Murder to Malfoy - D.MALFOY

[25]

Ivy had quit one cigarette a day. When the day began, she took one out of her usual ration for the day and gave it to Fin, who kept them somewhere and would use them to refill a new pack for her to wean off of. It was a tricky and confusing business but it seemed to work, at least for a few days.

Without the extra nicotine though, or the time that a smoking break usually took up, Ivy found herself bored while her mind ran uncontrollably. She wasn't sleeping well either, since the awful dreams had decided to set in again. The picture of those nightmares followed her around all day and she became a different version of herself because of them. One that avoided conflict at all costs during the mornings and often started it in the evenings. But Fin and Blaise were patient with her, knowing that it could not be easy. In fact the two of them were rather proud of her for making the small change in a dependency she had had for months.

-

After class one evening, Ivy sat in the common room in front of the fire and read the only book she read year-round. It constantly lay on her bookshelf, just staring at her. Normally she managed to resist until around august but this year, she couldn't resist reading it during March. Footsteps echoed vacantly in her ears, footsteps of passing students onto lessons or ones off to their rooms for some sort of peace during the day. She did not hear the ones that approached her, nor did she hear the ones that left the circle of chairs around the fire. She heard someone clear their throat though, saying, "Take him and cut him out in little stars-"

"And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with the night and pay no worship to the garish sun," she interrupted, citing the book perfectly without even looking up from her page. She glanced up, smirking softly and prideful and found Draco staring at her in puzzlement, brow raised.

"You're on the first act," he muttered, looking down to the pages she had read through while running a hand through his hair.

"Bold of you to assume I haven't read this before," she sighed deeply, pulling her legs underneath herself on the sofa. She turned the page of her book, pen balancing in between her teeth.

He watched her in intrigue, trying to figure out what was going on in her mind. In fact he had been doing so for a few days now, having gotten some suspicion off a typically good night's sleep where he woke up with a hair that definitely did not belong to any of the boys in the room. "Read? More like memorised."

"I read it every year and reannotate with a different coloured pen," she responded, adding some sort of note to the book as she spoke. He leaned forward from the opposite side of the sofa, skim reading a few of these annotations.

"Can I borrow it?"

"Hell no," she scoffed, laughing at the same time at the pure absurdity of the request. No one was allowed to touch that book, not even her inner circle of trusted humans. Meline was the only one allowed to borrow it, they shared a love for the book and often exchanged copies to read the other's view on certain things.

He clicked his tongue behind his teeth, a teasing sound when paired with the slight smirk playing on his lips, " Not even for a trade?"

"It's my most prized possession and I don't trust you with it," she sighed out of annoyance, carefully shutting the book as she pushed the pen behind her ear. "You ruined my focus, again."

"Maybe I just have that effect on you Cadieux," he chuckled annoyingly, leaning back in his seat as his eyes flicked her up and down. She saw something behind them then, a great suspicion that had her wondering whether he knew something or not.

"In your dreams," she laughed, attempting to brush off the suspicion mixed with panic that had flooded through her like waves that crashed at her feet and made her head dizzy little laugh. She stood and quickly left the room, taking deep breaths to control her thoughts as she walked up the stairs. She wanted the second to last cigarette for that day, saving the last one for before she went to sleep in the hopes it would affect her dreams. She knocked on her bedroom door, knowing that Fin was inside and had had their partner round that evening, "Hey, Fin?"

"Armadillo!" a yell came from inside the room. It was a codeword they had had since fifth year and only the three of them knew what it meant, Blaise, Ivy and Fin had wanted to avoid any walk-in situations so they had about eight different codewords ready to go. Ivy chuckled then head back down the stairs, figuring that she would just have to suck it up and deal with Malfoy for a few hours - for Fin's sake. She sighed when she entered the commons, finding him sitting exactly where he had been before instead he was stretched out now, one leg crossed and resting over the top of the other knee.

"Couldn't stay away huh?"

"Fin's got dibs on the room," she shrugged, shoving his leg out of the way before she retook her seat on the sofa. She settled herself as he near fell off the sofa, having had his leg completely go out from underneath him, and peacefully covered herself over with a blanket whilst he glared at her. "Do not talk to me."

He paired the glare with a fully contrasting smirk, "Why would I deprive you of my amazing self?"

She looked up from the pages of her book, staring him down, "Shut up or I will throw you out of that window."

"It's-" he began but soon stopped as her glare intensified. He chuckled nervously and went back to staring at the fire for a while. Ivy read silently, adding little notes to nearly every single page that she turned. Draco glanced at her as she read, watching how her eyes quickly scanned the page and how her lip tugged up in a smile during certain parts. He also felt his gaze wandering down to her hand, staring at the signet ring on her finger. Her relatively shaky finger. He raised a brow, wondering what had exhibited such a reaction out of her body. It seemed Ivy was getting frustrated with it as she constantly switched hands, eventually letting it lay underneath the blanket and out of sight.

About half an hour later, Malfoy hadn't disturbed her once, Ivy happened to look up just as Blaise walked through the commons. He stopped and blinked, trying to figure out what was going on as she marked her page. Draco and Ivy sat on the same sofa, her legs covered by a blanket that partly covered his thigh while she read and had not killed him. There wasn't anyone around, he thought it would have been a fine opportunity. Ivy didn't think so, she didn't want to risk getting blood on her book, plus anyone could walk through at any given time.

She cleared her throat as she stood up, quickly walking over to him and looking hopeful. She needed some sort of distraction and desperately wanted something sugary to eat. Maybe cake, chocolate cake from the bakery in Hogsmeade. "Want to go get food?"

He smiled, snapping out of the thought from before, "Can Luna come too?"

"Obviously. Third-wheeling is my trademark at this point," she sighed, fakely wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye.

"What about Fin?" he asked, concern flooding through his mind.

"They're busy," Ivy chuckled, brow raised suggestively.

"Armadillo?" he asked quietly and she nodded, laughing quietly. Blaise laughed too and draped an arm over her shoulder, side hugging her as they walked out of the common room and toward Ravenclaw tower. What she didn't see though was Draco leaving soon after, heading up to his loud room.

With it being March in Scotland, the weather was either freezing or sunny. Today, well that evening, it had decided to gall into a freezing spell. Ivy was wrapped up warm, having had a chill anyway. But Luna had forgotten her coat and jumper in all the excitement of going to get pastries. So she borrowed Blaise's spare one, which he always carried in a pocket with an undetectable extension charm since she often needed it.

"Ivy, is that Draco's ring?" Luna asked when they were about halfway to the bakery. Ivy smiled softly as she lifted up the ring, feeling suddenly very prideful about possessing it. It was a major defiance of the sexist laws and she loved it for that.

"We made a trade," she shrugged, choosing to blatantly ignore Blaises look of confusion and Luna's look that she couldn't quite figure out as the two walked hand in hand. "Now hurry up lovebirds, I want my chocolate cake."