A/N: Stretching my fingers a little to get ready for Quidditch League! It starts today!
Quidditch Supplies prompts used:
(character) Abraxas Malfoy
(setting) Madam Puddifoots
(number) thirteen
Word Count: 1065
Abraxas Malfoy was thirteen years old today.
He was thirteen years old today and it was a Hogsmeade weekend.
He was thirteen years old today, and up until an hour ago, he'd had plans with his girlfriend (of six weeks) to go to Madam Puddifoot's together.
Instead, Abraxas Malfoy (thirteen years old today) trudged down the lonely, lonely path to Hogsmeade alone.
"I love you, of course, Braxy, but Orion Black's been sending me notes in Transfiguration and he's ever so cute," his girlfriend (of six weeks) had told him this morning, while Black stood smirking in the distance on Hogwart's front steps.
Abraxas had played it off coolly, if he did say so himself. He'd accepted her non-apology with grace and said that she was quite free to do as she wished and he wasn't hurt at all, and he hoped she had fun with Black.
No, he wasn't hurt at all. Abraxas Malfoy (thirteen today) was heartbroken.
Well, he hoped she had an awful time with that girlfriend-stealing Black, he thought viciously, kicking at a clump of grass and then tripping right into the ground.
Once he was down there, it seemed quite pointless to get back up. He sat there feeling pleasantly miserable and covered in dirt and admiring the scratches on his hand and morosely wondering if they would scar, and if they did, could he call them wounds of love?
He was pretty sure he could, because it was all Walburga's fault for breaking up with him, and he wouldn't have kicked that grass and scraped himself if she'd gone to Madam Puddifoot's with him.
Abraxas felt in a much better mood after all this reasoning. He'd write to his parents that they should not consider a contract of marriage with Walburga, after all, because she was thoroughly heartless, and he was forever scarred.
"Are you alright?"
Abraxas startled and turned to see a girl he vaguely recognized as being in Potions class with him, which meant… Hufflepuff. That was alright, then.
"I'm doing terribly," he sighed, trying to sound heartbroken.
He didn't know exactly how one sounded when they were heartbroken, but he had to be, because Walburga had dated him for six weeks, and that was a very long time.
"I'm so sorry," the girl said, and she did sound like she really meant it, but that was Hufflepuffs for you.
"Everyone's heard, haven't they?" Abraxas sighed, because that was something heartbroken people did.
"Yes," the girl nodded solemnly. "That was really not nice of her."
An understatement if he'd ever heard one, thought Abraxas. He could have thought of a few more choice words, but he was raised better than that.
"That's not even the half of it," he moaned, which was perhaps taking it too far. "We were going to Madam Puddifoot's. And it's my birthday."
"Oh!" the girl gasped. "She dumped you on your birthday! That's horrible."
It was really saying something that he'd got a Hufflepuff to call someone horrible, and he felt very pleased with himself.
"I'm thirteen today," Abraxas added, unnecessarily.
"Wow," the Hufflepuff girl said. "I'm not thirteen until March."
She looked at him like he was very old and intelligent for being thirteen months and months before her, and Abraxas sat up a little straighter. He did like being the oldest in his class; everyone looked up to him.
"Well, it's awful so far," he said, as if he knew everything about being thirteen since becoming it in the wee hours of the morning. He tried to look very sorrowful, and manly at the same time, and thought he pulled it off.
The girl was wringing her hands and looking at him with large eyes, and then she blurted out, all at once:
"Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?"
Abraxas was a bit caught off guard, but he thought he managed to hide his surprise quickly. The girl looked very nervous; her eyes were pointedly fixed on the ground, where she was lightly scuffing her shoes.
"I mean it doesn't have to be, like, you know," she was mumbling, "we could just walk around, and maybe you won't feel so sad."
He hadn't really been paying much attention, being so caught up in his misery, but now that he thought about, she was pretty. Prettier than Walburga, even, though he wouldn't dare ever say that to her face. They would look good together, he decided, standing up and brushing his robes off.
"What's your name, then?" he asked her, and her eyes brightened a little.
"Virgie Prewett,"she told him.
A pureblood in Hufflepuff was a bit surprising, but perfectly acceptable. Abraxas offered her his arm, and she blushed as she took it.
"Shall we go and see if Madam Puddifoot has given away my table yet?" he asked.
"Really?" she asked, smiling delightedly.
"I don't think Walburga ever even loved me," he said, deciding he was done being heartbroken. He'd hated Walburga's nickname for him, anyway. Braxy, ugh. "I won't let her ruin my birthday."
She smiled up at him encouragingly.
"That's so wise of you, Malfoy," she said, with a little sigh.
"Oh, no," he said. "We're going to Hogsmeade together, you must call me by my name."
She blushed again and smiled, and Abraxas felt all the accomplishment of having made a girl speechless.
Madam Puddifoot hadn't given away his table, after all, and Abraxas saw, with quite a bit of satisfaction, that Walburga was with Orion at another table and they both looked like they were having an awful time.
He, on the other hand, had a wonderful time with Virgie – such a good time, that he hardly paid attention to how Walburga and Orion left Madam Puddifoot's after a public, shouting row. They even wandered around Hogsmeade together after Madam Puddifoot's, looking at everything they'd seen a dozen times already and pretending they'd never seen it before, which was great fun, and she didn't even mind when he dragged her into Spintwitches to get some more broomstick polish, so he bought her a pound of the best chocolate Honeydukes had.
He left Virgie that evening at the entrance to the Hufflepuff door (with a kiss to the hand that made her blush again), and walked on a cloud back down to the dungeons, reflecting that this had been the best thirteenth birthday ever.