draco fucking malfoy. the bloody bastard.
you glared at him across the hall as he and his flunkies guffawed unattractively. what you wouldn't give to shove his wand up hi-
"(y/n)?" harry snapped his fingers in front of your face. you jerked out of your daydream of physically harming malfoy to the boy sitting besides you, "you're making it snow you git."
you blinked and looked above you to see soft snow flakes falling on your table. absentmindedly you brushed it off harry's hair.
"what were you thundering on about this time?" he asked.
you shook your head, "nothing important," but harry had seen your eyes on the slytherin with hair as white as the layer of snow on your shoulders. his eyes lit up mischievously, "nothing wouldn't happen to be snogging puggy parkinson would he?"
"he could pants her and fuck her in reverse on the ruddy table for all i care," you muttered as you refrained from looking at him to confirm harry's words, and reached for the coffee carafe to fill up a to-go mug.
"so you don't mind that you have to sit for potions with him in 20 minutes?" harry asked as you both got up to start your trek to the dungeons.
"not at all," you replied instantly, throwing a furtive glance at the slytherin table to ensure 'nothing' wasn't snogging anyone, "although i am quite excited to see what slughorn's like."
you and harry chattered with hermione and ron who had caught up with you all the way to the dungeons about the newest addition to the hogwart's staff. the four of you entered the room previously occupied by snape which somehow seemed less gloomy- coincidence? maybe.
as the rest of your class filled in, you noticed that there were only a dozen of you progressing to NEWT level. sadly, that included draco fucking malfoy. harry smiled at you comfortingly as she realised who you were glowering at. "it's okay," he mouthed at you as slughorn entered the room.
the round-bellied man introduced himself, directed harry and ron to the back of the room to pick up extra copies of the prescribed text, and carried on with his idea of an impressive first class.
he walked around the room questioning the class on the potions he had prepared, only being answered by hermione whose hand hit the air well before anyone else's. as he reached the third potion, you recognised it immediately as amortentia- you had read about it in a book about potion-making history and answered before hermione could.
"that's amortentia, sir, a love potion."
"indeed it is ms. ...?"
"(y/l/n), sir," you supplied for him.
"alright ms. (y/l/n), if you could step up and tell me two characteristics and what you smell?"
you walked over to the front of the class, "it's most recognisable by it's distinct mother of pearl sheen and steam rising in spirals, sir," you paused to take a sniff but were momentarily stumped. taking another sniff you said bewildered, "i can smell morning dew on grass, sir, but nothing else."
"no matter, m'girl, take five points for your answer, and five for you too ms. granger," slughorn said without missing a beat.
you turned around to see hermione in a sort of daze and snorted to yourself, then saw almost everyone in your class with the same hypnotised look.
everyone except draco fucking malfoy.
git was leaning back in his chair pretending to examine his fingernails as if you couldn't tell he was covertly watching you.
slughorn cleared his throat as you rammed your elbow into your best friend's side to drag him back to reality and away from his daydream which you supposed was about ginny. harry glared at you as the other students refocused on potions.
the rest of the class passed in a haze as you blindly followed harry and you thought on what you had smelt- morning dew on grass. not dean thomas, your current crush. not a new car. not the familiar smell of your dad's cologne or mum's perfume. not leather or the wood of broom or coffee or any smell that you associated with your favourite people. not even- draco?
you tried to cut your sopophorous bean which promptly flew across the room- right to where the slytherins were sitting, where draco fucking malfoy was sitting. you retrieved it, purposefully slowing down a tiny bit to try to get a whiff of the blonde, wondering if you had forgotten what he smelt like.
nope, still smelt like a git.
a git whose scent threw you back to that night on the astronomy tower where he unceremoniously ended your two year relationship the day before the year ended in your fifth year.
~throwback~
"i dunno, (y/n), it's just not feeling right anymore, you know?"
"no i bloody well do not. elaborate for me," you spat at him.
you could almost see his guards go up.
"there's no reason for you to snipe at me, (y/n)"
"i'll do what i want draco. you don't give me explanations, i won't give you an explanation."
draco's face hardened as he clenched his fists- you knew he was getting riled up. good. you wanted to piss him off right now.
he took a deep breath and walked towards you, lifting his hand as if to touch you somehow but you flared your nostrils and he shoved it in his pocket.
"i don't know what to say, (y/n), it's just feeling... off," he finished lamely.
you stared at him incredulously, "you didn't seem to be feeling off two days ago when we were shaggi-"
"because we were fine then!" he said quickly.
you crossed your arms over your chest and took a step towards him with your eyes narrowing, "so in forty-eight hours you did a full one-eighty about the past two years", your voice was dangerously soft and steady, not letting on how angry you felt.
he raked his hands through his silky soft hair and shrugged.
"nothing to say anymore? alright then, i'll talk. the yule ball. two years of birthdays, anniversaries and hogsmeade trips. the countless letters from home we dealt with. the-"
"is there a point to this?" draco asked coldly.
you laughed lowly, "the point is that you seem to have forgotten two years of memories, draco malfoy. if you had a solid reason for doing this, i might not have cared so much, but the fact that you can't even give me a reason makes me realise what a coward you are. the great draco fucking malfoy can't even dump his girlfriend properly," you stepped back and gave him a once over, "pathetic."
and you left him on the tower.
alone.
when you shook out of your stupor you were at your desk. you saw harry crush his bean and followed suit. ron coughed violently over his cauldron making you look at him- but someone else caught your eye. draco was watching you.
you casually flipped him off with your eyes trained on the textbook as you flipped to the next page with your other hand.
you somehow finished your potion ending up with a milky solution rather than the clear result you should have had. you peered into hermione's cauldron which was purple, the contents of rons' resembled cement but harry's was startlingly similar to the book's description.
the four of you walked out of class with harry gripping the vial of 'liquid luck' rather tightly.
at dinner that day, ron turned to you, "so are you excited to find out who your soulmate is?"
you snorted, "i'm more excited to turn seventeen so i'll be able to apparate. i'll be getting to and from classes like that," you snapped your fingers to emphasise your point.
hermione looked at you exasperated, "you can't app-"
"apparate inside hogwart's, yes, we know," you and the boys chorused, leaving her looking quite wounded.
"c'mon (y/n), you must be excited to know who your soulmate is, i'll have to wait till next july to know," harry said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.
"i suppose i am a bit, yes, but i wouldn't have minded getting some time to date dean. i know he fancies me too but if it isn't his name on my wrist, i don't see the point of dating him," you replied.
"well it's only a week now," ron piped up.
"can't wait," you muttered.
the following week flew by in a haze of potions, defence against the dark arts, charms, transfiguration and never ending rolls of parchment for homework.
the next thing you knew it was the night before your birthday and you found yourself feeling quite nervous. you had locked yourself in your dorm an hour before midnight, wanting to be alone for when you saw the boy's name. he would get to know at the same time as you did since you were older- the pair of soulmates would get the other's name on the older one's seventeenth birthday- and you had zero inkling of who the boy could be. was he even in your year? oh god what if he was in his second year? wasn't that a question of legality?
these sort of questions raced through your mind as you paced your room, redid your bed, refolded previously folded clothes and you watched the clock steadily tick to twelve.
the second your alarm went off, the scratching began on your left wrist.
you couldn't watch. you slapped your right hand over your eyes and waited till the feeling had stopped. slowly bringing your hand down you looked at the name.
your heart stopped.
your soulmate was draco fucking malfoy.