Author's Note: I will be changing the perspective a lot from now, but I'm confident that you all will catch on without it hindering the story. Also, I hope you liked the small glimpse into her background last chapter. There's more to come with that, it's one of my main focuses in this story. Once again, those things you recognize as JKR's are totally not mine. Happy Reading!
"Pretty girl is suffering while he confesses everything
Pretty soon she'll figure out what his intentions were about
And that's what you get for falling again
You can never get him out of your head
And that's what you get for falling again
You can never get him out of your head
It's the way that he makes you feel
It's the way that he kisses you
It's the way that he makes you fall in love"
"Pretty Girl (The Way)"-Sugarcult
Chapter Three: The Way of Pretty Girls
The six of them plus Ron were in their common room using some Weasley and Weasley products and playing games. It was a beautiful Saturday morning in mid-September. They were enjoying the time before they needed to meet in the Great Hall for the Hogsmeade trip. Ron was playing Wizard's chess with Harry, while Hermione read in the corner. Ginny and Zacharias were actually using the twins' products (everyone still called them the twins' products even with the loss of poor Fred). Malfoy was watching the chess game waiting for his turn again, and Jordayna was spread out on one of the couches listening to a personal music charm. She was humming a tune from an American band back home. Before she knew it, she was up and dancing about the common room.
Draco stopped watching the game to watch her. She was humming and dancing around the room. Not before long, he wasn't the only one staring at her. She was making a spectacle of herself. He didn't know that she could hear the music perfectly with her charm. He just thought she was humming and dancing.
Jordayna moved around freely in a pair of dark wash jeans, a tight-fitting black tee, and some black Converse tennis shoes. She didn't care that they were all staring at her. This was one of her favorite songs. It reminded her of the city she lived in for ten years before moving here. She started to sing out loud, "But there's a light on in Chicago and I know I should be home. All the colors of the street signs...they remind me of the pickup truck out in front of your neighbor's house."
"Mallerd, what on earth are you singing?"
"A song by an American Muggle band. They totally rock!" She said as she made some sort of sign with her fingers.
"Crazy American Halfblood." He mumbled.
"Hey I resent the Halfblood part, Malfoy!" Harry shouted at him.
"Okay, crazy American better?"
"Much."
Hermione looked up from her book. "It's time to go downstairs. We have to make sure the rest of the students are lined up and ready for the trip. We still are Heads, you know."
"We know Hermione. You only remind us every chance you get." Jordayna scoffed.
"Hmmph!" Hermione said as the rest of them laughed.
They all headed to the Great Hall where they took their places with the Prefects lining up the rest of the students, collecting signed sheets, using a charm to make sure they hadn't written the signatures themselves. Normally McGonagall would do this task, but as she was now Headmistress and had six Heads, she just let them do it.
+Hogsmeade+
I was walking around Hogsmeade alone. I knew I could have been walking with the rest of the Heads or even with some of the other kids in our year, but I just felt like I needed to be alone. I wandered off to a park-like area where I sat on a bench. I had quickly used my personal music charm. I was sitting and nodding my head when Theodore Nott tapped on my shoulder.
"Seems we're all alone again Mallerd." He hissed.
"Nott, I told you the last time we met, I don't want to see you anymore." I whispered vehemently at him.
"Yeah, well that part slipped my mind. Plus, I don't like to take 'no' for an answer."
"Cliché Nott, but we're finished. We haven't been together since fifth year."
"No! You don't get to say no! You're a Halfblood; you should be thanking Merlin that I want you."
"That's funny I was thanking demons."
"Shut up stupid bint!" He yelled and lunged for me at the same time.
I tried to back away from him, but he already had my left wrist. I felt dizzy, like I was going to drop any minute. Slowly I fell. The last thing I felt was my head hitting the grass covered ground.
(Memory)
"Theo, I don't think we can see each other anymore. Everything's changing now. Cedric died at the end of last year. I know your father is a Death Eater, and I can't be mixed up with you." I told him. He had this sad puppy dog face. I couldn't help breaking his heart. I just would not let my family get involved in all of this. Their war was coming soon, and being American I could stay out of it. I just couldn't do that if I was dating one of the enemies' sons.
"But, you'll be safe with us. My father won't let harm come to something I want."
"Do you really believe that? It's not about your families. It's about Lord Voldemort's crazy plans, and none of them include anybody's happiness. Not even his most loyal followers' families. I guarantee you that you, Zabini, Crabbe, Goyle, and even Malfoy will be dragged into this before you're even of-age to use magic."
