I walked down into the Slytherin common room, wiping my eyes of the tears I had just shed, and expected nobody to be in there. But I was wrong.
"Morana?"
I looked up, and saw the one person I was really glad to see.
Bet you bitches can guess at this point and have it not even be a guess.
I looked up, and those beautiful gray eyes were looking at me.
"Yeah, Draco?" I asked him. (If you didn't get that right, what the f**k is wrong with you???)
"Are you alright?"
I wiped more of my tears away. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
Draco raised an eyebrow at me. "Really? Because those tears don't seem very happy."
I was going to answer saying that I was completely fine, but instead of words I sort of just squeaked. I couldn't do it. I couldn't bring myself to lie to Draco.
"I-I..." I said. I walked forward slowly, and sat down on the couch opposite of Draco. I looked at my feet, unsure of what to say. "I just..." I looked up at Draco, his eyes so full of concern. I didn't mean to. I didn't want to. But I did.
I just broke down crying. I see crying as a sigh of weakness, if you remember. And this was an appropriate time to cry. I felt weak. Like you could just touch me and I'd disintegrate into ashes.
"Hey, Morana, what's wrong?" Draco asked softly as he touched my knee.
I looked up at him, then wiped my face to get rid of my tears. "W-well... I-it was Xenia."
"Aura's friend with the light blue hair?"
"Yeah, exactly. She..." My voice trailed off as I looked down. I have a problem with speaking about things that upset me. I normally just try to step away from them. Mostly because I don't like going near that shit. But partly because whenever I do talk about that stuff I cry.
"Did she hurt you?"
I looked up at Draco. "No. No no, no. No. She...she didn't...do anything directly... She just...said something that was true..."
"Which would be?"
"That I'm a, how she said, 'worthless little bitch whose own mother doesn't love her'."
Draco gave me that Malfoy look that twisted my insides.
"What? It's true! I am!"
Draco sighed. "Morana..." He stood up, and moved to sit down next to me. "Morana that is not true."
I looked over my left shoulder to look at him. "But it is. I am worthless and my mother doesn't love me..." I looked back down at my hands in my lap. "I wouldn't be surprised if you'd actually be lying every time you said you loved me..."
Draco leaned back slightly, giving me that Malfoy look again. "Morana f**king Drax."
"Oh shit, that is much worse than parents bringing out the middle name."
"Well good! It should be!"
I looked at Draco. He looked really pissed with a deep frown.
"Morana," Draco sighed, his face relaxing, "you are not worthless."
"Bu -"
"I don't care. I don't think you're worthless. And I'm not lying every time I say I love you. And if one person doesn't find you worthless that should be enough. And no, your own mother might not love you. But that doesn't mean that nobody else does."
I stared at Draco. Those gray eyes were always so trusting and calming. Whenever I looked at those eyes I knew I was safe. After all, both my best friend and my boyfriend share those eyes.
"But isn't it all about how I see myself?"
Draco thought about this. "Yes. It is. It is important of how you see yourself. But if you think you're worthless you need somebody there to remind you that you're not. And don't even worry about that. The Malfoy twins always have your back."
I smiled, new tears forming in my eyes. I started crying. This time it wasn't because I was upset. It was because I finally realized what everybody's been trying to tell me. They're always there for me, even if my own mother isn't. And for that I was grateful.
Draco wrapped his arms around me and hugged me.
"Thank you, Draco," I said as I hugged him back, my face buried into his chest.
Draco kissed the top of my head. "You're welcome, Morana."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE MADNESS OF MR. CROUCH~~~
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, this part of the chapter I need to tell you guys about. In this chapter Draco tells Morana about a secret that he's been keeping from her. Don't worry. It's not that major. But I just wanted to give the person whose idea it was the credit for it. The tumblr user moonyandpadfoot07 came up with this headcanon. She deserves the credit for it. :) And since you readers like Harry Potter, if you have a tumblr I suggest that you follow her. :))
Okay. Soo, you saw that...
Anyway, another important part of this story also had to do with Draco.
I'm sorry! A lot of stuff I think is important has to do with Draco!
Although I think he, as a person, is important.
But anyway, a couple days later. Xenia still didn't find her great-grandmother's necklace or the bracelet that Max gave her. Xenia wasn't talking to me. Aura and Tess did, but I told them that I was kinda just...that I kinda just wanted to be by myself for a little while. Needed to think about stuff on my own.
