Better Be Slytherin
XXVI
Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts
That Sunday evening after dinner there was ruckus around a new message on the board in the Slytherin common room, announcing the date of their Apparition test, where it said that everyone by the age of seventeen before or on the day of the examination (the twenty-first of April) were allowed to put their name down for extra training sessions that would take place (strictly supervised) in Hogsmeade.
Lovely, Draco thought bitterly, gritting his teeth as he read the piece of parchment over the heads of his housemates. It was just the icing on the cake he needed, seeing as his birthday wasn't until June and he would be excluded from this just as well as the rest of the aspects of his old, normal life.
Despite that latest blow, Draco felt, in fact, a little less stressed out the following morning and he even had time to have breakfast for fifteen minutes without rushing off. He even had time to read the Daily Prophet, in which he found something to be genuinely surprised over.
"Stanley Shunpike, conductor of the popular Wizarding conveyance the Knight Bus has been arrested on suspicion of Death Eater activity. Mr. Shunpike, 21, was taken into custody late last night after a raid on his Clapham home..."
Draco frowned. Stan Shunpike couldn't possibly be a Death Eater, could he? Surely, Draco's father would've mentioned it, not that Draco could imagine that showing-off tosser to have what it took, not to mention how if it were true, one would not go round talking about down at the pub. He snorted to himself. Tosser, indeed.
Apparently they did not have a lesson that morning, he was informed of - quite too late, in Draco's opinion, as he would rather have spent the morning sleeping, yet now as he could not possibly focus on school work he reckoned with a sinking heart that he might have to have another go in the Come-and-Go-Room.
He groaned to himself, but he let his body decide and wandered back down towards the common room, hurrying back to his dormitory to creep back into his warm bed for an extra hour.
Later he walked through the dungeons towards Potions alone. Most of his classmates were already there when he reached the dark classroom. He made his way through and sat down next to Vincent, and even though half of the class were still standing, bringing up books and fixing their things, Snape took ten points from Gryffindor for Potter's lateness, which even caused Draco to feel slight mirth.
However, that feeling was soon revoked, as the first thing Snape demanded after that was that they hand in their Dementor-essays. Draco's heart sank. He had felt so free and relaxed, spent all his free time that weekend studying when he wasn't working on the cabinet, and he finally felt like he was managing things altogether, but in the midst of it all he had completely forgotten about the Dementor essay.
Well-aware, he hid is face, turning to the side, trying to shrink so that Snape wouldn't see him, while the latter carelessly waved his wand and twenty-five rolls of parchment shot up into the air and landed in a neat pile on his desk. "And I hope for your sake that they're better than that rubbish about resisting the Imperius Curse that I had to suffer through last time. Now, if you would open your books and turn..."
The following couple of weeks, Draco was focusing on trying to keep everything under control. As it turned out, having a mission from the Dark Lord and revising homework from hell was hardly manageable when you had to both eat and sleep as well. Something had to go. To make matters worse, Vincent and Gregory were beginning to complain more and more about having to dress up as girls and stand guard outside that sodding room.
He hadn't been able to escape the fact that Nott had begun fancying Pansy - why else would he give up his loner-status and hang around so much? However, luckily enough, he doubted Nott would ever be brave enough to actually do anything about it, and he hardly thought Pansy even knew. She could be oblivious like that.
Yet something, perhaps a gut feeling, made him decide to spend more time with his classmates - the boys and Pansy in particular. He just had to hang around for a little while and stake out. Why was Nott hanging round? He had always despised Vince and Greg. He definitely had more than an inkling it was because Pansy was with them.
The thought actually produced a stab of jealousy that caught him completely by surprise.
Bloody Nott, he thought irritatedly. She moved on well quickly, he thought, nostrils flaring, but then he reminded himself that he was the one who split up with her - meaning he had all his dignity left.
So he calculatedly began sitting with the others in the Great Hall and the common room again, unwillingly spending less time on the cabinet. And he casually began speaking to Pansy again. In the beginning it felt mostly all right that the other person was around.
Somewhere far inside him, the feeling of wanting her back was gnawing at him. Yet Pansy hardly ever looked at him.
