"So are you going?" Justin kept asking.

"Justin, shut up," Lizzie kept repeating back to him.

"But you really should go," Ernie said.

Lizzie groaned and thought back over the day.


Hermione had grabbed her after Herbology the day before and filled her in on what their detention had been.

Lizzie had naturally fallen into step with Hermione as they left the Greenhouse 1, wanting to know about the detention she'd had to do along with Neville, Harry, and Draco.

"How was it?"

Hermione was still glancing over her notes and didn't appear to hear her for a moment, so Lizzie waited patiently.

"Pardon?" Hermione said a minute later. "Oh! The Detention, it was eventful."

"What happened?"

"Well the actual detention was supposed to be us going into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid to try and find a unicorn that had been injured. There were blood trails everywhere. So that wasn't actually too bad."

Lizzie stared at her, "not too bad?"

"No, it could have been a lot worse. Anyway, me and Harry went with Hagrid, and Neville and Malfoy went with Fang: he's Hagrid's dog. And that was all fine until something was slithering through the forest, I still don't know what that was, but then we saw red sparks which meant that something had happened to Neville and Malfoy."

Lizzie felt her heart drop.

"Hagrid went to check on them and brought them back to me and Harry and apparently Malfoy had grabbed Neville as a joke but scared him, he sent up the sparks, and yeah. Hagrid swapped Harry and Neville, so I was then with Neville and Hagrid, and Harry was with Malfoy and Fang, and everything seemed to be going okay for a while: we were still following the blood. But then Malfoy came shrieking back to us, saying that something had been drinking from the unicorn. He'd run off and left Harry behind, with that thing! We started making our way back to where they'd been, obviously, but Harry had been saved by a centaur, Firenze I think his name was. It was awful."

Lizzie was quiet for a minute, "is Harry okay?"

"I think he's a bit shaken, we all are."

"That's understandable."

"Lizzie, I don't like Malfoy, but I think he's probably going to be very unsteady for a while. I've never seen anyone look as scared as he was when he found us all."

Lizzie nodded, "I agree."

They'd reached the castle by this time and parted ways for their lessons.


Lizzie had been worried after that with what Hermione had told her that, but she had History of Magic as her second lesson with the Slytherins and had resolved to check on Draco then.

Catching up with the Hufflepuffs, she filled Justin in on what Hermione had told her.

"Nobody would be okay after that, plus we're not exactly old. I can't believe the school would put them through that."

"Well they probably didn't think all of that would happen," Lizzie said.

Justin nodded, "true, God, I'd be a mess."

"You're always a mess," Hannah responded. "What are we talking about?"

That diffused the tension that had been building with the events of the detention and Lizzie forced herself to relax slightly. She would be seeing Draco in a matter of minutes, she could see how he was then.


Once they rounded the corner and saw all the Slytherins waiting outside the classroom, Lizzie knew something was wrong with Draco. He didn't look sad, or shaken, but there was just something off about his posture and the way he was standing. He was laughing but the light didn't quite reach his eyes in the same way that it used to and his smile seemed forced.

He looked at their approaching group and caught her eye, but nothing passed over his face. There was no reaction what so ever, and it worried her.

Blaise caught her eye as well, a slight look of panic in his eyes as he gestured his head towards Draco.

Lizzie gave a tiny nod to show that she knew what he meant, and Blaise went back to laughing with his mates. They'd speak in class; it was the easiest thing to do.


"Swap with me," Lizzie elbowed Justin in the ribs as they went to take their seats.

"What?"

"Swap seats with me, just for this lesson."

"Why?"

"Me and Blaise need to talk about Draco." Lizzie could see the Blaise had already convinced Crabbe to swap with him.

"Oh," Justin glanced over. "You'll tell me everything."

Lizzie rolled her eyes, "of course."

"Alright then."

They swapped and Lizzie saw Blaise start writing out of the corner of her eye. Binns started speaking and they all zoned out, except Ernie who began to make his notes (that she and Justin would later steal).

A few seconds later, Lizzie had a piece of paper thrown onto her desk. She glanced at Blaise, who nodded, and she unfolded it.

I don't know what happened on his detention, Draco won't talk about it, but he's not okay, and I don't know what I can do.

Lizzie grimaced back at Blaise and started writing.

Hermione told me what happened earlier, it wasn't good. I can tell you if you want but it's a long story. Basically he's probably in some state of shock and might not be okay for a while from the sounds of it.

Lizzie passed the note back to Blaise and waited for his response, which was fairly quick.

Well yeah, I can tell that. But what do I do? He's not opening up at all.

Lizzie sighed.

Do you want me to talk to him? Because it feels like you're trying to get me to talk to him. Despite the fact that you told me he wanted to talk to me, and he never did.

She shoved the paper back at him and he sent her an apologetic look.

I thought you might get a bit annoyed about that. Yeah, please talk to him if you can, I think he'll open up to you – even though you already know – but he doesn't know that.

Lizzie grinned at the tiny angel he'd drawn at the bottom and annotated with a 'This is Blaise, Blaise is sorry'.

Alright, I'll forgive you, but you're still annoying.

Blaise grinned at her.

Glad to hear it. Please talk to him.

Lizzie grimaced again.

What if he doesn't want to hear it?

Blaise glared at her.

Are you being serious? He'll want to hear it.

Lizzie rolled her eyes at him as she passed him her response.

Will he though? It's not like he's seemed like he wants to speak to me.