So I finished all of my homework (F**KING FINALLY), and I felt so f**king relieved. I wrote a letter to my dad. It was...about how my mother didn't actually love me... I wanted some clarification from him to see if that was true. And I wanted to thank him for being a good person and parent.
When I was almost finished writing the letter in the common room after the majority of people already went to bed, Draco walked over to me.
"Hey, Morana," Draco said with a smile that I saw out of the corner of my eye as he started sitting down. "What's up?"
"My dick," I said with a smirk.
Draco started cracking up laughing, probably because of my unexpected reply. He missed the couch and landed on the floor. He went up on his knees, his usually pale face red, almost like his sister's hair.
"I was trying to have a serious conversation!" Draco said, still partially laughing.
I looked up at Draco's face, my own face in mock surprise. "Well how was I supposed to know?!" Draco was laughing as I spoke. It took Draco a second to calm down. I smiled at him as he did that. He was so adorable.
Draco sighed as he moved onto the couch right next to me. "I need to talk to you."
"Is it important or can I finish this letter first?" I asked as I started writing again.
"Well...it's kind of important."
I looked up at Draco, my eyes slightly wider than normal. "Oh shit. Alright. Give me two seconds. I'm almost done."
"Alright," Draco said quietly as he leaned back in his seat.
I finished writing the letter. Instead of getting a nearby owl to send the message, I moved the parchment, quill, and the book that I used as a table aside. I looked at Draco.
"What is it?"
"I...I've kind of been keeping a secret from you. That I've never told anyone. And I don't want you to tell anyone either."
I raised an eyebrow. "A secret?"
"Yes. And I feel like I should...tell you."
"Alright. I appreciate that." Draco smiled. I smiled back. "I promise I won't tell anyone. Now, the secret?"
"Yes..." Draco took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't hate Hermione Granger because of her parentage or blood status or anything."
I frowned. "Okayyy...? So...then why do you hate her?"
"Because she's the top student in our class!"
"Instead of...whom, exactly?"
Draco looked disappointed with his down cast eyes as he looked away from me. "Instead of me."
"Um...mind explaining that a little, babe?"
"I was furious when Granger always got a point higher than me. Always. No matter how hard I tried. All the professors praised her because she was the greatest... And I only got second best."
"But second isn't that bad."
"It's almost worst than being last."
"How so?"
"Because you try your hardest, and you are so close to getting first...but somebody else beats you there."
I lightly touched Draco's hand that he had on his knee. "Draco..."
"I usually tried not to look disappointed when I would stay up all night studying for our final exams. And because I'm so tired I don't do as well as I want myself to. And of course Granger gets a perfect score on everything because she's great with time management. And a lot of times I would want to raise my hand high to answer the professor's question, but Granger beats me yet again. And..."
"Draco -"
"And my father...my father... He always pressures me to be the best student in the class... And when I don't...he compares me to a filthy little Mudblood. And...I'll understand if you hate me for this..."
"I could never hate you," I said.
Draco looked at me for the first time since he started practically pouring his heart out. "Don't be so sure..." Draco looked in front of him again. He moved his hand that was under mine slightly, as if to move my hand off of his. I moved my hand in reply.
"I didn't actually care that Granger was a Mudblood," Draco continued. "But then my father made me believe that they were all horrible. But...honestly? I thought that they were...pretty cool. Like what Aura thinks. I mean...they lived eleven years thinking that magic wasn't real. And then they learn the truth..." Draco looked at me, hope in his eyes. He shrugged as he said, "What could be better?" He looked at his hands, which he had intertwined them with his elbows on his knees. "My father's done to me what he wish he could do to Aura: he made me like him. He made me dislike, even hate, people based off of who their family was. Not based off of who they were... Which is why when I met you...I made sure not to do that. I didn't know a lot about your family and I didn't want to. You told me you were a pureblood, but honestly I didn't care. You were a nice girl. I liked you. I would've liked you anyway..."
"Draco -"
"Morana. Please. I'm not done..."
"But...I feel bad for you. You were never where you wanted to be. You always though lowly of yourself and all because of your father. And you started disliking people because of your father's influence. It...doesn't sound...delightful."
