"I wish I could still call you friend, I'd give anything. When someone said count your blessings now 'fore they're long gone, I guess I just didn't know how. I was all wrong
They knew better..."~Who Knew (P!NK)

Chapter 14: I'm Just Too Stubborn

~October 4~

I wandered the halls like a First Year during my free period, completely lonely and at a loss on what to do, when I heard a distant sobbing: Myrtle. I hadn't visited Myrtle since the week before; she must've been lonely too. I entered the lavatory and set my bag on the ground. I bit my lip and followed the sobbing sounds to Myrtle's usual stall, and then opened the door slowly. She looked up at me from her seat on the toilet and sniffled. She looked sad, sadder than usual.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, holding the door open and stepping aside for her to exit the stall.

"I think something bad is going to happen again," she sobbed. We sat down against the wall and she pulled at one of her pigtails.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was watching the sun rise this morning, as I always do, when a boy came in here," she explained. "He was crying. The last time he came into my lavatory to cry, something dreadful happened." She sniffled again.

"Dreadful?"

"Oh yes," she replied quietly. "Last time he was in here crying, the Death Eaters invaded the school and tried to kill Professor Dumbledore."

"Is that why you're so sad?" I asked. "Are you worried about Dumbledore?" She pouted and shook her head.

"No," she sobbed. "I'm upset because when I asked what was wrong, he yelled at me and threw his shoe at me!" She began to sob even louder. She 'leaned her head on my shoulder' and continued to cry. I let her get it all out, knowing that even though she didn't really feelit, it still hurt her…

When it was time for DADA, Myrtle had finally calmed down and I was able to leave. I said goodbye and left the bathroom with my bag. Entering the classroom, I joined Harry, as usual, in the back of the classroom.

"How are you?" he greeted.

"Good as I'll ever be," I said with a sigh. "But hey, I almost laughed when Lavender's hair turned purple this morning in Potions. I'm so glad it's Friday…" I murmured.

"Cheers to progress," Harry said playfully. I gave a weak smile and nodded. "You'll feel better soon, don't worry." He assured.

"I know," I admitted. I leaned my chair back on the hind two legs and kicked my feet up onto the desk. Lupin entered the room and gave us a welcoming smile.

"Good afternoon, everyone," He greeted, clapping his hands to silence us. We all turned our attention to him and grew quiet. "I'll give you the choice today: we can partner duel again, or we can stay in here and do studies?"

"Duels!" Half the class cried at once.

"That's what I suspected. Get with your partners," Lupin said with a chuckle. He gestured to the door and headed out of the room. "Shall we?" We stood and followed him out. I grabbed Harry as my partner and we all entered the arena. Our battle robes appeared again and we took seats in the stands. The duels were fairly uninteresting, but finally, it was our turn. "Who's next? How about Ruinae and Potter against Parkinson and Saccularius?" We vanished with a pop and appeared on the platform.

"You're mine, Ruinae," Pansy spat. "I'm going to hex you into next week."

"Guess I get Potter," Malachi said with a smirk.

"Kick his arse, Harry," I said quietly.

"No problem there," He replied.

3…2…1!

"Incendio!" Pansy shouted at me. I was blasted backwards by a whip of flames shooting from Pugsy's wand as the flamed licked my neck. I rolled back two lines, barely hanging on the edge of the platform Pansy grinned triumphantly as the buzzer sounded twice. She raised her wand again to finish me off.

"Stupefy!" I screeched at her, wand raised. Pansy shot off the platform and I quickly stood. Harry and I began to shoot hexes at Malachi. Saccularius got one fierce hit in, and Harry was sent rolling back a line. The buzzer sounded and Malachi smirked.

"Deprimo!" Harry cried. Malachi was blown back a line.

"Way to go, Harry," I praised. Harry stood and grinned.

"Confringo," Saccularius hissed. Harry's robes burst into flames and I screamed in terror. Harry ran and dove into the water to stop the flames and I turned back to Malachi, anger spreading through my veins.

"You could've killed him!" I shrieked, throwing hexes left and right. People cheered me on as I shouted out curse after curse, no matter what they were. Malachi shot back a line. He gave me an evil look as I shot another curse his way. He deflected it and shot the worst curse possible at me.

"Sectumsempra!"

