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Where was he supposed to look? Why was he even bothering. Draco Malfoy stood outside the Gryffindor Common room for ten minutes before deciding he was mad. He'd told her not to come and now he was looking for her as though he cared. He didn't. He could have an girl he wanted. As if just remembering he looked beside him to see a brunette slumped against the wall. Sleek, cropped hair and black dress she necked the bottle of alcohol like it was water. With a grunt he sat down and leant in to kiss her, just to get something out of the night but she snorted and pushed her palm in his face. 'I thought I was a mudblood?' she snapped, eyes watching him as though she was about to kill. Even drunk, the word left her lips with a bite of sadness and she kicked him away with sharp heels. 'Nobody wants you, Malfoy.'
Harley was well aware of how boy's minds worked despite the whole good girl image she had managed to maintain. She was also aware of how her own body functioned and how her skin seemed to be aflame with ever fingertip that Draco ran over her body. When Alfie touched her she stayed cold and dull and she sniffed upwards heavily, turning away from the drunken boy. He stared down at her, confused, not used to such rejection. Alfie Fletcher didn't have the same standards his friends did. He didn't care what blood, age, or even hair colour the girl he brought back to his bed had. As long as she had a pretty face and long legs he couldn't care less. Harley watched him lose interest in her and wondered if Draco had put him up to this. Had he told his friends about them? Laughed and joked about finally getting the girl no one could get. No, the way he acted, the way he barely looked at her outside of the safety of an empty bedroom. The alcohol had run dry and the night was becoming increasingly blander. It was as if the corridor was surrounded in grey scale and it was closing in on them both. She moved away from Alfie and was relieved when he didn't lunge for her again.
'You should go to bed.' She remarked.
'Wanna' come with me?' He joked weakly, his palm holding him up against the wall.
Harley smiled wryly. 'Goodnight, Alfie.' She said softly and quietly skirted around him and into the Ravenclaw tower.
It was empty apart from a young second year curled up on the sofa in the corner. Her face was ashen white as if she had just seen a ghost and she chewed on her lip, jumping out of her skin as Harley walked past. Usually the blonde would have stopped and asked if the girl was alright but right now all she wanted was her bed. It had been a mistake to come out, even if it was just to spite Draco. She threw her door open with a heavy sigh and a strangled shriek escaped her throat when she saw him sitting on the side of her bed, looking particularly dishevelled.
'Draco?'
As a hand caught the front of her dress and yanked her against the bars of the gate, fingernails digging into her skin and a man resembling a dog, Amelia realised she did have quite a lot to fear and alcohol was extremely misleading. Blaise's wand was pressed to the man's throat and his jaw clenched, eyes dark. She guessed she would have to thank him later for potentially saving her life and she doubted she'd ever live this down. Wasn't she meant to be a Gryffindor? Although to be fair the man and his equally ugly cronies had sprung out of nowhere, snarling and howling like animals. Amelia was very thankful for the giant gate between them. The gate she had been just about to climb over.
'Where's Draco?'
His voice was guttural and hard to understand so it took a few painful minutes for Amelia to realise what he had even said never mind process the words through her shambled mind. He shook her and she dragged some words from somewhere, 'Draco? I – I don't know.' She stumbled over her words like a child and cursed herself. 'Why don't you go find him yourself.' She snapped smartly, in a sad attempt to regain her dignity.
'Don't get smart with me, girl.' The man breathed, his mouth inches from her face. His fingers were getting increasingly tighter around her neck and she tried to cough but only succeeded in gagging and almost throwing up all over him; which wouldn't have gone down well.
'That's the Zabini boy.' Someone hissed from behind and the main man grunted.
Blaise raised his head, glaring him straight in the eye. 'Draco's in the castle.' He said coolly.
The hairy man growled, quite literally growled, and glared at the ground as if thinking things over in his mind. While he did this Amelia felt his grip loosen and she pulled her head back. The action jerked the man's wrist through the bars and instantly his hand started to burn and sizzle. Amelia stared in shock but the man hissed and yanked his arm back so fast that he slammed her cheek against the metal bars and she cried out, her knees buckling.
'You tell him that Greyback's waiting for him. Same time, next week.' He snarled at Blaise. 'And tell him if he misses it then this girl will be taking the fall for it.' He released Amelia and she fell to the cold ground, hands massaging her neck as she coughed and heaved.
Draco didn't say anything and Harley shifted awkwardly. 'I thought – it's tomorrow night, isn't it?' She asked tentatively.
'Yeah.' He replied softly and he was staring at the floor, twisting his hands.
'So why are you here?'
Suddenly he stood and it seemed such a violent manner that he did it that Harley flinched. 'I don't know.' He was staring at her and she chewed on her bottom lip, staring back. 'I'm…I just - stay away from me. Stay away from my friends.'
'Okay.'
He frowned and walked slowly towards her. They stood so close she could feel his breath on her cheek and it sent a shudder down her back. She hated so much about him, especially the way he was making her feel. 'You were with Alfie.'
'You kissed a girl.'
'I wanted to.'
She ducked away and round him. She shouldn't have said that. She didn't care who or what he fucked. He didn't care. That was what they had, what they would always have and nothing more. She turned back around and he was gone.
He helped her back to the castle and tried to avoid looking at the black and blue bruises were colourfully patterning her neck. She was still coughing and leaning most of her weight on him, her body pressed into his. If it were any other situation he would have loved it but he found himself actually worrying about her and he frowned. Best friends sister was a tricky situation that he had never had to enter before. Of course that had been before she had arrived and changed everything. He had always known Alfie and they had always known Draco but it had been a good few years before the boy had trusted them enough to introduce them to his sister. He was so carefree and uncaring about everything it was strange for Blaise to see this other side of him. It wasn't as if Amelia couldn't take care of herself either. In their fourth year she had
given her brother a scar just below his jaw after a particularly nasty scrap in the great hall which involved an almost blunt dinner knife. It had seemed to work perfectly for her to dig it into Alfie's skin and drag it across like butter, though.
Blaise hadn't really cared for her much. She was too wild and feisty for his liking and of course she was a Gryffindor she seemed to cross the boundaries of these invisible rules the students, and some teachers, had set up for themselves. It didn't stop her tagging along with them though, of course at first it irritated Alfie to have his sister following him everywhere but now they were older he didn't really mind and just tended to ignore her. He had unintentionally made an
opening for Blaise to get to know her. He would drop back to talk to her on the walk for Hogsmede, or sit next to her in the pub and make jokes while the other two boys talked girls and dark marks.
Yes, he found himself liking Amelia a bit too much. He would never tell her and eventually
started to cover it up with teasing and playful, but vicious, banter. He liked that about her. She could take those kind of jokes with a sly smirk and an offhanded shrug. But they all knew they were in for something later on in the day, or even the week. She liked to keep him waiting.
Maybe tonight he would have tried something had she not decided to go piss off the massive werewolf apparently prowling the school grounds.
'Sorry.' She muttered as she practically fell into the Gryffindor common room. The party had died down and all that was left were a few smashed bottles and unconscious bodies scattered here and there. 'Thanks, Blaise.' She announced at the bottom of the stairs. 'You are like a star.'
