BAD INTENTIONS - [D.M.]

Three

Aliya's POV
Hogwarts - October 1996

I finish the book. This was a waste of time. I put the book back into its place. I feel someone's eyes on me. Malfoy's head is turned to me. He watches every move of me. I stare back at him and raise an eyebrow. He goes back to studying with Pansy. I walk out of the library. I look out of the window. The sun is setting beautifully today. I walk nearer to the window. Students are passing me, but I am sunk in my thoughts. There are no news on the investigations. No one knows who murdered my mother. They say it was someone professional. Probably someone who was hired to kill her with a message for my dad. "That's what you deserve for bringing him to Azkaban." The sentence echoes in my head. They told dad they looked into every case he was involved in, where a person went to prison. Nothing. They only looked into the cases in America, not in Europe. Dad told me multiple times that it's impossible, no one knew his name here, and he just started working. I studied all about it anyway. The last month was a waste of time. I mean, there are books left, but they are also a waste of time. I will stop looking into this. It frustrates me.
I pay attention to my surroundings again. Two students are sitting in the grass on a blanket. How cute. The girl looks so familiar, her blond hair. They lean in to kiss each other. Wait for a second. That is Daphne! I keep staring at them. My face is pressed against the glass. I try to figure out who the guy is. I have probably seen him around, but from this far away he looks like every other guy in this school. I pull away to wipe off the fog on the window from my warm breath. My face is closer to the window again, but not as close as before. Suddenly I feel a hand on my head. It smashes my head against the window hard. "Checking out Diggory?" Laughs Malfoy. I See stars as he walks away laughing with Pansy. Shit, I need to sit down. My view is spinning. I sit on the ground. I hold my head. I need a moment to collect myself. I slowly get up as a guy comes up to me.
"Are you okay?" He asks. He helps me up and I glance into dark brown eyes. It's Adrian Pucey. The leader of the Quidditch team. He is a year older than me and pretty cute. Daphne always tells me how he stares at me during lunch.
"Yeah, totally," I lie. I try to walk. The first steps are hard, but I can walk.
"You sure? Where are you heading?"
"The common room." I smile back at him.
"Wait, I'll come with you."

"I'll go to my dorm, thanks for accompanying me," I giggle.
"Yeah, no problem." He grins at me. I pause for a second but eventually turn around to walk off. He stops me by grabbing my wrist. "One thing, I was wondering, if you wanted to go to the three broomsticks with me this weekend." Is that a date?
"Yeah, why not?" I smile and hurry off before he sees me blushing. I head through the common room. I see Malfoy watching me. He looks so pissed. Hopefully, he didn't hear the conversation with Adrian. I don't want him to ruin this for me. I should wait for Daphne.

"You and Diggory?" I shout excitedly as she enters her dorm. I sit up on her bed.
"Shush!" She pushes the door close quickly.
"Since when?" I ask.
"Long story," she sighs, I see how she tries to hide a smile.
"I have time!"
"Okay. Alright. Short version: We hooked up last year and then we had a few dates in secrets over the last month and now we are sort of dating."
"Dating? Shut up! Oh my god! That is amazing," I yell and she shushes me again.
"What happened to your forehead? It's so red," she comes closer. 
"Oh nothing, just accidentally hit a heavy book against it." I am embarrassed by the thing that happened. She looks at me like she doesn't believe me. I wouldn't believe me too. But I constantly lie to her so it doesn't matter if I lie to her now. If she ever finds out the truth about me, she won't want to be friends with me ever again.

~

My hair is horrible, I feel bloated, I am sweaty and I can't an outfit. I am freaking out. I should have said no. I hate dates like that. They are so much pressure. There is a knock on my door. Fuck. Is that him? "Open the fuck up, I am here to save you," screams Daphne. Great. She will laugh at me. I open the door. "Oh yes, you need my help."
"Wow, thanks," I say ironically. She tells me to put a dress on she brought with her and she wants to do my hair.

