CHAPTER SIX:
cold cold man — saint motel
( 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐎𝐘, 𝟏𝟓 )
A month had passed since the Potions Class.
They worked well as a pair, finishing the complicated potion quickly and to almost perfection. They had even received a small almost imperceptible nod from Snape, which essentially was the highest form of praise from Snape. Almost half the class had failed the lesson and Snape had given Potter a zero, probably merely because he just disliked him. Draco snickered with glee everytime he thought of it, and although Meredith had told Potter that she felt bad for him, he knew that she was still delighted with herself for doing so well. It was strange that he called her by her first name. He never called anyone by their first name other than maybe Pansy or Blaise, but he had known them for years now, and he had just met Meredith the day before.
Draco had assumed Meredith's inane popularity would die down after a short while as it probably came from the novelty of her transfer. However, it didn't die down, it only grew, the whole school knowing the name 'Meredith Darling' by the end of the month. It felt like she hadn't just arrived at Hogwarts a month ago, that she'd been here forever, and everyone loved her for it. No one could ever figure out why. Draco couldn't.
She had become friends with just about everyone in Hogwarts of any notability. Zabini and her had become thick as thieves since he had defended her on the first night, the tall boy becoming her bodyguard, sticking by her as she walked down the hallways. Finnigan and Thomas had introduced her to qudditch which she seemed to be halfway decent at. She had even accepted Longbottom with open arms, Longbottom helping her with Herbology which seemed to be the only thing he was good at, and her helping him with just about everything else. Leech.
She had gotten closer to the Weasley twins, making an odd trio with her striking dark hair in between two shocks of a putrid orange. They enjoyed her witty banter and her infectious laughter. She had even become friends with the insufferable McLaggen, but Draco didn't think that one was going to last. And of course, there was the Golden Trio. Perfect Potter, Know-it-All Granger and Hand-Me-Down Weasley. He truly didn't understand what she saw in them.
And him, Draco Malfoy, of course, had become...friends with her. Of a sort.
He liked her company. They had worked on their Potion's essay together after the first lesson in the Slytherin common room by the fire. She was highly articulate and had helped Draco edit his essay while he checked on hers. He spent more time staring at her edit his essay, quill scratching across the parchment, than actually editing her essay. It was excellent anyways. She was good at potions, but she truly excelled at Charms. Flitwick adored her. Had even helped him to perfect the Colour Change Charm, turning Draco's robes to a horrendously bright pink right in front of the entire Slytherin House. Yet he didn't get mad like he usually would, he even got a laugh out of it. It was awfully nice to laugh like that.
These days he only seemed to laugh like that with her.
Meredith was excited for the first Hogsmeade trip of the year.
Draco had gotten much closer to Meredith in the time that passed, but the closer Draco got to her, the closer Harry Potter had too. He always seemed to just be there, every time Draco spent time with her outside of the Slytherin Common Room. Maybe he was being a little possessive over someone who finally saw him as someone more than the Malfoy name, but sometimes he wished it could just be the two of them in the Common Room, studying, and talking, and laughing as the snow fell outside the dungeon's window.
But she insisted on studying in the library today because she wanted to cross reference with the library texts. Thankfully, Umbridge hadn't banned that yet, although the books did seem sparser these days. She was so curiously like Granger, whom she had practically become best girl friends with as well, but also so unlike Granger in all the ways the irritating know-it-all was detestable. He didn't feel like she was trying to suffocate him all the time with all that she knew. She acknowledged that he was her intellectual equal and treated him as such. Her ambition was extremely...hot.
Unfortunately, that meant that Harry Potter was there. As always. It was like he had cast a spell to alert him of her whereabouts. Draco decided he would look into that. He suspected thats she would like Potter a lot less if he actually was. Maybe he could pretend—
"Hey, Meredith!" He called out, smiling brightly. Draco groaned internally, his grip on his quill tightening considerably. Granger and Weasley had let him loose on his own today, it seems.
"Harry." She turned in her chair to face him, her long dark hair tumbling over her shoulders, "Aren't you off to Hogsmeade?" Draco rolled his eyes. Would Potter just leave?
"I am," He gestured to his scarf, ready to head off into the snowy environment, "But I figured this is where you were and wanted to invite you to join Hermione, Ron, and I to show you around Hogsmeade." Draco froze.