I gasped as my skin was magically slashed open, blood spilling down my stomach. The pain was agonizing and my knees buckled. I fell to my knees and ran a hand over my abdomen, pulling my fingers up to my face. My vision blurred as I saw the hot, red liquid on my fingers. Lupin knelt over me, running his wand up and down my body, chanting quiet words to me. Everything went black…

"She's waking up," a familiar, feminine voice whispered. My eyelashes fluttered lightly as I opened my eyes. I met the gazes of my friends: Ginny, Hermione, Harry and Ron. Ginny smiled down at me. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Gin," I assure, sitting up. I felt no pain, no stiffness. Had I dreamed that Malachi cursed me? No, I definitely hadn't. I was in my bloody battle clothes, resting on a bed in the Hospital Wing. The four stared at me funny. "Will you stop that?" I grumbled. "I'm not a three headed monkey…" Hermione gave me a relieved smile and the boys chuckled. Ginny rolled her eyes and took my bag, shouldering it.

"Come on, then," she said. "Madame Pomfrey said you could leave when you woke up." I nodded and stood.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Exactly five o'clock," Hermione chimed in.

"Which means it's time for dinner," Ron piped. He waved us toward the door impatiently. "So let's go eat!" I smiled lightly and everyone chuckled as we left the Infirmary.

"Saccularius got suspended for hurting you," Harry added. "Lupin gave him and ear full for using an illegal curse. He'll be out for the whole of next week."

"He should've gotten worse," Ginny growled. "If I were there I would've-"

"Anyways," I interjected before Ginny could go full into rant-mode, hoping I could change subjects. "Are we still going shopping for dress robes tomorrow?" Ginny and Hermione immediately said yes and began to discuss how 'exciting' the ball was going to be.

We entered the Great Hall and went to our seats. My stomach growled loudly, and the fact that the most I had eaten in two days was an apple and a banana finally set in. I grabbed a small piece of steak and a roll and put them on my plate. I ate quickly, practically swallowing the food whole, making even Ron tell me to slow down. When we had all finished and were about to go to the Gryffindor Common Room to hang out, we were interrupted by an annoying voice.

"You got my boyfriend suspended," Pansy accused me. I looked up at her and her groupies. I shrugged.

"The bastard could've killed me," I defended casually. "He got what he deserved. Why should you care anyway, Pugsy?" She scowled at me. "You don't even like him; you're just using him."

"I don't use people," she hissed. I smirked disbelievingly.

"What do you really want, Parkinson?"

"Someone needs to put you in your rightful place," Pansy replied smugly. She picked up a glass of pumpkin juice and took a sip. Then, she looked at me smugly and poured the juice all over my head. Her girls laughed and began to walk off. "I run this school, Ruinae. So stay out of my way." She turned to leave and everyone stared at her, shocked. I wiped the pumpkin out of my face.

This is where eight years of softball come in handy, I thought. I stood, grabbed a handful of spaghetti from the table, and chucked it at her… hard. It splattered into the back of her head and I grinned evilly.

"Don't tell me what to do, Pugsy," I retorted. She turned back to me, face red with rage, and grabbed a handful of a First Year's mashed potatoes. She threw it toward me, but I ducked. I turned to see that the potatoes had hit Ginny's blouse. The Weasley girl growled and reached for a bowl of food.

"You're going to regret that," Ginny hissed.

"Food fight!" a Slytherin boy shouted, throwing a handful of green beans toward the Gryffindor table. Several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs screamed and retreated from the Hall to avoid getting dirty, but the lions and snakes weren't backing down. Food flew through the air as girls screamed and complained about their hair. Luna joined me and Ginny and we began to pummel Pansy with meatballs and salad dressing, laughing like crazy. Mione join us too, throwing rolls at her. She threw anything she could back. A handful of mashed potatoes hit me in the face and I turned to my attacker. Blaise stood twenty feet away, smirking proudly at his hit. I gave him a mischievous look and attacked him with rolls.

"Enough!" Someone shouted. We all froze and looked up to see Snape scowling at the Gryffindors, specifically me. The Hall grew quiet, but soon erupted into laughter as spaghetti splattered against his cheek. McGonagall stood at the other side of the teachers' table with a spaghetti sauce covered hand.

"Oh, lighten up, Severus," she said. "It's just a bit of fun!" She threw another handful at him and the war commenced.

