Dead Stars | Draco Malfoy

03 | NEAR MISS

CHAPTER THREE ; WILLIAM

"You've got to be bloody joking." Extreme distaste filled Malfoy's voice once he saw who was sitting with Angela and Will at the table. "Granger is his partner?"

His words filled the air just as Hermione's equally unhappy ones did too. "Malfoy is your partner?"

"Oi! Shut it, will you? We're in a library."

"No one asked you." Malfoy sneered at him.

Will recoiled at the nastiness in his tone, but - surprising himself - didn't back down. "I don't care. I'm not getting kicked out because of you."

Malfoy's glare intensified and he opened his mouth to bite back, but Angela cut in to the conversation before he could.

"Ok, this was clearly a mistake. Will, Hermione, thanks for helping me out, but it's pretty clear that this isn't going to work."

Will wanted to protest - Angela had proven to be quite insightful and good company - but she was right. The four of them hadn't even been in the same room for three seconds before the bickering started. There was no way the students could work together if two of them couldn't even look at each other without letting off palpable waves of animosity. 

"Obviously," Malfoy muttered as Angela scooped her portion of work off the table. "Honestly, how did you even make it into Ravenclaw?"

"Back off, Malfoy." Hermione hissed, dropping her quill and balling her fists in anger.

Will glanced over worriedly. Angela seemed unaffected by Malfoy's words, but the same could not be said for his partner. He placed a cautioning hand in front of her, trying to diffuse the situation. "Let it go," he began in as calm a voice as he could manage when he too couldn't help but want to hit the snobby boy over the head with a heavy book. "It's not worth it. He's the one who'll look like an idiot when he sees everything she's done so far." 

Hermione still didn't look convinced, so he lowered his voice even further, ignoring the almost painful splotch on his cheek that Malfoy's eyes were practically burning away, and continued. "He's an ignorant twit, and nothing you say will change it. Do you really want to give him the satisfaction of a retaliation?"

His words seemed to do the trick, since they were the same ones he needed to hear himself. Hermione relaxed her face and let her hands fall flat on the table. She gave Will a grateful nod, then sent Angela an apologetic smile. "Good luck."

Angela glanced at Draco, who's wilting glare was still fixed on Will, and then back to Hermione. "Thanks." 

She then proceeded to walked away in search of a new table. Draco spun on his heel and followed closely behind, his face still twisted in an irritated frown. 

"See you Friday," she said as she disappeared behind one of the many enormous bookshelves.

"See you Friday." Will echoed softly, before turned back to the work on the table. 

"So, where were we?"

✧✧✧✧

Will was completely and utterly exhausted by the time dinner came to a close. He was so emotionally drained that for the first time all term, he didn't think he would be crying himself to sleep come curfew. He was physically fatigued from the day as well. It had felt immensely longer than usual, and he had a feeling it was due, in major part, to both his run-ins with Draco Malfoy.

That wasn't all though. In spite of the fact that he'd managed to complete a significant amount of work with Hermione during their collaborative session before mealtime, it had only been for one class. There was still at least an hour's worth of Transfiguration exercises he needed to complete, as well as a full parchment roll about the many uses of the Fanged Geranium for Herbology, both of which were due the following day. He was thoroughly overwhelmed. 

Any other time, he would have simply put most of it off until his free period the next morning, but he had already made arrangements to finish the Arithmancy project with Hermione during that time. He had no choice but to head back to the library. He had no choice but to continue soldiering through the day until he collapsed.

Most students would just go to their respective common rooms to work, but Will could hardly bear to walk quickly through his own in the morning and at night, let alone stay there for an extended period of time. 

So back through the many corridors leading to the library he went, ignoring the sound of loud footsteps quickly approaching him. He didn't turn around to see who was following after him until a crumpled up piece of parchment hit the back of his head. 

He whirled around, snatching the makeshift ball and hurling back the way it had come before he even registered who had thrown it.

"Blimey, Will! I forgot what horrible aim you have." Mary exclaimed as the parchment sailed past her head and hit the wall beside her.

Will relaxed at the sound of the familiar voice. The agitation of being hit from behind faded away quickly when he realized there was no severely malicious intent behind the action. 

"Well, we couldn't both be the athletic twin, now could we?" 

"True enough," Mary laughed, scooping up the disfigured ball and rushing to catch up to Will. 

"So, what's up?"

She shrugged and slung her arm over his shoulder. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. You didn't seem great at breakfast, and just now during dinner, Hermione was raging to Harry about how awful Malfoy was during whatever study study session she'd had right before. Then there was some stuff about how awfully he's already abused his Prefect status this year and is making it a thousand times harder for her and Ron to do their jobs, but that's beside the point. I know she's your Arithmancy partner this term and I thought it'd be a good idea to check in on you since you were probably there if that's what she was working on. So, do I need to send that Slytherin ass a box of the Weasley's new puking pastilles?"

Will managed a slight chuckle at the sweet sentiment, but shook his head. "I think that would only make things worse. That's the thing about kids like Malfoy, any negative energy at all will just give them more power. When you grow up with a great bully of a father like he did, being a jerk is the only thing you learn how to do. It's like how you're all sporty because Dad is, and I love gardening because it's what Mom and I do together. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and in Malfoy's case, it's just a bloody rotten tree. Distance is the only thing that works with guys like him, so whatever you do, just don't get involved."

If only he'd been able to follow his own advice.