BREATHE -draco malfoy

one.

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

Ana stared, dumbstruck. Light grey eyes met hers with subtle amusement, a mischievous smirk playing on the boy's lips.

"You want to go to the ball with me?" she asked as she slipped an old, battered Muggle Studies book back onto the sky-high bookshelf. The book nearly toppled out of her hands as she turned to face him, as she was not used to him even speaking to her at all.

"I figure it'll piss Potter off the most," said Malfoy, examining his pristinely manicured fingernails and leaning casually against a dark oak shelf.

"Oh, of course," Ana scoffed. "That's just what I want." Sarcasm and barely-contained irritation was dripping from her voice, as Harry Potter was her best friend, second only to Hermione Granger.

"Don't tell me you're Potter's date?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow as Ana walked further down the aisle. He followed her quickly, trying to keep up with her fast pace. He had expected her to fight him, on principle, but not this much. She was steely, cold, and dismissive as she set her stack of books on a nearby desk and sighed.

"No, actually, I've decided to go to the ball with Neville's toad. Trevor will be a much better date than you, Malfoy," Ana spit out, giving Draco the customary attitude they usually exchanged.

"Well, seeing as Neville is probably going with his toad, I guess you're available then," Malfoy said, not missing a beat. He was scowling at her, his eyebrows drawn together. If he truly wanted her as his date, glaring at her was not the proper way to accomplish it. "Do you have a date?" Malfoy asked directly.

"No," Ana replied calmly.

"Then just say yes already," he replied.

"Why?" Ana asked, her eyes widening. She was unable to think of any more reasons not to go to the Yule Ball with Draco Malfoy except for the fact that he was. . . Draco Malfoy. She also couldn't think of any reasons as to why he would want to take her, except maybe to make Harry angry, as he had said. Fancy school dances didn't even seem like something Malfoy would be remotely interested in.

He just shrugged. "Could be fun. Besides, the Slytherin girls are getting. . . boring." This answer gave Ana zero explanation.

Ana had met Draco Malfoy for the first time inside of Robes for All Occasions in Diagon Alley when they were eleven years old. It was two weeks before the start of her first term at Hogwarts and Ana was shopping around for the items on her supply list with her uncle. She had already gotten her books, which she heaved inside the robe shop on a small trolley. Getting her robes had been the next stop, so her uncle had led her to be fitted for the oddly fashioned Hogwarts uniform. There, she had met a small, squeaky, blonde haired boy. Strangely, her uncle and his father seemed to know each other.

"Severus," the boy's dad had muttered unenthusiastically when he spotted them. Draco's dad had similar, bleach blonde hair that reached all the way down to his armpits, which eleven year old Ana found to be very comical.

"Lucius," Severus said slowly, annunciating each syllable with care as he always did. Lucius tapped his long, black cane against the floor, eyeing Ana.

"This is your niece?" Lucius had asked, giving Ana a strange, scrutinizing glance as the shopkeeper measured from her from her waist down to her ankles with a floating measuring tape. Lucius must have been taking in the family resemblance between her and her uncle, which was nonexistent except for their mutual thick, raven-dark hair.

"Obviously," Severus had replied.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," the blonde boy said from her left, making Ana jump. She had hardly even noticed that the boy had stood upon the other small platform beside her. He reached out a pale hand to her. Ana giggled at his strange formality. But she shook it, twisting awkwardly as to not interrupt her robe measurements.