TORMENT - Fred Weasley

𝐈𝐕

Emerald instinctively covered her mouth with her hands, shock evident on her face.

"Daphne Greengrass!" she exclaimed, her voice rising to a near-screech.

Before her lay the exposed forms of Daphne and Cedric Diggory, who hastily draped themselves with the duvet they had previously been wrinkling together. Emerald's friend emitted a gasp, quickly followed by a nervous giggle. She can't be serious.

"Get dressed and leave my room, Diggory," Emerald declared, turning her back on the couple yet remaining firmly in the room.

Cedric complied without hesitation, managing to put on his briefs and trousers in a mere fifteen seconds before stepping out while attempting to fasten his shirt. He cast a fleeting glance back at her, but she promptly shut the door in his face. Turning once more, she now faced her half-clothed friend, her expression morphing into one of the most intimidating visages the busted girl had ever seen.

"What happened to not ruining his relationship?" Emerald reprimanded, her finger pointed in irritation at Daphne.

The girl raised her hands defensively, a look of innocence on her face. "I told you I was good with a quick fuck!"

Emerald responded with a tone of clear frustration, "Those two concepts cannot possibly coexist, Daphne!"

"They absolutely can," Daphne insisted, "He's still with Cho, and we've just—"

Emerald cut her off sharply. "Enough! Does Cho have any idea?"

"How would she know?" Daphne shot back, her irritation palpable. "You don't think they spoke about it, do you?"

"Why not?" the Malfoy girl countered defiantly. "It's more common than you might realize!"

"You're insane! Only you and Adrian are in favor of that sort of arrangement," Daphne concluded, her voice laced with disbelief.

Emerald let out another exasperated sigh. After spending a year in a relationship with Adrian, she had made the decision to permit him to engage with other girls, grateful for the reprieve it offered her from having to meet his every desire. However, she found herself bound by different rules, having to remain loyal to her one and only man, as he had so often declared. 

It gave her chills to even think about it. But then again, many things gave her chills. Mostly the low temperatures of the dungeons, for which she'd gone into her room to retrieve a sweater before meeting Theodore at the library. Right when she found the couple about to ugh, whatever.

"Do as you wish, Daphne. But don't weave me into your chaos."

The following morning, she found out she'd not only been weaved, but straight pushed into the chaos that ensued when Cho Chang found out about her now ex-boyfriend's affair. 

At Hogwarts, gossip spread like wildfire, with whispers circulating about how a group of second-year Slytherins had witnessed Cedric Diggory exit the very room that Emerald Malfoy had just entered, half naked and with Daphne Greengrass' pink slippers on. The veracity of the rumor was confirmed when Cho confronted Cedric in the Dining Hall, delivering a resounding slap that echoed through the room.

"How did I not see him take your slippers?" Emerald lamented, her hands shielding her face in a gesture of exasperation, reflecting on her own lack of foresight. "I had just gone through the Common Room, I knew people were there!"

Daphne offered words of comfort to her distressed friend. Don't stress yourself out, Em. I don't mind the gossip."

Emerald understood that Daphne did not truly mind; in fact, she relished the attention that came with such notoriety. However, unlike her brother, who was engaged in a passionate embrace with Pansy on the bench beside them, Emerald preferred to keep a more subdued presence. "Enough of that, will you?!" she called out to the couple. "You've got rooms for that!"