Navy didn't want to leave her room for days. She was devastated by what had happened earlier that week.
She felt like everyone hated her, and she felt so alone. She'd never been alone.
She always had Clara or Theo. Even Draco was there for her. Now she had no one but her brother and Pansy.
To her, admitting her mistakes to Theodore was the only suitable thing at that moment, even if she was dragged into his embrace minutes later. She regretted it all, especially letting Theodore think that she'd let him be with her again.
Navy indeed stopped it before it got anywhere, but she felt horrible. She felt so at fault for everything.
It felt wrong.
It was wrong. She knew that, but still in her clear mind, yet with the truth serum coursing through her blood — her body craved it.
She stopped it, but she felt like it shouldn't have gotten to a point where she had to stop anything. She shouldn't have run after him as she did.
Navy should've stayed with Draco.
Draco.
He hated her.
He absolutely despised her for what he thought she did. He believed that she slept with Theodore.
If he only knew how wrong he was. If he only knew he was the reason she stopped it.
She couldn't blame him for hating her. Navy hated herself more.
A tear fled her cheek as she buried her head into her pillow. Her hair was tangled, and her skin sore.
All she wanted to do was to fix this. To apologize to the blond boy who told her that he didn't want to see her anymore.
He told her to go to hell and never speak to him again. He called her names and walked away.
If he only listened to her, he'd take his immature actions back in a heartbeat. He didn't listen. He didn't give her a chance to explain.
Draco and Navy wasn't anything, yet her heart ached by the thought of it.
He had lingered underneath her skin, and the way he took care of her, even when he said he didn't feel anything, was hurting.
Navy's eyes fell over the nightstand, where the ticking clock stood, and she groaned at it. She tugged the sheets over her head, shutting the world out.
Pansy visited her again last night, and she brought her dinner like she'd done every night since everything around her fell apart.
The only difference was that yesterday — Pansy made it clear that she would come and get her for supper.
Navy tried to say no, to talk her way out of seeing everyone she worked so hard to avoid, but to no use.
No one said no to Pansy.
She flinched even if the knock hitting her door was expected.
"Navy." Pansy called out for her from the other side of the wood, "I hope for your sake that you're ready."
Navy's eyes rolled as she pushed herself off the bed. Her knees were weak beneath her, and she flung the door open.
"What—" Pansy's eyes fell over her still undressed body, "I thought I told you to be ready?"
She flopped down onto her mattress again, pulling her covers over herself, "And I told you that I didn't want to go."
Pansy huffed annoyingly as she strode up to the bed. Her hand grasped at the edge of her covers, and she pulled the fabric off the bed.
"And I told you that you're going to dinner with me, end of discussion." Pansy snarled, stepping up to her closet in order to pick out something for Navy to wear.
"What's the point in that? No one wants to see me." Her head tilted against the headboard. "I broke up with Theodore, and Draco said that he's done with me. Clara... I don't want to talk to her ever again."
Navy's eyes fluttered shut, "It's only you, Will and Blaise who still talks to me, so no. I'm not going."
"Here." Pansy threw a skirt, and a top at her, raising a brow at the girl as she sat on the edge of tears, "I don't care what they might want or not. I want you to join me for dinner, and that's not a question."
"But—"
"No buts Navy!" Pansy placed her hands on her hips after flipping her hair off her shoulders, "I don't want to hear it, and I don't want to see you cry anymore. Enough is enough. Yes, Theodore cheated on you, and then you cheated on him. You had a fight, almost had breakup sex, and Draco is a bloody idiot for not listening to you."
Navy looked away.
"Make him listen to you, Navy. If you think he's worth crying over — then he's worthy enough to fight for."
She still looked away, knowing that her friend was right.
Pansy's eyes pierced through her, and she shot her a daring look, "Now get dressed, or do I have to help you with that too?"
—
Her eyes were sunken into the dark circles underneath them. Her skin felt drained of emotion and sense as she walked through the tables of the Great Hall.
She avoided every look possible and kept her sight bored to the ground. She could feel Pansy's steps slowing down and her arm that had been linked with Navy's loosened.
"Hello." Pansy cheerfully smiled at the group as they sat at their usual table, "How is everyone?"