"You're an idiot if you think he doesn't want to speak to you," Blaise whisper-shouted at her.

"Am I though?" she whispered back.

"Yes, I'll get him to come and speak to you later, please?"

Lizzie paused, and got nudged in the side by Justin.

"What?" She looked at him.

"Go and see him," Justin whispered, "just do, it'll make you so much happier."

Lizzie turned back to Blaise, "fine, when?"

"After dinner, by the lake again?"

"I don't know, it's kind of cold in the evenings."

"Okay, maybe not the lake, where's that little cubby hole you guys used to chat in?"

"Oh, there's good, fourth floor by the portrait of Merlin."

"I'll get him to meet you there after dinner then."

"Okay," Lizzie turned back to Justin. "Happy now?"

"Very thank you," Justin grinned at her.


And now they were all at dinner and Lizzie was getting cold feet.

"You really should go, you've been miserable," Susan said.

"I have not been miserable!"

"Well you haven't been happy," Susan said matter-of-factly.

Lizzie glared at her.

"Just go," Susan gave her a gentle shove, "you can't eat anymore apple crumble."

Lizzie swung her legs over the edge of the bench and glanced over at Blaise at the Slytherin table. He caught her eye and nodded.

"Go!" Justin and Susan said.

Lizzie sighed and walked out of the Great Hall.

She wanted to talk to him, but she was incredibly nervous, and whether Blaise would actually be able to get Draco to talk to her was a whole other matter.


She heard them both before she saw them.

"Blaise, I don't get why we had to come all the way up here!"

So Blaise hadn't told him that he was making Draco talk to her. Great.

When they rounded the corner and Draco saw her, he stopped dead.

"Hey," she gave a small wave.

He turned to go but Blaise shoved him towards her, "no, you're talking to her. You won't talk to me and you've been miserable since you stopped talking to her."

Draco sighed and came and sat down by Lizzie, "so are you going to just stand there or leave us alone?"

Blaise glanced at Lizzie, who nodded, "it's okay, Blaise. We don't need to be chaperoned."

Blaise walked away, leaving them alone.

Draco sat there in silence.

"You're so stubborn," she said. "And I know what happened on the detention, so I get why you're feeling so awful."

"No you don't," he said, although it didn't come out as much more than a whisper.

"Then tell me, I'm fed up of us not talking. I'm miserable without you and apparently you are too. Do you not care?" She was ranting at this point, and she knew it, but she couldn't stop. "You were one of my first proper friends and you just can't get it into your brain that other people have a different opinion to you! I tried so hard with you, even though everyone told me there was no point, and you threw it all back in my face."

Lizzie stopped, breathing hard.

Draco didn't say anything, and when she looked at him, Lizzie saw a tear roll down his cheek.

"Draco?" she said, shocked at how emotional a reaction he was having.

"You're right. I'm a terrible person." He was shaking at this point.

"I mean," she paused, "I wouldn't say terrible but sometimes you're not great."

He huffed, "is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Not really, I know it wasn't the best way of putting things. Draco, just talk to me. What's wrong?"

His shoulders shook some more, and he finally took a breath to speak.

"I lost you. I was stupid and I shouldn't have acted the way I did, and then I didn't know how to apologise properly and get you back."

"You could have just told me."

"I didn't know how, and then we spoke and I wrecked it all over again. I wanted to talk to you properly but still didn't know how to do it all. And then the detention happened and I thought you'd be mad that I tried to get Potter and Granger in trouble. Can you forgive me?"

He genuinely looked like he'd had to watch someone kick a puppy.

Lizzie sighed, "I want to, but you need to understand that I like my friends, and I know you may not necessarily always like them, but it's still a matter of principle."

"I'll stop. I mean, I'm not sure I can stop," he said, looking at his feet. "And I'm sorry for that, but it's just one of those things."

"But it's not! It's not just one of those things!"

Draco shook his head, "you don't get it."

"Then help me get, I'm trying to be there for you and I'm trying to understand but you're not letting me."

Draco wiped away a tear, "I'm not good at opening up."

Lizzie nudged his shoulder, "I can tell, you know?"

"It's just difficult, with everything growing up."

Lizzie nodded, she had figured that it would be his father drilling things into him his entire life.

"And I do want to tell you things, and explain it all," he said, seemingly trying to convey how serious he was through his voice. "But I don't get how to do it."

Lizzie rested her head on his shoulder, "just try and understand things from my perspective. Especially with who I'm friends with. I don't like the way you speak to them, and I really don't like the views you have of them, but I don't expect it all to change overnight."

"I am sorry, for everything I've put you through with it all."

"As you should be, and I can't say that I'm able to forgive you right away but if you make the effort then I'll be willing to."

"I will," Draco rested his head on top of hers'.

They sat in silence for a while, simply enjoying the other's company. It was nice, it was familiar.

"You were my first proper friend, you know?" Draco said, breaking the silence.

"What about Blaise?" Lizzie pulled back to look at him.

Draco shrugged, "I mean, yeah, he was my first friend. But we were forced together if anything, our parents were old friends and everything, it was just convenient that we actually got along."

Lizzie nodded in understanding.

"And I know your parents wanted us to become friends, but we sort of did by accident rather than being forced into it," he explained. "So you were my first proper friend."

"First proper friends together then?" Lizzie grinned at him and held out her hand.

Draco linked his with hers', intertwining their fingers, "first proper friends."