Murder to Malfoy - D.MALFOY

[29]

"You ready for this?" Fin asked, smiling brightly as Ivy turned over her very last packet of cigarettes in her hand.

"No," Ivy laughed softly, half clutching onto the pack with some sort of remaining desperation. She truly wanted to quit, so much so that she had sped up her own weaning off the nicotine just because she learned to hate the habit. She didn't know whether Fin had finally conditioned her to hate it due to their constant negative comments but she hated it all the same. Ivy sighed and handed over the box, reluctantly placing it into their palm. In exchange, they fave her a rather large packet of nicotine gum. "This stuff is rank," she grimaced.

"You don't have to have it you know," Fin chuckled as they slipped the packet, only counting about three cigarettes, into their pocket She didn't know where they were going but knew that she would not see them, nor her supplier, again.

She chuckled sarcastically, pulling the box of gum open. "The stupid patch doesn't work." She popped the piece in her mouth, frowning as the slight peppery taste started to fuzz her tastebuds."I'm going to go for a walk, want to come with?"

"Nope, it's too cold," Fin replied quickly as they walked to their side of the room, wrapping a blanket around their shoulders.

"It's literally sunny.'' Fin simply shrugged, before walking over to their desk to finish the essay they had almost fallen asleep writing the day previous. Ivy simply walked out of the room after that, knowing that they wouldn't be convinced and she had started to fall into the mentality where she simply didn't want to talk to anyone. It came and went most of the time, more frequently now since Antony, but she just got into these moods where talking to people seemed to be one of the worst things.

She walked through the common room, eyes trained on the floor in front of her so no one got the idea of talking to her. Only she looked up when a pair of plain black trainers stopped in front of her, her eyes just simply seemed to have a mind of their own and decided to do the one thing that she definitely didn't want right now. There stood Malfoy, looking oddly sweaty and dishevelled. His chest rose more frequently than usual, breath heavy as a few strands of his hair clung to his head in various places. She stopped dead, eyes trailing up his body before they met his gaze.

No words came from either of them.

Instead, it was this intense glaring, tension so thick that it seemed to swallow all the air from the room. Her chest heaved, breath quicked. His glare turned deadly, fixed directly between her rather empty eyes as they just waited for the other to break the silence. She didn't want to do it because of the whole not wanting to talk to people thing and he just didn't want to be the one to initiate conversation. They hadn't so much as talked for three days, since the murderous confrontation. Not a single sarcastic comet or snide remark. It wasn't like they were hiding from each other, they ran into each other all the time but not one word was uttered between them.

She cleared her throat, deciding to get one up on him again since she hated feeling like he had more power over her. She furrowed her brow in confusion, gaze dipping down to the muscles visible due to the tightness of his shirt around his arms, "Are you normally up this early?"

"Yeah, morning runs," he shrugged, hiding away his widened eyes. The silence befell them again, the tension only intensifying until he asked, "How are you...?"

She chuckled nervously, looking down at her half beaten trainers, "You're asking me how I am? Seriously?"

"I don't know, it's kind of hard to figure out how to act around you given that you plotted to kill me since way before Christmas," he bit back, voice laced with such sarcasm that the sudden change in his tone had her stepping back every so slightly.

"Since school started, technically," she responded, clicking her tongue softly." But we have to act normal, it's less suspicious that way."

He raised a brow, looking straight into her eyes as he whispered back, "What snide remarks and sometimes, rarely, decent conversation?"

"Exactly that," she grinned, then smothered it away with her lips once he was not looking. It felt odd, their dynamic. Everything was out on the table, he knew about her wanting (more like yearning) to kill him yet the situation seemed oddly comfortable. Like some of the anger that always flooded between them had sunk away. Like the light of a weakening candle slowly, but then all at once.

"This is fucking insane," he scoffed, looking to the ground in order to avoid looking in her eyes or down to the necklace that hung loosely around her neck. He did however notice a flinch in her hand when the final word left his mouth and furrowed his brow instinctively.

"You're telling me, this is not what I had planned whatsoever," she half chuckled, pulling an arm across her body as she half hugged herself to release some of the anxiousness developing in her stomach.

He sighed deeply, picking at the hem of his jacket sleeve, "So did you-"

"Morning gorgeous," Blaise interrupted, having just walked into the common room. He smiled and hugged Ivy tight, glad that she hadn't mysteriously disappeared like in his dream. "Did you give them to Fin?"

"I did, they wouldn't let me leave without doing so," Ivy laughed briefly, happiness swelling in her stomach at the prideful look on Blaise's face. She hadn\t seen that since well... he had found out about her murderous tendencies. She should probably tell him about that as soon as possible, Ivy had a tendency to forget small things like that.

Blaise smiled, "So you've officially quit then?"

"Hopefully it'll stick, this gum sucks ass though," she complained, grimacing just for effect as she became re-aware of the person standing just behind her. Draco raised a brow at her having quit smoking (he thought she wouldn't manage that for a long time honestly, she seemed far too dependent on it) then disappeared upstairs again, hopefully to go and shower.

Blaise raised a brow, whispering, "Weird interaction..."

She shrugged, looking to the side of her where he had stood before, "Nothing that isn't normal." A funny statement when all she could think about was the look in his eyes, that certainly wasn't usual.

A second of silence passed then Blaise raised a brow, looking her coat up and down. "Where you off to?" he asked, suspicion furrowing a singular brow.

She smiled briefly, grateful for the reminder subject change, "For a walk, maybe down to the greenhouses and back, want to come with?"

"It's cold," he frowned, wondering why she would want to go for a walk so early in the morning. He had just about hated walking past an open window when coming back from Ravenclaw tower only moments ago.

"Alright then," she shrugged, quickly walking out of the common room before someone followed after her. Truth was, she had only offered to invite Blaise and Fin with her because she knew that they would both deny the offer. She had plans of her own and their presence would ruin those plans.

As soon as she stepped out of the castle, Ivy inhaled deeply and found that the wind did have a slight chill. The morning walk, a tradition that began with her father, kept her mind from the cigarettes. Fresh morning air was definitely better for the body than the cigarettes.

Ivy walked outside alone and found it to be a little colder than she had suspected it to be, not as cold as the other two made it out to be though. She walked down to the greenhouses, checked her surroundings, then darted in the direction of her secret smoking place. When she arrived there, she sat down in the grass and pulled her very last cigarette out of her robes. Now Fin believed that she had given all of the remaining ones to them but that wasn't the case. Ivy wanted to smoke the last one in peace and alone, just as a reminiscing act that she felt gave her some back some sort of power. So she silently smoked, relishing in the sweep clean the nicotine did on her mind for the very last time. Without the constant want to murder, the constant plotting, she didn't really need to block anything from her mind any longer. Instead, she would feel it all and try to implement it into daily life.