"Okay, you are ready to go."
"God, you are amazing. Thank you!" I look at myself amazed in the mirror. A knock. I look at Daphne helplessly.
"Go on," she orders. It's been a while since I was on a date. I open the door shyly.

We stand in front of the three broomsticks a few hours later. "This was nice," he said. Nice? It was horrible.
"Yeah." Why do I agree? Fuck me.
"We should do this again. What about next weekend?" Shit, what do I say?

"And you said yes?" Asks Daphne again.
"I panicked!" I bury my face in my blanket.
"Just say you are sick and then tell him you don't want to see him again," suggest Daphne and falls onto the bed next to me.
"Yes, something like that."
"Don't be mad, but I promised Ced that I would sleep at his tonight, so Imma go now."
"Oh, that's fine. I have some things to do anyway," I lie. I am hopeless. Daphne tells me goodbye and I look for something to do. I see the book on my bedside table. I should read this to distract me.
After my change into comfortable clothes, I try to read. The girl in the dorm next to me is having a party or something, so it's fucking loud and I am not able to concentrate. I head to the common room to see if it's empty and quiet. It's empty and quiet, yes, but I don't want to stay there. Malfoy sits on the couch with a book, it's the same one I read in the library a few days ago. Why is he reading this?
He doesn't look up from the pages. "The book makes you almost look smart," I laugh. He looks at me shocked, confused, and scared. Like he had seen a ghost. He quickly closes the book and hurries out of the common room. Weird guy. I go outside and find a bench. It's only 9 pm so I have plenty of time to read.

My reading session got interrupted pretty quickly. Malfoy walked past me, I think he didn't notice me sitting there. He rushed away, looking like no one should follow him. So now, that's exactly what I do. I hope this is not a bad idea. I have no idea where we are going. He is walking up some spiral stairs. They are leading to a tower, but which? Daphne always talks about an astronomy tower, maybe that's it. I pause before I go up the stairs, I listen to his footsteps and wait for them to disappear. He is on top of the stairs so I slowly go up too. Everything is dark, but I just follow the railing. Finally, I get to the top. I glance at him standing at the edge, staring into the night. He heard me. Malfoy turns around quickly and pulls out his wand. "Are you following me?" He points his wand at me. What you can do, I can do better. I grab my wand.
"Are you stalking me?" I stare into his grey eyes.
"Expelliarmus," he mutters quickly.
"Protego," I say at the same time.
"Fuck you," he curses at me. He slowly lowers his wand.
"Expelliarmus," I say. He isn't as quick as I was. His wand flies through the air. He isn't able to catch it. "Are you stalking me?" I ask again.
"Are you following me?"
"Answer the goddamn question, Malfoy!"
"You think you are so interesting, don't you? Why would I stalk someone like you? Huh? You are boring, you have no friends and you are nothing special!" Okay, that hurt a little.
"Then why are you watching me, huh?" I walk a little bit closer to him. I lower my hand with my wand. He looks at me confused. He moves around a little to my right. He comes closer too. He snatches my wand out of my hand. He holds it up to my face. I back up. Shit. I should have seen this coming. He keeps walking towards me. I reach the railing. I turn my head around a little to see how far we are up. Okay, this is really high.
"Still so confident?" He whispers smirking. Malfoy turns my chin with my wand towards his face. "Are you following me?"
"Yes, because you are watching me," I answer. Shit, I hope he doesn't notice how I am shitting my pants right now.
"What are you hiding, Baker?"
"You would love to know, right?" He nods and his jaw clenches. "Yeah, of course, but I am so boring, am I?" He raises one eyebrow. I am not the kind of person to stab other people. I really think it's rude and stuff, but in this moment, I do not care. Dad gave me this little knife when I was a kid. He told me to use it whenever I feel in danger. Malfoy doesn't intimidate me that much, but I want my wand back. I pull out the small knife and stab it into his side.
"You fucking cunt," he says to me as he jumps at the pain. His hand covers the wound. It's not big, it can't be, the knife is old and really small. I take my wand from his hand.
"See you in class."