The Girl who Survived (Fred Weasley)

CH 49. Leftfield Conversations

​​ "I'm sure your friends are going to miss you. Don't they normally pass either Adrian's or your assignments around to copy off of?" I asked him, hoping he would get the hint everyone else had picked up on.

​​ "Perhaps. Maybe I wanted to actually engage in stimulating conversation today?" He asked me, sounding far too cheeky for my taste. Gross.

​​ "What do you want Draco? I've known you for years, you've never been one to come up and say 'Hi'" I told him as I returned my attention to my text.

​"Let's chuck it up to part of my Prefect duties?" He told me in a way that sounded like he was making an attempt at a joke. I was already over this conversation. I figured if I just ignored him and finished my work, he would leave me alone. Then again, his friends could take this as an invitation that my table is now fair game.

​"Hey, I just..." he began. I didn't look from my work, but I could tell he was shifting around as if he had become suddenly uncomfortable. "I just wanted to say I was sorry. And offer you my condolences" He said softly.

​​I froze. I was silent. I was absolutely petrified. Partly because Draco had never been the kind to apologize for anything, and partly because he would never have the nerve to say what he was saying. To me of all people.

​​ "I know you may not want to hear this right now, and it's not particularly easy for me to say. I'm not going to lie to you and say Cedric and I would spend hours gabbing on and on, but regardless, I know how close you two were." He whispered, leaving me mortified.

​I couldn't bring myself to look up at him, I just returned to my book reading the same line over and over again, not being able to process what I was reading. From the corner of the room I heard the sound of snickering but could move enough to see who it was. Had that been his friends laughing at our interaction, finding humor in my reaction to some weird bet they had made? Or had it just been some random students going on about their lives. I felt like I could hear my heartbeat vibrating the entire room, throbbing in my head, pounding away.

​"Nonetheless you seem to be doing well for yourself. Looks like you've found comfort in the arms of that poor git Weasley. What you see in him I'll never know," He said, sounding slightly disgusted. I looked out the window of the library that led out to the hallway to see Ginny staring us down, looking angry and then walking away.

​"Stop it," I managed to choke out.

​"What?" He asked.

​"Stop talking," I said snapping to look at him and slamming my book shut. Here we go again. I reached for my bag and began packing up my belongings before speaking to him again. "Let me get this straight, you ignored me nearly the entirety of last year, except to insult my family at the ball, you hit on me on the way to the castle, you torment my brother at any given chance, you insult my boyfriend simply for his name's sake, and now you expect me to accept what? Your apology or your condolences?" I asked as I finished packing my belongings and stared at him as he looked askance. "Don't make the mistaken assumption in thinking you know a single thing about me Draco." I told him fiercely.

​"Dracy, we're over here if you're all finished," Pansy said as she walked over to fetch him.

​"Oh, don't worry. We're done," I said to him as I stared into his stone-cold eyes. I raised from where I was seated and returned Nathaniel's quill to him. I picked up my bag and went to Madam Pince's desk to make sure it was okay for me to take the book out of the library to which she agreed and removed the charm that held it to the library. As I waited for her to finish, I heard the whispers of Draco and his friends on the other side of the bookcase. Whispers I was no longer able to ignore.