Mutters and mumbles of their friends met the gesture of Pansy slipping to her seat, and she dragged Navy down with her.
Her chin rose, and the second her bravery got a hold of her, she flicked her eyes up.
Draco looked right at her. His jaws gritted before he tore their eye contact apart.
He granted her with the same look he had done that night in the Slytherin common room — that hostile, spite-filled, mean stare.
He was still furious, she could tell, but what she couldn't see was that Theodore was looking at her as well.
He caught as both Navy and Draco stared at each other with suffering radiating around them.
He felt terrible, asking Navy to do what he did that night. It wasn't right of him to feel that way about her after their heated argument.
It was as if he already knew — after the night of the summer party, that it was something going on between her and Draco, but he never wanted to think about it because if he did — it would be true.
And it was. His instincts were right, and he had lost the girl he believed to have a future with, now she was sitting across the table, thinking about Draco in a way she used to think about him.
"Are you alright?" William snuck up behind her, placing his cheek on her head to welcome her, "I'm glad you're here."
Navy forced a smile before her eyes dropped to the table again. Her fingers nervously twitched in her lap, and she felt like she needed to do something — talk to either of them.
She wanted to explain herself.
"Where is Clara?" Pansy placed her elbows on the wood, tilting her head into the palm of her hand, "It's not like her to miss dinner."
Will huffed as he rolled his eyes, dropping his bag to the floor, "Clara is obsessed with that book Naves found in the bathroom a few weeks ago."
"Really?" Pansy replied, looking more than interested at what he said, "I thought you were the one being obsessed with that book."
"I was." Will reached over the table, grabbing a bowl of potatoes before settling a few on his plate.
"But when Professor McGonagall searched my room for..." His eyes flickered to Navy's for a second, and he remembered what had happened to her. He didn't want to speak about drugs around her anymore. "My stuff. I was afraid that she would find the book, so I asked Clara to hold onto it, and now she refuses to give it back."
A chuckle fled his throat, "She says it speaks to her." William mocked her in her absence.
"Speaks to her?" Theodore questioned from beside them, making William's eyebrows furrow.
"Yes. She says that someone in the book speaks to her, but I think she's crazy. It's an empty book. Who could possibly speak to her through it?"
"You're right." Pansy's face shifted into a grimace, "She's crazy, alright."
Navy didn't find any pleasure in how they spoke about her best friend — she missed Clara. Even if she hurt and broke her heart in the process, she still loved her friend.
She couldn't help but wonder what was going on with her, and she missed the way they used to share everything.
Pansy, however, was good for Navy — she was strong-minded and fair. She treated her in a way a friend was meant to treat another, and she never even once tried to take Clara's place.
The brunette was more than kind to Navy in these times, and that was all she could ask for.
Her eyelashes battled the strong urge of crying and letting it all out as she thought about her best friend. Draco noticed, clearing this throat, making her look up at him as he did.
His lips parted, and he really wanted to say something — she could tell, but the loosened jaws quickly clenched back together.
"Malfoy." Blaise caught his attention, "Outside."
Blaise's head tilted to the side, nodding against the entrance of the Great Hall. The blond's head bowed in response before his palms settled onto the table.
"Where are you—" Pansy rose, but Draco's hand raised towards her, and her speaking quieted.
"We just have some... matters to attend to. I'll see you later." Draco brushed his black suit jacket off, standing tall in front of them.
Pansy turned to Will, joining the conversation he'd been sucked into, and Navy sat there, on the edge of the table, feeling more than lonely.
Draco was stepping past her, and without a thought, her voice cracked, "Malfoy." She whispered.
It made him halt, looking down at her over his shoulder with a sigh, ''What?"
"Can we talk?" She mumbled, and he kept his eyes in hers, seeing how exhausted she seemed by everything.
"I thought I told you—" Draco tried to stand against the breaking girl in front of him.
"Please." Navy begged, her eyes pinched shut in embarrassment, "Please, just listen to what I have to say, and if you still want me to leave you alone. I will."
Draco didn't know what to do, even if he wanted to talk to her and hear what really happened that night between her and her ex-boyfriend. He still didn't want to put himself out there again.
Moments passed as he thought about it, "Fine. Meet me in the hallway in five minutes."
