The next morning Isabelle woke up in an empty dorm room. Pansy's bed was left exactly as it was before they drank firewhiskey, so Isabelle assumed she never went to sleep, or if she did it wasn't in this room. Today they had Slughorn's class, which is fairly easy for Isabelle so she decided to have a good start to her morning.
She walked towards the great hall for a quick breakfast. Pansy and Blaise weren't in the great hall either. Isabelle saw Draco sitting alone, a smile spread over her face. She hadn't seen him in a week so she was overjoyed.
"Draco!" Isabelle exclaimed. His head shot up, he looked horrible. His hair was oily, his face looked like leather, his eyes didn't have that blueish tint they sometimes had, his eyebags looked as dark as Isabelle's hair, and his lips were extremely dry.
"Good morning." Draco muttered in return.He was eating some eggs.
A worried expression covered Isabelle's face. "Are you okay, Draco? You look tired."
"I'm fine." He replied and went back to eating and looking at the floor.
"Why don't we take the day off today? We can go to the lake and just relax." Isabelle suggested. Draco looked like he needed a break.
"Isabelle, no." Draco looked at her meanly. "You should be going to class, not going all about with Pansy and Blaise. Just- just leave me alone."
"Yeah, well maybe I'm hanging out with Pansy and Blaise because you don't even talk to me anymore. Hell, I don't even see you." Isabelle said back, trying to keep her calm. "There goes my good morning." She whispered that last part.
Isabelle stood up and walked away. She couldn't believe Draco, she was just trying to be a good cousin. She went to the slytherin dorms and knocked Blaise's door.
Pansy opened the door wearing a robe that was seemingly not hers. "Oh, hey Isabelle. How's it going?"
"Erm- I'm good." Isabelle blinked, trying to process what she was seeing. "I was just going to ask Blaise where you were, but I see you are alright."
"After we drank so much firewhiskey I was really tired and didn't want to wake you, so Blaise let me sleep with him." Pansy smiled at Isabelle.
"Okay. See you in Slughorn's class."
As Isabelle was continuing on, she heard giggles inside the dorm. Her suspicions were correct. Pansy knew she liked Blaise.
Isabelle stormed through the halls of the school, she still had an hour until Slughorn's class. A painting of a fat lady stood at the top of a staircase. She was feeling daring so she decided to walk up to it.
"Password." The lady stated and started singing. "I need you to hurry, I have to keep singing."
Isabelle had no idea what the password could be, so she decided to be funny and tell the fat lady something Draco had told her in his first year about the fat lady. "Caput Draconis."
The fat lady's portrait moved to the side and let Isabelle pass. "You are not even a Gryffindor."
Inside was what Isabelle knew to be the gryffindor common room. Ron Weasley sat in the middle of the common room, he looked to be crying. "Are you okay?" Isabelle asked.
"What the bloody hell are you doing in here, Lestrange?" Ron spat. "And I am perfectly fine."
"I was feeling sad so I decided to explore." Isabelle shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, go explore somewhere else."
Isabelle looked at him in disbelief. The gryffindor common room was for the students so she didn't know why Ron was so mad. It's not like she was bothering him.
"I don't understand why you hate me!" Isabelle almost screamed at him. "I have never done anything to you and all you do is just bother me."
"Your family is-" Ron started but got cut off.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Ronald Weasley, I am not my family." Isabelle exclaimed, looking at Ron's heartfelt eyes. "Just because my family's reputation is a little questionable doesn't mean I'm going to kill you in your sleep."
"I would rather not take any chances." Ron stormed into the boys dorms.
Isabelle stared in disbelief. She was sick of people judging her because of her mom. The gryffindor common room was not as fun as the slytherin one so she left.
She decided to get to Slughorn's classroom before everyone else, seeing as there were still 20 minutes left till class.
The classroom was empty so Isabelle just let herself in, she sat at a table that was small enough for one person. She pulled out her books and started reading ahead so that she had a vague idea of what they were doing today. Armontentia again, discussing the properties. A sigh left her lips, amortentia makes everything complicated.
Slughorn entered the classroom. "Ah, miss Lestrange. You are here early."
Isabelle chuckled. "I was not having that good of a day so I decided to come here to wait for the others."
"And I see you are sitting at the individual table." Slughorn said. "Is everything alright?"
"Everything is alright, sir."
"Well then, I won't bother you with your reading." He gave her a warm smile. "Please continue."
She didn't smile back, just turned back to her textbook. She was taught what amortentia was when she studied at home, but she never smelled anything, especially not someone at Hogwarts. Isabelle always smelled herself or nothing.
Isabelle tried to ignore when students started pouring in rushing to sit next to her friends. She was calmly finishing up a paragraph until someone tapped her shoulder. It was Pansy with a worried expression.
"You okay, Isabelle?" She asked, and before waiting for an answer, continued on talking. "You are sitting all alone over here and I saved you a seat." Pansy pointed to the seat next to her, Draco, and 2 boys she's never seen before.
"I'm fine, Pansy." She replied shortly. "I want to sit here today, next class I'll sit with you. I'm feeling homesick."
Pansy nodded her head. "Okay, the seat will be open in case you want to move."
With a tight smile, Isabelle responded. "Thank you." Deciding she didn't want to carry on with this conversation, she turned back to her pages.
A little late came in Harry, Ron, and Hermione; all looking worn out. Maybe it wasn't just Isabelle who was sick of everything.
When everyone was settled, Slughorn started speaking. "Hello, students. Today I have an announcement." Everyone's interest peaked. "We will have a class project that will be in pairs."
A girl with curly hair and a bandana on her hair spoke up. "Do we get to choose our partners?" She eyed Ron up and down, biting her lip at the same time. The boy blushed and looked at the floor.
"Actually, Miss Lavender, I have assigned them. I will say them now." He pulled out a scroll with messy handwriting on it. The teacher started listing names that weren't really of interest to Isabelle, until he got to her name. "Ronald Weasley and Isabelle Lestrange."
She cursed under her breath, finally looking over at Ron who looked just as mad. He was saying something to Hermione with an angry expression.
Lavender scowled her way, making sure that Isabelle saw her. This didn't bother her because, out of all the girls at school, she felt that Lavender was the least likely to date Ron. She was a very sweet girl that could definitely do better than a twat like Ron.
When the class ended, Isabelle stayed a little later, wanting to speak to Slughorn about the partnership. To her surprise, Ron stayed behind as well. He looked at her up and down, obviously doing the same thing she was.
The professor turned to them with a knowing smile. "I think I know why you are here." He stated, pointing a curved finger at them. "You want to change partners, but that is simply impossible."
Ron and Isabelle both did the same angry face at the same time. "You don't understand, Professor. I would rather kill myself than be partners with him." She pleaded; Ron nodded along.
"I paired you up on purpose." Slughorn said, his eyes crinkling. "You could work together very well." Just as Ron was about to object, the teacher cut him off. "I will not take any more arguments. You are dismissed."
Feeling defeated, the pair left the classroom. Isabelle decided to be the bigger person and make the plans for the project. "We can start tomorrow? Maybe sit on the grass."
Ron stared at her blankly, pursed his lips, then nodded. "Okay.I can only do it at 2." He grumbled.
"See you there." Isabelle complied. She extended her hands for him to shake, but he just looked at her hand with confusion. She put her hand back down, wiping it on her robe. "Bye." She muttered and left him standing there.
Out of all the people she could have been paired with, Ron was the chosen one. The one boy that she could not stand even the sight of him. The way his red hair sat on his head irked her, just as his tall frame had her craning her neck to talk to him.