Disclaimer: As much as I would like to own them, Harry Potter and their respective characters don't belong to me! I only own the OCs. The same goes for the basic plot, which is based from 'Hana yori Dango/Boys over Flowers', which belong to Yoko Kamio. Since that's it, on with the story!
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The only thing Hyacinth Makino wanted to do was to go as unnoticed she possibly could during her schooling years at Hogwarts, and had managed to do so for the past five years.
Just two more years… you can do it! She'd remind herself every now and then.
The day was seemingly idle, and it seemed like nothing wrong would happen that day. That was, until…
"He's got it! Ean from the 3rd year has got it!" rang a loud voice throughout the whole Slytherin Common Room.
In an instant, all the girls that happened to be in the dormitory rushed out, giggles and whispers filling the air. Hyacinth shook her head with a sigh, continuing to jot down her transfiguration notes.
However, after hesitating for a moment, the girl of Japanese descent who had her black hair braided into pigtails put her quill and books aside, rushing towards the scene where everybody had headed to.
"Um… excuse me," interrupted a meek voice as Hyacinth walked towards her intended destination. "Why's everyone gathering at the courtyard over there?"
Hyacinth turned around, her eyes meeting a Hufflepuff with dark, curly, shoulder-length brown hair, her fringe pinned back with a ribbon.
This girl seriously has no idea what's happening, thought Hyacinth, shaking her head.
"Come on," she beckoned, leading the Hufflepuff girl towards the jeering crowd.
The both of them watched as the helpless 3rd year was getting pushed around and being beaten up, with the addition of various items being thrown at him.
"That boy there's Ean, a Slytherin, as you can see. They're all doing this because he's been tagged," explained Hyacinth.
"… Tagged…?" The Hufflepuff girl looked at Hyacinth, raising her eyebrow curiously.
"That's right. You see, if you get a red paper tag with a certain symbol on it, it means you've 'crossed the line'."
"But… who'd do these?"
Hyacinth looked over towards her right at the approaching figure. "Who else would? Him, of course."
A platinum boy with pointy features and lean broad shoulders was coming, with four other people following him from behind. One of them has short, almost spiky hair, he was walking on the right side of Malfoy while the other, with curly brown hair was on his left. Behind the three of them were two other boys.
"As you might know, that's Draco Malfoy. Behind him are his two childhood friends, the one on the right is Min-Yong. He's a Ravenclaw. The one on his left is Rochester, who's surprisingly a Gryffindor. There's another one, a Slytherin, but he doesn't seem to be here. And of course behind them are their two cronies- well more like Malfoy's, Crabbe and Goyle."
"So, why's Malfoy after the 3rd year?" The girl continued to inquire.
"A reason that's just unreasonable. Well, at least it is to me. Yesterday during lunch, Ean, who just so happened to be sitting on the opposite side of Malfoy, bit into his orange a little too hard, causing some of the juice to squirt into Malfoy's eye," explained Hyacinth, watching as Malfoy entered the crowd who was now cheering at his presence.
"Well, well, well! What do we have here?" sneered Malfoy with a smirk.
One of the students came up, pulling a spectacled boy along with him.
"Ean's friend here tried to defend him."
Malfoy circled the boy who was shaking in fear, examining him from head to toe. Letting out a scoff, he pulled out his wand, yelling out the Stupefy spell.
Everyone gasped. Instead of hitting Ean's friend, the boy that brought him out was hit instead. However, it was far from over. Turning around, he threw a punch at the spectacled boy, laughing loudly in amusement.
Hyacinth couldn't bear it anymore. Clenching her fists tightly in anger, she ran away from the scene as fast as her feet could carry her, going away to her secret place that she always goes to whenever she felt like this.
"Who does that… that thing think he is?!" grumbled Hyacinth to herself, reaching the top of the Astronomy Tower.
"Just the thought of him and his stupid group makes me mad!" She continued, banging her fists against the railing before leaning forward slightly and yelling;
"THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!"
Doing this always made her feel better. Giving her self an accomplished smile, she decided to go back downstairs, not noticing that in the shadows, someone had heard her, pulling away the book that was covering his face to see who was making all that noise.
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"What did you say Malfoy and his three friends call themselves again?" asked Meg, Hyacinth's Ravenclaw friend. The both of them were spending a day at Hogsmeade, which had become rare for them do to as time went by.
"They like to call themselves F4… for short. Seriously though, couldn't they have thought of a better name?!" Hyacinth sighed in frustration.
"Ehh… it sounds like you got a lot of drama going on in your house," laughed Meg.
"Are you kidding me? I hate it, especially people like that! Using his status to do whatever he pleases… truly the worst!" exclaimed Hyacinth, trying to fix her scarf in a vigorous manner, feeling her blood beginning to boil.
Meg was about to give her reply, if it was not for her housemate who pulled her away by the arm, begging for her help with a last minute assignment. Apologizing sincerely with the promise of treating Hyacinth the next time they came, Meg left.
"Excuse me…" called out a familiar voice a few moments after Meg's departure.
Hyacinth looked up. It was the Hufflepuff she met a few days back. The girl smiled at her.
"I just want to apologize for the other day for bothering you with questions like that. I'm Julia. Pleased to meet you," introduced Julia.
Hyacinth nodded her head in reply. "I'm Hyacinth, and… don't sweat about what happened," she said, pointing towards the chair on the opposite side. "Do you want to sit?"
"Oh no, it's okay. I was just about the return to my seat. Just went to get a refill for ym butterbeer," replied Julia, holding up her glass.
However, just as Julia was about to leave, she unknowingly bumped into someone, causing her beverage to spill all over him.
The whole place suddenly fell silent, all eyes on the scene that just took place. Julia was looking at the drenched outfit in shock, taking a few steps back before letting her mug drop onto the floor.
Malfoy looked down at his outfit in disgust before setting his eyes on Julia.
"What do you think you're doing?'
"I… I d- didn't mean to…" stuttered Julia.
"Now, now, Draco. Let's not push a pretty girl like this too hard," commented Min-Yong with a grin.
"You better clean this mess up," said Malfoy, partially ignoring his friends' comment.
"I will, I will!" Julia nodded her head repeatedly, her body beginning to shake.
Unfortunately, Malfoy was not pleased with her answer. Removing his scarf, he threw it at her.
"Ah… I'm cold," he said, a hint of sarcasm present in his voice. "Plus, my shirt's drenched as well. What would happen if I get seriously ill and die?"
"What's the matter with you?!" exclaimed Hyacinth, slamming her hands on the table. Getting up from her seat, she stepped in front of Julia and from the corner of her eye, she could see Harry and his group of friends standing up as well, unsure if they should intervene or not.
"What's in it to you?"
"She apologized for what she did. Why can't you just forgive her?"
Malfoy scoffed, looking over his shoulder towards Min-Yong and Rochester for a moment before going back to Hyacinth.
"You better watch it, Slytherin. That goes for your precious little friend too."
What I wanted to do was to go unnoticed as possible during my years at Hogwarts and hoped that nothing terrible bad would happen… thought Hyacinth the next day, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. Professor Snape had asked their class to open their textbooks to revise while he attended to something for a moment.
But now…
Hyacinth had a bad feeling, a very bad one. Slowly, she opened her book.
Inside, was a red note.