The Malfoy Project

𝟓𝟗 - 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲'𝐬 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥

     Rejecting Graham Montague's offer was more difficult than expected. His smile fell like a stone in the river, his eyes wide and woeful as he implored me for a reason.

     I told him the truth, as gently and politely as I could, that Cedric Diggory had asked me, and that he was my best friend so I had to go with him. He couldn't very well argue with that, and had no choice but to accept it, crestfallen and dejected.

     In the following days, Cedric had come to me often wanting to talk about the Tournament. Arduously, I forced myself to shut up and listen for once. He had come up with all these fantastical ideas of what the challenges would be, and how he would go about beating them.

     Most of his solutions involved obscure, unfamiliar spells I didn't think he'd known of, or clever tricks he couldn't characteristically have devised on his own. But he was so hopeful, so eager, that I could not find it in me to question them, even for the sake of playing the devil's advocate. So I shackled the little argumentative monster within me and plastered on a silent, encouraging smile.

     And maybe some part of me did believe he would win. I had to. The entire school was rooting for him, most even preferring him over Harry, so that had to mean Cedric was indeed capable, and it wasn't just his own delusions of grandeur, right?

     It was just harmless games, I reminded myself over and over. The professors were there watching. Dumbledore had safety protocols in place. I was obsessing over nothing. So I smiled.

     I smiled even when the dragon nearly fried him to a crisp and I sat all night by his bed in the hospital wing, repeating the words he'd often said to me in times of distress. "I'm here. It'll be alright. You're doing good."

     I smiled when, on the day of the Yule Ball — after spending two hours making sure my dress looked right and my makeup teetered the perfect line between natural and done-up — I saw him standing at the foyer with his arms around Cho Chang's waist.

     I smiled when he saw me and his expression was one of shock, as if he'd just remembered we were supposed to go together. As if I had not been on his mind when Cho approached him three days before saying she'd decided to go with him after all.

     "Sorry, I forgot to tell you," he said, scratching his head sheepishly. "You could still go with Montague, right? I don't think he's found anyone yet. Or you could... you could come with Cho and I. Couldn't she, Cho?"

     "Of course," agreed Cho, but there was a repressed reluctance in the curl of her smile only another girl could pick out. So, like a good, supportive, and unproblematic friend, I smiled and said, "It's alright. I'll be fine on my own."

     Ernie found me in the darkness of the courtyard when he came out to sneak a smoke. "That's rough," he said unsympathetically when I explained why I was alone. "I say you go back in and show them you're having a good time."

     "But I'm not."

     "You will," he said. "'Cause you're going with me now."

     He escorted me back in, his jacketed arm looped tightly around mine. Montague and several other Slytherin boys were huddled at the snack table by the doors and spotted us when we entered.

     "Spreading yourself a bit thin, don't you think, Ainsley?" Urquhart called after me gleefully, earning from Montague a rough jab in the ribs and a hissed "Shut the fuck up!" 

     Ernie flipped them off and dragged me onward. "Ignore them. Montague probably had to tell them you turned him down, so they think they're looking out for their mate. Funny, since they all haven't got dates themselves."