Saturday morning I woke up early again to my displeasure, unable to get back to sleep. I wandered down through the woods near Hagrid's cabin, sticking closely to the edge trying not to go more than five trees deep. I had been warned by several people that this forest was dangerous but on the contrary had also heard that first year students were sent into it as punishment. It couldn't possibly be that bad if eleven year old's were sent out there at night.
I wanted to find more plants, but they would likely have to go down in the common room. This, I thought, would be an improvement on the lack of living things there. Besides. Hilda had unfortunately started to object to the sheer volume of leafy green beings filling up the space on the window sill we shared and along the feet of our beds. Two days ago she had gotten out of bed and immediately yelped when a long vine had wrapped itself possessively around her dainty ankle.
It was drizzling again, October was around the corner and already introducing it's personality. The leaves were lazily beginning to drift from trees creating colorful freckles on the landscape around the castle, except of course for the whomping willow which had been producing fewer and fewer leaves every year. McGonagall had vaguely suggested it's time was likely short during a transfiguration lesson.
After unearthing a few interesting looking plants I made my way back up the slopes with my muddy field bag over my shoulder. There was dirt under my fingernails and on my forehead from wiping at the water dripping off of my hood. I passed by the crooked stone shack that belonged to the large, hairy man named Hagrid. I had not met him in person, but Blaise told me that was unlikely now that he was not teaching anymore. Apparently there had been an incident with Malfoy in third year that had completely thrown him off of it. Smoke meandered from the thin chimney, filling the air with an acrid, familiar smell of fall.
He stood in his nearby garden with a shovel in his thick hands. He resembled more of a bear than a man. He didn't acknowledge me passing, but I watched him intently until I was forced to turn my head, as if when I looked away he would chase me down.
When I returned to the common room people were awake and roaming around in their weekend clothing. I was dripping wet and my hair was messy from being left down in the rain, my long periwinkle dress had mud along the hem. I walked to the back ignoring a few stares and carefully started conjuring shiny glass planters, transplanting my newfound plants, shrugging off my soaked robes on a nearby chair.
As I worked I became aware of some familiar voices. I glanced slowly over to the fireplace where Goyle, Crabbe, Montague and Malfoy sat watching the sleepy green flame dance. They were all wearing expensive looking sweaters, appropriately all a variety of green, and Malfoy and Montague had on dark black joggers. It was always entertaining to see how people chose to define themselves on their days off at Hogwarts.
Of course, most of my personal clothing still reflected my previous academy and was not green. It wouldn't be the first time I received unnerved stares or heard people uttering, "Ravenclaw..." under their breaths.
There was a small girl to Malfoy's right sitting on the couch with them whom I didn't recognize. She was dainty with dark brown hair almost as long as mine. Her eyes were blue, somewhat like Malfoy's and her expression had an equal air of aristocratic authority. She was wearing a black simple dress and staring up at him while he was speaking to Goyle. She was absolutely fixated on him and I felt a knot form in my stomach.
I finished potting my plants and set them up in various locations in the room, while trying hard not to stare at the intruder. Eventually I had nothing better to do than clean up for breakfast so I headed upstairs feeling uneasy and showered in the girls bathroom.
When I was combing through my damp hair she came into the bathroom and nearly startled me out of my new clean blue dress. It was one of my favorites, with long lacy arms and a large bow that tied it tightly around my waist. Comfortable, flowing, but classy. I had added gold serpent earrings to at least give some credit to my house.
She came to the sink to inspect her appearance, fixing her hair and twisting from side to side in her tight black dress. She noticed my unmasked glances over at her and her lips curled up in a sneering manner, "What are you looking at?" Her blue eyes were deep like blackberries and felt like bullets against my golden ones. Another girl in the bathroom snuck a curious glance over at her sharp tone.
"You are, pretty...," I muttered awkwardly, expecting that if I didn't compliment her she might remove my head. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
She grinned and held her pale hand out to me and I shook it, "Astoria, Greengrass. I'm here to visit Draco. He and I are arranged to be married some day," Her voice was condescending. She turned back to the mirror, eyeing herself down again, "It's a pureblood thing. You may see me around here occasionally." She blinked to inspect her eyelashes.