She seemed to be all right with having him around again, and she was polite to him, but colder than before, and she treated him the same way she treated Blaise or any of the others. He guessed she was still angry with him after their big row, and he hadn't had a choice but to spend all his time focusing on his mission - yet he thought fondly of her laugh, her smirks, her funny comments, hugging her... Yet, he would never tell her or anyone else that, never!
After an enthusiastic Friday dinner in the Great Hall, Pansy, Daphne, Tracey, Queenie, Millicent, Astoria and Mathilda Greenford made their way down to the dungeons again, gossiping about the latest news: Lisa Turpin cheating on her Ravenclaw boyfriend Terry Boot with (in Pansy's opinion) the utterly vile Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith.
The sound of 'She's a wicked, wicked witch' by The Weird Sisters, the new best-selling song, hit them on their way into the Slytherin common room – Daphne and Tracey began singing along at once. The common room was set up for Friday evening, with buckets of Butterbeer standing around, and the sixth and seventh year boys (a.k.a the Slytherin Quidditch team, practically) were spread around the group of sofas and armchairs by the warm, dancing fire.
The girls excitedly joined them, and Pansy (eyerollingly) wished Bletchley wouldn't try and speak to her after their random kiss on Valentine's Day... Naturally he couldn't assume it was more than a casual snog? Merlin, she hoped.
"Took you long enough!" Bletchley shouted out to the girls, raising his glass of Fire Whiskey.
As they all cheered, she couldn't help but to notice that Draco wasn't around – but that Theodore, surprisingly enough, was. She cast him a dazzling smile and sat down next to him, with Queenie on her other side while everyone began talking, laughing and drinking. Just as she had sat down, the entrance to the common room opened and Draco entered, scowling. As soon as he looked up and saw them all sitting together, a jolt went through Pansy's stomach – merely for not having seen him in a while.
She ignored his approaching footsteps and sipped her drink. When he took his place in one of the armchair and was handed a bottle of Butterbeer from Goyle, she behaved like she wasn't fazed at all. So now he had time to hang around with the others, eh? No secret mission for the Dark Lord...? What was he even doing there?
In a way she did miss Draco, even though it had taken quite a long time for her to realise it and admit it even to herself. As whenever she saw him, thought about him, or heard his name mentioned, her heart fluttered in a longing ache. She remembered how attracted she had been by him, the constant laughing around each other, the accidental physical closeness, and the sexual fantasies. No dirty thoughts similar to the ones about Draco had appeared with Theodore – which made her confused as to how she felt about him. There was no urge for him to grab her breasts or kiss her neck... Perhaps she fancied him; perhaps not. The only thing she knew was that it wasn't in the same way she had fancied Draco.
Theodore fancied her, that was obvious for anyone to see, and she liked the power that fact gave her. And, surely, naively enough she supposed she could change how she felt quite hastily.
"Who's the scum who's taken' my Fire Whiskey?" Warrington hiccupped angrily. Pansy laughed out loud.
"You've drunk the lot, Caecus," Daphne smirked and Pansy quickly glanced at Tracey to see her reaction of sitting close to Caecus – needless to say her cheeks were slightly pink and she looked dizzy in love. A movement caught her eye and she switched to Vincent, who was stuffing his face with white frosting-covered cupcakes, in a particularly messy and gooey way.
Pansy sighed loudly, acquiring some attention, while crumbs fell all over Vincent's lap.
"Stop behaving like a common Muggle, Vince," she taunted him, wrinkling her nose in authentic disgust. "Bit annoying, really. You're a Pureblood. Act like it."
A bubbling laughter spread through the group, Bletchley bent over laughing, while Vincent shot her a murderous glare. Even Draco laughed, and they happened to catch eye contact for a second. She almost erotically enjoyed his eyes on her.
"Good one," Draco surprisingly directed at her, raising his glass and giving her a nod. She gave a small smile back before returning to her drink, some confusion occupying her mind. They hadn't spoken for months – he had dumped her in the pouring rain and she had spent the remainder of the school year until now evilly laughing at his expense whenever he did anything wrong in school, and now he was acting friendly? Since when? And why?
