Neville walked in a few moments after the lunch trolley came by, listening to everyone's recounting of the Quidditch World Cup.
"Gran didn't want to go. Wouldn't buy tickets. It sounded amazing though," He explained, sounding downright miserable.
"It was. Look at this, Neville..." Ron replied, digging through his trunk and pulling out the miniature figure of Viktor Krum.
"Oh wow!" Neville exclaimed, watching with wide eyes as Ron tipped Krum into his hand.
"We saw him right up close, as well. We were in the Top Box -- " Ron began excitedly.
"For the first and last time in your life, Weasley," A familiar voice drawled.
Draco was standing outside the door that Dean and Seamus had left open when they had left, his arms crossed and Crabbe and Goyle standing behind him.
Both of the idiots seemed to have grown a foot over the summer, something Amisty was rather annoyed at.
She had barely grown an inch!
"Don't remember asking you join us, Malfoy," Harry remarked, his voice very similar to ice.
"Weasley... what is that?" Draco exclaimed suddenly, pointing at the weird maroon dress Ron had thrown over Pigwidgeon's cage.
Ron raced to go stuff it out of sight, but Draco danced around him and pulled it out.
"Look at this, Weasley you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean -- they were very fashionable in about 1890..." Draco held them up, smirking like no tomorrow.
"Eat dung, Malfoy!" Ron growled, grabbed them back, his face just as red as the... dress robes?
"So... going to enter, Weasley? Going to try and bring a bit of glory to the family name? There's money involved as well, you know... you'd be able to afford some decent robes if you won..." Draco got out through a bout of laughter, Crabbe and Goyle guffawing behind him.
"What are you talking about?" Ron snapped furiously.
"Are you going to enter? I suppose you will, Potter? You never miss a chance to show off, do you?" Draco repeated.
"Either explain what you're on about or go away, Malfoy," Hermione barely lifted her gaze up from her book, her other hand on her wand. "It won't take very much for Amisty to make you leave."
She wasn't wrong.
The reason Hermione's wand was up was because of Amisty.
The green-eyed girl was sitting quite still, but her face was twisted up in anger and the bracelet around her wrist was glowing so brightly it could be seen through the jacket she was wearing.
Hermione had hit her with a Freezing Charm.
"Don't tell me you don't know? You've got a father and brother at the Ministry and you don't even know?" Draco exclaimed gleefully, a full blown smile on his face as he realized what little retaliation he'd be getting. "My God, my father told me about it ages ago... heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then, Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry... Maybe your father's too junior to know about it, Weasley... yes... they probably don't talk about important stuff in front of him..."
He laughed again, and then after beckoning to his stupid friends left the compartment.
Ron leaped to his feet and slammed the compartment door shut, the glass shattering with the force he used.
"Ron!" Hermione scolded sharply. "Reparo!"
The glass flew back into place at her will. In Hermione's moment of distraction, the Freezing Charm placed upon Amisty disappeared, leaving her free to move.
Immediately, she flew toward the door, only for Hermione to counter her actions with, "Colloportus."
"Well... making it look like he knows everything and we don't... 'Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry'... Dad could've got a promotion any time... he just likes it where he is..." Ron snarled.
"Of course he does. Don't let Malfoy get to you, Ron -- " Hermione reassured gently.
"Him! Get to me!? As if!" Ron snapped back, crushing a Cauldron Cake in his hand.
Ron had distracted Hermione, however, and Amisty was able to grab her wand.
"Alohomora!" She whispered, hearing the door click and throwing it open before racing outside.
"Amisty!" Hermione groaned, her words followed by the sound of laughter from Harry.
She didn't get very far, immediately hit with yet another Freezing Charm about five steps out of the compartment.
"Who could have ever seen this coming?" Draco's familiar teasing voice sounded in her ear, his arms wrapping around her back and legs as he picked her up.
A whirlwind of color curses flooded her brain, but all she could do was glare at him, her mouth frozen shut.
He opened up a compartment, dumping her down on the seats and then perching on the edge of the seats in front of her and undoing the charm.
"Have you come to talk my ear off about what I said to your friends or for everything that happened at the World Cup?" He asked, eyebrows raised.
She stared at him, her arms crossed, "I feel as if every word that leaves your mouth is an insult."
"That wasn't even an insult, love," He pointed out.
"But there's always one behind it. There always is when it comes to Draco Malfoy," She countered. "Especially when it comes to my friends."
"I could say the same about you," He replied snarkily, almost lazily looking over at her.
"I rarely insult your friends, it's almost always you. The only purpose of my insults are to make sure your ego doesn't inflate so much you float away into the atmosphere," She shot back.
"Aw, is wittle Amisty Rwiver scared I'm going to float my way out of her life," He cooed, leaning forward with a smirk.
"Keep talking like that and I'll hex you into the next compartment," Amisty grumbled, looking very similar to a pouting five-year-old with the way her arms were crossed and her glowering at the carpeted floor.
"You can try. I don't know if you'll be able to see through the mess of curls on your head," There was a hint of teeth in his smirk now.
"Oh, I wouldn't have to try very hard. You'd be too busy gloating about how amazing your pure-bloodedness you wouldn't realize you've been hit until Pansy starts screaming about her 'Drakey-poo,'" She barely kept her face straight at the stupid nickname.
"Like you'd get the first hex in for a duel," He tilted up his pointy chin.