Draco looked at me. His eyes looked part pitiful and part...hopeful. "You...you don't mind? That I wasn't quite who I said I was? That I didn't hate Mudbloods like you do?"
I smiled, and decided to use Draco's own words. "I would've liked you anyway."
Draco smiled as he looked back at his hands. "But..." Draco's smile vanished. "In second year...I called Granger a Mudblood for the first time. The, uh... It wasn't the first time I used it. And it wasn't the first time I used it to describe her. But it was the first time I said it to her face..."
"Yeah, I know."
Draco looked at me, his eyebrow raised.
"Well..." I began, thinking back to The Chamber Of Secrets Through Another's Eyes, chapter 11, My Vision Of Mudbloods, narrated by Tess Booker. "I was on my way to watch the Slytherin Quidditch practice. It was basically an excuse to look at you without it being weird." Draco laughed slightly. I smiled at that. "And I saw Tess. She told me that she had a vision of you saying that, and she wanted to stop you." I frowned. "I told you how she could predict the future, right?"
"Yes, you did," Draco nodded. "Uh...our first date. You explained it."
I smiled, remembering our first date. "Um, so, we ran to the Quidditch grounds. We made it just in time to hear you say that. But anyway, you called Hermione a Mudblood for the first time in second year?"
"Yes, I did." He looked back at his hands. I guess it was easier to tell me without looking at me. I get like that sometimes. I can't talk to people in the eyes because what I'm saying is too much. "But...I felt guilty for saying it... But you know how Malfoys are. Malfoys don't apologize. So...I continued being the bully. When Weasley defended Granger...I knew. I knew that I was exactly like my father... I didn't...I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. And...I believed that I wasn't as smart or clever as I thought I was. I stopped caring about my grades. And I stopped caring about whether or not I was supposed to be the bad guy or not. I just did what I had to do. And that led me to who I am now."
"Draco... There's so much I wanna say. But...I don't know how to say it."
"Just wait, please, will you? Please?"
"Yeah. Yeah, of course."
Draco took a deep breath. "You know...I would...I would go to the library. And do some...what I might call light reading. People might not agree with me, however. I still...I still go to the library to read sometimes. I sometimes see Granger there, as you'd expect. And...I usually panic and leave. I wouldn't want my image to shatter... And...I hate when nobody wants to talk about what we learned in school earlier. When nobody wants to talk about...Transfiguration, or Potions, or Defense Against the Dark Arts, or anything like that. And...you know...a lot of times...I wish I had a study buddy. And I think to myself...maybe...just maybe...if I had been nice to Granger...that she'd be my friend. She'd be my study buddy. I'd have a nerd as a best friend. Because...really...I'd be best friends with someone like me..." Draco sighed as he put his head on his hands. "F**k."
"What? What is it?"
"I regret telling you all of that." Draco looked up at me. "So if you could just...just forget all that, I'm gonna go to bed now." Draco stood up and started walking away.
"Draco!" I half-shouted as I called him. I got up and walked a bit fast to keep up with him. He turned around to look at me.
"What?" he asked. "What're you gonna say? Please just...just forget about it. If you're over here to break up with me...then I don't wanna hear it."
I smiled. "Draco. I'm not going to break up with you. I'm going to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell you that...you're even greater now than when I first met you. You're...not quite who I expected you to be. But...you're even better than that. You're a great guy. So you didn't originally hate Muggle-borns, and you didn't call them Mudbloods. So you like to read and do your homework. That stuff? Just makes you more interesting."
Draco smiled, looking like he was gonna cry. "Do you mean it?"
"Yes. Yes, of course." I took Draco's hands in mine.
Draco started laughing. "Good! That's...great! Magnificent! I'm-I'm glad!"
"Hey, uh...so...what would you call light reading?"
Draco smiled at me. "Come with me," he whispered. He let go of my right hand, and in his right hand he was still holding my left hand. He led me over to a desk on the opposite end of the common room, where there were less people than where we originally were. "I tend to do my work over here. And read over here. And when I need alone time I come here." He stopped at the last desk against the wall. "This is where I spend a lot of my time. In case you can never find me." Draco smirked. Draco let go of my hand, and was about to pick up a book from his desk when BellaBee jumped up onto his desk and started meowing at him. "Excuse you," Draco said jokingly to my cat. I started laughing. I then picked BellaBee up, and she started purring.
