Murder to Malfoy - D.MALFOY

[32]

During one of the last potions lessons of the year, since most of them were overtaken by exams, Ivy and Draco had been paired together to make a rather dangerous brew. Snape was a royal asshole who only split Fin and her up because of a slight distraction their joint laughter bought. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal if he didn't stop the entire class to tell them both off then spilt them up with other partners. Ivy got thrown to the wolves, or snake so to speak, while Fin ended up with their loving partner. Ivy believed her luck to be screwed with the fullest sense of the word, fully awful like it had always been. Snape seemed to find some sort of weird joy in it though, which just aggravated her even further.

So Ivy begrudgingly watched as Malfoy brewed the potion, reading his book twice before adding any ingredient. He would meticulously weigh out every single part then throw it in as if it was done carelessly. She found that oddly entertaining and found herself unable to draw her gaze away from the careful planning and focused look in his eyes. That was, until he picked up the single ingredient that Snape had only included in the baskets of ingredients they were given to see who actually read the labels or not. He had warned that one group had the ingredient in their supply and if it was added to the potion, they would be extremely lucky to live to tell the tale. Snape was an undoubtedly twisted man but the teaching method worked, everyone but Malfoy read each and every bottle before adding it into the cauldron.

She could just let it happen, it would kill him off after all and fulfil some checklist that still existed in the abyss of her mind. And the added plus of it not being her fault would exist too, there were multiple witnesses in the room and everyone would just think that it was an accident. The incriminating letter would not be sent, as long as she acted dumb to the situation and enthused that she had nothing to do with it at all. She could get what she had wanted for so long that it ruined a few of her prefect grades in certain lessons which he was not in. It was his birthday month and that would make a rather satisfying engraving on a tombstone.

As her heart pattered with the idea o revenge as she watched him tap out a few springs of the ingredient he definitely thought was something else, she delved deeply into her own thoughts in the effort to try and make some sort of sense of them. At that moment a realisation came to her, one that was previously covered by the idea of her revenge. He was a person too, a person who had just as much potential for life that she did. She wondered how she ever thought of ending an innocent life like that, how it seemed so easy back then.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she warned, using the stirring spoon to bat his hand out of the way of the cauldron completely. The deadly ingredient fluttered to the workbench and caught alight on the underside of the cauldron, flooding relief through her system while annoyance fell onto his.

He scoffed, "What?"

"If you put that in the entire thing would blow up in your face," she shrugged softly, watching his expression change near million times within a few seconds. 

"Seriously?" he asked, confusion tugging on his brow. He looked to his plan and the few remaining sprigs there, frowning upon the realisation that she was correct. "Oh shit."

"Oh shit? That's an understatement," she laughed softly while picking up the correct bottle, placing a few of the remaining shaved cuttings into the cauldron without writing them out. The potion bubbled and steamed then flooded into the colour that it needed to be, a mother of pearl sheen with spiralling steam. "Looks like I might have to borrow that armour Malfoy," she smirked, face rather close to his without even realising how much she had invaded his personal space when adding in the ingredient. She became increasingly aware of the very edge of his hand lingering near to the surface of her back as the annoying scent of his cologne flooded through her nose.

He chuckled, brushing the remaining powder from his hands to make sure no incident occurred, "Maybe a few more saves, you know to counteract the times you attempted to take my life."

"Maybe I'm just a corrupt knight," she shrugged, taking her seat again whilst he bottled up the potion and wondered why it smelt so familiar yet he could not place its significance.

After the lesson, Ivy found herself wandering back to the common room alone. Blaise and Fin were both caught up in their work, with Blaise looking rather blank when she waved at him to say goodbye, so she walked alone in the hopes of getting a moment or two in quiet to get through the mountains of homework and studying she was far behind on. However, when she reached the steps outside her room, her arm got dragged in the other direction by Blaise who huffed and puffed as if he had run four miles without taking a single breath. She didn't question him once, barely getting the chance to as she struggled to keep her feet from tripping over one of the steps that lead up to his bedroom door.

Blaise slowly shut the door once they were inside, mind clearly hard to focus on one thing in particular. He turned to her, brow furrowed with such confusion that she worried he would open a blood vessel or something similar, "You- what?"

"I'm going to need a few more words, maybe even syllables," she chuckled nervously, not quite knowing where this conversation was about to go.

"You didn't-" he trailed off again, looking at her quizzically.

"Oh, I didn't use the opportunity to kill him?" she asked quickly, relief that it wasn't something awful flooding through her mind. He nodded, looking at her weirdly with a slightly tilted head. She noted that he desperately needed a haircut, as soon as possible really, while trying to work out what his expression meant. "Shit sorry, I forgot to tell you. We struck up a deal, I'm not killing him now," she apologized quickly, watching as a certain pressure lifted off his shoulders, making him look calmer and more composed than before.

His voice came quiet, hoping for the right answer, "And his father?"

"Going to be thrown into Azkaban, with Malfoy's help actually," she sighed deeply, suddenly liking that plan more than she ever had before. It was just oddly satisfying, she could wait to see it.

"Oh thank Merlin," Blaise muttered before huffing Ivy tightly, so quickly and unsuspectedly that she took a few seconds to wrap her arms around him too. She sunk into the hug, loving the contact as she hadn't been hugged in a long while. With everything that was going on with the other people in her life, she typically tended to give the most hugs. She felt weirdly safe and protected as Balise put his hand on the back of her head that was nestled into his shoulder, warmth and comfort flooding through her body. "I was so scared for you Vee," he whispered, voice wavering slightly.

Ivy broke down, silently crying as relief flooded through her system. She hadn't comprehended it all until then, the fact that she wasn't going to become a murderer and have that weight on her for the rest of her life. That she wouldn't have to carry around the weight of having taken another person's life far too soon than they were supposed to die, just for an act of revenge that her brother would have hated to the point of multiple daily lectures about the deed.

She honestly thought had been and still was alone in all this. Sure both Fin and Blaise had always said they would be there for whatever, whether it was just a shoulder to cry on or a person to rely on through thick and thin. She believed them both, obviously, but never thought that such emotion and ruling could be taken through the confusing process of watching their friend become a murderer. But now, here was Blaise crying alongside her out of pure relief that she wasn't taking that path in life. There couldn't have been much more to show her of his unconditional love for her, whatever the situation.

"I'm so so sorry," she whispered back, still holding onto the hug just like he was.

"I'm proud of you, Ivy."