Snape joined the Slytherins and McGonagall joined us, chucking any food they could find at students. I smirked and grabbed a pitcher of pumpkin juice. I snuck over to the Snake Pit quickly, crept up behind Snape and dumped the contents of the pitcher on my Potions Professor. I burst into laughter as he turned around and grimaced at me, pumpkin juice dripping off the tip of his nose. Then, a glimmer of mischief flashed in his eyes and I knew I was in for it. I made to run back to the Lions' side of the room, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back, pouring and entire bowl of spaghetti sauce on me. I squealed and he let me go. I could've sworn I'd seen a smile on his face, but it vanished quickly.

"This is for my boots!" I laughed, aiming rolls at him, and hitting with impressive aim. He chucked handfuls of peas and green beans at me and I retreated quickly. I found Blaise in the mess of students and climbed onto a nearby bench, ran across it, and leapt onto his back. He handed me a basket of rolls and I began to launch them mercilessly and Pansy, who in turn threw them right back at me…

Pansy and I sat on the bench directly outside Dumbledore's office, awkward silence weighing down on us. We were covered in food and we reeked of meatballs, corn and warm pumpkin juice. I looked over at her; she looked back at me. We looked each other up and down, and both immediately burst into fits of laughter.

"You look ridiculous!" she cried between giggles. I clutched my aching sides.

"You do too!" I said, trying to control myself, but we both ended up laughing even harder. The Headmaster's door flung open and we instantly stopped our giggled. We looked up at Dumbledore, awaiting our punishment. He smiled and came to stand in front of us.

"You girls made quite a scene today," he said casually.

"How much trouble are we in?" Pansy asked impatiently. The old wizard chuckled and shook his head.

"You are in no trouble," he assured. I released the breath I didn't know I was holding. "It seemed to have relieved a bit of the tension between the two of you. Besides, everyone had fun, didn't they?" we smirked and nodded. "Good. You may go wash off."

"Thanks," I said.

"Won't happen again," Pansy assured, giving him a mock salute. The man chuckled and dismissed us. When we were a decent distance down the hall, I looked at Pansy.

"Why do you hate me anyway?" I asked. She thought for a moment.

"Well," she started. "I guess I was just jealous. You took the attention away from me when you showed up. Plus, you're a Gryffindor. Slytherins are supposed to hate Gryffindors." I snorted.

"House rivalries are overrated," I pointed out. She nodded and I held out my right hand to her. "Truce?" she thought again for a short moment and shook my hand.

"Truce," she agreed. "But this doesn't mean we're friends." She added seriously. I smirked.

"Of course not," I agreed. We parted ways and I returned to the Head Dorms to wash off.

~October 5~

I woke to the sunlight burning through my eyelids. I groaned and sat up, stretching out. My IPod read 8:30 AM: just enough time for breakfast before going to Hogsmeade. I got out of my bed and went over to my windows, swinging them open for some fresh air. I moved to my dresser and dug through my close, pulling out my outfit for the day: dark-wash skinny jeans, a black tank top, and a red, unbuttoned sweater that stopped mid-thigh. I put on my black converse and fixed my hair best I could. I shouldered my purse and left the Head Dorms and made my way to the Great Hall.

Harry and Ron were nowhere in sight, so I joined Mione and Ginny at our table. I munched on an apple while they talked about what kind of dresses they wanted. I looked around the Hall absentmindedly, noticing it was fairly empty. Brown eyes met silver as I accidently met the gaze of Draco Malfoy. He looked so hurt and sad that I almost jumped up and ran to him. Almost…

"Hello," Luna greeted pleasantly, breaking my eye contact with Draco. I looked at the blonde girl as she sat down with us.

"Morning," we all chimed.

"Shall we go now?" Hermione asked. I nodded with Ginny and Luna smiled approvingly. We all stood and walked to the courtyard, claiming a carriage to Hogsmeade. When we reached the village, the girls led me to a store with a sign that said 'Gladrags Wizardwear'. They practically dragged me into the building and we were greeted by a shopkeeper.

"Morning, lovelies," the woman said cheerily. "I'm Madam Mary. What's the occasion?"

"Hogwarts is having a Masquerade Ball at the end of the month," Hermione informed her.

"How wonderful," the woman cried with a clap of her hand. "Do you have an Idea of what you would like?" Every girl but me nodded excitedly. Madam Mary looked at me questioningly and I shrugged, not knowing what to say. "Very well, I'll begin with you, dear." She said to Mione. "What color and length?" She asked as she measured our friend.

"Light pink for the color, and long. I want it to be simple, please," Hermione replied confidently. Madam Mary smiled and shuffled through a door and into the back of the shop. She returned with a bagged dress and handed it to Hermione.