"Yeah, hi," I said to BellaBee as I pet her head.
Draco laughed slightly at that. "Alright." Draco picked up a book. It wasn't that big. Probably had no less than 400, maybe 500 pages.
"Oh, that's not bad," I said. "Definitely light reading."
Draco looked at me, surprise etched across his face with his wide eyes and jaw slightly dropped. "What?"
I widened my eyes. Aw shit...
It was Aura that I told about me liking to read books! Not Draco! How the f**k did I forget to tell Draco?!
"Oopsie," I said. "Well, it was nice talkin' to ya, Malfoy, but I gotta go!"
I started walking away as Draco said, "Morana! Wait!"
I stopped walking. BellaBee was now on my right shoulder, walking behind my head to go to my left shoulder. Because of that I turned around slowly, making sure my purring cat didn't fall and/or dig her claws into me. I saw Draco standing right in front of me. "Yes, Draco?"
"You...you're..."
I smiled. "Yes! I'm a f**king nerd!"
Draco smiled, too. "Well...well that's-that's great!"
"Come on."
"Hm?"
"Say it! I want Draco Malfoy to tell me that he is a f**king nerd. Come on!"
Draco smiled. "I'm a f**king nerd!"
I smiled even more. "Yay! Good! We can be nerds together! Ow!" BellaBee started slipping off of my shoulder and she clawed it so she wouldn't fall.
"Alright, c'mere." Draco picked up my cat, a slight meow of irritation escaping her. When he brought her closer to him and was essentially holding her like a baby she started purring again. Draco smiled at the cat. Then he looked back up at me. "So...will...will you be my study buddy?"
I smiled. "Of course, Draco. I would love to."
Draco smiled. "Great."
I took a step toward Draco, and kissed him on the nose. "I love you, Draco. No matter what secrets you tell me about. I will love you no matter what."
"Thank you, Morana. I am glad to be in love with someone like you. Especially since you love me as much as I love you." Draco kissed my forehead. "I love you, Morana. And thanks for being an amazing girlfriend."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE MADNESS OF MR. CROUCH~~~
Okay, so don't be mad at me...
I know that you're already preparing to get mad at me, but please don't.
I accidentally f**ked up. I f**ked up so f**king much. God f**king dammit! I'm a god damn major f**k up.
You wanna know how I f**ked up?
Brace yourselves...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE MADNESS OR MR. CROUCH~~~
Okay. Sooo you know how Draco told me not to tell anybody about his secret that he kinda just told me?
Yeah. You probably guessed it...
The next day I may have accidentally told somebody...
Now, don't freak out! No no! That's my job, okay? You don't worry about a damn thing. Let Miss Drax handle this. On her own. Like, literally. She wouldn't let anybody else help her even when she cried herself to sleep.
But that's not until later! So let's not worry!
I mean...I should worry. You guys shouldn't, though. You know, if you actually care about me. (I'm sure you guys do.)
So you wanna see where I f**k up? Alright. Here goes nothin'...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE MADNESS OF MR. CROUCH~~~
Okay. So I was in the library doing my homework. By the time I was almost done I heard three girls laughing. The laughing got louder. I assumed it was because they were getting closer to me. I twisted around over my right shoulder to see three girls, one of them holding a stack of books. The others also holding stacks of books, but they were probably for the first girl.
The first girl was Xenia. The others were Aura and Tess. But I'm sure you knew that.
"Oh, hey Morana!" Tess said with a smile as she noticed me. I picked up my left hand and wiggled my fingers in a sort of wave thing as Aura and Xenia noticed me too.
"Oh, hey Death Eater!" Aura said, also smiling.
Xenia smiled at me, too. "Death Eater."
I frowned at Xenia. "What's with the smile? Aren't you still pissed at me?"
"Nope!" Xenia said as the three girls walked over to my table. Aura and Tess sat next to me as Xenia sat across from me, Aura on my right and Tess on my left. "I found both items that I thought you stole! Turned out that one of the girls in my dorm accidentally stole them! She had similar things that belonged to her and accidentally took them!"
I smiled. "Well that's good. We can hang out with our friends together and not bitch as much as we did!"