Just then Theodore Nott on her right turned to her and said in a low voice, so only she could hear: "You fancy going to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?"
She didn't know what Draco was playing at, so she decided to drop it. She smirked and said, "Sure."
"Wicked," Theodore smiled.
"What shall we do in Hogsmeade, then?" commented Draco casually to his company of Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy the following Saturday. They were in line to being searched by Filch on their way out of the castle, their stomachs happily filled with breakfast. His mission to become friends with Pansy had succeeded – she couldn't have been that angry with him then! – and for the past week they had almost gone back to how they were before they ever began flirting or kissing, a year and a half ago – and instead they'd been laughing together all week, not one mention of their history together. It had sparked a slight fear within him that perhaps Pansy just wanted to be mates after all.
Crabbe and Goyle merely grunted, as Draco cast his glance over his shoulder at them. And that was when he noticed that Pansy, who had been standing quiet for a long while, had a small crooked smile on her face. They locked glances and he frowned at her, silently communicating that she should explain herself.
"I've got a date," she declared hastily, stretching to see the front of the queue, looking as if she was estimating its length.
Draco reacted sharply and boldly choked out, "You, what?"
Pansy turned and frowned at him. "I've got a date," she said distinctively. Draco did not move a muscle in his face.
"Does it really bother you that much?" she asked then, and Draco's mouth twitched at the sight of how hard it looked for her to conceal a tiny smirk that crept up on her features. Twat.
Draco snorted. "Right," he commented, slightly condescending. "Who's it with then?"
Pansy looked away and – Draco frowned – was he imagining or did she look rather... ashamed?
"Nott."
Draco's stomach flipped over. He suddenly felt extremely hostile towards Pansy. He had not seen this coming. He was no fool and he had seen the way Nott had been looking at her, but he never supposed she would do this, not now, not while they were standing in line to Hogsmeade, a few minutes away from hanging out as friends again, normal, like they had used to. He frowned. Slag.
Pansy turned to him after his lack of response, seemingly surprised, and caught him staring. Draco straightened up and felt a sneer creeping up on his face. "Hah. I should've known, shouldn't I?"
He turned to Crabbe and Goyle and sent them a look. "Did you hear?" he said scornfully. "Our lovely Pansy's going on a date with Nott!"
Crabbe and Goyle sniggered, slightly pleasing Draco. Pansy sent both of them a glare, and defensively opened her mouth, but Crabbe was quicker. "Got yourself a boyfriend, Parkinson?" he grunted, sniggering. Draco almost sighed out loud at his friend's incompetence to come up with better insults.
"Well, it's obvious isn't it," said Draco casually, still looking forward, not bothering to acknowledge Crabbe's comment. Pansy turned to him instead, but he did not turn to her. "I've seen how he's been drooling over you..."
He did not know how Pansy reacted to what he had said, because he would not do himself the humiliation of looking at her, and she did not say anything.
They had hit the front of the queue where Filch waited. An awkward silence creeped up on them and lingered through their entire visitation.
Pansy stubbornly stared forward the entire way down to the village. Draco glanced at her from the corner of his eye, but looked away again, half-rolling his eyes.
Goyle said something, Draco did not register it. He and Crabbe lead a grunting conversation the entire walk down, and Draco replied when spoken to. He did not want Pansy to see that their little dispute had gotten to him.
When they reached the village, Pansy was quick to, without looking at neither Draco or Crabbe and Goyle, shortly saying: "See you later, boys."
Draco laughed sarcastically. "Tell Nott I said hello!" he exclaimed derisively, but she was already on her way, which made Draco look like he was pining. He hated that and regretted that he even said anything.
He looked after her crossly, Crabbe and Goyle besides him. Crabbe snorted, "Bet she reckons you give a toss that she's getting off with that Nott-bloke…"
Draco did not answer.
"Well, come on then," he said angrily and walked off. His friends hastily followed.
Draco was angry. Goyle could feel it vibrating all the way from the sofa that Draco was occupying to his own armchair. His friend was sitting, jaw clenched and mouth pressed together, tapping his wand, impatiently. None of them spoke. He did not know why Draco was like this, but he knew he did not like it.