"Dayna, I want you. I get what I want." He said as he took my left wrist in his grip. He dragged me to the Room of Requirement. Inside, there was a bed covered in black sheets. Knowing how the room works, I knew what he intended to do.
He threw me down on the bed saying a binding spell. I tried hard to get my mind to say the counter-spell. It wasn't working. My mental magic had never failed me, and now here I need it the most, and it wouldn't happen.
"You won't be able to do that right now. I've given you a mind-weakening potion. Malfoy always makes them best and I took his after Snape graded it. I'm sure you thought everyone did not know about your mind tricks, but I did. You get this look right before you do something. I've noticed. When Pansy called you Halfblood trash and all of a sudden her hair was green and slimy. I knew you did it."
It was the first time in my life I had felt completely helpless. I tried to block out what he was doing to my body by using the little bit of mental magic I had left with a personal music charm. I faded into darkness as I heard, "I've given up. I'm sick of living. Is there nothing you can say? Take this all away."
I woke up hours later lying in the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey came whizzing out of her office when she noticed me sit up.
"Oh, Miss Mallerd, are you feeling okay? Miss Chang said she found you lying in a corridor. What happened? She said your clothes had been torn and you were bleeding near the waist. Clearly something foul has happened. I need to tell the Headmaster at once what has happened and I need to know who did it."
I thought about it for a moment. I did not want to bring something up between me and Nott. I knew he would just put my family in danger with his Death Eater friends.
"No Madame Pomfrey, I really can't remember."
(End Memory)
"Mallerd! Mallerd! Wake up!" I heard a familiar male voice above me.
I opened my eyes to see Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy hovering over me. I almost wished I had a camera.
"You okay Jordayna?" Harry asked. "You fainted or something here in this park. Do you know what happened?"
"No, I must have fainted from dehydration. I'm fine really." I said as I lowered my head so that Malfoy couldn't see my eyes. He would know that it wasn't dehydration. I was sure my irises were as gray as his are. I thought Nott had given up his pursuit on me when he took what he wanted in fifth year. No, even with Voldemort gone, Theodore Nott still believed he deserved me. Why oh why was I put into Slytherin?
(Memory)
McGonagall had called my name. I went up to the stool. McGonagall placed the hat upon my head. It spoke.
"Another Mallerd, eh? Let's look around here. Seems that you could be put in any of the four houses. You're very brilliant and studious so you could easily be a Ravenclaw like your father. However you're incredibly brave too. This alone could make my decision Gryffindor. You also have a tolerance for everyone around you, making you a great candidate for Hufflepuff. However, you have a lot of cunning and devious in you too. I think you'd be perfect for…SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted as McGonagall lifted it off my head. I joined the Slytherin table. I was so excited that as soon as I got to my dungeon dormitory I wrote my father. He would want to know right away!
(End Memory)
She was lying. I could tell the moment she opened her eyes that something had been wrong. They were probably as gray as mine. Plus she had hid herself when she realized I was with Potter. She was probably regretting giving me that little breakdown of her eye changes. Either way I was not going to leave her alone about it. There's no way I could not know what made her eyes that color. They were grayer than the day she came down after having cried. Something was up with her.
I could hear her crying in her room. I was standing inside the bathroom preparing myself to knock. I don't know if I was pushing my boundaries as a friend, but I was still going to do this.
I knocked.
"Go away Malfoy! I'm doing homework!"
"No you're not Mallerd! You're crying and I bet it's about whatever happened in Hogsmeade today!"
She opened the door a little. I could see she was wearing her orange ensemble again, but what caught my attention the most was in the middle of her red puffy eyes were completely ice-gray irises.
"Malfoy, I'm fine really." She sniffed a little as she said it. "Nothing happened."
"Mallerd just let me in. I'm not going to leave you alone until I know what's wrong. It's the Malfoy in me. I get what I want." I told her. Her eyes got wide at my last statement as she started to bawl. "What did I say? Don't cry. I'm sick of all this crying your doing. Just tell me what is bloody wrong."
She shook her head, but she did open the door farther as if granting me permission to come in. So I did. Her room was messier than the last time I was allowed in it. Like she had taken everything in the room and thrown it around in a fit of emotional breakdown.
"I can't fight with you." She mumbled as she looked to me. "I just don't have any more fight in me today. You can come watch the pathetic American Halfblood cry. Maybe it will give you something to gloat about tomorrow."
