𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘳~ 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦

Chapter 6: Cursed

I was wrong about him. Draco Malfoy was still his old self. There it was again, the cold, arrogant, smug tone in his voice that I had almost forgotten the sound of. But only almost. When he stroked my cheek with his thumb, I had almost forgotten everything. His facade had begun to crumble, but then he renewed it. At his words, my face lost all emotion and anger rose within me. Anger at him for deceiving me with his seemingly fragile, soulful side. Anger at myself for allowing myself to be deceived. I turned away from him before he could see the tear rolling down my cheek. I rushed towards the door I had come from, flung it open, stepped through it, and let it slam shut behind me with a loud bang. Then I wiped the tear from my cheek and put on an expressionless expression. When I sat down with Harry and Ron, neither of them said a word. They had to know that I was seething, even Ron, who else nothing gathered, had to notice it.
"Can we go back to school?" I pressed.
Harry looked at Ron, then back at me, and nodded.

On the way back we suddenly heard a scream and shortly afterward saw the cause of it. A girl who turned out to be Katie Bell, the Gryffindor Quidditch team's Chaser, was floating about ten feet above the ground, she appeared to be unconscious. Her best friend Leanne, one Hufflepuff student, stood below her and stared at her in disbelief. She had to be the one who screamed. As we approached her, she said to Harry,
"She was cursed. She should do this Take the package to Dumbledore. There must be the cause of this!" She pointed to her friend, who was floating in the air. She suddenly seemed to lose altitude, shortly afterward she fell completely and landed hard on the ground.
“What happened here?” a deep voice suddenly asked. We all turned at the same time around. Hagrid came towards us. His little eyes widened as he Katie discovered.
"She was cursed, probably from the package there," Harry explained to him. "The poor thing! You there," he said to Leanne, "go and find Professor McGonagall. She should take care of this package. Harry, Ron, Hermione, you come with me!" He picked Katie up in his arms and walked with us to school, we followed in silence.

We stood in front of Snape, Flitwick and McGonagall in the Transfiguration classroom. McGonagall had confronted us, asking us why the three of us were always present when something bad happened at Hogwarts. It turned out that the package contained a necklace that had been imbued with dark magic. "I'd say it's lucky that Miss Bell is still alive," Snape was remarking.
"She was cursed, wasn't she?" Harry asked, even though he actually knew the answer.
"Cursed indeed, Potter," Professor McGonagall confirmed.
"It was Malfoy," Harry said firmly. Snape immediately fixed his eyes on him, and McGonagall also inhaled sharply. I jumped when I heard Malfoy's name. I looked reproachfully over at Harry, who returned my gaze with a hard expression.
"This is an extremely serious accusation, Potter," McGonagall remarked.
"Indeed," Snape agreed. "And your proof?"
"I know it," said Harry dryly.
"You know? Oh, yeah." Snape came towards Harry.
"Again you amaze with your gifts, gifts that mortals dare not dream of. It is certainly divine to be lucky enough to be the Chosen One, Potter." He practically spat out the name. McGonagall sighed.
"Good, go back to your dorms, all three of you." With that we were dismissed. Angry I glared at Harry. Why did he say something like that without any evidence? Unfortunately, he was probably right. Was this the matter I wasn't supposed to get involved in?

Dinner at Slughorn's was terrible. The professor asked me about my parents, and when he found out that they were both dentists, he immediately lost interest while everyone else stared at me blankly and there was an awkward silence. Then Slughorn turned his full attention to Harry. He was really excited when Ginny joined the meal late. I gave him a knowing look. The next day Ron, Harry and I sat together in the great hall as usual, Ron asked about dinner.
"It was boring. Harry, however, seemed to find dessert particularly interesting. You stayed longer than everyone else," I noted.
"Slughorn had a few more questions," he answered evasively, but I didn't press any further.
"By the way, the professor is also having a Christmas party. And we can bring someone with us," I told Ron.
"Then you're probably asking McLaggen. He's in the Slug Club, isn't he?" Ron said snidely.
"I was actually going to ask you, Ron," I hissed.
"Oh dear," Ron hissed back.
"Besides, I told you I find Cormac disgusting."
"Well, your taste is questionable. I wouldn't be surprised if you showed up there with Malfoy. Oh yes, I saw the looks you guys kept giving each other and I couldn't help but notice that you were defending him from Harry like he was a baby innocent baby." He grinned triumphantly at me. That was enough, I jumped up from the table and punched Ron in the face.
"You arrogant bastard," I yelled at him. Then I ran out of the hall, ignoring the curious stares that were on me. I also didn't notice someone at another table get up and follow me.

I didn't stop until I was in the library, where fortunately there was no one else. I ran between the shelves and finally collapsed on the floor in a corner. I let the tears flow. When had Ron become such an idiot? Worst of all, he had been right about everything. Something had arisen between Malfoy and me. I didn't know when or how it had happened, but now I was painfully aware of the truth.
I liked Malfoy, the tyrant to whom I was nothing more than a worthless mudblood, and if that wasn't bad enough, I also felt the pang in my chest every time someone mentioned his name. At first, I just wanted to look after him because of this stupid news said. Now I desperately wanted to protect him because I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more hidden behind the ice-cold facade.
Feet suddenly came up next to me. I looked up. Platinum blonde hair and silver gray eyes.
A hand that wanted to help me up.