"Still on your unnecessary hunger strike?" I raised my eyebrows at Hermione.
Her face turned red and started to fill her plate with food, "If you must know, I've decided to help the house-elf fight for their rights in a different way."
"And what's that?"
"With Spew of course," Hermione answered.
"What the bloody hell is Spew?" Ron asked, with his mouth full of food.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "It's S-P-E-W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare... I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status - but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto."
"Our?" Harry and I repeated.
"Don't get us involved in your mess," I joked. "Good luck, Hermione."
She huffed in response and ate her breakfast. Gia cleared her throat, "What's our first lesson?"
"Herbology and then Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid," Scarlett shrugged. "Let's go."
We walked out of the Great Hall and I hadn't failed to notice that Malfoy sent a glare in my direction. I remembered what happened in the carriage and started giggling quietly.
~~~
After a long day of classes, the girls and I returned to the common room to freshen up before dinner.
We all sat together at the Gryffindor table and listened to Fred, George and Lee tell us about Moody's lessons.
Our conversation was interrupted by Malfoy and his goons approaching our table. Malfoy had the Daily Prophet in his arms and I knew this wouldn't end well.
"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!" He called out, referring to my brother and not me.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Ron rolled his eyes.
Malfoy slapped the Daily Prophet in front of Ron and I, "Your dad's in the paper. Listen to this!"
My eyes shot down to the paper that was titled, "FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC"
Malfoy had another copy of the paper in his hands and was reading it aloud to the whole hall.
It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office.
"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley, it's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" Malfoy bellowed out with laughter and my face dropped.
Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago was yesterday involved with a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers ('policemen') over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policeman, but refuse to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene.
I felt a hand on my back and looked up to see Scarlett giving me a sad smile. Malfoy spoke out again, "And there's even a picture!"
My eyes shifted yet again to the paper in front of me and I saw a picture of Mum and Dad standing outside the Burrow, looking a bit uncomfortable.
"A picture of your parents outside their house — if you could even call that a house. Say, Weasley, your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"
Ron's knuckles turned white as he gripped the table. Hermione's hands were holding his robes to prevent him from doing anything stupid. Ron shrugged her off and stood up.
Harry and Hermione quickly stopped him, "Leave him, Ron, let's go."
Malfoy seemed to enjoy Ron's anger and quickly said, "Oh right, Potter, you were staying with them this summer. So tell me, is their mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"
I didn't pay attention to Harry's reply because I was in disbelief towards how Malfoy was acting. I'm guessing he chose to rather treat me horribly like everyone else, instead of being nice. This was his way of proving it.
"Take him back to the common room, Harry," I muttered.
"What about you?"
"I'm fine," I said, keeping my eyes firmly planted on Malfoy.
Harry turned around, unconvinced by my reply and started to walk with Ron and Hermione.
Suddenly, before I could even realise what was happening, Malfoy had transformed into a ferret right in front of my eyes.
Professor Moody then started to lift the ferret up and down in the air while the ferret was squealing in pain.
Professor McGonagall quickly came to sort out the scene while disciplining Moody's behavior. McGonagall transfigured Malfoy back to himself where he lay on the floor looking utterly humiliated. His face was pink and he glared at Moody.
My eyes did not leave his face as I was searching for any source of remorse for his words... but nothing. Moody grabbed him by the arm and marched him away from the crowd. I had one last look at Malfoy before I sighed and turned out of the Hall.
"Where are you going?" Gia asked, concern clear in her voice.
"Just going to have some time to myself," I replied and turned to face the girls.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Scarlett pushed. "Malfoy's an idiot, he doesn't know what he's saying."
"I'm fine," I insisted. "See you guys later."
I walked away from everyone and found myself wandering around the castle. I saw an empty hallway after a while and decided to sit on the stairs there. I peered my head out the windowless arch and gazed up at the stars.
Everything that happened at dinner was so awful. Everyone in the Great Hall was listening to what Malfoy read out. It was bloody embarrassing.
My head snapped back when I heard footsteps approaching. My eyes landed on the root of all my problems.
"Leave," I said firmly and turned my head back to look at the stars again.
"I'm not going anywhere," Malfoy retorted.
"Malfoy, I said leave," My expression turned cold. Malfoy ignored me and proceeded to move closer until he was sitting next to me.
I sighed, "What are you doing here?"
"Am I not allowed to sit in a random hallway?" Malfoy smirked.
"No, Malfoy, I mean what are you doing here?" I gestured to the small space between us. "Why are you sitting here with me?"
Malfoy scratched the back of his head, "You looked upset at dinner, I just wanted to see if you were alright."
"Are you serious right now?" I furrowed my eyebrows angrily. "You are the reason I am upset, Malfoy. You embarrassed my brother and I in front of all the students and made fun of my parents. Now you expect me to just sit here, talk to you and pretend like nothing's wrong? No, I've had enough."
Not giving him an opportunity to speak, I stood up abruptly and took my wand out of my pocket, "I'm telling you one last time, leave."
He cleared his throat and stood up. I visibly calmed down, thinking that he was going to listen to me. But I was wrong, obviously.
Malfoy walked closer to me and I held a tighter grip on my wand. Malfoy stared into my eyes, "Weasley, calm down."
I shook my head and he rubbed his hands over his face, "You have every right to be upset with me but I wish you weren't."
"So then don't insult my family," I rolled my eyes.
Malfoy sighed and I hadn't even noticed how close he was to me. Merlin, I hadn't even noticed that his hand lowered my arm with my wand.
I furrowed my eyebrows at him as he lowered his face down to mine and stopped a few inches from my lips.
"There's just something about you," Malfoy said.
I scoffed, "That's not going to work on me a second time."
He smiled and shook his head, "I know. You're smarter than that."
"I am."
Malfoy moved his face even closer and memories flashed through my mind of what happened earlier at dinner.
I frowned and stepped back quickly just before his lips could touch mine. Malfoy looked at me, very confused.
"Don't you get it, Malfoy?" I crossed my arms over my chest. "I could never do this. I could never like you."
His face fell and he looked hurt by my words, "Weasley, if you could just let me talk to you—"
"I don't think what you were about to do was talking. I've given you enough opportunities to explain yourself. I-I need to go," I lowered my arms and walked out of the hallway.
Anger and confusion radiated off of my body on my way to the Gryffindor common room. Once I was inside, I saw that Ginny sat with a girl I had never seen before and my sister was staring at me.
She excused herself from the girl and walked up to me. She snapped her fingers in front of my face, "Is everything okay?"
I took a deep breath, "Everything's fine."
"Ab... it's me," Ginny laughed. "I've known you my whole life and I know when something's wrong. Scarlett and Gia told me what happened at dinner. Are you okay? Blimey if I was there, I would've hexed him."
I rolled my eyes and guided her to a couch away from everyone. I brought my knees to my chest when I sat down.
"Malfoy's infuriating me," I admitted.
Ginny rolled her eyes, "What did the prat do now?"
I leaned close to my sister so no one would hear, "He tried to kiss me again. Twice."
Ginny's eyes went wide, "Tell me what happened."
After talking with Gin, I felt much better and headed up to the dorm. All the girls were asleep except for Hermione who was reading a book in her bed.
"Where have you been?" She whispered.
I replied, "Just talking to Ginny. Goodnight, 'Mione."
"Goodnight, Abby."
~~~
I'm backkk!! Hope everyone had a good day. Let me know your thoughts on the chapter and please consider voting if you enjoyed!