Cut.

Chapter 19 | Nicole

Edited: 2/9/2021

Nicole.

"Is this seat taken?" came Amy's voice from my right. I rolled my eyes and shrugged as she took the vacant seat next to me. "I need you to hear me out..."

"About what?" I asked, not looking at her, and glancing around the Great Hall. "How your fucking with Ron's mind, Harry's heart?"

Amy finally seemed to have snapped, which for some odd reason, brought a smile to my face.

 That's when the realization hit me, what I was doing, was making Amy grow up, to shove back.

 Be an actual Deatheater, or independent human being, and shove me around.

"Look, you're fucking with Draco's heart and you're leading him on. This whole thing is fake and you have the nerve to sit there and call me a tease? No!" she smirked, shaking her head and rising to leave, but froze when she heard me giggling. "What's so fucking funny?"

"You finally stood up for yourself." I smiled, without releasing my whole idea. I whipped my mouth and nodded. "Listen, I don't understand what you're doing with Harry, but whatever it is, be nice and careful."

Amy's defenses seem to drop as we heard a slam over at the Slytherin table and Elena stormed out of the Hall to run into Snape in the corridor.

"As far as my friendship with Elena - " started Amy, as I found myself doing something I had never actually done before. I held my hand up to silence her and I found a grin across my lip when I said this next line;

" - Don't stress about Elena, shes actually pretty cool." I grinned, playing with some food between my teeth with my tongue. "We talked already." I nodded at Amy's confused look. "As for you - "

" - no, as for you..." sighed Amy, sitting back down. "...you don't need to do this thing with     Draco - "

" - as a matter of fact I do." I spat, rising this time and she stood right back up. "I have to do this Amy, no matter the explanation, I can't express it. I'm also going with him to that stupid Slughorn Christmas Party next month."

"What!?' she gasped, almost shouting. "You can't!"

"Why not?" I asked, crossing my arms across my chest.

She hesitated, I knew what it was for, she was trying to defend Elena, without exposing her secret. 

I just shook my head and giggled and shoved past her. "Don't worry about it." I muttered.

The Hogsmeade trip was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. Draco was more of a gentlemen than I thought he was going to be.

Our night started to wrap up when we were at the Three Broomsticks, talking about our families, well...his family.

We were howling in laughter as he explained something he did as a child. It was quite hilarious, but as this night drew on, I felt a major tug of guilt across my heart and mind. Elena had a huge crush on this guy and here I was, tugging me away from her.

Its your job.

I whipped some tears away as I sipped on some butterbeer as he continued the story, he kept repeating that he was serious, and I believed him.

Its your job to do this, you absolutely have to do this in order to keep everything the way it is. To protect Harry, to protect yourself.

"...anyway, my mother, to do this day, can't get the stain out of the rug." He sighed, after laughing himself. "Any stories from your family?" He asked, sipping on his butterbeer.