Yes, maybe they were just friends, but Draco never had friends. Potter had many friends, why couldn't he let him just have Meredith? She was far more interesting than Weasley and Granger combined. Although, from the looks Potter gave her, it didn't seem like he wanted to be just friends. That made Draco sick to the stomach. Didn't Potter have a giant crush on that dullard Cho Chang last year? He had heard from Pansy that he had been oh so jealous when Diggory had asked her out first.
Was Cho Chang of all people, worth the fight? Probably not. Even Draco had no idea what he'd seen in her.
He couldn't gauge her response as her faced was turned away but he kept his lips pursed, fiddling with his quill, fearing the worst. Of course, she would choose Harry Potter, the Chosen One, over son of a Death Eater Draco Malfoy. They always did.
Imagine his surprise when he had heard, "Oh, I'm sorry Harry, I'll leave you and your friends to it, I've already made plans. I'll see you later at dinner, then?" The perfect, diplomatic answer expected from a girl like her, Draco laughed internally, She knew when to keep her head down and when to explode magnificently.
Harry nodded, looking a little disappointed, but he left without pressing any further. Draco grinned to himself, rolling his shoulders back, looking more confident now. He had beat Potter.
"So, should we be going then?" She closed her textbook, smiling again, a stray strand of hair falling in her face. He liked her hair up like this. She truly was quite pretty. It took quite a lot out of him to resist brushing the strand away. So he merely smiled back, leaning back in his chair and stretching out his legs.
"I'll get my scarf."
( 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆,𝟏𝟓 )
It was horrendously cold outside. Extremely chilly for October. Beauxbatons had been charmed with a protective charm to prevent the chilliest of winds from entering the grounds, allowing them to wear their silk skirts outside even in the Winters. It definitely was not skirt weather here in Hogsmeade. Meredith then decided she didn't like the Scottish cold.
The merry band of Slytherins had headed down the slope a little past one in the afternoon. Meredith had wrapped herself in numerous coats and scarves and even tried to cast a warming spell in her gloves but she still shivered a little, red blossoming on the tip of her nose and spreading to her cheeks. Oh, the bloody Scottish weather.
She had been left walking a little behind the group. Parkinson was clinging onto Draco like a lifeline, Crabbe and Goyle were hunkered down, speaking in low tones, Blaise walked slightly in front of her, hands in his pocket. He was in a mood again, Meredith had learnt to recognise those and knew to leave him alone. He was good fun when he was happy but he did fall into swings like this often. She suspected it was due to death of what...his seventh stepfather now? Meredith asked Blaise about it once, but he shut her down and didn't want to discuss it ever again. She let it be.
Meredith kicked the toe of her boot at the layer of dirt. Maybe she should have gone with Harry-
"Hey, Darling." A voice called out to her. She looked up and smiled, her eyes scrunching up. They hadn't even made it to Christmas and this Draco didn't seem like the one on the train to Hogwarts anymore. He was still his mildly prejudiced and snarky self, but he had been far surlier and closed off previously. She was so close to fixing him, to making him the good person he could be.
"Managed to pry Parkinson off you?" She winked, shoving him playfully. Draco scoffed, "Was like trying to pry the Giant Squid in the Lake."
"So, this is the Hogsmeade? Not exactly as hopped up as everyone described it to be, is it?" She jokes, pulling her sweater closer to keep the warmth in. It was a long hike down from Hogwarts. Draco notices this, and after a beat, asks, "Want my scarf? Father insists that the Malfoys are strong and refuses to cast a warming charm around the Manor when I head back for Christmas so I'm used to it."
It was a sweet gesture but it felt too...personal. They had become good friends, teasing and trading snarky remarks as their form of communication, studying together in the Common Room long after hours, but this was too much. It wasn't that she didn't like Draco. She liked him well enough but she was terrified of getting close to a boy like him. He was so volatile, no one ever expecting his next move, one minute going from the sweet caring boy he was now to the Pureblood supremacist who called Hermione a 'Mudblood' behind her back.
"I'll be fine. Got to tough out the winters here if I'm going to be here the next three years."
Malfoy said nothing the rest of the walk into Hogsmeade.
although the next one is quite golden trio centric we get a super cute moment at the end :') meredith is obviously kind of conflicted about being friends (or something more) with draco but ig read to see how that goes oops