When the two teenagers reappeared in front of the gigantic manor once more, the girl pulled them right out of the grounds again.
"Ash! What was that?" Blaise asked confused, finding them at a small clearing not to far from the Manor.
"Draco... he was.. there. In front of the door..."
"Draco?"
"Yeah."
"What is he doing here?"
"I don't know and I really don't care. I don't want to see or talk to him right now!" she said furry shining brightly in her eyes.
"Wait here. I'll talk to him." Blaise told her and apparated away, leaving his friend alone.
While Ash waited for Blaise to come back and tell her that the coast is clear, she looked at her surroundings. It was quiet a boring piece of forest. Tall pine tree's formed the clearing and in its middle the ground was rather dry and grey.
At least there's no snow Ash thought to herself as she sat down and leaned her upper body against one of the trees.
And there she waited...
and she waited...
and waited...
and waited...
and waited...
and... waited...
and... waited...
and... wai - "OK, this is taking way too long!" she grumbled and pushed herself of the ground.
Apparating back to the manors front door, her eyes grew in size as she saw what was happening here.
Blaise was straddling Draco and was punching him again and again. Then Draco managed to shift positions and he was now on top of Blaise and hitting his face as if there was no tomorrow.
"You morons! What are you doing?" Ash screamed and ran up to them. When she wanted to drag Draco away from Blaise, he lashed back his hand and accidentally smashed it against her jaw, making her fly backwards.
Shocked at first Ash touched her jaw and spat out the blood that had gathered in her mouth as she bit her tongue at the impact. Next came the anger.
Swiftly she got of the ground again and raced to Draco, body checking him off Blaise. Seeing red, she let her instincts take over and slapped Draco over and over again.
She knew she was hurting him - she's a bad ass beater! Of course every hit she dealt was heavy and precise - but she didn't care.
Draco was barely conscious, when Ash finally stopped her game of Slap-the-Draco. Tears were once again running down her cheeks and she was leaning over him, panting with exhaustion.
"Why?" she sobbed quietly, when her fury had been replaced by sorrow once again. "Why did you do this to me?"
Draco looked up at her with an emotionless face. "Why not?"
Ash looked down at him n shock. "W-w-what?"
"Why not? You weren't there, you were only spending your time with Blaise. So I ask you. Why not?"
"You didn't want me to come over to your place!"
"Of course I did! I... I ... I just didn't have time..."
"Oh please!" Ash spat at him, "as if anyone would believe that! You didn't have time because of your little affair!"
"No, there were other things that preoccupied me!"
Ash thought back to his bedroom and what she saw. "Yes... I know that," she said quietly, so quietly that Draco had to strain his ears to hear.
Strengthening her voice again by shaking the memory out off her head, she got of Draco and said, "we're over". Next she walked over to Blaise to check his condition. He was unconscious.
"Bloody hell..." she muttered stroking over his bruises softly.
"What do you mean? We're over?" a shaky voice asked her from behind.
"Is it really that hard to understand?" she asked back without turning around.
"We can't be over!" he said louder.
"Why not?" she asked mockingly.
Furious, Draco grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her up. "You can not break up with me! No one breaks up with me!" he screamed and threw her on the ground - away from Blaise.
"You come to my school, you come to my house, you steal my friends and now you what to break up with me?! I will not allow it!" he yelled at her and took a threatening step nearer to her with every word.
"I'm not asking for your permission!" Ash yelled back at him, not letting herself get intimidated by the platinum blond boy in front of her. "I'm stating a fact"
Shocked by her reaction, Draco froze on the spot. He saw the defiance in her eyes, the taunting smirk telling him to hit her, give her another reason to end their relationship.
Suddenly a moan came from behind him and Draco cursed. "This," he pointed at Ash and himself, "is not over," he said and apparated away before Blaise could fully regain his consciousness.
The rest of the holidays was... pretty quiet and uneventful - if compared to the first week.
After Malfoy's little 'escapade', Ash didn't have the gigantic urge to do a lot of things any more and Blaise was still embarrassed at how fast he had gone unconscious in his fight with Draco. Hence, the two of them mainly stayed at home, watched movie's and ate ice cream.
The only thing they did was go to the concert - to which Ash had gotten Blaise two tickets - and after a few days Blaise got her to visit Chase with him - but other then that everything stayed very boring.
Right now Ash, Blaise and Chase were sitting in the train - away from any other form of human life. The train would depart in only a few minutes, and outside of the train the families were still entering the platform, gathering and saying their goodbyes.
Our main character was starring at the wall, while her (not really) little brother was starring out of the window, watching the witches and wizards of the United Kingdom gather and her best (male) friend - who (as she knew now) had a crush on her - was reading a book.
"There she is!" Chase called jumping from his seat.
"Where who is?" Ash asked him uninterested.
"Tracy."
"Tracy!" Ash said jumping from her seat as well and starring out off the window. Sure enough, there stood Tracy. Black hair, tanned skin and a massive grin on her face. She was still standing with her parents, but you could see her looking around, searching for something or someone.
Suddenly Chase opened the window of their compartment and stuck his head out. "Tracy! We're here!" he called out to her and after a few minutes of yelling Tracy finally turned around. Her grin broadened as she saw Chase and Ash looking out of the train and waving at her.
Briskly she turned around to say ciao to her parents, gathered her stuff and off she was. Onto the train and down the corridor, running towards the compartment that she had seen her friends occupy.
"Ash!" she cried when she neared the door.
"Tracy!" Ash cried when she heard her friends call and quickly she flung the (locked) door open and embraced her friend in a gigantic hug. "I missed you!"
"I missed you too!" Tracy told her laughing while choking in Ash's grip.
