Elyssa Greer came from a Pureblood family, a Pureblood descent of Serbians. She was the outcast of her family; the only Gryffindor after centuries of the Greer and Banović family being sorted into Slytherin. Ellie felt like an outcast before she was...
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Over the next few days Ellie's anxiety was through the roof. So much fear of what would happen, what would come from Nikolai. She knew that Dumbledore had spoken to Nikolai about how he possibly treated Ellie, and he knew that she had spoken with someone. But then a week had passed, and all she had gotten from him were evil stares. Icy glares. Disgusted scoffs.
She tried her hardest focusing in classes as her O.W.L exams were coming up very, very soon, but it was hard to ignore the feeling of hatred emitting from his soul, his eyes, his being. He hated her. She didn't have to look at or hear him to feel such hate.
And so when it was lunch time on a warm may day, she told her friends she wanted to be alone for a while. She didn't bother eating, no matter how hungry she was. She simply walked down by a tree and breathed in the weak sunshine.
It had to have been at least ten minutes before she saw Nikolai, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle thundering down the grounds and stopped by a tree near her, so she hid, and she watched. It looked like Nikolai and Draco were passively arguing. By the look on Draco's face, he had a lot he wanted to say but was keeping it in. Nikolai prodded Draco in the chest and had to have said something sharp and witty before he smiled sweetly, beckoning Crabbe and Goyle to follow him.
"You coming, Draco?" Nikolai called out. Draco said nothing, only stared out at the lake with a bitter, distant look on his face. "Suit yourself."
And then he was going away with two gorillas trailing at his heels, leaving Draco all alone. Once Nikolai was out of sight Ellie began to make her way over to the blond boy, stopping short once she noticed him growl in anger at nothing and dig the toe of his shoes into the dirt with an angry expression.
He didn't notice her but she approached further anyway, knowing it was probably a bad idea.
"Draco?" she said, surprising herself by the name she had called him. Draco whirled around, his hair not gelled as perfectly as it usually was. It fell over his forehead in clumps. The Slytherin was panting, but said nothing as he watched her. Ellie blinked a few times before continuing. "What happened?"
"What do you think?" he snapped, kicking the ground once more before closing much of the gap between them. "What do you think happened, Greer?"
"I...don't know," Ellie said quietly.
"He's stealing them -- all of them."
"He's stealing what?" Ellie demanded, making Draco groan in frustration. "What, your friends? Crabbe and Goyle? Malfoy, they're people."
"So? They're meant to be following me not him," Draco argued, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You wouldn't get it. You don't get it. It was them and me first, and that's the way it should be now. I'm tired of--"
But he stopped talking, probably realising to whom he was talking with. Ellie only stared up at him with sad blue eyes, watching the way his grey ones softened when he stared back, releasing a long, soft sigh. The boy walked around her towards the tree she had come from, and she couldn't stop herself from following. Somehow, she knew it was an invitation to follow him. He didn't object.
Draco leaned against the tree and seemed to be chewing his lip, fiddling with his wand.
"You're right," Ellie said, still thinking it was stupid that it was a big deal to him. Ellie would hate if Lavender and Parvarti literally followed her everywhere, but it had to be different for him. It had to mean something else. "I don't understand. But it bothers you so..." she paused, and moved over the lean against the tree with him, his grey eyes following her the whole time, "...I'm here to listen. Tell me all about it."
And he did. He told her all about it. He was hesitant at first, but once he got into his stories he seemed to have given up caring who he was speaking to. He needed to get it out to someone and he couldn't exactly do that with his Slytherin peers, it had to be someone who hated Nikolai. Someone he knew wouldn't blather.
"I can't believe you hated Nikolai this whole time," said Ellie, shifting from leg to leg.
"I never hated him. Not really," Draco said quickly, glancing at her for a second before looking away. "He just...irked me. For years. And I know I'm a bully, I'll admit it, but...seeing the way he treats you irks me, too."
Ellie felt her heart skip a beat when his grey eyes met with her blue ones. "That's saying something, isn't it?"
He chuckled, a very quick chuckle. Almost missable. "Definitely."
Draco looked at her again and she smiled softly, butterflies tangling themselves in knots in her stomach. She thought he would look away, thought he would move his eyes from her by now, but he didn't. They were so close that she could smell him, feel his breath when he talked facing her. She wasn't this close to him from the beginning of his stories.
Her heart began to hammer in her chest when she saw him look at her lips. Draco knew that she saw and tried playing it off by looking down at the grass.
It was so awkward now. So very awkward, this silence.
Until he looked back up at her and struggled to swallow.
Something possessed Ellie. A sudden burst of confidence, a burst of confidence she wished she had with Nikolai rather than at this very moment. But it felt...right...this certain confidence. Ellie felt her own hand slide into Draco's, and when she felt his thumb press into her hand with a soft caress, she leaned closer to him and heard, yes heard, his breath stop short.
His eyes were flickering from her eyes to her mouth, and Ellie thought she saw fear flash in his eyes. But he was leaning in, too. He was leaning in with fear in his eyes. Her nose touched his, her free hand gripped the front of his robes, she could feel his breath on her mouth, but just as her mouth touched his, he yanked himself away.
"We can't," he said strongly, avoiding her eye and straightening down his robes. "We can't."
Ellie could feel the hurt sinking into her chest...she had ruined this...ruined what little connection they had with each other. She didn't know if she would call it friendship, but it was something. Something.
"I don't see why not," Ellie replied. "I mean, I do. But I'm not marrying him."
"I know, but if he found out--"
"How would he find out?"
"Are you blind, Ellie, look around! We're out in the middle of the open, and I'm not going anywhere with Nikolai's...whatever you call yourself," he grumbled, still struggling to meet her eye. But he eventually did, and he softened at the tears stinging her eyes.
Ellie didn't even notice them, and she silently cursed herself for appearing weak over something so silly. Something that she knew could never happen. Something she didn't even know she wanted to happen.
"I do like you," he said, and Ellie had to blink a couple times to understand what he had just said. "Like you, I mean, truly. The way I shouldn't and they way I wish I didn't, but I do. That's why I..."
"Kept your distance from me," Ellie finished for him, frowning. Draco nodded. "I suppose that makes sense."
"I feel stupid for saying that," Draco admitted. Ellie was still by the tree, and he walked closer to her again, but not too close. "Really stupid."
"Don't. I suppose I do as well," Ellie said, as Draco cocked his head to the side. "Fancy you. I didn't realise, all the signs and feelings were there but I just...was a little preoccupied being treated like dirt by the person I've been arranged to spend the rest of my life with."
Draco's eyes softened again, but then it was gone when he smirked. "You fancy me."
"Sure," Ellie mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat up. "Want to agree to just...forget this ever happened? Forget this conversation and forget what almost just happened?"