"Yeah! Here's the bracelet!" Xenia said, showing me her left wrist. She had a blue bracelet on. In the center of it there was a bronze charm. It had a heart carved into it. Carved inside the hearts were the initials XF + MB, for Xenia Fairchild + Maxwell Blue. "And here's my great-grandmother's necklace." It was a necklace around Xenia's neck that had white pearls on them.
I frowned again. "If it was just a girl who accidentally took them then how was there a letter?"
"One of the other girls put it on there," Xenia said with an eye roll. "Was trying to be Queen Bitch, probably. Still hasn't replaced you, though."
I put my hand on my heart. "Aww! Thank you!"
Xenia smiled. "No prob."
"Oo!" Tess said. "Okay. Secret time. Remember Benjamin Keller?"
"You mean that Hufflepuff sonofabitch that you went to the Yule Ball with that ended up dating the girl I still loved?" Aura said somewhat fast, her voice getting angrier as she spoke, a frown deepening. She seemed angry. It also didn't help that her arms were crossed. She nodded, the frown gone. "Yeah, vaguely."
Tess raised an eyebrow at Aura as if to say, 'Yeah, right. Vaguely.'
"Anyway," Tess continued. "Ben came into the common room crying after classes."
"What? Why?" Xenia asked. She was concerned for him. I partly was, too. Part concern, part curiosity, part not giving a f**k. I was surprised that I could feel all three at once.
Tess looked at Aura. She started to smile, but was trying not to smile. "Luna broke up with him."
Aura's eyes widened as she gasped slightly. "OhmygodreallyImeanshouldIbeexcitedorjustcuriousorupsetforBenjaminImeanIdon'tevenknowifIlikeheranymoreornot," Aura said rapidly in a slight whisper as she leaned forward. I checked back with her after she spoke to write this part. She said, "Oh my god, really?! I mean, should I be excited?! Or just curious?! Or upset for Benjamin?! I mean, I don't even know if I like her anymore or not!"
Just in case you were confused.
Tess, Xenia, and I stared at Aura.
"The f**k?" Tess asked.
Aura smiled shyly. "Sorry. I just..." Aura's face turned slightly red as she looked down. "Anybody else wanna share something?" She asked her question in a higher pitched voice than normal.
I smiled, my eyes lighting up. "Oo, hey! Speaking of secrets!"
You can see where this is going.
................
I smirked, not remembering what I had promised Draco only the night before. "Draco Malfoy is a f**king nerd."
Each of the other three girls stared at me in different ways.
Tess had her jaw clenched, her blue eyes bigger than ever.
Xenia was smiling an almost wicked smile, as if she was a villain in a fairy tale and she thought that the hero against her had just suffered a terrible demise.
Aura's gray eyes were about as big as Tess's, but her jaw was practically dropped all the way to the floor. She was standing up straighter, as if she had just gasped and held her breath. Her hands were up, like she was about to squeal or something.
"Ohmigod, really?!" Aura breathed out, putting her hands down. "Oh. My. Mother. F**king. God. Oedipus! Oh, shit. Didn't tell you guys. That's my new word for motherf**ker." Aura winked. Xenia, Tess, and I started laughing. (I'll explain in a sec.) "Well anyway! Morana! Please! Do tell about how Draco f**king Malfoy is a f**king nerd!"
(Alright. Explanation behind "Oedipus". So Oedipus was an Ancient Greek prince. Except he didn't know he was a prince. I think he was raised by somebody else. But anyway. He saved a kingdom from somebody or something or whatever. And I'm not sure if the king died during the thing or if Oedipus killed the king, but either way the king died. And then to honor Oedipus he became king. By marrying the queen. Who turned out to be his own mother. So that is why Aura decided to say Oedipus instead of motherf**ker.)
I smiled at Aura. "Well, remember Granger?"
"She's hard to forget," Tess noted.
"True. True. Anyway, Draco didn't dislike her for being a Mudblood. No no. He disliked her because she always beat him. She was always the top of our class. And you know who got second best?"
Aura leaned back in her seat. "Draco... Draco was second best, wasn't he?"
"But being second isn't that bad," Xenia said. "You almost got first!"
I stared at Xenia, surprised at what she said. Partly because I thought that she'd agree with Draco, and partly because she said almost exactly what I said.
