(Draco)
For Draco, keeping up appearances was easy at first. Like a walk through Hogsmeade on a sunny afternoon in June. Tormenting those who he considered to be below him – for example the Longbottom boy, who Crabbe and Goyle took great pleasure in jinxing, tripping up and embarrassing – was welcome relief from the difficult task the Dark Lord had set him – which he was still having a great deal of trouble completing. With every day that passed Voldemort became more and more irate, and took his anger out on Draco through excruciating pain delivered by the Dark Mark. It made every cell in his body scream in agony and at times he found it hard to stay conscious. No longer could Draco find solace in the oblivion sleep brought about - horrifying dreams which caused Draco to awake most nights, tearful, panting and sweaty, plagued his mind. A month after his bathroom charade with Granger the small cracks in his well built façade were beginning to show.
He stopped appearing at the Slytherin table for meals in a desperate attempt to spend more time in the Room of Requirement and because of this became ever thinner; losing the physique he had built up through hundreds of games of Quidditch and rigorous middle-of-the-night training sessions with Blaise. Whispered rumours about him were being spread, but when one became too much of a threat, Draco paid a visit to whomever had started it and silenced them. Dobby, under duress, had taken in the expensive black suit Draco had been favouring more than once. Draco's cheekbones became painfully pronounced and his large blue eyes lost their devil may care sparkle. He took to showering alone at three in the morning to save himself from awkward questions which were sure to come if his house-mates had a chance to see his battered new body. His hands, to put it simply, were skeletal.
Not even Snape – who had been following around like a lost dog of late – noticed the subtle, well-disguised changes in him. No, Hermione Granger and her irritatingly high level of observance was the first to become truly suspicious. Other girls whispered as they fawned over him that he and Pansy, who was also becoming more sullen – mainly because Draco had been ignoring her frankly nauseating attempts to get back together with him –, had taken some kind of masochistic pact together. Granger was spending less and less time with Potter and Weaslebee due to his sickening new girlfriend and he had caught her staring at him more times than he felt comfortable with.
The Mudblood had taken to eyeing him from across the room in lessons they shared, wrinkling her nose whenever he winced from the regular blasts of pain which came from the Dark Lord, sighed or moved in an abnormal way. She had developed the appearance of a bushy-haired vulture. To throw her off the scent he developed a new and quintessentially Malfoy strut which he put into play whenever he caught her staring between lessons, and would wave casually and wink at her when he strolled past her in the corridors. She too would have to be silenced, he decided as he bared his teeth at her in a particularly charming grin outside double potions one afternoon.
Draco completed the frighteningly easy assignment Slughorn had set the class in the first half of the lesson, much to Granger's dismay. He smirked at the sight of her as she became ever bushier haired and frantic as the lesson wore on – her potions crown had been taken from her by Saint Potter this year, and she was determined to get it back. Draco glared at the boy, who was coolly crushing something or other with a silver knife. He proceeded to pull a spare bit of parchment from his pocket, withdrew a quill and dark green ink from the depths of his expensive leather bag and set to work.
The note took no more than ten minutes to write, and Draco was pleased with the final result. It was succinct and contained just about the right amount of venom to frustrate the bint enough to come and seek him out. He signed it with a short flourish, charmed the ink dry and folded it in a precise, neat line. Chewing his quill in thought, Draco decided it would be more in keeping with the tone of the note to address her as Mudblood, not Granger – a name she truly hated and was more likely to respond to. He scrawled the name on the front of the note, underlined it for malicious effect and slotted it in his robe pocket. Draco looked up and noticed he had Granger's attention again. He flashed the girl a smile; put his feet up on the desk and his hands behind his head in a suave and confident manner, knowing fully well of the effect it would have on her and every other floozy in the room.
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Sorry for the shorter chapter everyone, but I didn't want to drag it out more than was necessary... am going to start work on the next one now, but where should Draco hand her the note? Where do you all think will have the students talking, and where would all eyes be on Draco? A sporting event maybe? In your review tell me where you think he should hand it over and the best idea I receive will be worked into the plot. :) I've got an idea in my head, but can any of you come up with something better? Review, review, review and let me know! :3
Laura