It was going to be an absolutely i awful /i morning. Vanessa Turner rose late on a Saturday morning with a massive headache. The older she got the more frequent they became. Fortunately for her, the Slytherin common room and dormitories were in the dungeons, which meant no sunlight beaming through windows into her sore eyes. Rubbing her temples with her fore and middle fingers, she sat up slowly and looked around. Her four-poster bed was one of the four in the room, all of them with green drapery. The area surrounding her bed was neater than the rest, her books piled neatly next to her bed and her extra parchment, quills and ink stowed in the nightstand with more books that she read for her own enjoyment. Everyone else was awake except for Pansy, who was still snoring lightly in her four-poster. She claimed that over the summer Draco Malfoy sent her love letters at least twice a week about how they were going to get married after school and live a rich, happy life together. Draco had invited Pansy to the party celebrating their first weekend back at Hogwarts; of course Vanessa wasn't invited, but even she heard about how much fire whiskey Draco drank and took Pansy up to his room. She had woken Vanessa up when she returned, humming a silly children's love song.
She set her bare feet on the cold stone floor, elbows resting on her knees while she tried to ease her aching head. Her long, wavy black hair was an owl's nest and in desperate need of a brushing. All she wanted to do was lie in bed, study and be secluded from the insanity that was society.
Once Pansy woke from her slumber, it was nigh impossible to do anything. She spent at least an hour tainting Vanessa's mind with what happened the night before, and tempted her to put a Silencing charm on the obnoxious girl. Though it was hard to admit, Pansy was the only person who really cared to talk to Vanessa. She had offered Pansy advice on a number of occasions, often uplifting her spirits and driving Draco mad.
"Vanessa, I should have invited you to that party last night, you would have enjoyed it," said Pansy, twisting her hair up in different styles and inspecting it in her tall mirror.
"And here I was beginning to think you understood my hermit-like ways," teased Vanessa, earning herself a scolding look from the other girl. "I like my privacy."
"You need to get out into the world," Pansy said, letting her hair down and making a circle with her hands. Vanessa scoffed and laced her hands behind her head, taking to staring at the green material that created a shelter over her bed. "You're really pretty; boys would be all over you if they knew you existed."
"Alright," said Vanessa, shifting into a cross-legged sitting position on her bed. "If I promise to go with you on the next Hogsmeade trip, will you stop your ceaseless nagging?"
"Yes, but," she said, holding up a waggling finger. "Only if you promise to let me dress you up and you can't be sulking the entire time." Vanessa eyed her suspiciously, unsure of what that meant.
"I think I can deal with the nagging," she said, lying back down and examining the drapery again. "Besides, that would mean Mr. Malfoy would be with us, and you know how I can't tolerate him." She made a nasty sneering face in imitation of Draco while she said "Mr. Malfoy", making Pansy giggle.
"The only reason you can't stand him is because he's so much like you," Pansy said, provoking Vanessa's anger.
"How so?" she asked haughtily, sitting back up again and sticking her nose in the air. It felt like a burning coal dropped into her stomach every time someone related her to Draco Malfoy. Git, she thought, I'm so far out of his league you can't even compare us.
"Well," Pansy started, folding her arms and tapping her chin thoughtfully. "You think you're so much better than everyone else, which is why you won't associate yourself with anyone, and you're a Pureblood. Your family is a lot like mine and his...I could go on, but you look awfully irritated...and your hair is a disaster."
"Thank you, for those valuable bits of information," said Vanessa, the coal in her stomach turning into a white hot ember. "I would rather not talk about my family. They're a bunch of Death Eaters, silly little followers of a bigger cause because they're too big of cowards to make their own following." Vanessa spat into the waste bin filled with crumpled up parchment and quills already broken from her frivolous scribbling. It didn't do anything for the sour taste in her mouth.
"I wouldn't speak ill of the Dark Lord or his faithful followers," warned Pansy, but Vanessa just rolled her eyes, all riled up by her own statements. "He knows and hears everything."
"You really think so?" asked Vanessa, standing up, fists on her hips. "If I ever met him, I'd spit on his shoes and call him a vain bastard. He doesn't scare me. i Lord Voldemort /i is just an angry old man who got picked on by Muggle-born witches and wizards while he was in school." Pansy gasped and set both hands where her heart was embedded in her chest.