Navy nodded, turning back to face her friends as he kept walking out of the hall.
Her cheeks burnt. She felt ashamed. She didn't even know what to say to him. All she knew was that she needed to talk with him.
"See—" Pansy nudged her shoulder, "That wasn't so hard, was it?"
A proud look climbed her features as Navy forced a smile again, "It wasn't."
"Good. You know, I should make you do things more often. At least now, I know that you'll listen to me."
Pansy sought to be funny. Her eyes flickered towards the doors, watching as Blaise was heading back to them.
"Now go, and don't you dare mess things up again."
—
Draco was leaning against the rock-covered wall, toying with his wand in between his fingers, and the look of him, how he rushed a hand through his hair, rolling his tongue on the inside of his cheek, made her nervous.
He always made her nervous in ways she couldn't explain.
His head tilted against the stone, watching as she closed in on him.
"What?" Draco nearly hissed, "What do you want to talk about?"
Navy's breaths hitched in the back of her throat, feeling her knees weaken. "I just wanted to explain myself... about the other night."
"What about it?" Draco snarled, giving her a daring look as he did, "What can you say that I didn't hear already?"
The words stung in her mind, how he had caught her flustered. He was referring to the night in question and what he believed they'd done.
"Draco—" She quieted, correcting herself, "Malfoy."
He locked his jaw.
"I didn't mean to do that. I wasn't thinking, and he just—" She stuttered, feeling small by his large towering, "You said you didn't care for me and that you never will, so I didn't think—"
"Is that what you think I'm upset about?" Draco fired back, taking a step away from the wall as her spine collided with it instead. "You think I'm mad that he fucked you?"
"He didn't—" Her eyes widened, and the tension thickened, "What else do you have to be mad about?"
Draco huffed mockingly as he placed a hand on the wall behind her, "You broke my trust. You said that you wouldn't let anyone have you as I did, and then, even on the veritaserum, you did. Which means that you promised something you couldn't keep."
He was strangely calm, almost too soothed for a situation like this.
"You broke my trust. I couldn't care less about who you fuck and when you fuck them—"
"But I didn't sleep with him," Navy yelled out harshly through a whisper. It caused the students further down the hall to snap their heads.
Her skin flushed in a feverish color as her eyes grounded. She didn't want to look at the disappointed gaze he held.
"I didn't sleep with Theodore. I haven't slept with him since you told me not to."
He stilled. His eyes narrowed in hers, "Then why did I hear you? I know what you sound like when you're being fucked. Not to speak about how you looked. It looked like you two had a great time."
"He didn't—" She tried to defend herself, "We didn't do anything. I said yes when he asked... and then I changed my mind. I broke up with him and ran out, and that's... that's when you caught me."
"Oh." Draco's face tensed at the confession, and he couldn't help but feel a bit relieved.
"You told me that I couldn't sleep with anyone, and I—"
"Did you suck him off that night?" His grey eyes watched hers, wanting to know if she was dishonest again, "Did he touch you?"
Navy swallowed, shaking her head, "I didn't, and he... he kissed me, but that was it."
"So you didn't fuck him?" Draco's arm fell off the wall, dropping down to his side.
"No, I didn't." Her lower lip sucked in between her teeth, "So, you don't care?"
"I don't." His face eased from the cold expression as his eyes dragged off of her, and he glared out over the hallway.
"Isn't that Clara and that bloody book of hers?" Draco pointed his finger towards the end of the corridor.
It was. Clara nearly sprinted over the ground, with the book held in front of her, and she kept looking around, making sure that no one was following her, "What the hell is she doing?"
"I have to—" Navy arched her back off the wall, taking strides away from him as it clocked her.
She turned around in her shoes, peering back at him with a shy smile, "Meet me tomorrow night?"
His tongue rolled over his lower lip, hesitating at first before the devilish smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Maybe." He shrugged before walking back into the great hall.
Her heart fluttered, and she felt better.
Draco made her feel better.
Navy's steps were severe through the school as she chased her best friend to the end of a hallway, down a small path, and into a bathroom.
She lurked around the corner of it, not wanting to scare Clara — just observe what she was up to.
She watched how one of the sinks shifted into a passage, and her best friend disappeared into the dark.
And Navy — followed her.
—