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AFTER harry, hermione, and ron had briefly ran into professor slughorn in three broomsticks, harry had also caught malfoy walking up to the second floor of the shop without evelyn.
what was even worse was that he had witnessed ginny, ron's younger sister, snogging dean thomas—a fellow gryffindor.
the three walked back from hogsmeade, discussing about who they believed the half-blood prince in harry's textbook was.
"you ought to really turn it in and come clean with it", hermione advised, to which harry just laughed.
"why would he do that? it's basically like a cheat book. I mean, you saw how happy slughorn was, inviting harry to his halloween party", ron defended while also feeling slightly salty that the professor didn't even bother saying his name correctly.
"okay but—"
hermione's sentence was suddenly cut off but a gut wrenching scream. the trio quickly hurried over, to which they saw katie bell—a gryffindor—floating in midair.
"someone please help her!!", leanne, katie's friend, pleaded.
hagrid quickly came forth as katie had dropped onto the ground like a fly. harry was about to see what the girl had dropped until hagrid stopped him.
"don't touch it. yeh don't wan' teh get cursed", hagrid warned.
harry observed the object, noticing that it was an opal necklace meant to be delivered to dumbledore.
harry immediately thought of malfoy. it had to be him. right before school had started, him, hermione, and ron had spotted malfoy going into borgin and burkes, threatening the store owner to fix something.
"do you think it's malfoy?", ron lowly asked.
"I'm almost sure it's him", harry scowled. "we need to tell professor mcgonagall".
"you can't! we don't have evidence harry. accusation without evidence leads us nowhere", hermione harshly whispered.
indeed, they didn't have any clues that directly pointed to malfoy. but perhaps they could get some help from a certain someone.
"we need to talk to evelyn".
—✼—
harry and hermione sat at the dining hall as ron approached them solemnly. though the morning had just begun, he's been getting encouragements left and right.
he took a seat in front of his two best friends as he stared at his plate of eggs. having no appetite, he sighed.
"don't worry ron, you're going to do amazing in the game", hermione encouraged, though even that did not seem to boost his confidence.
"I think I'm just going to quit and let cormac mclaggen take my spot", ron depressingly said.
cormac mclaggen was a very proud gryffindor. multiple times, he'd wink at hermione and even attempt to flirt with the girl, though hermione was obviously not interested.
"sure", harry answered. he then took out a little glass bottle and gave it to ron.
"is this...the felix felicis potion??", ron asked, surprised.
"yep!"
"harry, are you sure??", hermione doubted, to which harry just gave ron a confident nod.
ron immediately chugged it, making hermione cringe at a good potion put to waste.
"well? how do you feel?", harry asked.
"I'm feeling great! I'm feeling like I can conquer the world!", ron confidently exclaimed as he chugged some juice and got ready for the first quidditch match of the season.
whilst the quidditch game was going on, evelyn had consistently pestered malfoy to come watch along with her.
since malfoy had more important duties this year, he had feigned an injury and had some random slytherin replace him.
"come on dray~ we both need a refresher", evelyn persuaded, making the irritated male sigh.
"fine. but only for a little while", malfoy replied, making the girl smile.
ever since evelyn returned to hogwarts, she had started to emotionally feel better and more safe. though malfoy seemed to be the opposite, evelyn had many ideas up her alley that she would soon try to cheer up her troubled boyfriend.
"here's your jacket dray. make sure you dress warm as the weather's getting colder", evelyn reminded as she took a black coat from malfoy's closet and helped the boy put it on.
"you too. you're so thin and fragile", malfoy commented as he draped another one of his coats over evelyn's petite body.
"am not! I'm perfectly healthy", evelyn pouted, making malfoy let out a chuckle.
it had felt like it's been a while since malfoy's truly smiled or laughed. though he was happy with the girl every moment they spent, their residence at the malfoy manor over the summer had seemed to suck the brightness out of evelyn and himself.
"let's go now. I heard that king weasley is playing", malfoy teased.
"don't call him that!", evelyn defended, interlacing her hand with malfoy's as the both headed out the slytherin common room.
the couple sat near the edge of the oval stadium, watching gryffindor play against slytherin.
though they were already halfway through the game, ron seemed to be doing quite splendid. he had blocked every single quaffle that came flying his way.
"look how great he's doing", evelyn smiled, making malfoy fake gag.
"I can surely do better", malfoy muttered, making evelyn lightly laugh.
"whatever you say love".
"I can!", malfoy protested, almost offended that his girlfriend didn't have more faith in him.
evelyn just smiled as she glanced over at malfoy, who seemed to gain some color and arrogance back. she would never admit it to boost his ego, but she had partially missed seeing him be so condescending and confident at times.
"dray?"
"what?", the boy answered, not particularly in a good mood.
"I love you", evelyn whispered, giving malfoy a smile that he had not seen since potentially the beginning of their fifth-year.
"I love you too".
—✼—
evelyn had heard sobbing as she had passed by the gryffindor common room area. curious as to what it could be, evelyn walked over to the crying sound of a girl.
"mione?", evelyn breathlessly whispered, making the girl look up in surprise.
"evelyn. what are you—"
"are you okay??", evelyn interrupted, rushing over to hermione's side. she quickly took out a handkerchief and offered it to the girl.
evelyn couldn't help but worry, as one of her great friends was upset. she had originally wanted to avoid them as long as she could, but it deemed impossible as they were bound to cross paths.
"yeah...I mean...if you call seeing ron snog lavender brown fine", hermione choked out.
evelyn patted hermione's back, trying to sooth the girl. harry, who was just a few steps behind was about to comfort hermione but stopped as he didn't want to intervene.
"I'm sorry mione. I really am. I'm sure ron's just confused. I mean, you know how he is. he just needs some time to figure himself out", evelyn mumbled.
"plus, perhaps he's just caught up in the moment of the hype".
indeed, ron was praised by the entire gryffindor house as he had done such an excellent job blocking all the quaffles. though his boost of confidence came from the fake elixir harry had given him, his ego busted through the roof when lavender had suddenly pulled him by his shirt and kissed him in front of everyone.
"thanks for trying to make me feel better evelyn. please, come back to us. malfoy's just using you. he's up to no good!!", hermione cried out.
evelyn's face dropped along with her heart.
"mione, I love you, harry and ron. but I also love draco. he's not bad, please believe me. he just needs saving, and I'll always be there for him just like I will be for you three", evelyn whispered as she kissed hermione's forehead.
"why? why him?", hermione asked, almost in disbelief. throughout the entirety of their 5–almost 6–years of being here, not once did malfoy not act like a git.
"because unlike harry, he has nobody. though he grew up with an abundance amount of wealth, it's his last name that attracts people to be his friends, not the real him", evelyn answered as she stood up to leave.
"plus, we have made a promise to each other. and I don't intend on breaking it".
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