| Puffskein
Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Canada
Posts: 2,438
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Chapter 11
The Question
The next two weeks – the last two weeks of school before the holidays and this bloody ball - were my personal hell, having to keep Draco off my back while simultaneously keeping Parkinson at bay. I didn’t get what his problem was; practically every 7th year girl was wound around his prissy finger, why couldn’t he just ask them? Isn’t it obvious I’m a hopeless case for him?
“What’re you doing?” Aurelia asked flatly, stopping in her tracks to turn around and face me. I kept moving with her so I was crouched behind her back, rather well-hidden.
“Pretend I’m not here!” I whispered back urgently. I pulled my wand out and muttered a Disillusionment charm. I looked down at myself when I did cast it; I had definitely done better before.
“Hey, Brunes.”
I peeked around Aurelia’s arm and saw Draco sauntering closer to us, his company just a step behind. He stopped before Aurelia.
“Where’s Rosa?”
She shrugged in response. “We aren’t conjoined twins; I don’t know her every move.”
Draco glared at her suspiciously. Aurelia sighed.
“Fine, she’s by the Astronomy Tower last I heard.”
“Astronomy Tower?” Draco asked flatly. He didn’t believe a word of it. I could sense Aurelia’s panic.
“Well, not actually at the tower, near it. You know? À côté.”
Draco glared at her coldly, the corner of his mouth twitching. I smirked smugly to myself, proud Aurelia managed to use a French word I taught her. Bonus for using it against Draco.
“Whatever, when you next see her just tell her someone is looking for her.”
“Who is?” Aurelia asked blankly. I rolled my eyes, mentally chuckling. Draco just looked at her in disbelief.
“She’ll know.”
“But I want to know who I’m passing the message along for. A professor? One of the students? Who exactly?”
Growing impatient, Draco scowled and stormed off, not even noticing my badly-cast Disillusionment charm as he passed, Crabbe and Goyle hurrying to catch up. Once I saw them disappear, I released the spell and stood upright. Aurelia turned around to face me.
“Well?” she pressed.
I smiled. “Great performance. Next time say I’m taking a walk along the lake with someone else. Oh, and name the first guy that comes to mind. That’ll set him right off.”
Aurelia appeared in thought for a moment, and then burst into a fit of giggles. I couldn’t help but join her when I imagined Draco sputtering gibberish, red-faced, and storming off to find an innocent guy to thrash him for ‘being alone with me’.
“That’ll be fun. But I don’t know if I could do that...” she turned around and started walking. I pushed my feet ahead to follow next to her, starting to wander aimlessly.
“Why not?” I demanded, suddenly very irritated.
“I think I’ll accidentally blow his tongue out before he finishes asking the question ‘do you know where Rosa is?’.”
We laughed together and continued wandering down the halls, eventually joining up with Daphne Greengrass and my Quidditch captain, Bryony Montague, in our aimless amble throughout the corridors. When 6pm came, we separated once more, leaving Aurelia and me heading towards the Great Hall. I stopped right in the front doorway, getting bashed into and, as a result, shoved forwards when I stopped. I spun around and looked down at the person who ran into me; a 1st year Gryffindor.
“Watch your step,” I growled at the little boy.
The kid scrambled to his feet, his eyes practically glued to the floor along with his face as he walked past me to meet back up with his friends. I then turned to scan the Slytherin table. When I didn’t see an over-groomed, greasy, fat light-blonde head, I caught up to Aurelia and sat next to her. My eyes were constantly flickering between the dinner I ate and the open doors. I made it to my first few bites of apple pie when I saw that dreaded blonde head move into the doorway of the hall. I slid right down to my knees beneath the table, taking my plate with the pie with me.
“Rosa, what’re you...?”
“Sh!” I snapped back. “Where’s Draco now?”
I looked up at Aurelia and saw she was looking out in the direction of the doors.
“Coming this way. Taking his time, as usual. Oh, he just walked right through a group of 3rd year Ravenclaws. They don’t look pleased but Malfoy doesn’t seem to care...”
I finished it as quickly as I could and slid the plate carefully back to its place.
“He’s coming around! If he looks down he’ll see you.”
“And with that said, I bid you good day.”
I slid myself carefully beneath the bench and people’s legs, crawling just inches from their feet. My eyes were carefully watching Draco’s feet as they got closer. I stopped when they were a few steps from me and held my breath. When he passed and kept going without stopping, I continued to scuttle beneath the benches. I made it to the end, continuing to crawl alongside the table while getting a few stares from the Ravenclaws and a couple of Slytherins. I hurried to the Ravenclaw table and then continued right out of the Great Hall, now people from every table looking at me.
When I was around the corner of the Great Hall entryway, I got up to my feet and ran. I ran down the corridors, down the stairs, and straight to the portrait. As soon as I passed through, I stopped momentarily, surprised to see only one person in the common room. One person I didn’t much care for next to Draco; Pansy.
“Hello.” The brunette girl got up from her seat on the black leather couch.
“Hi.” I tried to make a quick way towards the two stairs that led up to the girls’ dorms, but Pansy moved quicker, jumping right in front of me.
“I hear you’re going to this ball. That’s rather soon now, if I recall correctly.”
2 days to be exact; I wasn’t looking forward to it. It was official I was going stag; it's pathetic. Yet no one knew, everyone thought I had some secret date.
I stopped in my attempts to get around her. “Yes, I am,” I replied curtly. “What’s it to you?”
“Who are you going with?” she pressed with a sweet tone, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Not your Dracikins,” I snapped.
“Oh don’t worry, I’m very well aware you aren’t. Everyone is. What gets me is...” She stepped to her left while I tried to step right, stopping me in my tracks once more. I told myself I would give it two more tries before I release my true colours... through my wand. At her.
“What gets me is,” she repeated. “You’ve got him wrapped around your little finger...” her head cocked to the side in a cat-like mannerism. “Yet you won’t tell him who you’re going with.”
“It’s of no importance to him whom it is I chose to go out with and who I don’t,” I replied, managing to keep my voice even and calm. I emphasized this by putting my hands on my hips, looking almost stubborn.
“Well if you’re going with a guy, clearly he isn’t Slytherin. And... well, the last person to go out with someone out-of-house in Slytherin...” she paused, seeming to think it added some special dramatic effect or something. “Didn’t end up so well.”
“Is that a threat, Parkinson?” I asked flatly.
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Who’re you going with?”
“A friend.”
I turned right around and headed back to the portrait hole, but Parkinson dared to grab my arm and forcibly turn me around. I could handle the verbal assault about my potential date, but this went too far. With my other arm, I grabbed my wand and stuck it right in front of her face.
“Let. Go,” I snarled.
Parkinson’s eyes contested mine, glimmering with a hard determination. With a growl, a white light illuminated from the tip of my wand, causing Pansy to go flying backwards and into the castle wall. She slid to the ground, gasping for air as the wind was knocked out of her from the thud. I smiled to myself, proud at my work.
“I’m going. With. A friend,” I said simply. I crossed the room, passing Pansy’s twitching, gasping form to go up to the dormitories and into my room, locking the door behind me.
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Last edited by MalfoyzBeloved; 09-28-2010 at 10:12 PM.
Reason: deleting un-story-related comment
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