Cora looks down at her food and moves her fork around, playing with her food. She lets out a soft sigh as she continues staring blankly at the plate.
"Are you okay, Cora? You've been acting weird since yesterday and you've rarely even talked."
Lena's worried voice makes Cora's eyes tear away from the plate and look up at hers. She slowly nods her head before showing her a small smile to reassure her.
"I'm fine, I just don't really feel like talking." She answers truthfully before looking back down at the plate.
The words that left her mouth weren't completely a lie. She really didn't feel like speaking to anyone, much less to Lena. She knew that if she were to have a conversation with her, Finn would somehow appear in the conversation, and he was the last person she wanted to talk about.
"So what did you and Draco talk about yesterday when you supposedly went to go get something from the dorm?" Lena asks suddenly, making Cora's eyes snap back to her questioning ones.
Her eyebrows furrow and eyes narrow as she slowly opens her mouth to speak. "How did you know that I talked to Malfoy?"
"Oh come on, Cora. I'm your best fucking friend and you really thought that I would believe that 'I left something in the dorm' crap. You are literally the only person I know who always double checks that they have everything they need before they leave a room. Plus, you looked so intrigued when you saw him leave the Great Hall, I just knew you were going to go find out what was wrong with him."
Cora's eyebrows slightly rise in astonishment at how observant the brunette sitting before her is. She was well aware that she always double checked that she had everything she needed with her before she left a room, but she had become so accustomed to doing so, she thought everyone else did so too.
"I tried talking talking to him, but I didn't really get anything out. He was just being the asshole that he never fails to be." She rolls her eyes back in annoyance and rests her elbow on the table as she places her jaw on her palm.
Lena shakes her head with a small chuckle before grabbing the slice of toast and taking a fairly big bite out of it. Cora chuckles softly, almost inaudible, and takes a bite out of her toast as well.
Both Lena and Cora's eyes land on the hand that's being placed on the table. Cora's eyes stay placed on the recognizable hands for a few seconds before slowly making her way up to the boy's eyes.
The corner of Finn's lips make its way upwards, showing Cora a smile. Her lips stay firm as she keeps her eyes fixated on his, making him slightly furrow his eyebrows. The brunette boy takes a seat beside Lena and awkwardly clears his throat, not understanding why Cora didn't return the gesture.
"Good morning." Finn beams and takes a bite out of his apple. "Did you guys finish your potions homework? It was fucking difficult."
Cora exhales softly and takes her eyes off him, returning her attention to the food in front of her. Her fingers reach down to the grapes on the plate and brings it up to her mouth, biting the grape in half.
"Someone's not feeling so talkative today. Is something wrong?" Finn asks, a hint of worry in his voice and Cora's eyes snap to his, a mixture of anger and annoyance in her eyes.
"I'm feeling fucking amazing, Finn." She mutters through clenched teeth. "Why don't you go and tell your group of friends how I'm feeling? I'm sure they'd love to hear what you have to say about me."
She observes as Finn slowly backs away at her words with a confused look plastered on his face, causing Cora to roll her eyes and lift herself up from the seat. Her hand swiftly takes a hold of her wand and rapidly makes her way out of the Great Hall.
She knew that she should've waited until Finn and her were alone to tell him something, but seeing him made her feel infuriated. She was once again betrayed by someone she loved and trusted.
"Cora, can you please just stop walking and talk to me!" He reaches his hand out to her arm and wraps his hand around it, making her come to an abrupt stop. "I don't understand why you're mad at me if you're the one who has been avoiding me."
She breathes out roughly as she takes one last look at the hallway and moves her head towards his. In a swift movement, her arm is out of his grip and she places a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Why would you tell me that you're in love with me if it's just pure bullshit?" She spurts out.
His body immediately tenses at her words and he slowly shakes his head. "It's not bullshit. I am in love with you, Cora. Why would I lie to you about that?"
Cora shuts her eyes closed as she shakes her head in disappointment and opens them once again, meeting a slightly confused boy standing before her.
