✧ F A T E D || h. potter a.u. ✧

♛ 2 || Ladykiller

"You better watch yourself, I think that girl's insane..."

------

Danni climbed slowly up the stairs to Slytherin Tower, her head bowed low with her hair concealing her face still fuming with rage. Her hands we shoved deep in the pockets of her jacket, clenched into fists so tight that she could feel the tips of her nails digging into the palms. Not that she cared. Pain was never much of an issue for her. She had felt it for so long it seemed to become one of her best friends.

As she muttered the password to the Common Room and stepped over the threshold, Danni heard the familiar malicious laughter from Draco trailing down the hall. She grinned at the sound of his laugh. He was in a good mood and that was always a good thing.

"...and then he ran off crying!" said Draco's voice. "It was hilarious!"

Danni stifled a laugh. Draco was going off about one of the wimpy First Years again, as he did pretty much every day.

She heard the high shrill laughter of Pansy Parkinson next. "Oh man, I wish I'd been there! If only McGonagall hadn't kept me after class! God, I fucking hate her!"

Blaise Zabini chuckled at her. "Yeah, you had to be there! The look on his face was absolutely priceless!"

She let out a loud laugh and walked into the room. Five different heads turned to look at her as she sat down on the couch next to Draco. "Damn, sounds like I missed out on a good time!"

"Ha," said Gregory Goyle, "always nice to see you, Danni. Where you been?"

Danni sat on the edge of the couch cushion, slamming her hands down on her knees. "My God, you wouldn't believe me if I told you!"

"Why, what happened?" asked Vincent Crabbe, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "Did Sprout catch you with a stash of stink pellets again?"

"Nope," Danni said with a shake of her head, "worse than that."

"What the hell is worse than getting caught with an 'environmentally dangerous' prank device by a tree hugger?" asked Pansy, imitating Sprout's low-register and husky tone.

"How about bumping into a Gryffindor that doesn't even bother to apologize?" Danni asked with a look of disgust on her face.

Five pairs of eyes widened with shock, their mouths uttering collective gasps.

"Bloody hell!" said Draco. "Who was it? Do I have to go beat someone up?" He slammed a fist into the palm of his hand and a flash of mischief gleamed in his gray eyes.

"Down, boy!" Danni said, waving him off with a smirk. "I'm pretty sure Potter learned his lesson."

"Shut the front door!" yelped Blaise. "Potter bumped you in the hallway?! What did you do? What did you say?"

They all knew. Everyone in the entire Slytherin and Gryffindor house knew. The feud between their families was decades old. Anyone that didn't know had probably been living under a Hippogriff's arse.

"What needed to be said and done," she replied, folding her arms behind her head and crossing her legs with a look of smugness. "I told him he needed to watch where he was going, then we got in a huge argument. Then I said he should get some new glasses; might prevent something like this from happening in the future."

"Ooh, burn!" cried Pansy. "But seriously, Potter has no right. He's got nothing on us."

"Hell yeah, Pansy!" said Draco with a triumphant fist pump. "We rule this school!"

Danni bumped Draco in the arm with her fist and laughed out loud. "Got that right, Draco!"

Danni loved Draco. Not in that way, but as a brother. Ever since she was young, when she was a starting First Year, after the darkness came and destroyed what was left of her life, Draco had been there. He was one of the very few Slytherins that didn't bully her on the first day. He took care of her the way a best friend would, the way a brother would. In a way, he adopted her into his Slytherin family. Danni had been grateful to him ever since.

Danni stood up from the couch and stretched her arms up to the ceiling, feeling the pop pop pop of her joints. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you but I gotta get going."

"Aww, come on Danni!" said Goyle in a mock-girly voice. "You just got here!"

"Yeah," she said with an annoyed sigh and a roll of her eyes, "I know, but I have to go to the library and try to get my extra Herbology homework done. You know I can't spend another detention with Sprout without wanting to pitch myself off the Astronomy Tower."

"Yeah, you have a point," said Blaise. "Well I guess the best we can do is wish you luck."

"You'll need it," said Draco with a sinister smile.

"Shut up, you git!" she shouted playfully, slapping Draco across the face with a pillow as she made her way to the door.

"Oh I am so getting you back for that!" Draco yelled over the raucous laughter from Blaise, Goyle, Crabbe, and Pansy.

Danni managed to shout just as the portrait hole door closed behind her: "In your dreams!" And she made her way down the stairs to the library, a sneaky Slytherin smirk along her lips.

------

Harry sat at the library desk scribbling away with his quill, flipping through his Divination textbook, his nose lightly brushing along the parchment. Like any other day, the library was quiet. Pages from open books ruffled when turned, enchanted books flew like birds above our heads into their places in the tall shelves.

The sound of an annoyed groan from the doorway caused Harry to look up. He resisted the urge to scowl, for she was standing there, a look of displeasure in her bright green eyes. She dragged her feet along the floor and sat at his table, given she had no other choice.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked with a dark glare.

"Well," she said smugly, "this is a library and I have work to do. What does it look like I'm doing?" She slammed her book bag down in front of her, attracting looks of annoyance from other students in the room. Her cheeks were already glowing with red hot anger.

"Whatever, Tyler," Harry sighed with an eye roll. "Just don't bother me. I have a lot of work to do."

"Yeah, I'll bother you all night because I'm soooo interested in you!" she sneered, her voice dripping heavily with sarcasm.

"Is she annoying you, mate?" came a voice from behind him.

Harry turned around in his chair and looked up, making eye contact with his freckle faced and redheaded best friend. Harry gave a small smile.

"Oh, hey Ron," Harry replied. "No, she's not annoying me. I'm just ignoring her."

Danni's mouth dropped. "Oh, really? You didn't seem to be ignoring me twenty seconds ago!"

Harry shot her a death stare and turned back to Ron. "I'm fine, really. I shouldn't be much longer anyway."

Ron raised his eyebrows, his eyes darting back and forth from Harry to Danni. The look he produced had the word unconvinced written all over it, but after a while he just shrugged and said, "Okay. See you at dinner then." He turned away and left for the Great Hall.

Harry returned his attention back to his work. He felt the muscles in his arms and neck tense up as he heard Danni mutter under her breath, "Stupid annoying Ginger-boy."

God, what is her damn problem? Harry thought angrily. Can she not try to be nice at least once?

Harry mentally kicked himself, realizing he really couldn't think like that...because he hadn't been very nice to her either.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~