"I would never gloat about you crying. I thought we had become friends. The war is over. I've learned that I was wrong all those years ago. I've spent time with Granger and realized that Mudblood really is a dirty word. I've figured out that you are a tortured soul and from what, I have no idea."
Her mouth dropped.
"I noticed after you mentioned your eyes every time they went gray. And I think you're right, I'll never see what emerald green is, because I haven't yet."
She sat down on her bed, and that's when she started to really cry loud heart-wrenching sobs. The only thing I could think to do was hold her, so that is what I did.
An hour later she had cried herself to sleep completely in my arms. Her breathing evened out in deep full breaths. It was a comforting sound, until something kicked me hard. Within moments I realized she was having a nightmare. Being the curious person I naturally was, I put my wand to her temple and removed a strand of silver. Immediately she calmed down. I laid her gently on her pillow, pulled the covers up to her chin, and then took the silver string connected to my wand back to my room. I had a pensieve there that I could put the nightmare in.
I gently set it in the pensieve, and almost put the bowl away when I couldn't help myself but look inside it.
I saw her and Theodore Nott. They were arguing. She had just told him that all of us Slytherins were going to end up doing Voldemort's bidding. How she knew it, I don't know but it was true, and he had the faded Dark Mark to prove it. Some people at the Ministry were looking for a way to remove it permanently but until then I will continue to ignore it. It was then that I noticed the scene in front of me; Nott had just said "I get what I want," and grabbed her left wrist quite tightly. I followed him dragging her to what I knew as the Room of Requirement. Inside was this disgustingly lavish bed where he threw her down. I pulled myself out of the pensieve. I knew what was going to happen, and couldn't bear to watch more. I balled my fists at my side. Nott would not get away with this. Is that why she had fainted in Hogsmeade, had he done that to her again? I didn't know, but I was going to be damned if Nott tried it a third time. I left the pensieve in the middle of my room and went back to hers. She was still lying where I left her. I looked back to my room and made a quick decision. I just hope she didn't beat me in the morning.
I woke up confused. There was an arm draped around me. It was clutching me close. I was pressed up against an abdomen. My heart started to race. Where was I and who was holding me? Did Nott find me again and bring me to his place? I tried to squirm away.
"Hey what's the big idea Mallerd?"
"Malfoy?"
"Yes. You fell asleep on me and I really couldn't get you off of me, so I obliged."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I fell asleep, but I never sleep.
"I don't sleep. I mean I really don't sleep. Ever."
"Well you did last night. You were completely still."
I don't know why, but that made me feel better. I shouldn't feel better being close to this part at all, but I was. Not only that, but where he was holding me my skin felt flush.
A small mewing noise came from the bottom of the bed. I tilted my head down, and Gem came crawling up to us. She curled up next to Malfoy's arm around my waist and started to purr. My cat's as much of a traitor as I am. We may be Slytherins but we weren't supposed to like Draco Malfoy, and here we were in bed with him. That final thought startled me to the point of whipping around to face him.
"Malfoy, did I say anything in my sleep?" I asked him. What if he knew what happened between me and Nott? Oh I was going to throw up.
"No, you just slept."
It wasn't exactly a lie Draco thought to himself. She didn't say anything. She did bloody kick him though. It didn't bother him as much as it should have. He enjoyed lying next to her all night. At one point she had woke him up when she shifted her back side against him. It had caused him to enjoy lying with her that much more. She turned back around in his arms. The cat that he was not even sure he liked curled back into his arm. He could smell her shampoo from her strawberry-chocolate locks. It smelled of coconut and citrus. It made him want to kiss her hair. However he stopped that thought before he acted on it.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Jordayna! You said that you would help me with my essay for Potions today! It's after noon so I figured it would be okay to ask." A familiar voice came through the door.
"Oh that's right Harry! Give me ten minutes and I'll be down."
"Okay thanks." He answered through the door. Draco became visibly aggravated.
"I promised him Malfoy. It's not like you actually enjoy laying here with me. You've told me so yourself, you just obliged my sleeping form. Now if you would please, I have to get dressed."
He got up. Jordayna's expression changed immediately upon seeing him in black sweat pant-like pajama pants and green t-shirt that hugged his abdomen. His blonde hair was swished this and that way from sleep. She hurriedly covered up her excitement for him before he faced her.
"Maybe you can help me with my essay too."
"Oh please you know that you and Hermione compete for top spot in potions, you don't need my help."
"True, maybe I can help you and Potter."
"Sure. And hey Malfoy?"
"What?"
"Thanks."
"Pleasure's all mine." He said as he exited through the bathroom to his own bedroom.
