A Multifandom Collection of Short Stories

22: Miss Popular-Ron Weasley

"Hey Potter, how's the scar? Still hurting, Chosen One?" My brother taunts Harry as they pass each other. I laugh. Pansy shrieks in a fit of laughter.

"Parkinson, shut up will you," I say. My brother and I walk next to each other, a group of Slytherins behind us, including Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, and Millicent Bulstrode. My chin is high and my long legs stride gracefully down the corridor, my strappy black heels clicking. Hermione and Ron are walking together with Ron's sister Ginny.

"Hey Weas-OW!" Draco says.

"Keep walking," I hiss in his ear, clutching his arm in a vise-like grip. I love taunting people and humiliating them, but I draw the line at the Weasley's. And I hate it when my brother calls people Mudbloods.

"What was that for?" Draco says, rubbing his arm after I let go. If there's anyone in the school more vicious than him, it's me.

"The Weasley's have a hard enough time already. Leave them alone. Especially Ron and Ginny. Got it?"

"I got it, jeez."

I'm Hazel Malfoy. I'm a year ahead of my little brother, and Snape's favorite pupil. I excel in Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration. I play Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team, my brother plays Seeker. I'm kind of a genius, and a very big deal.

And, the truth is, I have a massive crush on Ronald Weasley.

...

It's dinner time on the same day. I'm sitting in the middle of the Slytherin table, my brother to my right and surrounded by the same band of followers. I'm chewing on a piece of treacle tart when Ron and I make eye contact across the Great Hall. I spit out what I'm chewing, and it lands I Pansy's lap, who's sitting across from me.

"What?" She shrieks, people turning toward her.

"I have to go do homework for, uh, Snape," I lie.

"Snape never gives you homework," Goyle says.

"It's more of a project." I walk speedily out of the Hall and towards the library. In sitting in there for about ten minutes when Ron, Hermione and Harry wander in. Hermione is walking in front and stops when she sees me.

"Um, we can go if you want us to," she says nervously, noting the empty library around me.

"No it's ok," I say, pulling Defense Against the Dark Arts homework out. "I'm just doing homework."

"Oh ok," she says, relaxing. The three take a table across the library. Hermione's back is to me, Ron is facing me and Harry is facing the wall. Ron's hair, in need of a trim, falls over his eye on one side. His mouth is chewing the end of his quill in concentration and there's an ink smudge on the tip of his nose. I look down and try to focus.

"What do you think she's doing here?" Hermione whispers. My ears perk up. "She's never in the library."

"She's probably gotten tired of snogging Snape to pass. Finally decided to do her work for once," Harry whispers back. I'm up at their table in an instant.

"I respect Snape and our mutual respect is what gets my good grades. More than I can say for you, Potter. He despises you. It's a surprise you haven't started taking Remedial Potions yet." I run a long fingernail along his jaw, just like my aunt would've.