𝑬𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑳 || 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘰 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘧𝘰𝘺 𝘹 𝘺/𝘯'•°

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑇𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑦-𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛

~°𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑭𝒖𝒏~°

Almost four days now, I had been avoiding Draco like the plague .It's not that I haven't been wanting to face him , I mean..kind off but I simply couldn't deal with him anymore even if nothing happened , even if we had a good conversation in potion class days ago. He had been trying to get my attention, but I pretended not to see him. I would stand close to my friends or quickly finish my classwork and head out as soon as possible. I even kept my cat ears on hold, just in case I needed to sense when he was near and walk away.

It had been working well so far, until today. We finished Transfiguration class and had an hour of spare time before Herbology. I was relieved that Herbology was located behind the castle in a greenhouse, which meant I could avoid Malfoy without making it too obvious.

As Hermione and Ron were playfully arguing, and Harry was listening and debating with them, I was standing behind them, reading yet another stupid book. I was trying to find answers to my problems, but it seemed like they were never-ending.

Suddenly, I felt a cold touch on my wrist, causing me to stop walking. I looked to my right and saw Malfoy, a serious expression on his face. My heart skipped a beat , my chest feels weird , he has done this before which is pretty annoying but this one felt different. As I tried to resist his grip, but he wasn't letting go. I sent him glares and shook my head, silently pleading for him to let go or  someone else would notice .

But he just shook his head, and grew more serious. I whispered 'No' repeatedly, hoping Harry would turn and see what was happening. Just as he was about to do that, I pushed Malfoy's grip harder, causing him to stumble backwards and fall to the floor in the other hallway which luckily they won't get a glimpse of him to why I stopped walking.

I quickly fixed my position and stood there, pretending to be distracted by my book. I felt guilty for pushing him, but I panicked and didn't know what else to do. I looked to Malfoy and shrugged, silently apologizing for my actions.

"y/n?"
"Sorry , I got distracted for a second"
They face front and continue walking.

But I couldn't stay there for long. My friends had completely forgotten about me vanishing suddenly on them, and I couldn't risk them seeing me disappear suddenly again , especially because of Malfoy. I quickly walked away, hoping to avoid any more encounters with him.

We walked towards the greenhouse. I wondered why I had been acting this way. I knew I couldn't just keep avoiding him forever, even tho he doesn't mean anything to me even for this bet, but I also didn't know how to face him. I couldn't deal with him anymore, but at the same time, I couldn't deal with myself either.

Why did Malfoy have such a hold on me? And what was I going to do about it? These were the thoughts running through my mind as I entered the greenhouse and tried to focus on the herbology lesson. Little did I know, this encounter with Malfoy was only the beginning of a series of events that would might just change .

I loved Herbology class because of plants and nature , brings me back home to the greenhouse where creatures were kept and the professor Pomna had an optimitc and bubbly personality in my opinion , less stressful then Snape's . The herbology class had been a breeze for me. After all, I had always been fascinated with plants and their magical properties.

I noticed Neville sitting alone at his desk. I had always felt a sense of kinship with him, we were both considered to be the good skilled students in our magical studies but he was obviously better than me. Herbology was something Neville was passionate about as I am in magical caretaker class. I decided to take a seat next to him and strike up a conversation.. "may I" I ask if he is, waiting for someone , He nods silently