When Draco was angry, he took it out on something. He always did. So Gregory was simply waiting for it.
They had not had any fun in Hogsmeade, either. When they had reached the village, they had gone to Three Broomsticks immediately, had a few Butterbeers in silence. Draco had been sulking already by then, while Vincent had looked extremely bored and Gregory himself had not dared to speak.
Then Draco had wanted to find Potter. So they did. Searched through the entire village, they had. Draco had made a comment while passing him. One comment, and Draco had looked like it had been worth it. Gregory did not understand his friend sometimes.
And then Vincent had reminded him that the Apparition lesson was in fifteen minutes. Vincent would not be taking the lessons anymore, as the training sessions had only improved his Apparition skills very slightly and he reckoned he would be more ready next year. But he and Draco yet walked Gregory to the test, so that he would find his way, and then left him to get back up to the castle.
Gregory had been able to Apparate perfectly well today without splinching himself the slightest, and was happy about that – because he had had big difficulties – until he met up with Draco and his bad mood again.
Draco had been interrupted by a high-pitched shriek just as he was about to perform a very dangerous spell on the cabinet. He gave a start and cursed Crabbe silently, sending a glare towards the door.
But then he heard a crash, and someone running away. Draco stiffened entirely, his heart suddenly beating quickly. Something, or someone, must have scared off Crabbe, the stupid troll.
His mind was suddenly raving. He was in here, unprotected, only a wall between him and his intruder. If someone came through that door at that moment, they would see exactly what he was doing and everything would be over. And who would know that he went to this place? Nobody knew that! It must be Snape... or Dumbledore... but how should they know that he was in here? Besides had Draco not seen Dumbledore for months, but perhaps that was because Draco barely even entered the Great Hall...
His heart was pounding in his chest. He was starving, his eyes were burning and his body completely exhausted. And he was stuck.
He did not dare to go outside for hours. Angry, stressed out and nervous, he sat there, his mind too occupied to be able to go back to working on the cabinet. He just sat there on the floor, not knowing what time it was or if the person outside had gone away. He felt pathetic. He would never succeed with his task and Theodore Nott would snog Pansy, and Draco and his family would die.
A while later, a while that felt like days, he slowly opened the creaky door and looked out into an empty and deserted dark corridor lit up by torches, his sweaty hand grasping his wand tightly. The adrenaline that had been pumping out of him once more as he had decided to try to leave the room, slowly died out as his heartbeat steadied down to its normal rhythm.
He gave a small smirk and got out from the room, marched through the corridor and walked all the way from the seventh floor down to the dungeons and through the passage into the Slytherin common room.
When he returned to the now crowded common room, he came upon the rest of his year who had just gotten back from Hogsmeade and the Apparition lesson.
Except Pansy and Theodore Nott. Not that Draco thought about that, he barely noticed it.
He saw Crabbe and Goyle over by the fireplace, having occupied the big armchairs. He elbowed his way through the crowded common room towards them, gave a short muttered "hiya" and dramatically slung himself down into the huge, soft armchair, and began having a go at them for leaving their positions guarding the Come-and-Go-Room.
Pansy talked. Loads. Theodore barely got a word in. But he liked it that way. He was not used to talking much, he usually spent his time alone in silence. He had been slightly nervous for their date, mostly because he knew Malfoy would have a problem with it and make it his business to ruin whatever good that could possibly come out of this day.
He had felt smug all day long. He had had Pansy for himself, Malfoy had not been able to be around to stop anything, because he was not yet seventeen and was therefore not in Hogsmeade because he could not yet Apparate, which Theodore by the way had done without difficulty.
But now that he and Pansy were making their way through the portrait hole, there was a gnawing in his stomach. Malfoy would probably be inside and everything would be over.
Ah, yes. Speaking of the devil.
Oblivious, Pansy was still babbling, and Theodore threw in his two Knuts in her pauses, but only half-heartedly, since he had seen Malfoy jumping up from his place by the fire in-between Crabbe and Goyle, without thinking by the look of it.
