Jelisa xx Draco / For Jelisa Deppeler
In my fifth year of Hogwarts, my life got turned upside down by the love of my life.
Since I was thirteen, still in my second year, I fell in love with a blonde-haired boy from my house. Draco Malfoy was his name, and I was completely head-over-heels in love with him. He was my first crush, and the feeling I got when I first saw him was the strangest I had ever had. We met a little something like this:
I was walking around, trying to find my cat Avery. I was getting worried, and I ran through the common room trying to find the troublesome little devil.
I looked under tables and chairs, messing up the whole common room as I went. I swiftly turned around, and a tall boy with bright blonde hair and striking green eyes grabbed me by my tiny second-year wrists.
There were brown hairs stuck to my face with tears, and my eyes widened as I felt a surge of warmth in my body (very rare for a Slytherin).
I was probably blushing like crazy, but the boy smiled. It was a strange smile; warm, but kind of cold in an attractive way. A very attractive way.
He said to me, "Are you okay? You're crying... Do you need help? I'm Malfoy, by the way. Draco Malfoy".
For a few seconds, I couldn't speak. I had butterflies in my stomach, and those bright eyes just made me want to melt. I had to force the words out, but I spluttered, "Um, hi! Yeah, I lost my cat. I'm Jelisa Deppeler, but that's not important at the moment. I just really need my cat back."
Draco smiled at me and then called down for his mates to search their dormitories. Then, he and I had a search party in the common room for Avery, trying to avoid any awkward eye contact with each other.
After about five minutes, Draco yelled out, "Jelisa, I found her!" He scooped up the kitty with one arm and petted her for a while. I watched him playing with Avery for a while, but then one of Draco's friends called him back up to his dormitory.
He apologised and handed me my cat, and left the room just like that. As I watched him walk up to his dorm, I realised that the weird feelings that he had given me, were feelings of love.
Now I'm in fifth year, sitting at the Slytherin table for breakfast. I'm with my closest friends, Daphne Greengrass; Flora Crow; and Draco. I haven't felt any particularly romantic feelings towards Draco since around third or fourth year, when we became friends.
I tell them all horrible jokes and comment on my previous Divination Class, where Professor Trelawney went insane again.
"You should have seen the old bat," I say, "She went off her rocker! Her face was about three centimetres from mine, and she whispered, 'the spirit lies within you'. Yeah right. I'm totally going to believe that." I say sarcastically. Naturally, my friends burst out in laughter, annoying the other students.
My other best friend Olivia Shardlow walks up to us. She looks annoyed, as usual. She drops her Quidditch bag down at her seat roughly. She sits across from me and gives us all a smile and a wink.
"Hey Jelisa. Want to know why I'm so late, guys?" she says.
"I can take a guess," Draco mutters.
"Shut up, Snake-boy," snaps Olivia, "I'm late because I just got a detention from Professor Sprout. I punched a girl."
"Another one?" I say. "That's the third one this week! And by your standards, that's not even a lot."
Olivia shrugs. "Well she got on my nerves. She kept bugging me about some new muggle technology that cooks bread or something. So, to make it easier for me to concentrate, I punched her."
The rest of the group backs away a bit. No one should ever get on Olivia's bad side.
The bell rings in its soft tune. After everyone gets up, I look at my timetable. Sweet, free period! I gloat to my friends as they haul themselves to their next subjects, and I laugh to myself.
I would go to my dormitory by myself and do what I usually do on a free period; give myself a makeover, go through everyone's stuff, eat my entire weight in chocolate frogs, etc. But Draco apparently has a free period as well, seeing as he stayed behind.
We walk to the common room together, me talking about general school life and Draco complaining about 'that Potter boy'.
We get to the dungeons and say the password, which is "Slytherins are supreme." The portrait of Salazar Slytherin swings open, and Draco bends over and walks in; me trailing behind standing straight. Oh, the perks of not being tall!
Draco collapses onto a lounge and stretches, running his hands through his blonde hair.
"Oi Draco," I start, "Do you want a drink while I'm up?"
Draco looks up. "Oh yeah, sure! Can I please have some tea? I don't mind what sort. Thanks, Jelisa."
"Coming right up, my man." I flick my brown hair over my shoulder and skip to the little built-in kitchen that the Muggle Studies students made. I've only done a few lessons of Muggle Studies, so I have at least some idea how to use a kettle.
While I make the tea, I look around the common room. I'll miss the old place. I still have another few years to go, but it's really quite amazing, this room. It kind of gives the whole 'abandoned ship' look. The other common rooms have views of the Quidditch pitch and the gardens, but we have an underwater view of the black lake. You can see the fish and mermaids swimming around in the lake outside the window.
I get the hit water and pour it onto the tealeaves in the cups. The teacups that have ornate snakes on the handles. I slowly walk over to Draco and hand him his tea, along with a chocolate frog.
He sips on it and says, "Ooh is this peppermint? It's so good, thank you. Nothing like that Divination rubbish that Trelawney has."
I laugh and Draco looks into my eyes. He asks me to sit down with him. I grab my tea and sit on the other side of the lounge facing him.
