The Serpent Princess (Draco Malfoy)

FIFTEEN- ANGER PROBLEMS AND NEW IDEAS

The great hall luminated with vibrant, flashing lights that ran all the way along the gigantic walls that stood within it. The Christmas tree stood tall, taller than Hagrid in fact and held the most colourful baubles that were nearly as big as I am. Christmas at Hogwarts is surely a sight to behold- if I was a muggle, it would be the closest thing that I would think of that could give any hope of magic. 

We have one week until we will all disperse for the Christmas holidays and everyone seemed to be electrified as they sat in groups chatting away about their plans for this year, but as always I just listen. I expect that this year will be the same as those previous: Christmas eve will be spent at the Malfoys, and Christmas day will be spent just my father and I at my house. I'm not upset about it though, I'm used to it... it's been the same my whole life.

I usually tend to try and make the most of my last few weeks at Hogwarts before the break and treat it as my version of Christmas, like a child playing make believe. I'm going to have a lot of questions to answer when we leave here next week and to be completely honest, I'm no where near ready to do so. But I do have an idea. 

Draco, Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, Goyle and I sat at our usual spot on the Slytherin table, sipping from our goblets in which contained something a bit stronger than pumpkin juice, but the professors don't need to know that of course. 

"And then...and then she...and she" Pansy struggled to breathe as she fell into a fit of giggles in an attempt to tell a story, I wasn't listening to the first bit. She took another sip of her drink, all of us surrounding watching in amusement as she tried to calm herself down. "And then she fell all the way from the top to the bottom, no bumps along the way, just a smooth glide down it" my eyes widened in realisation as to what she was talking about. Bringing my palm to my face I burst into a fit of laughter, remembering the story of when I fell down the entire hill from Hogwarts down to Hagrid's hut in third year. We were on our way to care of magical creatures class, Pansy and I were fucking about and the slight push that she had intended ended up in me doing flying lessons. Without the broom. 

"I didn't find it funny" Draco spoke after nearly two hours of us being there, he took his head out of his hands and looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. He's not over exaggerating either, he did not find it funny at all; Pansy had boils on her face for a month. I rolled my eyes "Oh come on, it's three years later. It was fucking hilarious" I nudged him gently, a smile plastered on my face. His eyes softened as he started to chuckle at the memory "see, you do find it funny" our laughter increased slightly as we both accidentally egged each other on, once we had both calmed down I looked in front of me once again, confused by why I hadn't heard a peep from the others. They all sat, looking at us with wide eyes. 

"is there something on my face?" I suddenly felt very insecure, why is everyone staring at me like I've just murdered their father? Blaise shook his head no, Goyle followed suit, as well as Pansy who laughed nervously along with it. Crabbe however, said (very obnoxiously loudly may I add) "that's the first time we've seen you two laugh in over two months" He took a bite of his chicken drum stick " We was starting to think you'd lost all emotion completely" he chewed happily, mouth wide open.

I felt my body go cold, it was bound to happen that people would notice the change in Draco and I, after all- I don't feel like myself, therefore meaning that I am not acting like myself so the people closest to me are going to naturally notice the change. I just didn't really expect anyone to point it out. I opened my mouth to defend myself, but Draco beat me to it.

"Nonsense, that isn't true at all" His platinum locks trying to break out of the gel as he shook his head. Pansy leant over the table, putting her hand on mine, speaking softly "is Snape putting too much pressure on you with Potions? You're the best in our year there mu-" without even thinking I snatched my hand out of hers, uttering a moody "I'm going to bed" and with that, I downed the last of my Vodka, feeling it lace it's way through me, burning my insides and instantly bringing a sense of warmth to my whole body. I firmly placed my goblet back down on the table and stood up, allowing my body to carry me away.