mágoa ( ✓ )

chapter ten

BACK IN THE Slytherin Common Room, Draco Malfoy was storming through the passageway with an irritated look on his angular face. As he approached the leather couch in which Pansy was sitting on, he crossed his arms and gave her a pointed look, fuming.

"Just what do you think you're playing at, Pansy?" He snapped, and the short-haired girl only stared at him. She held a textbook open on her lap, an entire book on house elves and their history — some 'light reading' as Hermione would call it.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, Draco. Please do try to be more specific." She closed the book, keeping her manicured thumb in the crease so as to hold its page. Her dark eyes remained on his steadily: impassive, never blinking.

"You assaulted a Ravenclaw today, Pansy! For Hermione Granger!" He was nearly screaming now, drawing the attention of random students scattered around the room. He paid these people no mind however. He was pink in the face, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Merlin, Pansy. We could've lost house points because of this."

"He was bullying an underclassman, Draco." The black-haired girl argued her case, remembering the young boy she'd learned to be named Henry and how he'd been kicked and shoved, and how Madam Pomfrey had declared him to have a cracked rib as well as bruised sidings. Truthfully, Pansy had wanted to further hurt the elder Ravenclaw for his crimes. No-one deserved to be bullied — sexuality-inspired or not.

"And why does that concern you? We bully people all the time." The blond raised an eyebrow.

Pansy was frustrated herself now, and she stood to be level-eyed with him. Boys, she thought, stupid, clueless boys. "He was being bullied for being gay, Draco."

Her eyes bore into his own, begging him to understand without actually having to come out and say it. Blaise, who'd been standing off to the side, noticed Pansy's fragile state, how she was deflating in confidence more every second. He knew she would surely cry any second. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, drawing his attention so Pansy could wipe her eyes without Draco's scrutinizing gaze.

"C'mon, Malfoy. Lay off her a bit, will you?" The dark-skinned boy's voice was steady, and the blond sighed. His shoulders grew less tense, and then his silver eyes landed on Pansy again.

"Listen, Pans, I'm sorry. Just- please don't make our house look bad. Granger's not worth losing house points over." He said.

Yes she is. "Our house would've looked worse if I would've stood by and let him kill him." She stood up, grabbed her book, and slid passed him and towards the girls' dormitories.

————— ↯ —————

Daphne Greengrass was lying on her stomach when Pansy entered the dormitory, inspecting her nails disinterestedly. When the blonde noticed her dorm mate enter, she sat up and eyed her expectantly. The dark-haired girl frowned and placed her book on her bed. "What?"

"I heard what you did today."

She sighed. "Just like I told Draco, our house would've looked worse if I would've let him get bullied."

"I'm not talking about the Third Year and the Sixth Year, Pansy. I'm talking about Granger. You cast 'Depulso' and 'Immobulus' to protect her. Why?"

"He was going to put her in a Body Binding charm." The Slytherin argued, taking a seat on the edge of her bed. She began to rummage through the trunk at the base of her bed, searching for her pajamas.

"So you thought to blast and paralyze him so he couldn't do the same to her?" Daphne's blue eyes followed her curiously.

"It's more than that," Pansy sighed, finding her top and shorts. "Granger was trying to protect the Third Year and so was I."