Birdie

Chapter 14

(A/N: So, I kind of got the timeline mixed up and didn't realise that the sectumsepra part took place way later than when I wrote it. Just go with it lol.)

Violet's PoV:

Over the years, Draco had never managed to really get to me. Sure, almost everything he had said to me was spiteful and petty, but he had never done anything that made me feel less than I was. Even the word 'mudblood' would have been easier to hear than the words he had bitterly performed for the lonely audience of just me that night.

Weeks had passed.

Every time my mind decided to torture me by replaying that scene in the tower, a flush coated my skin. It was as if someone was slowly painting me a shade of red called 'humiliation'.

It wasn't easy to piece together if Draco had told anyone about us. The kisses followed by the abrupt 'end' would make an enticing story to tell his 'comrades' surely.

Instead, I was greeted with a kind of peace. The laughter and humoured whispering I expected to occur when Slytherins were around me never came. It was like nothing had happened. What surprised me the most was that Draco wasn't rubbing it in my face either.

He wasn't doing anything.

Every time I sensed eyes on the back of my head, I knew they belonged to him. They scorched like metal bullets plunging through my skull. However, whenever I turned around to check, the back of his sand hair was the only thing staring.

The feeling of those eyes on me only intensified when Harry was working with me in class. Draco's jealousy shouldn't have been something I was drunk on, but after the way he'd treated me, I might have leaned into Harry slightly more when I felt those eyes on me again. A hand would place itself methodically on the Gryffindor's arm, and my laughter would force itself out louder than usual.

The petty side of Izzy had also made its debut in Transfiguration class. She had rather loudly lied that I had snogged Harry in a broom closet just as Draco was strutting past. Picking up on this tactic, I faked a giggle and gazed over at Harry in what I hoped was an adoring way.

Suck on that, Malfoy. Just like Izzy had very loudly insisted I would be doing to Harry when Draco was collecting an ingredient behind us in potions.

Poor Harry was only a chess piece. And Ginny seemed to dislike me quite much.

So, jealousy became my weapon but it also used its force against me.

Because there was Astoria Greengrass. Draco's betrothed-to-be.

The low tune of his deep chuckle swam and drowned itself in my unwilling ears. Astoria had her legs over Draco's lap, and his hand was acting as a garter, tracing invisible shapes onto her thigh over her skirt.

The blissful burning sensation of his fingertips felt too familiar not to feel on my own skin. As his ringed fingers stopped at her knee I too felt his fingers resting on my leg.

The unmistakable rage that clawed at me alive was only projected onto the blonde git. I was wise enough to understand that it wasn't Astoria's fault. She was as much of a pawn in the chess game as Harry was... and even myself.

After much deliberation, my sour mind had concluded that I didn't hate her. I hated him. Oh, Merlin how I hated him.

I hated everything about the stupid blon-

"Uhh, Violet?" Izzy's mouth uttered between a mouthful of potatoes.

My attention switched as quickly as a fly would move from one end of the room to another.