Skill and Seclusion [2] || Harry Potter x OC x Draco Malfoy

131. Crucio

DISCLAIMER 

I do not own Harry Potter ... but Bel is so tortured I am so sorry (hint -- this is nothing compared to what's coming up in future parts)

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Bel had spent the entire day avoiding everyone.

In classes, she opted to sit on a desk at the back by herself, denying anyone who tried to sit beside her telling them she needed to be on her own for a while.

There were many factors that contributed to this, of course.

The main one being that everyone now knew about the article (it really didn't take long for the word to spread) which meant she was a token of unpopularity within Hogwarts.

Something that Bel could get past. She knew gossip always died out.

The same thing had happened with her before when the sorting hat had said all those things during her sorting ceremony.

There were whispers, judgemental looks, but it always fizzled out eventually.

What she wasn't a fan of was the thoughts of her actual friends, whose opinions she valued.

Naturally, they would all know it was rubbish, and so Bel didn't see the need to talk about it. Just like she had told Malfoy.

It's all lies. You know that, I know that. End of story.

But there was something behind their eyes that threw her. Like they wanted to talk to her about it all.

Especially Harry.

He had been shooting her glances all day, which Bel avoided returning.

There were so many other things she had to worry about, a stupid article by Rita Skeeter should be at the bottom of her list.

Harry deserved to speak to her about it, voice his concerns over just why it had insinuated her and Malfoy were dating, express his opinions about the rumour that they were now dating.

But Bel wanted it to wait.

The Hufflepuff girl knew the second he spoke to her about it, she would go off on one of her famous rants about all the problems it had caused.

The fact that it's distracting her from the actual issues she is tackling this year.

Responsibilities with the tournament and the ministry, her training with Dumbledore, her own secret curse lessons with Moody, her constant battles with her wand, the strange connection to the dark mark, to name a few.

The fact that it resulted in Draco Malfoy asking her to the Yule Ball ... and her saying some sort of 'yes' despite all the reasons for her to say 'no'.

The fact that she didn't necessarily hate that her and Harry had been rumoured to be dating as she might be hoping for it to happen anyway.

It would all be a lot to explain, and how Harry would react to it all scared her.

Telling him about things to do with her wand and her family had been hard enough but telling him about feelings she has for him seemed impossible.

Bel had already broken down in front of him once, and she refused to let anyone see her as broken.

It couldn't happen again.

She needed to pull herself together, remember that seclusion is key, and push forward.

A small article of gossip wasn't going to be the thing to break her.

If anything, she hoped it would be the thing to heal her.