The black dress fit her like it was made just for her. The black satin hugged her figure nicely, without being too much for her age. It had thin straps almost at the beginning of the shoulders, and a straight neckline. She had never worn anything like that, she had never owned a dress. Mrs Diggory had insisted on giving her money to buy something nice, and she hadn´t been able to reject it, she was too excited. It was still a few months before the Yule Ball, but Violet had suggested they needed to go early to get the good dresses.
"Oh my god, El, that´s the one!" Violet said as soon as she had tried it on.
"You think?" she asked, absorbed by the sight of herself in the mirror for a second. She felt older, more mature. She felt beautiful.
"Yes!"
"Cedric is going to love this" she said.
"Has he asked you yet?" Violet asked, putting on a strapless soft blue gown.
"No, but I honestly don´t think he has to. We are dating. It´s no brainer that we would go together!" Ellie shrugged.
"What if Draco asks you? That would be funny, imagine Cedric doesn´t ask you because he thinks it´s a given and you show up with Draco."
"Funny wouldn´t be the word I´d use. But Draco wouldn´t, he hates me, remember?" Although she knew this wasn´t true and was aware of the reasons behind Draco´s behaviour, it was still a crazy idea to even consider the possibility of Draco asking her. It had been a week since he had come up to her, and they still hadn´t talked. Had it not been for the smell of Draco on her on the next morning she would have thought it had all been a dream.
"He doesn´t hate you, silly, he´s just going through an angsty phase – This dress is gorgeous, what do you think?" Violet was wearing a long blue dress with a princess cut.
"You really look incredible, Vi"
"We are going to kill it!"
"Shall we come next week to get them?"
"Yeah, I still need to save up a little more"
Back at Hogwarts, Draco was continuing his reign of terror that had been going on for the entire week. Some kind of rage had possessed him, and no one was safe from being picked on by him. It didn´t surprise most people, that was the normal Draco, what had been odd was how calm he had been.
"Are you seriously crying? Are you a fucking baby?" he mocked, his arms crossed on his chest, staring down on the boy.
"I´m- I " the boy stuttered, and took a step back to join in his friends, that were standing back in an attempt to escape Draco´s attack.
Crabbe and Goyle were behind Draco, with a satisfied smirk on their faces and genuine enjoyment. They had missed this Draco, and now they were all having fun again.
"Do you even know how to speak? Get out of here, come on"
Like birds escaping after a loud sound, the second years ran away from the scene. Draco turned to his friends, proud of himself on the outside, but drained on the inside from having to keep up the appearances. The truth was all he wanted to do was sit by himself on bed and escape from everything ; from his dad, from Ellie and Cedric, from everyone who was expecting something from him.
"Good one, Draco" Crabbe congratulated.
"Hi" a voice greeted, standing on the wagon´s doorstep. The old wood creaked under his feet, and its sound with the movement of the train was louder than the voice of the kid.
Elizabeth startled turned to look at the intruder, a blonde guy who was observing her, almost as surprised as she was.
"Hello" she said.
"Elizabeth Fern?" he asked, but it sounded more like a statement.
"Yes" she answered confused.
Taking it as an invitation to sit, Draco posed his bags on the seat in front of her and sat next to them, giving a signal to the guys that were with him to leave.
"I´m Draco Malfoy"
"That must be exciting for you…" Ellie answered, weirded out by the situation and continued looking at the window, just assuming he wasn´t very good at making friends and knew her for some reason. Draco didn´t catch the sarcasm in her voice.
"So, you know who I am, I assume." He continued.
"No, what - what are you doing, are you going to sell me something?" The girl asked, used to door to door sellers back in the muggle house she had been living in for the past few months.
"What?"
"What?" Elizabeth responded, now slightly amused.
"I´m Draco Malfoy, my mother knew your mother. She thought it would be nice of me to introduce myself." He finally explained.
"Oh, okay, Merlin, why did you have to make it so weird?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don´t know, you talk like an old man it was weird." she commented.
"I´m being nice" he groaned, in utter confusion by the interaction.
"In your own way, I guess" Elizabeth agreed.
What was he supposed to say now? Draco wondered. That was the point to which his mother had told him. How do you become friends with someone? He never had to put effort in, friends came to him because of his position. He was a Malfoy, he didn´t try, people tried with him.
"What´s your favourite colour?" he asked, innocently.
Elizabeth chuckled, staring at him in disbelief. If there was something she knew of, was making new friends. She was basically forced to meet a new family every few months and she was good at getting along with people, though she was not trying very hard with Draco in that moment.
"You´re funny." She decided.
"And you are incredibly rude." He said. He had never been disrespected like this; his friends kissed the ground he stood on.
"Calm down, I´m just messing." She said with a smile. "My favourite colour is red, what´s yours?"