"That..." I said. "That's what I said... Anyway, Draco thinks that second means that you almost won. And that maybe if you tried a little harder you would've won."
Xenia stared at me for a second. "Oh... I never...I never really thought about it like that... But your dick boyfriend makes a good point."
I laughed slightly, so did Aura and Tess, as I looked up at a bookshelf. I saw light blonde hair whizzing out of sight.
I sighed.
God dammit...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE MADNESS OF MR. CROUCH~~~
Later, after I finished talking to Aura, Xenia, and Tess...and then after stalling for two or three, maybe four more hours by just walking around the castle, I walked down into the Slytherin common room.
Guess who was there, looking pissed?
If you guessed the twin brother of Aura Malfoy, you get a bonus point!
There was barely any (actually, there might not have been any) people in the common room. So I sighed and sat on the sofa in front of Draco, who had his arms crossed and his face was in a deep frown, like he was trying to kill me with his stare.
I smiled, but I half-assed it. "Uh...hi, Draco."
Draco kept staring at me. "How. F**king. Dare you?"
I sighed, looking down. "I knew that was you in the library."
"You still didn't answer my question."
"It's not like I meant to!" I half-yelled. "It was an accident! I was just - I don't know! It was an accident, and I'm sorry!"
"Well sorry isn't good enough!" Draco yelled. He stood up and started walking away, probably to his desk.
"Draco, wait!" I yelled following him. But unlike last time he didn't wait.
"Draco!" I yelled, still following him, a couple seventh year students raising their eyebrows at us in confusion. "Draco! Wait! Come on! Just listen!" At that point there was nobody around us. And thank God because -
"Just listen?!" Draco yelled. He stopped walking, and when he yelled he turned around to look at me. "No! You listen! I told you a secret, and you promised-promised that you wouldn't tell anyone! And then you go behind my back and tell someone. And not just anyone, but my own God damn sister."
"Draco, I'm sorry!" I yelled. I was so upset that my eyes were starting to tear up. "It's just- It was a mistake! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! If I could take it back I would!"
I stared at Draco, tears swelling up in my eyes, making it almost impossible to see. Draco stared back at me, his face in a slight frown.
Draco shook his head. "No," he said calmly, which almost made it worse. "No. If I can't trust you with keeping a secret...then what can I trust you with?"
"Draco...Draco you don't mean that!"
"Yeah, actually. I do." Draco turned towards his desk and placed his hands on it. He was leaning forward. "Now get. The f**k. Away from me."
"Fine, ya douchebag. See if I f**king care." I started walking away. But then when I came across some people I started running. So that that way I could go to my bed and cry without anybody looking at me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE MADNESS OF MR. CROUCH~~~
"Pfft. F**king dick. Sittin' over there, lookin' better than everybody. Probably on purpose. Just to make me even more mad at him."
"Uhh, Morana?" Aura said. "He looks like that all the time. You don't need to mutter to yourself about that."
I laughed slightly. Oops.
The next day I was sitting at the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall (they cared the least about who was sitting at their table; but they will kick you out if you're bad) for breakfast. I wasn't eating because I was too busy looking at Draco being...well, Draco. But instead of him making me smile...he made me angry. Kinda like how Aura sees him. But I was muttering to myself, which is where you came in.
Tess, who was siting right in front of me and blocking my view of Pansy, pushed my plate closer to me. "Eat. And don't make me force you to eat. Eat."
I looked down at my plate. "I am feeling rather peckish." I picked up my fork and started gobbling down my food.
"Well damn," Xenia said as Maxwell, who was sitting on the other side of her, was laughing at me (I think). "I think peckish is a bit weak."
I smiled, food falling out of my mouth as I did it. Aura, Tess, and Xenia all started laughing and Maxwell snorted. I joined in on the laughing after I swallowed.
"So ladylike!" Xenia said.
"Yes, she reminds me of you," Maxwell said with a smirk.
Xenia dropped her jaw. "Woooooow! Smooth. You expecting to get laid tonight with that line? Well tough, 'cause it's not gonna happen now, bitch!"
We all laughed at Xenia's comment, except for Maxwell, who had his jaw dropped.
"I hate you so much."
Xenia smiled at Maxwell. "Yeah? That's why you asked me out."
Max and Xenia kissed. It was all very cute.
