The Mudblood

Chapter 46 : Year 3

The next time I saw Draco Malfoy for the rest of Valentine's Day was at dinner, and as usual, he was sitting next to Pansy Parkinson. Part of me wanted to talk to him—to ask why he'd been so weird this morning—but then I decided that I shouldn't even care...

My legs shook nervously under the table as everyone around me ate dinner. I shouldn't have been so nervous to talk to Cedric—but he wanted me to meet him in the broom cupboard. Sketchy much?

"What's wrong with you, Mudblood?" Anderson snapped as he shoved a mass of pasta into his mouth. "Still mourning over the fact that Harper gave those flowers to someone else?"

"No, but Melody is," I replied, jumping my eyebrows at her when she looked up from her book.

"I hate flowers," was all she said before looking back down.

"That asswipe sent you a whole box of flowers and you loved it!" Harper barked agitatedly.

"Hey—that's my twin brother you're talking about," I defended.

"Oh yeah? Well—that explains why he's an asswipe, then. Related to filth like you—"

"Harper," Astoria gasped in outrage. "The only insult that Lainey is truly deserving of is the fact that her hair is horrendous—I'd like you to rephrase your sentence—"

"I thought we were friends!" Harper hissed at me, ignoring Astoria completely. "But you can't even do one simple favor for me—"

"Simple? Any girl that dates you will be the center of Melody's loathing! You think I want to be murdered by a teenage psychopath—"

I paused, because from the corner of my eye, I saw Cedric Diggory standing up from the Hufflepuff table. All of his friends cheered at him as he left, but he ignored them as he stalked out of the Great Hall.

"Wow," Melody was saying to me when I turned my attention back to the Slytherins. "That's the best compliment I've gotten all day."

"Better than 'you're my Flower Witch'?" Anderson pried mockingly. I shuddered at the thought of Lyle saying that to Melody in his Valentine's Day letter.

"Better than when I called you 'my beautiful'?" Harper blurted with a tone of indignation.

"Do you expect to like my answer?" she questioned, eyeing him dully.

"All right, I'm leaving," I announced briskly as I stood from my seat. "Way too much tension here—"

"I agree," Astoria piped in as she also stood. "We're leaving—c'mon Ashley."

"But I'm not done eating!" Ashley blubbered, food spilling out of her mouth as she tried to talk. Astoria ignored her, however, grabbing her arm and yanking her out of her seat.

"Wait—I'm coming!" Anderson said before shoving another heaping scoop of pasta into his mouth.

"No, Vince," Astoria snapped as she began to walk away. "I've snogged you enough for today."

"Oh don't say that," I complained, rubbing my temples as I followed the other two girls out of the Great Hall. As I walked past the fourth year Slytherins, I saw that Malfoy was glaring at me from the corner of his eye. I gave him a brief glance of uncertainty before hurrying out into the entrance hall. Ashley was still munching loudly as Astoria ranted about etiquette.

"So, where are we going?" Anderson asked as he joined us in the entrance hall. 

 "I—er—actually have to go up to the library," I lied, glancing warily at the staircase. "I'll meet you guys in the common room later—"