"Try that on for size, dear," Mary said excitedly, pointing to the changing room. Five minutes later, Hermione emerged. We all stared in awe of the beauty before us. Mione's dress was a pale pink with spaghetti straps that had a lace breast line, a ribbon-wrapped stomach, and a layered skirt that had light polka dots on it. The dress had a short train, and all-in-all she looked lovely.

"Wow," Ginny and I chorused.

"You looked beautiful," Luna approved. Madam Mary squealed in delight and clapped her hands together.

"I love it," Hermione said breathlessly.

"It'll definitely make Ginger Boy drool," I added. My friends giggled. Hermione changed out of the dress and paid for it. Ginny proceeded to tell Mary what color and length she wanted. It took three tries to get the dress right. When Ginny emerged from the change room the third time, she wore a huge smile. Her dress was royal blue and faded into light blue at the train, single-strapped. It slid straight down her body, complementing her body nicely. "It's perfect." I approved.

"I agree," Mione said.

"Oh yes, it's quite lovely," Luna chimed in. Then, it was Luna's turn. After explaining what she wanted, Madam Mary returned with only one dress for her.

"Here you are dear, it's the only one we have of the sort," Mary said.

"Thank you," Luna said, stepping into the changing room. A minute or two later, Luna came out in a short, mint green dress. It sparkled in the light and the straps had rhinestones on them and created a V at the center of her chest. "I like it." Luna said happily.

"It suites you," Hermione said approvingly.

"One of a kind dress, for a one of a kind girl," I said approvingly.

"It looks amazing, Luna," Ginny added.

"Now it's your turn," Madam Mary said, pointing at me. I frowned.

"I don't even know what I want," I said. Ginny grinned.

"Leave it to me," the redhead said. She went to the back of the shop with Madam Mary and returned ten minutes later with a single dress. "Here you are. It's perfect." I took the bag from her, eying her warily. When I got in the changing room I unzipped the bag.

"You're kidding," I scoffed.

"Just put it on," Ginny ordered, the smile evident in her voice.

"It's not me," I argued.

"That's what makes it so perfect," she shot back with a snicker. "Just put it on and come out here." I sighed and gave in, changing in to the dress. I looked at myself in the mirror. The dress had a high neckline with a strap that circled around my neck and cut off mid-thigh. It was layered and white. Like I said, not my style… "Get out here." Ginny said. "We want to see." I frowned and stepped out of the changing room. The four of them gasped.

"It's perfect," Hermione said cheerily.

"Elegant," Luna added.

"You look so beautiful," Madam Mary praised.

"I told you it would look good," Ginny said confidently. "You're buying it." she insisted. I had to admit, Ginny had excellent taste. I felt beautiful.

"Buy it, buy it, buy it!" my three friends chanted.

"Alright, alright," I said, throwing my arms up in defeat. "I'll buy it!"

~October 28~

I walked down the empty corridor to Potions class, fumbling through my bag for my book. I huffed when I couldn't find it, knowing Snape would kill me if I didn't show up with hit. I nearly screamed as someone grabbed my forearm from behind, but they covered my mouth. The person pulled me into a dark, empty classroom and locked the door. I ripped my arm away from my captors grip.

"Get off of me," I cried, backing away. When the lights came on, I saw Draco's face. I looked around the room nervously.

"I can't take it anymore," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "Imogen, you have to talk to me. I'm begging you, just hear me out."

"There's nothing to talk about," I retorted. "You lied to me. I trusted you, and you broke that trust. You're that monster's son, Draco!"

"But I'm not like him," Draco insisted. He grabbed my hand and pressed it to his chest. "You know me, Imogen. Can you honestly say I'm anything like my father?" I didn't reply, didn't look at him. I just took my hand back.

"You still didn't tell me, Draco. My friends were right about you: you can't be trusted. I should've stayed away from you," I said coldly. I stepped passed him and exited the room. The second I left him, I regretted my words. I didn't mean them, but I wasn't ready to admit that, wasn't ready to forgive him. I continued down the hall and barely made it to Potions. Draco came in ten minutes late, eyes puffy and red. I frowned, immediately feeling terrible, but shook it off. I hid behind my hair as usual and waited for Snape to dismiss us.

(A/N) All four dresses will be on my profile! Check it out.

Halloween Dance next Chappie! Excited (:

~ICanHearThemToo~