But making me miss Draco, which made my insides twist inside. So I excused myself to the bathroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE MADNESS OF MR. CROUCH~~~
Later that day, after Transfiguration, I found myself walking the halls of the castle. I seemed to be trying to go outside to the Great Lake or something. I was tired and a wreck and had so much homework to do and I just needed to get away from everyone.
"Hey yo Drax!"
I turned my head slightly, but then decided not to turn my head. I moved it back to look forward. The girl who yelled at me was right next to me, her red hair bouncing as she ran. She was beaming at me.
I nodded, still looking forward. "Hey Malfoy."
"Whatcha doin'?"
"I got homework that needs to be done. So I'm going down to the lake. Help me relax."
"I'm going to the courtyard. You must be going the wrong way, girlfriend."
I looked at where we were. We were almost at the courtyard. If we turned left -
Boom. We turned left. We were at the courtyard. We stopped walking.
"Oh," I said.
"Yeah... Hey. You need to talk to somebody. Come on. Walk around the courtyard with me."
I looked at Aura. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, her side bangs slowly escaping.
Aura smiled at me without showing her teeth. She moved a strand of my hair behind my ear. "You know, I really like your hair like that."
I frowned at her. My hair was in a lame attempt at a ponytail. My hair was bumpy in the front, pieces of hair sticking straight up, and strands coming out of the ponytail. So basically I looked like I just got out of bed.
"Uhh...I didn't know that bed head with a side of ugly ass troll was a good hairstyle for me."
Aura laughed at me. I smiled slightly.
Aura looked at me, her laughing completed. "C'mon. Talk to me. Tell me why you and Draco are fighting."
We started walking in the hall around the courtyard. I told her everything. Not details on the secret, of course, but how I wasn't supposed to tell her about it.
"And I keep..." I didn't wanna continue. I was gonna cry if I did. I jammed my right fist against my lips to fight back my tears. I stopped walking. Instead of a fist I turned my hand so that my palm was across my mouth. I leaned my face into my hand as I was bending over, tears escaping.
"Oh, hey hey hey, here," Aura said. She grabbed my book that I was holding in my left hand and put it in her bag. She grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me into a forceful hug. I cried into her shoulder, not paying attention to the people walking by.
I'll skip to after the hug. You don't need the details.
After the crying and hugging Aura and I walked around the courtyard.
"You know what you need?" Aura asked me excitedly.
"To either dump my boyfriend, forget about him which would possibly require dumping, or just apologize again and again until Draco breaks up with me?" I asked.
Aura blinked at me. "No. No, not that. Not any of that. I think that you need to do something rebellious!"
"I heard rebellious!" Tess said as she was walking towards us with Xenia traveling behind her. They then decided to walk with us. "Can I be a part of it? Or maybe watch again?! That was fun!"
Xenia rolled her eyes. "Just don't come crying to me when you lose House points."
"So what's the rebellious thing?" I asked as I turned my head to face Aura.
"Oh no no," Aura answered. "You pick this time. To make you feel better!"
"Hmmmm... Well...there is this one thing that I've been wanting to do..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE MADNESS OF MR. CROUCH~~~
We were going to do the rebellious thing the next day.
But we saw something that made us postpone our plans to the next chapter.
We were all outside talking about our plans, Xenia rolling her eyes at our stupidity. We were near the forest. We noticed that Harry and Krum were walking near the forest too.
Tess stopped walking, her eyes taking up her whole face. "Guys..."
We looked where she was looking. Near Harry and Krum was Mr. Crouch. He looked as if he had been traveling for some time. The knees of his robes were ripped, and you could see blood on his actual knees. His face was all scratched up. He looked like he had grown a bit of a beard, and his hair and mustache was dirty and overgrown. He looked almost gray, like he was exhausted.
But he was acting stranger than he looked. He was muttering to himself, but what I could not tell.
"Shh sh sh," Xenia whispered. "Listen."
We couldn't hear what Mr. Crouch was saying, or what Harry and Krum were saying to him.
The Mr. Crouch gasped, "Dumbledore!"
All of our eyes widened.
"I think..." Aura started. "I think we should go inside, yeah?"
"Yeah," I agreed with a rapid nod. "Yeah, definitely."
We ran away to either get help or just hope Mr. Crouch wasn't going to do anything.