"I know about you telling your friends the darkest secrets about me just so that you can be in Malfoy's little group." She observes as his face slowly falls, making hers slowly fall as well. It was true. "Why would you do that to me? I trusted you so much I told you about my father, my mother, everything! Finn, I fucking told you everything!"
"I am so fucking sorry, Cora." He whispers, his voice slightly wavering. If she wasn't hurting because of him, she wouldn't doubt to wrap her arms around him and hug him tightly.
Her glossy eyes leave his pleading ones and she shakes her head a few times before her feet walk away from him. The last thing she wanted was for their friendship to end, but it was going to happen at some point. Wasn't it? Friendships end all the time, so it was just a matter of time until theirs did.
Her thoughts get interrupted once she feels his hands grip her arm once again. "Leave me alone, Finn." Her voice trembles as she begs him to leave her alone.
"I'll leave you alone once I'm finished talking. Please let me finish." He pleads as he observes her attentively, a slightly relieved sigh leaves his mouth as she nods her head at him.
"I admit that at first I only started talking to you just to get inside your pants, but I slowly started growing feelings for you. Once I realized that you were more important to me than being in that group of theirs, I stopped telling them things about you. I stopped talking to them and they didn't have to tell me that I wasn't part of their group anymore because I was well aware that I wasn't. To be completely honest, I was glad that I wasn't because every time I talked to them about you, I felt sick afterwards."
Cora nods her head before she folds her arms together. "How long did it take for you to realize that you had feelings for me? In other words, when did you stop spilling things to them about me?"
"Around 6 months ago." He takes his eyes off of hers and brings his head down, his eyes focused on the floor. He felt guilty and knew that if he were to see her reaction, it would break him.
She takes a step back at his words and feels a sharp ache spread in her chest. "It took you a year to realize that you cared about me?" She asks, her voice softer and quavery.
He brings his head back up and walks over to her, placing his hands on both sides of her cheeks. "Please forgive me, Cora. I don't want a mistake that I made to ruin our friendship. I'll gain back your trust, so please don't cut me off."
A tear rolls down her cheek and he immediately wipes the tear off with his thumb. He feels his eyes turn cloudy and she lowers her eyes to his shirt, not wanting to see his eyes get watery. He didn't deserve to make her feel bad for causing him to cry.
Her hands wrap around his wrists and she forces them down, his hands breaking contact with her cheeks. Shaking her head, she looks at him one last time before taking a step away from him. He grabs her wrist and pulls her towards him, wrapping his arms around her tightly.
A sob leaves her mouth as she places her hands on his abdomen, pushing herself off him. "Let me go." She says firmly and tries pushing herself away from him, but failing miserably at doing so.
"Let go of me!" She says louder this time and increases her strength into pushing herself away from him once he doesn't do as she says.
"She said to let her go, Warden. If I were you, I'd listen to her." The demanding voice behind them says, making Finn snap his head towards it.
Cora takes advantage of Finn's distraction and pushes herself away from him, this time succeeding at it. She looks at Finn and follows his stare, her eyes landing on the tall blonde haired boy. Her eyes snap back to Finn once she hears loud foot steps echo around the hallway.
"Shit." She whispers to herself before running over to Finn and wrapping her hand around his wrist. "Don't fucking hurt him, you'll get in trouble with Dumbledore."
Draco chuckles at her words and shakes his head. "Don't mistaken yourself, Boswell. I won't be the one who gets hurt, he'll be the one."
"You were the one who fucking told her, weren't you?" Finn spits, making Draco smirk at his words. "You fucking scumbag." He reaches for his pocket and briskly takes his wand out, point it at him.
"Finn, what the fuck?!" Cora places her hand inside the pocket of her cloak and wraps her fingers around her wand, rapidly taking it out and pointing it at Finn. "Expelliarmus!"
The wand flies away from Finn's hand, a grunt leaving his mouth because of it, and he swings his arm towards Draco with his fist clenched. Cora squints her eyes thinking that Finn's fist made contact with Draco's face, but her eyes open completely once she notices that wasn't the case. Draco had somehow managed to dodge Finn's fist.
"Is that all you got, Finn? C'mon you can do better than that." Draco challenges him, earning him a dirty look from Cora.
