Chapter Four: Define A Want And A Need

Draco Malfoy lay in his bed until the early hours of the morning staring at his stone ceiling, unconsciously twirling his wand between his fingers while he thought about Latasha.

She hasn't spoken to me at all. Not a word. I bet her new best friends Potter and his little sidekicks have been giving her advice telling her not to talk to me – to break up with me. I bet the next time she talks to me she wants to break up, but I don't care – I won't care. Who am I kidding? I'll care. I care about her, and I could almost say that I love her even. We've shared so many things together; she's the only girl I've ever had a conversation with – she made me. I love the way she always knows how I feel – she can read me. But if she's stupid enough to listen to that bunch of losers, then so be it. They'll have to learn not to involve themselves in my business. Weasel will regret ever laying eyes on her, god forbid he's laid anything else on her in my absence.

In their next potions lesson, Malfoy sat two desks behind Harry and Ron. His anger rose within as he scowled at the back of Ron's head wanting to inflict pain upon him, grinding his teeth as Professor Snape lectured them about the curriculum. Malfoy looked around, glancing at Harry's parchment he saw the page was almost filled with words and got an idea. Seeing the inkbottle, he flicked his wand, tipping the ink over the parchment and watched as Harry made a fuss. He smirked like a snake. Harry's silent commotion caused Ron to add to it, attracting the attention of nearby classmates and Professor Snape.

'Potter! Weasley! Do you have a problem?' Snape shouted.

'My ink, it tipped over!' Harry whined.

'Well you should learn to be less clumsy in future, Mr Potter! And don't you dare interrupt my lesson with such a reason again! Ten points from Gryffindor! And if I hear another word out of either of you two, you will both be in detention!'

Malfoy sat sneering. The Slytherin boy beside him was in a fit of soundless laughter. Malfoy then whispered in his neighbour's ear, and the boy took some pieces of parchment from his bag, scrunching them into balls. Snape had now given the class a paragraph from their textbooks to copy, while he left the room with a warning. As soon as Snape was out of sight, Harry and Ron began talking.

'Now,' and with a flick of their wrists, Malfoy and the boy set the balls of parchment on a course aimed at Harry and Ron's heads. As the balls hit them, they yelled, and within that moment Snape appeared beside their desk. Ignoring the balls of parchment, he shouted,

'Detention!'

At this a roar of laughter erupted from the back of the room where Malfoy and the other Slytherins were seated. At the sound, Harry and Ron glimpsed at them. Malfoy gave Ron an evil smirk.

That afternoon, Hermione and Latasha walked through the portrait hole to find Harry sitting in an armchair whilst Ron paced hastily, fiercely clenching and unclenching his fists. Arriving to their corner, Hermione asked,

'Ronald, what's happened now?' as her and Latasha perched themselves on the nearby coffee table. In his fit of rage, he completely missed the question and continued to mumble to himself, shaking his fists.

'What's wrong with him?' Latasha asked, concerned.

'And what is he muttering?' Hermione added.

'Well, practically all day, Malfoy's been playing pranks on Ron and me.'

'- More on me than you! And it's a bit more than playing pranks, Harry!' Ron elaborated, rising his whiny voice.

'He's been trying his best to embarrass Ron as best he can. And his best is pretty good.' Harry continued.

'What do you mean embarrassing him?' Hermione asked, trying to pry deeper into the situation.

'Malfoy did loads of things. He's been doing them all day. We even got detention with Snape too.' Seeing the expressions on the girls' faces, he could tell that they wanted more details, 'well, after lunch he put a spider in Ron's bag – and you know how much Ron hates spiders. There was the gender-voice-changing incident in front of the class. The swear-word-quill Ron now has,' Harry stopped as he saw that Ron was now apart of the conversation.

'You forgot about when he covered me in pumpkin juice and hung me upside down in the middle of the corridor and made me beg to let me down again. In front of a crowd of Slytherins!' he added, collapsing onto the sofa.

'Oh my god! I can't believe he did that!' Latasha gasped.

'Well, believe it. But I don't understand why he's picking on you all of a sudden,'

'Does he need a reason? He's an arsehole! And I'm gonna get hi back for this,' Ron answered.

'Ronald, don't do anything stupid,' Hermione snapped.

'It's not your fault – it's mine. I'll talk to him. I'll go right now,' Latasha said feeling responsible, and with that she got up and left though the portrait hole.

She found Malfoy outside, sitting in a tree with Crabbe, Goyle and some other Slytherin members standing beneath him. He was cackling at something. As Latasha walked toward him, she began to smooth down her uniform. Once she was near, Malfoy stopped laughing and watched as his fellow Slytherins parted to let her get close to the tree.

