Always - Welcome to the Wizarding World

Part 11

Once I had woken the next day, I saw my robes laid out at the end of my bed. I wasn't sure how they'd got there and I inspected them thoroughly for any sort of prank or "adjustment" Parkinson may have made due to our little encounter yesterday, but I found none. 

I checked my class schedule and first I had Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Moody, ergo Mad-Eye Moody. When I saw him the day before in the Great Hall, he was terrifying and I know it was a mean thing to think as he couldn't help this, but his fake eye was really disconcerting. I was rather dreading a lesson with him. I knew that Zarah would be in my lesson with me, as would Parkinson, but that was not exactly very comforting.

When Zarah and I went down to breakfast in the Great Hall, we sat at the very far end of our house table, away from Parkinson and the Carrows and everyone else. I spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione across the room at the Gryffindor table and Hermione waved at me. I smiled at her and waved back. Zarah turned around to see who I was waving at and she chuckled.

"You're popular for a newcomer! Not only are you in with Draco Malfoy, but you're friends with Harry Potter too! Gosh, that's contradictory!" she chuckled. Before I could reply, Harry sat down next to me and Ron and Hermione sat on either side of Zarah, who looked most uncomfortable with the whole situation. I guessed she'd not really talked to them before. 

"Hello, Ray! Haven't seen you since the Quidditch World Cup. How have you been?" Hermione asked.

"Alright, I suppose. It's all been a bit of a blur, to be honest!" I told her. Ron laughed and motioned to the Goblet of Fire stood proudly in front of the professors' table. 

"Exciting, isn't it? The whole Triwizard Tournament! Fred and George are desperate to enter. Wish I could enter too, to be quite frank!" Ron told me. I nodded, even though I couldn't think of anything worse! Hermione and Ron started chatting with Zarah, which gave Harry a chance to talk to me. 

"Sorry about getting Slytherin, Ray. I was rooting for you to be in Gryffindor, you know. I was really shocked when you weren't" Harry whispered. I shook my head.

"I knew I was never going to be in Gryffindor, Harry. Anyway, it's not so bad. There must be a reason the Sorting Hat put me in this house" I insisted. As I was talking, I noticed Harry's eyes averted to  the Ravenclaw table. I followed his gaze to a pretty Oriental girl chatting with her friends. I snapped my fingers in front of Harry's face to grab his attention. "Harry, who's that girl you're staring at?" I asked. He glanced back at me briefly.

"I'm not staring". I gave him a knowing look and he snickered nervously. "That's Cho Chang; she's in Cedric's year. Speaking of Cedric, how is he?" Harry asked me.

"Don't change the subject, Harry! And he's fine, thanks for asking. He's thinking of entering the Triwizard Tournament" I informed him. Harry didn't seem surprised and carried on ogling Cho.

"Good for him, I'm sure he'll do well". I slapped his arm jokingly to stop him staring and he laughed at me, elbowing me playfully in the ribs. I looked along the table whilst Harry began talking about the Triwizard Tournament with everyone else and I spotted Draco's friends, Draco placed in the center of them all. The others surrounding him were prattling on with each other, but he was not. He was glaring in my direction, his green eyes capturing my attention. Harry realized that I wasn't listening to the others anymore and he tapped me on the arm, but I didn't turn away. Draco's eyes averted to Harry, glaring at him intensely. Harry sucked his teeth awkwardly.

"I'm guessing that's our cue to leave. Come on, guys, we have to get ready for Moody's lesson, anyway" he said to Hermione and Ron, getting up from the bench.

"See you around, Snape" Ron said as they walked off. Zarah leaned into the table so she could whisper something to me.

"That was abrupt, what was that all about?" she questioned. I shrugged, pretending not to know. What I didn't realize was that Draco had got up from his seat and had stormed over to Zarah and I. Zarah pursed her lips and I lifted my eyebrows in confusion at her, when I felt someone stood behind me.

"Ray, mind if I have a word?" he mumbled gruffly in my ear. I nodded, not that I would have had a choice, and Draco sat down next to me. Zarah stayed exactly where she was, but sat there awkwardly with baited breath. "I thought the only reason you were with Potter when I first met you was because he was meeting up with Diggory. I didn't realize you were actually friends with the prat" he said angrily, making my spine shiver and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

"Well, we are friends. Harry is a nice boy and he's been really friendly to me, although I'm not entirely sure why you're so bothered" I told him coolly. He chuckled bitterly, rippling from the back of his throat.

"Potter is a brown-nosing, pathetic little famous boy who will disregard you once you get boring to him. Trust me, his undeserved fame makes him stuck up and I don't want you making friends with people like that. I care because you're new and I don't want you making mistakes in your first year, they can stay with you for life". As Draco spoke, he moved too close for me to look at him face-to-face. Now I did, turning so our noses nearly touching. I felt his warm breath on my lips. 

"I think I will be the one to decide who I make friends with, thank you. Nice of you to worry, though" I said. Draco smirked, staring at my lips.

"You are very welcome, but you still have to stay away from him. Trust me on this one, Ray. He will drop you like a stone" he murmured. I nodded, my nose brushing against his and he leered at me one last time before getting up and leaving, sauntering back over to his friends. Zarah breathed out loudly, laying her head down on the table. I waited until Draco had left the hall to speak. Zarah lifted her head up from the table and shook it at me, chuckling as if in disbelief. 

"What?" I asked her. She ran her hand through her long white curls concernedly. 

"You are just walking seduction, you are! I mean, I didn't even know you were friends with Cedric Diggory! He is gorgeous, every girl in school fancies him! And now I understand what you mean when you said Draco has other things on his mind. It's you, it's all you! I honestly thought he was going to pounce on you then! You could have cut the sexual tension with a knife!" Zarah exclaimed. I guffawed at her. "I don't know why you're laughing, Malfoy was scarily protective over you just now, I think staying away from him is going to be even harder than I expected" she said.

"Well, what can I say? Boys are just drawn to me like a moth to a flame!" I joked, but Zarah didn't laugh. "I am being sarcastic, Zarah!" 

"Yes, I know that, but now Potter too? He called you "Ray" and it looked like you two were getting pretty cozy over there" Zarah told me. I snorted. I didn't think of Harry in any other way than as a friend. In fact, I hardly thought of him at all, so it was rather ridiculous what Zarah was insinuating.

"Oh, please! Almost everyone calls me Ray! Besides, Harry and I are barely friends, even though Draco assumes different" I told her. Zarah gestured to the far end of the Slytherin table with her thumb. I saw Parkinson sitting there with the Carrows, she was glaring at me in the same way Draco was glaring at Harry. Jealousy, as clear as day on her runty face.

"You need to tell Draco that you're not interested because if he keeps pursuing you,that's just going to piss off Parkinson even more and that, my friend, is not a good idea" Zarah advised. 

I watched Parkinson as she bent her brass fork with her bare hands, her eyes shining with... tears? No, determination. She wanted to get back at me for stealing Draco away, in contempt of the fact that I had no intention of doing so. But I was not going to pretend that I wasn't interested in Draco because he did interest me. I had a feeling that there was a story behind him and I needed to find out what it was because someone with that much mystery about him cannot stay unexplored.