"Vanessa, stop it—" she held up a hand and silenced Pansy's warnings.
"His only real grip on people is fear, and when you are no longer afraid of him, he's lost his biggest advantage," Vanessa finished, eyes half closed as if she were possessed. With that said, she left the room in a rage to bathe and take care of the tangled mess on her head.
It was rather early in the morning, around six thirty, when Draco woke up from another one of his nightmares. It wasn't as bad as they had been lately, but horrible enough to wake him. He felt like he had been run over by the Hogwarts Express. Twice. Fuzzy memories of the "celebration" came back, and he remembered bits and pieces. He turned a lovely shade of pale green as his thoughts cleared up from last night's fog. He had taken Pansy into bed and...He shuddered at the thought. Though he had to admit he enjoyed her attention, following him around like a pet, but that's all he thought of her as. A pet. His mother would like to think that they would get married and live happily ever after, but he felt completely incapable of loving anything, let alone a girl that was completely infatuated with him.
He didn't even bother to check his appearance before going to sit next to the fire in the common room, knowing fully that he would probably scream if he saw his reflection. He put on a pair of shoes to keep his bare feet off of the freezing stone floor before trotting down the stairs into his favorite armchair. His eyelids felt like they were made of iron, and he closed them. It didn't take long for sleep to settle on him.
Draco woke abruptly when he heard a door slam and angry swearing. It was definitely a girl, and he lifted one eyelid to see someone he didn't really recognize, but he knew her name was Vanessa Turner, one of the girls who stayed in Pansy's room. Instead of continuing on out of the common room, she threw the biggest temper tantrum Draco had ever seen. She obviously didn't know he was there, and she tossed her arms about, jumped up and down and muttering mad oaths. It was rather entertaining until she stopped, breathing heavily, red-faced and her hair was a wild mess. She looked absolutely savage. Just as he closed his eye again, he felt a wand pointed at his throat.
"I swear on Merlin's grave that I will kill you if you tell anyone about that," she said, and he innocently opened both eyes. "You can't fool me with that look, Malfoy, you saw the entire thing."
"I didn't know you could move like that, Turner," he said, smirking at her. It was as if she was in a trance, and the anger disappeared almost immediately from her face and her knees buckled as she clutched her head. "Are you mentally ill or something?"
"No," she moaned, her voice cracking as if she was on the verge of tears. "It's my head; it feels as if someone has put the Cruciatus Curse on it." An unknown feeling bloomed in his chest and he assumed it was sympathy. He could sympathize with an aching head.
"After a show like that, I'm not surprised," he said, getting out of his chair and moving to help her up and let her sit on the sofa closest to him. He reached out his arms to lift her off of the ground, but she slapped them away.
"Don't touch me," she said, crying from either anger, pain or both. "Death Eaters don't touch me."
"Fine," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I was going to help you up and heal your headache, but of course, Draco Malfoy doesn't do anything nice for anyone, I should have known." She looked up at him, her eyes rimmed with red and her cheeks wet with her tears. She buried her face back into her hands and curled up into the fetal position.
"You can heal headaches?" she asked quietly, her hands muffling her voice. He didn't say anything and took both of her arms in his hands, lifted her from the ground and led her to the sofa a few feet away. She didn't protest this time, but she tried desperately to flatten the mass of hair on her head. He mumbled the spell under his breath and tapped her head three times with his wand. She blinked and shook her head as if testing its quality, and then looked up at him with an awestruck face.
"See? It wasn't that bad," he said, folding his arms and glowering at her. She stood up and embraced him in a hug, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulder. He awkwardly hugged her back, shocked at the display of affection.
"Thank you," she said, stepping away a few moments later.
"Um," he started, thinking of what to say. "Your welcome?" Without any further comment, she left the common room and presumably headed to the Great Hall for breakfast. Or to the bathroom to clean herself up. He just stared at the common room exit, recollecting what happened. He would have never admitted it to anyone, but he felt, what was the word...good...about himself for the rest of the day.