Clearly, he hadn't been paying attention during the Dueling Club in second year when she had gotten the first hit against Pansy.
But, then again, that was Pansy.
Maybe she did insult Draco's friends just as much as he insulted hers... she just didn't do it verbally.
"Tell that to -- " She began, but her voice was cut off as Draco slid over and covered her mouth with his hand.
His mouth quirked up in a tiny smile, a few strands of his platinum blonde hair falling in front of his face, "I think we're done here."
She felt her eyebrows raise yet again, and did the most elegant and mature thing a fourteen year old girl could do in her situation.
She licked him.
"What in Merlin's name -- " He withdrew his hand, looking at her in disgust as she fell off her seat in laughter.
"I don't know how you didn't see that coming?" She managed to get out through her laughter, practically rolling around on the floor.
"It's not that funny," Draco rolled his eyes, wiping his hand on the seat, still looking absolutely disgusted.
It only made her laugh harder.
"But your face!" She exclaimed, reality setting in at the dark expression that now spread across his pale face.
She scrambled backward, eyes wide and alarmed, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
He didn't reply, slowly inching forward until he was barely a hair away from her face.
Amisty wasn't quite sure what to do. Her cheeks were already burning from his close presence, there was no hiding her embarrassment.
Close her eyes, keep them open?
Scream?
Get away, stay put?
Well, you're kind of trapped anyways so just stay put.
He leaned closer still, so close that if either of them moved their lips would be touching.
Amisty's heart was racing, her breath feeling unsteady and frantic. She wasn't looking at him, keeping her focus on the single strand of white-blond curling around his ear.
But then Amisty met his silvery gaze properly, and he saw the flicker of doubt and uneasiness swirling around in the emerald pools.
He backed up immediately, turning his head away as the tips of his ears went pink.
Amisty, after a brief second of hesitation, threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug, a smile breaking across her face.
To her surprise, he didn't stiffen or even hesitate, just wrapping his arms around her shoulders in a grip that wasn't tight, but rather felt like he never wanted to let go.
Platinum hair brushed against her nose, the scent reminiscent of pine trees and the bite of winter and... something she couldn't decipher other than him.
This wasn't something that she had felt before. Hugs weren't new to her. She gave them and received them all the time.
But this was much, much different.
It was sweeter, gentler... as if it were more intimate, even if it was just a hug. Maybe it was because it was Draco.
He always had made things that little bit more different than reality, for better or for worse.
She felt her cheeks warm further as they stepped apart, neither of them making direct eye contact.
"I..." Amisty swallowed, tucking a stray strand of curly black hair behind her ear, "I'll see you later, Draco."
He smiled at her gently, almost verging on a smirk, as she left the compartment, trying to steady her racing heart.
She prayed the flush on her cheeks disappeared by the time she walked into their shared compartment. They'd probably think she had just finished dishing out a series of insults. It wasn't entirely wrong... only this time it didn't end with anyone on the verge of getting punched.
She pushed open the door, finding Ron staring out the window angrily, Hermione immersed in her book, and Harry sitting looking very bored. He brightened when he saw her walk in, however.
"That was quite an exit you made, Am," Harry commented, grinning as she took her seat next to Hermione.
She took care in not sitting too close, however, highly aware of the death glare the brunette was giving her.
"I would think you would know by now theatrics are one of my favorite pastimes, Harry," She joked brightly, digging through her trunk to find her Hogwarts robes.
"After that stunt with the Invisibility Cloak? I don't know how I ever forgot," He nodded.
Hermione huffed, her brown gaze flickering over the top of her book for a millisecond.
"Oh, right," Amisty smiled faintly. "Hermione, I'm sorry for undoing your locking charm and chasing after Malfoy."
"At least you didn't break the glass again," Hermione was smiling again, and it was clear that she forgave her.
Amisty snorted, shaking her head as Harry broke into a bout of laughter.
Even Ron spared a few chuckles.
"Did he get what he deserved?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised and eyes sparkling behind his glasses.
Amisty smiled down at her hands, "I hope so."
The four of them changed into their school robes and watched as the train arrived at Hogsmeade station.
The train doors opened with a creak, and thunder boomed from overhead. It was far beyond raining, it was practically a waterfall outside.
An icy cold, harsh waterfall.
She could've sworn she even saw a few hailstones come down. Amisty breathed out heavily, dreading the moment she stepped outside.
The second the rain made contact with her hair it'd double in size and get into such big tangles she'd be spending half her morning trying and failing to get her brush out of the mess.
Hermione picked up Crookshanks and bundled him up in her cloak as Ron grabbed Pigwidgeon's cage, the dress robes still over it, and Amisty threw the edge of her own scarlet cloak over Echo's cage. They left the train, the rain soaking through their cloaks and robes almost immediately in the few steps they took outside.
"Hi, Hagrid!" Harry shouted at the massive silhouette at the edge of the train platform.
"All righ', Harry? See yeh at the feast if we don't drown!" Hagrid yelled back, raising a hand to wave. They could barely see him in the absolute downpour around them.
"Oooh, I wouldn't fancy crossing the lake in this weather," Hermione shivered, tightening her cloak around her shoulders.
The crowd inching toward the edge of the platform seemed to be taking centuries, but that could always be the miserable cold from the rain talking.
When they finally reached the carriages with the strange black horses, they were more than grateful to jump into one to get out of the icy rain. It was a relief to feel the steady beat of the horses' feet heading up toward the castle.