Malfoy was not the tallest bloke, but he was nevertheless taller than Theodore, and he did not want to hear what Malfoy had to say. Theodore only tried to return his classmate's glare indifferently, as he walked up to them. Pansy stopped talking as she saw Malfoy, just as he came up to them, his eyes malicious and an ugly sneer on his pale, pointy face.
"Well? Had a fun date?" said Malfoy sarcastically. Theodore rolled his eyes – he felt like it was the only thing he could do as he did not want to be cocky since that probably would aggravate his former friend. Crabbe and Goyle would crush him like an ant.
"Yes, we have," said Pansy, sounding slightly irritated. That she had spoken up for them both made
Theodore feel even more effeminate, and he silently cursed her for it at the same time as he was grateful.
Malfoy looked irritated as well – he put his head to the side and smiled sarcastically.
And at the same time, he and Theodore started speaking, "Well-" "Pansy-"
Pansy raised her eyebrows. Theodore's heart was beating fast. Crabbe and Goyle were watching on with interest, Crabbe looked spitefully amused and Goyle had his mouth open as if he did not really understand. Malfoy quickly repeated himself. "Pansy," he said loudly.
But he looked like he did not know what to say. Theodore almost started smirking. But then Malfoy quickly added with a sudden laugh, "Come on, Crabbe and Goyle nicked some Liquorice Wands, I know how you like them..."
And Theodore knew at that second that it was over.
Malfoy started leading away Pansy, who was oblivious to the fact that this was an argument between the two boys. Theodore reckoned he had to grasp his last chance to speak, and just as he heard Malfoy who now had his back to him, leading Pansy on the way towards Crabbe and Goyle, saying "You know, we met Potter in Hogsmeade today...," Theodore interjected: "Pansy."
He vaguely heard Malfoy sighing, almost groaning, half-rolling his eyes, but Pansy turned around back towards him. But Theodore's mind was blank. He did not come up with anything to say at all, even though he was desperately ransacking his mind. So he flung out: "Err... See you tomorrow."
Pansy gave him a little smirk. "Sure."
Malfoy threw him a brief derisive glance over his shoulder as he led her away from Theodore.
Theodore sighed. He spent the rest of the evening (when he should have been studying) thinking of things he should have said to stand up to Malfoy instead of letting him drag her off like that.
He was sitting reading, as usual, in a dark corner of the common room. Twat.
Draco could not stop staring at him. Gaunt, grey-looking, weird, read too much… Just look at him. Theo no-mates.
Draco snorted to himself. Nobody even liked him. Theodore Nott was waste of space, he reasoned, nodding to himself. He briefly wondered what in the world he had seen in Nott last spring, they had actually been friends! He must have gone mad for a while.
His entire face twitched as he watched his classmate.
Who in Merlin's name was he to try and steal his Pansy off him?
She's mine. She's mine! He thought fiercely.
Without thinking, he got up and made his way across the common room.
"I want you to lay off Pansy, Nott."
Nott looked up from his book as he heard Draco approaching, and frowned surprised at him.
"Sorry?"
"You heard me," said Draco irritably.
They shared a look. Nott did not reply. Draco tried to muster up as much menace as he possibly could, locked in a stare.
"Listen," said Draco then. "She's my mate and I'm watching her back…"
"Well, keep watching it, and I'll keep watching her front."
Draco gaped. Nott looked like he was surprised he had dared to say it, as well. Draco closed his mouth and stared, his tight lips twitched while he concentrated his eyes intensely on Nott, but to his fear, he did not come up with anything to say.
He turned on his heel and marched off, still glaring.
Draco felt uneasy from the moment he entered his dormitory to try to get some sleep, frustrated with Pansy. Of course it was Nott, he thought. The one boy he had valued an equal – making it impossible for him to ignore it or just sneer at it. It made him so incredibly frustrated with Pansy. Even if she was not playing with Draco, dating Nott was a horrible thing to do. Either or, Pansy was a mean, manipulative little girl.
How she had that constant smug smile on her face, clearly satisfied with being the object of both of their attention. He shuddered. To hell with her. What was problematic, though, was that he could not stand the idea of losing to Theodore Nott, whatever it was.
