𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐕𝐨𝐰𝐬 // enemies w/ benefits (M.T.R. x Reader)

4. Yuletide Envy

alternatively: us having a blast making harry feel stupid

The weeks that lead up to Christmas have myself and a select few others being the subjects of envy to the entire school. So many rumors have spread about the details of Slughorn's Christmas party that I'm not sure which of them are true and which are exaggerations. I can say with much confidence, however, that there most definitely is going to be all manners of influential individuals there: From celebrities to Ministry officials, Slughorn's parties often turn out to be one-way tickets into the society of the elite.

And I have no one to take with me. Ernie Macmillan, who's always been my go-to person for these kinds of plus-one events, has recently started going out with a Hufflepuff girl in our year, so he's out. My housemate Anthony Goldstein would've been a safe option, only the idiot fervently declined my offer after hearing that a real live vampire would be attending as well.

With only days left, I grow desperate enough to consider asking Mattheo to be my date. Then I take some time to reflect on that brief moment of weakness and promise myself that I will ever let such horrid thoughts enter her mind ever again.

It turned out I needn't have worried, anyway. Because of course there would be one other person at the school who'd saved off searching for a date until the very last week: One highly oblivious and sentimentally stupid boy by the name of Harry Potter.

"Fine," I answer casually to his rather desperate offer of a Christmas date. "But only because I'm such a benevolent person, Potter."

I've only ever exchanged one real conversation with Gryffindor's golden boy before. It was in our fourth year, when I noticed him pining after Cho Chang a few days after plans for the Yule Ball was announced. Taking pity on the poor boy, and also because Anthony bet me ten Sickles that I'd never be able to get the Boy Who Lived to kiss me , I walked up to Potter and offered to help him out, insisting that a little bit of jealousy always did the trick when it came to getting attention from oblivious crushes.

The whole episode worked out well for both of us. Chang did, indeed, notice Potter for quite some time after that, even though she did end up going to the ball with Diggory anyway. And I got Sickles out of it. Plus, Potter wasn't too bad of a kisser.

"You know, I'm surprised you didn't just ask Granger," I tell him as we make our way up to Slughorn's office together. My shimmering bronze dress, woven from real starlight, drags against the stone steps. "If you were going to ask someone who'd already been invited to the party anyway, why choose me over your best friend?"

"Hermione was, er... She was very vocal about the fact that she already had a date for the party," Potter clears his throat. "There's a bunch of drama going on between her and Ron, I think she was trying to make him jealous by inviting someone she knows he despises. Which isn't to say that she doesn't despise her date, either..."

"You sound troubled enough to have me convinced she's brought along a troll for her date," I snort. "Come on, it can't really be that bad."

As it turns out, it's far worse.

Heads turn when the famous Harry Potter step into the scene, but far more heads swivel around at the sight of Hermione Granger, Potter's well-known Muggleborn friend, walking into the party hand in hand with none other than the Dark Lord's son himself.

Mattheo's eyes and my own narrow in on the other's the moment he enters the room. I stare at the arm he has looped through Granger's, and his hard gaze settles on where my hand is joined with Potter's. An unexplainable sense of sharp loathing and irritation shoots through my nerves like a well-cast hex, and I clench my fist hard enough to have Potter letting out a pained yelp.