glanced back at the staircase as if someone else might actually come. "I was...a bit of a bitch, huh?"

Biting my lip, I squinted upward in contemplation. "Well...just a bit..."

Though she let out a laugh, I could hear how forced it was. "I probably shouldn't have kissed that other kid... I just...don't want him to treat me like his little sister. And I don't want him to think of me as this pathetic little girl that's got a crush on him. That wasn't what it felt like when we were at his house, but here...he's a sixth year and I'm a fourth year, and he's still in love with Melody."

"That doesn't mean he doesn't care about you...too," I added with a wince. "He was certainly upset after the...incident."

"I didn't actually want to hurt him," she sighed, running a hand over her scalp and pulling at her hair. "I just...I dunno. I was angry. And so I was cruel. Just like Melody. Perhaps he'll fall in love with me simply because I'm exactly like her."

"You are nothing like Melody. She would have done the same exact thing and then laughed in Harper's face about it. Your guilt proves that you're better than her. In fact, you're even better than me. I definitely wanted to hurt Malfoy when I did that to him a few years ago. Even now I don't feel bad about it—"

"Malfoy is a prat. Harper is..."

"Also a prat," I finished with a smirk. "All Slytherin boys are. Pretty sure it's one of the sorting hat's requirements. Just like all Gryffindors are reckless. It was one mistake, Harmony. It won't ruin your relationship with Harper forever. I think the real problem is that even though you want to apologize, you can't."

"Right," she said through a dejected exhale. "This sucks. S'pose I can write him a note, as long as he burns it afterward... Can you deliver it to him?"

"Of course."

"And...can you make sure Melody doesn't see it? She'll mock me forever for being sappy and soft. Don't try to deny it. You know she's cold-blooded."

I didn't know that for sure, though. Even though Melody had rebuked her care for all humans the evening before, there was something more to her than pure, cold hate...

∆

Harmony took an entire week to write her note to Harper, who, though he'd been conspicuously melancholy, refused to read it when I did give it to him. Though I wanted to do all that I could to mend their relationship in a way that my relationship with Fred never could, I had my own issues to deal with.

After the night we slept on the couch together, Malfoy ignored my existence in the same fashion that he had in our younger years when we'd fought. His immaturity was noticed by everyone, considering they all thought we were "official" after our "kiss" in the Room of Requirement. But, that was precisely the reason he was ignoring me; not only did everyone else think we were in a relationship, but I'd insinuated that we actually were. And despite how far we'd come over the past few years, Draco Malfoy still couldn't have that. It was beginning to make me believe that maybe I wouldn't be the mother of his son.