WITHDRAWAL. draco malfoy

vii. bloody pansy

« BLOODY PANSY »

As she cut some more ingredients, Lillian kept clenching her teeth, her left hand being numb everywhere but in the middle where the flesh had been so over used, potions' making suddenly becoming ten times harder for the girl.

She didn't remember the last time she's had a real good night of sleep, not here after all, and let's not even talk about the summer she spent being completely paranoid that the Dark Lord would find them when they were at the Order.

It was rather silent at the potions' table —of course she was stuck with Parkinson, Zabini and Malfoy, but for once, they weren't laughing or bickering, in fact only Blaise and Pansy were talking (whispering even), meanwhile Draco seemed extremely focused on the potion they had to make.

"Mister Finnigan, stop adding salamander blood," Snape instructed harshly, "Except if you want your potion to explode just like Miss Henderson's."

Sighing loudly, Lillian sat down on her chair, frustrated that she couldn't crush the griffin's claws without groaning because of her hand, now more than ever, she regretted not jinxing Umbridge when she still had the chance. And worst, she still had detention for two other days with the pink-and-cat obsessed professor.

"There," Draco said blankly, handing her some griffin claws he had previously crushed.

Lillian frowned, suspiciously eyeing the cup before laying her eyes on the platinum blonde boy, "Where is the trick? Did you put poison in it?"

"No, I didn't poison the claws," Draco answered calmly, "I pity you, that's all."

"I don't want your pity, Malfoy," Lillian shot back, pushing the cup away.

For another few more minutes, Lillian desperately tried to crush her own griffin claws, only resulting in yanking them accidently at Neville, who was working on the desk parallel to hers, she quickly apologized then dropped her head on the desk, she would never finish this potion in time when it was actually easier than the one they had to do before.

Rolling his eyes, Draco grabbed the griffin's claws that Lillian was struggling with and crushed them in front of her —so methodically the teenage girl was almost impressed, not even smirking once he was done.

"Now, you can't say I poisoned them."

Unwillingly, Lillian grabbed the claws and dropped them in her cauldron, then adding some salamander blood. And, a few minutes later, her potion was finished, just in time before Snape's inspection.

At Neville's table, only Dean seemed to have produced a satisfying potion when Neville and Seamus had completely messed up, everyone laughing as Snape slapped Seamus with a book for complaining about his failing grade. At Harry's table, Hermione had managed to make a very good potion and Lillian winked at her friend with a little thumb up, for Harry and Ron however, it didn't go too well, in fact they both messed it up.

And at her table, except for Parkinson, everybody's potions were a success but Lillian didn't even smile because she could feel Draco's eyes on her once Snape had left their table, she knew he would put her down saying she would have failed it if he didn't help her.

+ + +

"Malfoy!" Lillian shouted as they all exited the potions' classroom, "Malfoy!"

She didn't really know why she was doing this, but she needed to understand why he had helped her, for the second time this year, and never asked anything back, he hadn't even made fun of her after their first class together.

The platinum blonde was walking quickly ahead of her —something unusual considering Draco was not the one to run happily for his next class, either ignoring her calls or simply not hearing her.