"Are you a pureblood, then? Not that I would recognize your last name - you sound, what, French?" She asked without looking away from the mirror. I didn't approve of the insulting way she had said French as though it were any lesser of a heritage than English. I realized she was probably a few years younger than us based on the way she spoke and held herself.
I nodded my head slowly with a faint, sly smile, "Yes darling, Desrosiers es a sacred Parisian family."
She stood back and eyed me, "Hmm, interesting." And then she was gone, and so was all of my hope of winning over Malfoy.
So that was the commitment he spoke of yesterday. I clapped a hand over my mouth shoving down a laugh as I stared at my own reflection in shock and hilarity. Astoria had unknowingly been friendly to me when I had just had my tongue is Draco's mouth yesterday. The girl next to me also looked amused but said nothing.
At breakfast I tried to burrow into my book on Quidditch strategies. It was a latest edition, published that year with reference to games won by the Bulgarian's. I was eagerly pouring over the section on defensive maneuvers while effortlessly maintaining my distance from nearby conversations. No one seemed to want to bother me which was ideal.
"I saw the plants in the common room, looks good down there," An airy voice chirped and I looked up to see Hilda had plunked down next to me, wearing a silver scarf and grey knit sweater. She looked like she was preparing to take pumpkin picking pictures like the muggles were so fond of doing. Her hair was up high in a brown wavy pony tail.
"I assumed you were to prefer dat," I replied mildly. She nodded enthusiastically while gnawing on a piece of toast. On her other side Crabbe leaned back far into her shoulder, knocking her into me with the brute force. He was trying to back away from Goyle who was flicking bacon grease at him combatively.
Hilda scowled from the grotesque display, "WILL you two grow up already?"
While watching, I accidentally caught sight of Draco and Astoria down the line of the table. Pansy who was across from them was also watching out of the corners of her eyes, which was far more obvious than she probably understood. Astoria was speaking vivaciously to Malfoy about a Christmas trip her family was planning, her hands gripping his left arm with intensity. He wasn't making eye contact with her and appeared to not even be listening. He was stirring porridge around in a small bowl with an aggravated mood across his face. It resembled the scene of a small animal kept in a wire cage in a child's bedroom. He looked trapped and irritated by her bubbly words. He seemed to sense my gaze because he looked up and narrowed his eyes at my intrusion of their privacy and I quickly looked away, back at my breakfast and book. I wondered if Pansy had been given the same glare.
A soft tap on my shoulder and the sound of Hilda gasping quietly drew my attention away from my book. All of the Slytherin's in our year were looking behind me with intensity. I turned to see a red and gold sweater with a large 'H' sewn into it.
Harry Potter was standing there looking oddly like he had been hit with a silencing charm. I watched for a few moments while he searched for his voice, "H-hi, uh, Madeleine, was it?" I felt my eyes widen; no one ever called me by my first name. I had assumed practically no one even knew it at that point.
I nodded and stared, unsure of what to say. I knew he had recently broken off a relationship with a small, ginger-haired girl over the summer and I wondered where this was going.
"Great. Look, I was wondering, would you maybe want to join me at Hogsmeade next weekend? With-with friends, of course." He ran a hand over the back of his neck shyly, "Since you couldn't go last year because your owl was so late getting back with your permission."
I grinned a sly grin, cocked my head to the side, leaning forward on my arms against the table. I loved to flirt, especially when it was in front of Malfoy with his dumb bride-to-be, and especially with the Harry Potter, who also was his own unique version of handsome, "I would not miss et," I reassured him. I touched his arm gently for added effect and his blue eyes glittered.
"Super. I'll s-see you then." He stuttered but his smile was big and drunken. He walked off and the table was eerily silent. We watched as he sat back down across from Hermione Granger who kept stealing glances at me and smiling.
I looked around my own table with a stern face; the Slytherins all appeared either shocked or disgusted with me for having agreed to spend time with a Gryffindor. Pansy was the only one snorting with laughter.
"Oh, get over et," I said roughly, standing to leave. I saw Malfoy's unblinking eyes trail after me, wide and warning. His lip was curled in the most fabulous, irritated version I had seen yet. Astoria was already ranting again, completely unaware of the house reputations in Hogwarts. I held his gaze as I passed by and then slipped out of the great hall to go check on my plants.