Once Ash finally let go of her, she quickly hugged Chase and then Blaise. "Where are the others?" she asked when the trio closed the compartment door again and locked it.
"What do you mean?" Ash asked, temporarily forgetting about her pain.
"Um... Draco?"
Ash tensed as her friend said his name. She had not told Tracy yet... she hadn't wanted to ruin her holidays. "He - he's not going to sit here... with us..." she answered, confusing Tracy.
"What do you mean?"
Ash turned her head to look at Blaise, he could see tears in her eyes - but knew that she needed to say it herself. Therefore, he returned the gaze with a daring face.
"We... broke up..." Ash muttered just loud enough for Tracy to hear.
"You what?" she asked, sure she misunderstood.
"We broke up," Ash said louder this time.
"But why?
Ash held down a choke and sat down, her eyes looking pleadingly at Blaise.
"He cheated on her," he obliged with a sigh.
"What?!" Tracy said jumping up from the seat she just took.
"He cheated on me... with Pansy." Ash added.
Tracy looked down at Ash, eyes wide. "Oh Merlin, my dear!" she cooed and sat down next to Ash, pulling the blond girl into her arms and stroking her hair. "How - how are you?" she asked carefully.
Ash gave a dry laugh. "How do you suppose I am? I'm just peachy..." she said sarcastically, then added with a small grin, that reminded of her normal self, " well... I will be as soon as I had my vengeance."
"Your vengeance?"
"Yep. It'll be a master piece..." she said hugging her friend tightly and grinning up at her with angry tears in her eyes. "A true master piece."
Tracy watched her broken hearted friend sit on the compartment bench and read a book that she had just pulled out off her bag.
Draco had an affair with Pansy, huh? Tracy asked herself mentally, not quite believing it. Sure, if Ash told her this, it must be true... but Draco loved Ash. She had never seen him this happy before. Not when he was single, not when he flirted and sneaked away other girls every night and definitely not when he was with Pansy last year.
"I don't get it," she said out loud making the other people in her compartment turn their heads to face her. "Why would he do it? I don't get it."
Ash looked up at her with a confused face, then shrugged, "I have no idea why. But personally I'm already over the stage that I want to know why he did it."
Tracy gave her a small smile and silence began to dominate the compartment once again. This time Tracy used the quiet to observe her friends closer.
Ash was still staring at her book, but she wasn't reading it. Her eyes stayed fixed on one place, she never turned the page - however many minutes may have gone by - and Tracy could see from her tense shoulders that she was thinking hard.
Plotting, Tracy guessed silently and turned her attention to Blaise.
He was sitting next to Ash - about a meter in between their bodies - staring out of the window with a sad face. However, he wasn't looking at the scenery that swept past them. He was looking at Ash.
His body turned towards her in a 2° angle, his face harboured in his hand, his eyes planted on her reflection in the window.
He told her his feelings and she rejected him, she observed, feeling sorry for her friends.
Next she turned to look at Chase. He was the outsider in the little group. A bit like the Gryffindor's that Ash always brought along to play with.
He was hard to decipher. One year younger then the rest of them, he had the greatest potential of becoming the new 'Prince of Slytherin' once Draco was out of the picture. Many people already called him 'Crown Prince' due to that fact.
Before that year, Tracy had never really noticed him. He had been a nobody. But as soon Ash came and became his 'big sister' as he liked to call her, his reputation shot into the air and suddenly he was the most popular guy in his grade.
Is that all that binds him to her? The fear of loosing his status once again if he cuts the ties? Tracy asked herself but then shook her head. No. He may be the type of calculating parasite, but he's in this for real, she decided as she saw his calculating eyes sweep over Ash and a shimmer of pity settle in them at her sight.
Again Tracy turned to look at Ash. "Ash. What is the plan?"
Ash looked up at Tracy with a small sad smile. "I have no idea," she said laughing ironically and shaking her head in in confusion. "I have absolutely no idea," she repeated and scrunched up her face. "I'll be right back," she added before jumping up and calmly walking out of the compartment door.
When the door closed behind her, Tracy looked at Blaise confused. "Where do you think she's going?"
Blaise looked at the door with a shrug, "I guess she wants to be alone for a while."
"Do you think she'll ever turn back to herself?" Chase asked softly.
Tracy and Blaise looked at Chase, before looking at the floor in silence. Finally Blaise broke the silence. "I'm sure she will be back to normal... as soon as she is satisfied that Draco feels the same pain as her..."
"And when will that be?" Chase asked frustrated - he's been seeing the melodramatic Ash for over an week now.
"As soon as I found him and used the Cruciatus Curse on him?" Ash stated when she re-entered the compartment, surprising them all.
"You want to what?" Tracy asked shocked.
"I was joking. Patrick beat me to that one," she said sitting down again and running her hands over her face.
Sighing she looked up at the other three again. "I'm sorry for all the trouble you had to go through with me the past week," she said looking intendedly at Blaise and Chase. "I won't be such a pain once we're back in school."
"You're... You're no pain," Blaise tried to argue, but was only met with an unconvinced gaze.
"Thanks for the try, but I'm annoying even myself right now," she answered and violently shook her head.
Tracy shook her head, "You're really not a pain, but you're not yourself right now. We miss the happy-go-lucky Ash we know and love."
Ash smiled at Tracy fondly. "Thank you."
"No problem, just tell us if there's anything we could do to help you, alright?"
"Of course!"
"Alright, then how about you tell me all about that idiotic idea of racing at the Annual Broom Race!" Tracy cried with wide daring eyes that made the whole compartment laugh.
All of a sudden a loud voice boomed through the corridors, making Ash and the other jump a bit. "We will arrive in Hogwarts in thirty minutes, please be sure to be ready by then."
Grinning Ash looked at her friends, "We're home!"