'Malfoy, can I speak to you?' she asked politely. His immediate response was,

'Crabbe, Goyle,' which caused them to hold their arms out for Malfoy to use to get out of the tree. They were out of earshot before another word was spoken, 'so what can I do for you? I was beginning to wonder whether we were still in a relationship because it doesn't feel like one.'

'Malfoy, I heard-'

'What happened to Draco? You always call me Draco. You said you loved my name, that you loved calling me Draco,' he said in a patronising tone.

'Malfoy, I heard that you've been picking on Ron,' she said ignoring his question.

'Picking on him? What is he, five? If Weasel is so bothered about me using him for light entertainment, why isn't he over here himself? Too scared to see me, afraid I'll embarrass him again – I could do with another laugh.'

'What is wrong with you? What has poor Ron done to deserve this?'

'You tell me!' Malfoy shouted so loud that his fan club were now all watching attentively.

'Tell you what?' she asked innocently, a look of confusion on Latasha's face.

'You came over here to dump me, right? Go on, I don't care – I just want to know one thing. Are you dumping me for Weasel?' he continued to shout while she stood there speechless, 'come on Tasha; don't go quiet on me now, I want to know! You think I don't see the looks he gives you – you're the one who pointed it out to me! And I've seen the looks you've been giving him lately so don't lie to me and try to insult my intelligence!'

'Don't turn this around to be about Ron and me! This is about you, hurting my friends!' she said raising her voice to match his.

'Your friends? What about me, your boyfriend? Don't I count?'

'I'm not taking this. I don't have to take this,' she replied lowering her volume, 'but before I go I just want to say – I didn't come her to dump you, just to stop being a big bully and bothering Ron. And nothing is going on between us. And as for thought of dumping you – that doesn't seem like such a bad idea right now!

That night, Draco was sat in the Slytherin common room staring into the brightly lit fireplace thinking about the day's events. Reviewing the argument he had with Latasha.

I should've just told how I felt. How I feel. That I'm taking out my jealous rage on Weasley because I feel she's slipping away from me. And it's his fault. Nothing going on between them – she's lying, I know it. She lied to my face. I haven't spoken to her properly in about five days. And I get the chance to talk to her, and I screw it up. I'm not mad at her – I just want her back. The only real reason for the Weasley torture was to get her attention; I wanted her to notice me. To think I was funny, maybe. But now she hates me. She didn't even call me Draco – she's the only one to ever say my name so softly.

I can't let her dump me like this; I refuse to lose out to Weasel.

The next day passed by, barely noticeable. Throughout the day, Ron was constantly looking over his shoulder and jumping ten feet in the air at every sound, wanting to be on the ball for when Malfoy made his next move. Late into the evening, after their detention with Snape, Harry and Ron were sat playing wizard's chess in the Gryffindor common room. Sometime through their game, the door to the girls' dormitory opened to reveal a pyjama-clad Latasha.

'Hey,' she said, as Ron just stared at her.

'Hi, where's Hermione?' Harry asked, glancing up to see Ron fixed on her, smiled and then put his mind back into the game, 'your move, Ron.'

'She went to bed. She said she was tired,' Latasha answered. Noticing that Ron was looking straight into her eyes, she smiled and cocked her head to one side, 'hey Ron.'

He snapped out of his trance, 'hey,' he said quickly drawing his eyes onto the chessboard as he cheeks flushed red.

Silently, Latasha watched their game for a while – she had never seen a game like this before. She didn't quite understand it nor did she care enough to ask. Then remembered why she had come down,

'Ron, did Malfoy give you any trouble today?'

'No. Maybe he's laying off.'

'That talk you had with him must've sorted it out,' Harry added.

'Well, I'm glad. I'm going to head off to bed. See you in the morning,' she said getting to her feet, 'sweet dreams.'

In her dormitory, some of the other girls were fast asleep while others hadn't come in yet; Latasha sat on her bed, and from underneath the mattress pulled out her diary and pen.

Dear diary,

Draco didn't do anything to Ron today. He listened to me!

I just read my last few entries, and I take it all back, I love him! I'm upset he did all that stuff to Ron, but once I talk to him I'll get him to say sorry, and they'll both be friends and everything will be fine. I think I'll try to find Draco tomorrow; maybe we could meet up somewhere, and I'll say sorry for saying that dumping him would be a good idea. I was angry, but I guess that really isn't an excuse for that behaviour. But he did accuse me of cheating on him. But I forgive him.

I wish to him right now.