LEO POV
"Incoming. Aimes. Six o'clock. Walking over here." Dean mumbled with an annoyed sigh as he glanced behind me quickly before pinching the bridge of his nose.
I fought the urge to groan with every ounce of dread within me.
Why, Godric, why?
I felt a tap on my shoulder and cloaked the dread on my face before turning around to face my ex.
"Leo." Gretchen greeted with a smile, batting her eyelashes like she always did when she was trying to appear nicer than she was.
Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled up into a high ponytail with a few wispy pieces framing her face. Her hazel eyes were accentuated brown eyeliner and long black eyelashes that she enhanced with mascara and growth potions. Her lips were covered in her signature light pink lip gloss that I know for a fact she reapplied before coming over here to speak to me.
"Gretchen." I greeted back with a small exhale, turning around to face her. I fixed the strap of my bag on my shoulder, keeping a grip on it so maybe she would take it as a hint that Dean and I were just about to leave.
We weren't. I was actually waiting for Nora and Cedric. They had an Arithmancy exam that they were nearly tearing their hair out about today, and I wanted to make sure they weren't spiraling.
Dean was just waiting with me. We were talking about whether or not we were going to go to the party tonight in the Room of Requirement or not when Gretchen decided to sneak up on me after I had been avoiding her. Again.
"Can we talk?" she asked, keeping her tone sweet. It wasn't until she leaned over and peered at Dean behind me that her tone and facial expression fell unamused, "Alone."
"About what?" I huffed, wishing that I could just cut her off and walk away from the conversation, but knowing that I was raised better than that. Sometimes I wish I could be as blunt as Dean when it came to women. He didn't give a shit whose feelings he hurt. He lacked the gentlemanly politeness that my mother and father raised me to extend to every woman I encountered no matter what.
"About us, Leo." Gretchen's eyes flicked back to me, rounding with pseudo-innocence, "I miss you."
Dean failed to conceal a snort of laughter behind me.
"Can you leave?" she snapped, her eyes sharpening into daggers that she was now sending Dean's way.
"Just...gimme a minute." I looked to Dean, expressing my annoyance with the situation subtly. Dean exhaled heavily, begrudgingly throwing his bag over his shoulder and walking further down the side of the courtyard we were standing in. "What do you want, Gretchen?"
"I want us to be together again." she gripped one of my hands with both of hers with an unexpectedly strong grip that I couldn't easily get out of without some sort of force or struggle, "I miss us. We were so good together."
"Wh–what? No. Gretchen. I broke up with you for a reason–" I shook my head, my face morphing into that of confusion.
"A reason that I already apologized for." she whined, frowning slightly, "I'm sorry for how I acted, Leo. You know I am. I've grown as a person. I promise–"
I scoffed a laugh, "Oh really? You've grown as a person?"
She straightened her spine as if slightly taken aback, "Yes. Yes I have."
"Okay." I nodded, agreeing sarcastically.
"I have!" I huffed, "I've–you know what? No. I have changed. And I want to prove it to you. Let me prove it to you, babe. Please–" she tried to wrap her arms around my waist, but I unwound her from around me, stepping back.
"Stop, Gretchen. This isn't going to happen. We aren't going to happen again." I shut her down as kindly as I could manage.
"We were the hottest couple at this school, Malfoy. Every girl wants to fuck you, every guy wants to fuck me. We were like royalty together. Don't just throw that away over some silly little arguments–"
"Silly little arguments?" I cut her off, nearly laughing again at her deflation of the reasoning behind our break up, "Lets see. You spoke down to every one of my friends like they were inferior, you told them that you were going to take me away from them, you treated the house elves here like shit thinking I wouldn't find out about it, you used me to get photo ops with my family and I in the paper, you were rude and passive aggressive to those who you thought were 'inferior' to you in front of my family for some Godric unknown reason, you talked shit about people I'm close to behind my back thinking I wouldn't hear it, and you and your little friends made fun of my sister." I listed off all of the reasons that I could think of just off the top of my head, "Oh! And you cheated on me. Almost forgot about that one."
Gretchen was a master manipulator. She hid all of her wickedness under smiles and laughs and smoke screens, until one day Leah, Minnie, Nora, Teddy, Uncle Leo, Dean and a couple other guys from the team sat me down and told me everything she'd done, and everything they found out about her. It was that night that I had caught her making out with a Ravenclaw hidden in the back of a party that she thought I wasn't going to be attending. I broke up with her then and there.
