Butterflies || Draco Malfoy

|4| THE JOKE

Clara was running a little late to Potions that Friday. Professor Flitwick had held her behind at the end of their Charms lesson to discuss the 'points of improvement' in her essay on Summoning Charms, which was basically just a polite way of saying it was terrible and she needed to redo it. At this point, she wasn't even sure if she'd manage to complete the remaining homework she had, which was beginning to accumulate faster than she could keep up with it.

When she actually arrived at the Potions dungeon though, the entire class was still waiting outside the classroom. She approached the group hesitantly, her bag over her shoulder and her head bowed down with her book hugged to herself.

But something was off. Malfoy was taunting Harry Potter, and it took her a moment to notice that they both had their wands out, threatening each other.

"Go on, then, Potter," Malfoy taunted. "Moody's not here to look after you now. Do it, if you've got the guts-"

Then, completely unprompted, a barrage of spells was emitted from the pair of them. The spells collided with full force between them, bouncing off in all directions through the darkened hall. Clara didn't even have a chance to react or move out of the way before she was hurled away by an invisible force, spiralling through the air uncontrollably and then slamming into a hard surface with a loud thud.

Her head was pounding uncomfortably. As she began to pick herself up again, pushing her weight off the ground with her hands, she came to realise that she now had an audience, the Hufflepuffs in her class as well as a few Ravenclaws helping her up again.

"Are you okay?" Justin asked her, glancing her up and down once she was stood up. Clara nodded shyly. "Let's get you to the hospital."

As Justin and Hannah both assisted her in walking from either side—not that she needed assistance, but of course they wouldn't listen—she heard Snape approach the scene from the other direction, currently scolding Harry more than Malfoy. Clara turned her head for only a moment, but it was just enough time to realise that a set of silver eyes was watching her as she limped away.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘ ༓ ∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

By the time it got to Saturday morning, Clara had fully recovered from the incident outside her Potions classroom. Unfortunately, that meant she had no excuse for not going to Hogsmeade with the twins like she'd promised earlier that week. She really needed to learn to say no for once.

Dressed warmly with her Hufflepuff scarf around her neck, Clara left for Hogsmeade with her hands in the pockets of her coat. At least this time she'd remembered gloves so her hands were less likely to completely freeze off.

She entered the Three Broomsticks as planned and dusted her shoes off at the door. It didn't take her long to find Fred and George, since they were both dressed almost identically and had the same vibrant ginger hair and unfathomable height.

"Davies," Fred motioned for her to come over while George shuffled up in the booth they'd gotten to give her some space to sit, "thought you'd never arrive."

"So, I bet you're wondering why we brought you here, right?" George asked.

Clara sat down and took her coat off, leaving her scarf and gloves on due to the slight chill in the air. When she glanced up and realised they were expecting her to answer their question, she simply nodded sheepishly.

"Well, we were thinking," Fred began. "Oh wait, did you want a drink?" Clara shook her head. "Okay, never mind then. We were thinking . . ."

"That actually, we've never heard you laugh," George continued. "Strange right? Never have we even seen a smile from you."