HOW TO BE A HEARTBREAKER | draco malfoy ✔️

27. anticipating the end

HOW TO BE A HEARTBREAKER

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Over the next couple of weeks, Rowan began to feel worse and worse about The Plan. Her dreams completely revolved around it, and every time she saw Theo, even out of the corner of her eye (which was very often), she felt her heart skip a beat in her chest. Dread had made its home inside her chest, neighbour to the anxiety that had nested itself in her stomach. She was harbouring all sorts of horrible feelings, and all she could do was anticipate the fallout.

In all other aspects of life, hers was perfect. She had everything to look forward to, especially with her father out of the way now. Yet, she dwelled on the impending doom set to completely ruin her life.

Theo was sat in the library revising for Herbology when Rowan approached him. He sat by himself at a large oak table, his notes and books sprawled out all around him. He was writing on parchment, drawing diagrams of plants, labelling them, underlining things. It looked like he was much further along with his revision than Rowan was.

She pulled out the chair in front of him and sat down. Theo looked up, his gaze hardening when he realised that it was Rowan of all people. She pursed her lips at him, her hands folded on top of the table, and only then cursed herself for not thinking of what to start the conversation off with before she had sat down in front of him.

"What can I do for you?" Theo said, bored, finishing the sentence that he had been writing before she'd intruded on his independent revision session.

"To the best of my ability, I have to try and break Draco Malfoy's heart," Rowan swallowed, nervous. "That's what my side of the Unbreakable Vow stated. To the best of one's ability also means 'as well as you can', meaning it is objective. Which means... It means that whilst somebody's abilities may be high, anothers might be low, but they still put in the same amount of effort— they did it to the best of their individual abilities."

Theo rolled his eyes and slammed his quill down on the table. "Spit it out, Yaxley. What's the point you're trying to make?"

"Sometimes, though somebody may attempt to do something to the best of their ability, they still may not succeed in getting the job done," Rowan replied.

Theo raised a brow. "So, you have come over to tell me that you have tried to break Malfoy's heart, but you have not succeeded, and that doesn't break the Unbreakable Vow?"

"Yes," Rowan nodded. "That's exactly what I am saying. It's over, I found a loophole."

"Good for you." Theo shrugged and then grabbed his quill, continuing on with his work without so much as a second glance at Rowan.

The dark haired girl furrowed her brows, her lips parting as she watched him. Internally, she felt herself start to panic all over again.

"Why don't you care?" Rowan spat, "I've just told you that I don't have to take part in The Plan anymore. I could have stopped whenever I wanted to, really— Pansy's words weren't closed enough."

"I know," Theo said, "That loophole has always been there. I've known it the whole time, you might have too if you hadn't been so busy falling in love and playing Quidditch or whatever. Now the school year's coming to an end, I thought you might begin to start panicking and try to pick holes."

"But it doesn't bother you?" Rowan frowned, "And if you knew there was a loophole, why didn't you ask Pansy to rephrase the question?"

"I didn't think you'd try to get out of it, so I wasn't all too fussed on being overly-picky with Parkinson's language. I thought we were a team and stuff. And, like I said, you were the only girl that I knew would help me with my plan," Theo said, "One, because you wanted to hurt him like I did, and two, because you were the only person at school Draco has every properly liked."