Inferno | Draco Malfoy

057 | Mistletoe Mayhem

Draco Malfoy is the most hateful, loathsome, detestable man I have ever come across.

He is the bane of my existence...
And the cause of my felicity.

In these past few weeks, we've returned to normal. Minus the occasional flirty jokes and glances. Fine, I guess some stuff has changed.

I don't look at him every day with a strong urge to hex him anymore. Sometimes I look at him simply because he's easy on the eyes. Yes, maybe I have been looking at him more than I should be. But... What can I say? Hey, hey, hey, I still jinx him occasionally for being annoying. That surely makes it all up.

It's December. Cold but extremely beautiful. The snow is vast and I wouldn't be surprised if the whole village of Hogsmeade is buried under snow right now.

Entering the Great Hall for breakfast, I held Daphne back for just a second so that I could tuck my in-season-spirit snowman patterned fuzzy socks properly into my boots. She laughs, pointing out how the faces of the snowmen become deformed as I stretch the socks. Done, she hooks her arm around mine and we continue to move.

I ignore what seems to be another dozen of new educational decrees carried out by Umbridge's orders, it's getting ridiculous and repetitive.

Hundreds of owls swarm the hall, some of them are covered in snow. Especially Pansy's owl, most noticeable since her owl has black feathers, which are now coated with a thin layer of white. She brushes it off, giving it some berries.

Gwen's found a bit of an interest in Apollo, Malfoy's damn arse eagle owl. I'm not entirely sure if she's trying to become friends with Apollo or trying to court him. But hell, if I were an owl I would never approach that menacing thing.

Malfoy pours some water into a goblet, holding it out for Gwen to drink. I smile, shaking my head. Gwen's face is out of sight as she stuffs her face inside the goblet. Apollo strokes Gwen's feathers with his beak and it's adorable, I think he's initiating the friendship too.

"She's quite well-mannered." Malfoy greets me as I sit down. I tuck the new edition of Witch Weekly Mum sent me inside my robe. "Gentle, hasn't nipped me once." He picks out some berries from Pansy's plate and feeds it to Gwen. "Camden reckons she's comfortable around me because of how often she's seen me now. Saw her a lot at the Manor during summer, in and out with letters for your parents."

"Seeing as she is well aware of you and she quite likes Apollo, then, I am most pleased. Although I hope this is only a friendship, I'm not too keen on hosting an owl wedding. But if so, then I shall make a fantastic hostess." I hit his arm as he laughs. "Hey! Don't laugh! It's meant to be sentimental."

I was wondering when Gwen would have her own family — hopefully with a less scary owl. She's one of our family owls, yes, but when Camden marries, Gwen will become his personal owl. So technically she's Camden's owl. I'd like to have one of her owlets, that is if she's okay with it (she can get quite irritated at times, especially when something bothers her).

Expeditiously, Daphne's owl comes flying at her like a Bludger. He drops off a pretty black package wrapped with a white ribbon before leaving. 'Salvatore', it reads. Tracey and Pansy sort of lean to get a closer look.

Tracey 'ooos' and Pansy 'boos', Daphne squeals in excitement. "Thank you!"

"You better be happy." Theo mops, "I went through a whole battle to get this. The lady working kept trying to give me advice and testing colours on me as if this was for me. If only I had won." He shoots me a scowl; I roll my eyes.

"Try being in my life with a shopaholic of a girlfriend." Blaise eyes Theo judgementally. Daphne scoffs and Blaise instantly turns around to her. "Take my money, take it all. What's mine is yours, what's yours is yours."