Always. (A Draco Malfoy Story)

Welcoming party.

I turn the corner that leads to the Great Hall. There's still a few students that are also late to dinner. I pass by them in the corridor and they suddenly go quiet once I come near them. I roll my eyes before continuing on my way.

I see the doors to the Great Hall and I stop. I quickly turn back to hide behind a pillar. It just hit me that I'm gonna be seeing Draco again. I thought I was ready, but I'm quickly realizing that I'm not. I take a few deep breaths in and out before slapping some sense into myself. I did nothing wrong. We weren't even officially a couple. I can't get mad at what happened. He makes his own choices. I can make my own. And right now, I chose to move on.

I am Joy fucking Deveroux.

Nothing can break me.

I take one hard breath out and start walking into the hall.

-

"She's back?! Since when?!" Draco's heart begins to race. "A few minutes ago, Dumbledore said she went back to the dungeons after her arrival." Tori takes a seat next to Blaise. Draco goes on, "Well, I should go see her, right? Someone should—"

The Great Hall went silent.

All eyes were on me the second I stepped foot into the hall. I knew this was gonna happen. Thankfully, Dumbledore demanded everyone's attention to the front of the hall for a few announcements in regards to the upcoming TriWizard tasks. I give him a grateful nod before walking towards the Slytherin table.

I see Tori waving me down to sit next to them, which I happily did. As I got closer, I saw the platinum blonde hair.

"Hey guys."

"Welcome back, Deveroux." Blaise lifts up his glass of pumpkin juice for a toast. Both Crabbe and Goyle just nod in my acknowledgement before going back to eating their food. Tori gives me a hug and offers me a seat between her and Draco. I sit down in the empty space as Draco is just staring at me. "Uhm, hi?"
He puts his arm around me, "Hi love. I missed you!"
I shimmed out of his grip so that his arm falls off of me. He looks confused as he retracts his arm away from me. "I wasn't gone that long," I begin to put some food on my plate.

Tori and Blaise both looked at each other as they witness what just happened. Tori looks at me as Blaise looks at Draco. I give Tori a half smile before enjoying the rest of my dinner.

-

Upon exiting the Great Hall, lots of students glanced my way... either in sympathy, fear or disgust that I've actually decided to return to Hogwarts after the article was published.
I'm walking with Tori, as the boys are behind us when I hear Parkinson's voice welcoming me back.

"Aw look, the princess returned to Hogwarts." She's leaning against the wall, with Bulstrode and a few other Slytherin girls to the side of her. I sigh before facing her, "Thank you for stating the obvious, Pansy." She leans forward and starts to walk up to me. "Hogwarts was so peaceful without you here. Why don't you go back home? Or better yet, visit Mother in Azkaban. I'm sure she has a cell already reserved for you." She begins to walk away.
I take off my robe and hand it to Tori who has already taken a few steps back, with the knowledge of what's about to happen.

I grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked it back, causing her to fall. I straddle on her, blowing punches to her face and my other hand is still in her hair, holding her head steady. I felt her legs flailing around, trying to get me off of her. She's yelling for help but no one dared to approach me as I were beating her head in. One of my blows creates a large gash in her cheek as blood begins to spill on the floor behind her. It takes both Draco and Blaise to pull me off of her, as I'm still trying to fight their grips on me to relaunch at her. Professor McGonagall and Snape comes running to the huddle that's created around us for Snape to yell, "What... is going on here?!"

He looks at me as I'm still trying to get out of Draco and Blaise's grip, my eyes turning black with rage. I taunt Pansy, "Watch yourself, Parkinson! I'm not done with you yet!" Professor McGonagall is shocked at my voice, "Miss Deveroux!"
I turn my attention to the two boys holding me back, "Let me fucking go! I'm not done fucking her face up!" I yell out again, "They won't recognize your Pugface when I'm done with you, Parkinson! Sleep with one fucking eye open!"

Pansy's cowering in fear, retreating backwards for comfort from the girls who she was with. Only Bulstrode comes to her aide as the other Slytherin girls fear of retaliation from me by their association with Pansy. "She just attacked me!" Pansy is now applying pressure to the gash on her cheek. "Keep fucking talking, Parkinson!" Draco's grip loosened as I lunged at her, which caused her to flinch. Draco grabs me and held me even tighter.
"Miss Bulstrode, take her to the infirmary," Snape orders, "Miss Deveroux, my office... now." He motions for the crowd to move aside and create a walkway for us. I yank myself out of Draco and Blaise's grip and fix my hair. Tori hands me my robe as I thank her.

"Anyone else got something they wanna say to me?!" I looked through the crowd of students that are still in shock at what just happened. I scoff, "Didn't think so."

I follow the path of Snape, as students quickly made way for me to move past.

As I walk away I hear Professor McGonagall dispersing the crowd. "Move along! Back to your towers!"