He tells me, "You know what, Jelisa? You are really fabulous. Seriously! You're so quirky and you have really cool fashion sense...Well, apart from the fact that I don't know what women's fashion is, but you dress better than the whole of Hogwarts!"
"Draco, we wear a school uniform, Hun," I tease him.
"Even still! You rock that tie, girl!" he says, smiling.
I smile back. "Well you've just declared a war here."
"A war of compliments," Draco adds. "Your go."
I say, "Your hair is so bright that it's like the sun in the summer."
He fights with, "You're so off-the-walls that even Loony Lovegood can't keep up."
"Yeah?" I say. "Well your robes are so fetch that you could be the next Tom Riddle."
Draco softens his voice, "Well you're so beautiful, that every time I see you, there are butterflies in my stomach, and I think to myself, "Wow! Isn't she precious?" Because you are. You're smile warms me like a summertime evening, and I feel like I take you for granted. I feel like a little boy with a crush whenever you smile at me. I love the way your emerald green eyes go with your tie, and they sparkle so bright..." He trails off, and he looks like he wants to either cry, or die of embarrassment.
Avery struts past, her grey fur shimmering with her white feet.
I sit closer to Draco and hold his hands. "Remember that day in Second year when I lost my cat? That was the first time we met. I saw you, and my heart just went "oh hot damn, this guy's cute!" and I fell in love, to be honest. Say, Draco... Do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me? I know it's kind of weird, the girl asking and all, but you deserve it."
Draco's eyes light up. "Oh thank goodness," he says relieved, "I've been planning for ages to ask you. Yes, I'll absolutely go! Wow, this is so exciting! I'll tell you what, Jelisa. I'll take you into Hogsmeade tomorrow, and we'll get you some clothes for the Ball.
The next day, Saturday, the whole year goes along to Hogsmeade for a day out, and we can go wherever we choose. Most of my friends come to choose the dress with me and Draco.
In the shop, a kindly old wizard shows me around to a little corner in the back of the shop. My friends all stand around, waiting for me to make my first choice.
There are so many dresses in so many different styles that I don't even know where to start!
I start with a short strapless red dress, which Draco immediately hates. He says it's "too red" for his tastes.
The second dress is yellow, but it's the tackiest thing I've ever seen. Only a Hufflepuff would ever wear that.
After many dresses, we find a dress that is absolutely perfect. It's a dark shade of green, with a thick, silver material belt with a circle of crystals on it. I try it on it the special room, and the man helping us presented me to my friends by twirling me around.
"Thank you so much, sir!" I say to him. "This dress is absolutely fabulous."
He thanked me for coming. "You have got to be the most polite young witch that has ever come in here. I'll give you some nice matching shoes as a gift of my gratitude."
"Oh, no sir. I could never-"
"No. Take them. You deserve them more than any amount of money does."
After thanking him many times, we reluctantly leave and go back to school.
On the eve of the Yule Ball, we stayed up drinking Butterbeer that Olivia had bought from Hogsmeade. We know that we'll wake up tired and stressed, but we don't care, because a true Slytherin is always tired and distressed. Seeing as we have no classes tomorrow because the school has to prepare for the Ball, we can sleep in until midday (totally fine by me). But for now, we just laugh, drink, and party the night away.
Here it is. The Ball. The day everyone has been waiting for.
I stand with my friends before a full-size mirror in our dormitory. We all stand there in our dresses and make sure that we look perfect. We do each other's make-up and hair, and by the end, we look perfect.
We all walk nervously in a clump, holding hands, to the Great Hall. There, we take turns walking (or in Olivia's case, running and making rock signs with her hands) down the steps. When my turn comes, I attempt my "Sexy Slytherin" look that I do with Draco. And, to say the least, it works. Suddenly, I'm turning boys' heads and they all want me.
I have bright red lipstick on, which contrasts with my green dress. My brown hair is in a waterfall braid; and it's not hard to tell why the boys want me.
I walk up to Draco, and for a second he doesn't recognise me. Then, with eye-widening realisation, he starts blushing. "You look absolutely beautiful, Jelisa."
I look away and laugh softly. "Oh, Draco. You don't mean that!"
"Look at me. You look beautiful, and no one is going to take that from you. Now, fancy a dance?" He takes my hand and leads me to the dance floor. Classical music plays, and we do the traditional waltz that we were taught earlier in the year.
After about three solid hours of dancing, we all decide to hit the road and go to the Slytherin common room, as a sort of After-Party. We turn up the stereo and play some hardcore rock music, and we all dance under flashing strobe lights while drinking all the butterbeer we can.
When I am about to pass out from exhaustion, Draco pulls me into his dormitory. I think he's a bit drunk, because he's not really very stable. From the dorm, I can still hear AC/DC playing from the main room. Draco says to me, "I wanted to thank you for this amazing night. It's been really epic."
"Thank you, too. If you hadn't been there to help me find my cat, I would have never met you. And if I hadn't met you, I would have never had this night. So thank you."
He walks over to his bed, and lies down. I think "What the heck!" and lie with him. He strokes my hair as I drift into a dream with him.
***It is a curious thing when a Slytherin falls in love. But it's bound to happen to us all at one point or another, and we have to hold onto it before it goes. *** (- inspirational quote by me)