After the feast, each house is taken to their dorms. Hufflepuff dorms are by the kitchens which I think is perfect. Once inside is a common room for all of us to mingle together then the stairs split right and left for the male and female dorms. I get roomed with three other girls. All are nice enough, but one is friendlier than the others.
"Hi. I saw you on the train putting Malfoy in his place. That was pretty awesome."
I turned around from feeding my owl, Nico. The girl speaking to me has dark, long hair and pretty tanned skin. She's smiling at me, and I don't feel awkward smiling back.
"Yeah well, he's a jerk. My name is Avery," I reply.
"Ariana. Yeah, he is. He thinks he's something special."
I snort because he definitely is not.I have trouble sleeping even though I'm dead tired from today. Pretty soon the morning comes and I'm dragging. Then again, it's the first day of classes and I'm pretty excited about that. I get dressed quickly and now everything I have is emblazoned with the Hufflepuff crests and colors, yellow and black.
The first class I have is transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. When I walk into the classroom, it's clear we're sharing this class with the Slytherins. Just great. I sit next to Ariana towards the front and next to me across the aisle is Draco with one of his friends. He gives me a sneer and I wonder why he wastes his time if he thinks I'm nothing. I smile politely at him because it throws people off and wait for class to start.
Professor McGonagall starts her lesson by letting us know she can turn into a freaking cat. At least I was not the only one surprised by this fact. She transformed right in front of Draco who was bragging about something dumb to another Slytherin kid.
"Mr. Malfoy, if I may start my lesson or would you like to teach the class?" Professor McGonagall says, looking at Draco disapprovingly.
"Go on, Professor," he replies without a hint of embarrassment.
The professor goes on to teach us our first spell. I listen intently and take furious notes. I'm still a little afraid this is just a joke, or a mistake and I won't be able to actually do magic. The wand didn't explode in my hands when it chose me so I think that's a good sign, but I can't fail. Especially not with Draco here.
"I'm going to put you into pairs for this. Each of you will turn this goblet into a rat then back. Then I want you to write a paper together about the basic principles of transfiguration."
I'm looking at Ariana, since she's the only one I really know as the rest of the kids try to put themselves into groups with their friends too when Professor McGonagall continues.
"And just so you remember that although you're in different houses you are all Hogwarts students so I will be pairing a Hufflepuff with a Slytherin and the assignment is due tomorrow."
She starts calling out names and kids move to sit by their partners. She's going in alphabetic order so guess who I get stuck with?
"Malfoy and Malone," she calls.
Draco looks at me with absolute disgust but I'm not feeling any better about this arrangement. He doesn't move so I gather my stuff to sit next to him. He barely looks at me when he says,
"My father is going to hear about this. Partnering me up with a filthy mud-blood."
"Do you need your daddy to fight all your battles for you? Besides, you mean mud-blood as an insult and since I don't care, it kind of loses its power, doesn't it? Let's just get this over with then you can get back to hating me for no reason. We can go to the library for the written part before dinner," I say.
YOU ARE READING
All My Loving
FanfictionDraco Malfoy is rude and entitled but he's met his match with me. I won't let him bully or intimidate me.