"Finn, just leave him alone and go to your common room! Things will just get worse if you continue this." Cora says desperately.
"Stay out of this, Cora." Finn says before raising his arm and colliding his fist with Draco's cheek. This time he didn't miss.
Draco chuckles as he places his hand over his cheek, roughly massaging it as he looks back at Finn. He runs his tongue over his teeth as he shakes his head before swinging his arm towards Finn's face, making Finn take a few steps back.
"I thought you were here to help, not to make things fucking worse, Malfoy." Cora hisses before walking over to Finn.
Finn breathes out harshly and switches his ring to the other hand as he walks over to Draco, not noticing that Cora was walking over to him. He shows Draco a forged smile before swinging his fist towards Draco's cheek. Out of nowhere, Cora ends up being in the middle of both of them, causing Finn to suddenly try and get his fist away from her face, immediately failing at doing so because of the speed his fist was traveling at.
A gasp leaves her mouth at the feeling of his fist collide with her cheek, making her take a few steps back. Draco immediately reaches for her and wraps his hands around her shoulders, avoiding for her to fall back. Finn runs his fingers over his messy hair before guiltily walking over to them.
"Fuck, are you okay?" Finn blurts out and comes to an abrupt stop once he notices a cut on Cora's cheek. "I'm so fucking sorry, I didn't see you coming."
"You should go to your dorm, Warden. You've hurt her plenty of times today, don't you think? You owe her at least that." He observes as Finn stares at Cora with eyes full of remorse.
Cora raises her eyes from the floor and slowly makes her way up to Finn's face. Guilt written all over his face. Finn sighs defeated before nodding his head and turning back around, walking away from them.
Cora observes as Finn walks away from them and closing her eyes, she lets out a sigh. What the fuck had just happened?
"Are you okay? Are you still here or have you fainted already?"
Draco's voice makes her open her eyes once again and she looks over her shoulder and tilts her head up, meeting his blue eyes. She rolls her eyes back and grabs Draco's hands, pushing them away from her shoulders before taking a step away from him.
"If I fainted I wouldn't be standing up, I would probably be on the floor unconscious, don't you think?" She snaps at him and folds her arms together.
Draco chuckles softly as he attentively observes her cheek. He slightly raises his hand and places it on her cheek, inducing her to furrow her eyebrows in confusion. He gently caresses her cheek which causes a hiss leave Cora's mouth.
"The ring cut through your skin, all I have to do is cast a healing spell on you and you'll be good as new." He whispers, their bodies being so close together that when they whisper, they could hear perfectly.
"I can do it myself. I don't need your help." She whispers as well and takes a step back.
"Let me help you." He orders, her eyes meeting his again. "When I had an open wound in my back, you cast a healing spell on me even though I told you not to, so I'll do the same thing for you no matter what you tell me."
Cora breathes out softly before nodding her head and taking a step forward. "Fine, go ahead."
Draco looks at her one last time and takes out his wand and points it at her cheek. "Episkey."
Her eyes squint once the spell casts on her cheek and slowly widens them back to normal as she looks around the hall, trying to avoid looking at him. She looks at the wall behind Draco before deliberately placing her eyes on his lips. They look so soft and hydrated. She was only a few inches away from him, any sudden movement and their lips would collide.
"And I'm done." He says and she swiftly takes her eyes off his lips and returns them to his eyes.
"Thank you." She dedicates him a small smile and stays where she's at, not wanting to step away.
He nods his head softly and moves his eyes from her cheek to her eyes, a small smirk appearing in his lips once he notices she was already looking him.
"I should get going." He says briefly, not moving an inch.
Cora nods her head and a small smile grows on her lips once she notices his hand is still placed on her cheek. "I suggest that you take your hand off my cheek before you go." She chuckles softly.
He snaps his eyes to his hand and jerks it away from her cheek, Cora's eyebrows slightly rising at his action.
Draco takes one last look at her before stepping away from Cora and begins to walk away from her. Her eyes observe as he walks towards the door and steps out of Hogwarts. She turns back around and makes her way over to her dorm, a slight grin plastered on her face.
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xo, drea