And ever since then, I've felt lighter.
It occurred to me that I had been wanting to break up with Gretchen Aimes for a lot longer than I had even acknowledged, I was just looking for an opportunity. Then the opportunity came like a saving grace, and all I felt was relief as I called it quits with her.
It was a scandal all across the castle. The whisperings just now started to let up after a month, but still, it was big news. News even spread outside the castle, making it to Rita Skeeter in no time. Of course she made it front page material, given that everything my family does ends up being front page material. That's one of the reasons that Gretchen wanted to be attached to me in the first place. I was the idiot that wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
My mother and father's letter to me post break up did make me feel better though. Made me laugh too. I commend them for their ability to disguise their distaste so well. While I knew that they weren't Gretchen's biggest fans, it's clear they were holding back a very large portion of their true feelings for my sake while Gretchen and I were still together. Now that the truth about her was out, however, my parents, and even Uncle Leo, were able to unleash how they truly felt, and in turn, I was discovering how I truly felt about Gretchen and I's relationship.
From the outside looking in, I was now able to see that all Gretchen wanted was to control me and use me and my family. She was cruel-hearted. And, come to think of it, I don't even think we had anything in common. She just liked what I liked, and I'm sure that was all just a facade to get me interested in her. She wanted all my time, all my attention, and all my notoriety. To isolate me from anyone that could free me from the manipulative bubble she was holding me captive in.
I blame the hormones for my initial attraction. I was 15, almost 16, when Gretchen and I started dating. Typical teenage boy hormones took the wheel and steered me directly into trouble.
Gretchen frowned, her fake sweet persona falling with her shoulders, "You're going to let a few childish mistakes ruin what the two of us had? Really, Leo? Don't be like this. You know we were perfect."
"No, we were not." I fired back.
"Yes, we were." she gritted through her teeth, "We were the hottest, most perfect couple at this school. Everyone knows that. Don't let the opinions of a few jealous people make you forget about how amazing we were together."
"They aren't jealous people, Gretchen. They're people that actually give a fuck about me, and helped me see who you really are. My family, my friends. The people that you had no problem chatting shit about behind my back to your little friends." I flicked my gaze to the other side of the courtyard where her friends stood in a group whispering amongst each other. They all quickly looked away once they saw me looking their way.
"I care about you. I want what's best for you. They're jealous because you were spending time with me instead of them. They're selfish. They're the ones that wanted you all to themselves. We were great together. You were happy with me, and they couldn't stand that–"
"I wasn't happy with you." I corrected her, "And you weren't happy with me, clearly, or you wouldn't have been five seconds away from fucking that Ravenclaw in the back of their common room while you were still technically dating me." I reminded her.
"I already told you I was sorry about that." she huffed like she was annoyed she had to repeat herself, "You know I only love your cock–" She tried to step closer to put her chest to mine, but I put my hands on her shoulders, holding her back at arm's length.
"Yeah, almost as much as you like my fame, my money, and my last name." I cut her off yet again, tired of this conversation and tired of her games, "We are done, Gretchen. I do not want to be with you. Not now, not ever. D-O-N-E. Clear?"
Her seductively pseudo-innocent pout morphed into a scowl in a blink, but I didn't falter.
At this point, I didn't feel bad about hurting her ego, because her injured ego was the only reason she was trying to get back with me in the first place.
The attention she so desperately clung to was fading, and she was grasping at whatever she could to gain some of it back. She couldn't handle not being the center of attention.
I wonder how she would react if she knew that of her little group of friends across the courtyard, more than half of them have made an effort to bite their lips, smile, and wave in my direction since their queen bee and I broke up.
"Fine." She shooed my hands away, stepping back and sticking her nose up in the air, "Your loss then, Malfoy. Have fun finding another witch with an ass and face like mine."
"Think I'll be just fine." I shrugged casually, sliding my hands in my pockets. "More of a tits guy, anyway."
Gretchen's triumphant smirk fell quickly, and my own grew.
"Ugh!" Gretchen stomped her foot like a fucking child, "Fuck you, Malfoy!"
"Right back at you, Aimes." I called back with a smile as I strolled away, heading towards where I saw Cedric now standing next to Nora as she and Dean bickered back and forth about Godric-knows-what.