A witch's heart [Draco Malfoy x oc]

Sluggy's Slug - club

I hadn't expected from Malfoy to go easy on me, but this first lesson was a lot harder than I'd thought.

Apparently he had to combine the past two lessons with this one. "Since you missed out", he had said, "we will have to do a little bit of extra work. I cannot tolerate a bad outcome, especially since I taught you."

Gone was sweet potion brewing Malfoy ... we were now officially back to his arrogance.

I was brewing the fourth potion in a row and we were nearing 11pm. I was basically sleeping on the spot while passively listening to Malfoy's instructions. The fact that my hands were still working was almost a miracle.

Malfoy started inspecting my potion.
"Good, very good even. You should have added a bit more crushed Vulcano stone, but this will still do. Copy the text in the book about the potion. It will help you memorize it. I want a 2000 - word essay until Wednesday about these three potions, what they have in common and how they could be done better. You are not allowed to write something like 'I don't think the potion recipe should be changed at all', because only few things of this world are perfect and this potion is not one of them. Write it down, you'll forget otherwise."

I grabbed my quill and wrote down the homework.

"That would be it for today. Wednesday at eight pm, don't be late."

"Whataboutslughornsparty?", I mumbled.

"Pardon me?"

"What about Slughorns party?", I said, this time a bit clearer.

"Oh, well ... Thursday then. I don't have time on Tuesday. We will do Transfiguration on Friday, so bring your books."

I nodded and stood up. "Oh, and Malfoy?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for the potion. It really helped me."

Malfoy's face shifted from arrogant to adorably awkward. "You're, um, welcome. Don't forget to do your essay."

I smiled to myself when I walked to the Hufflepuff dorms.

+

Thursday came faster than I had wanted, especially since the slug club seemed like a reason for Laurel to alter my school robes. Out of some reason my Hufflepuff tie was sparkling with yellow and black glitter. My grey skirt was now a mini, even though it had gone about 2.5 inches over my knees yesterday. My blouse had a stayed white but had a bell-like shape.

"Laurel", I asked while she chased after me to get my hair out of my (rather messy) bun, "is it necessary? I was about to do my hair anyways."
"When you do your hair, you end up looking like a wallflower. A beautiful wallflower, but still."
I dodged another attack on my hair.
"Why didn't Slughorn invite you? He seemed to only tell us to bring you because he didn't want to seem rude."
Laurel laughed. "Because I'm a Slughorn as well."

I stood still. "What?"

"Ah, finally you stopped running. Well, Slughorn is my uncle. My mother is his sister. I have access to all his connections anyway, because he's horribly scared of mother. Inviting me wouldn't be necessary because I can come whenever I want." She tied the top half of my rastas in a bun and let the rest fall down my shoulders. Then she added golden accessories to it.

"There you go", she said and pulled out two strands of hair from the bun.

"All right", I said, "but make the skirt a little longer. And the tie ... Please, Laurel."

She looked at my tie, her head shifting from side to side. "Well it does look a little ridiculous ... I know." She pulled out her wand again and changed it to a bow tie. It sparkled still, but wasn't as bad as having a whole tie full of glitter.

Then she made my skirt about twice as long, so it ended in the middle of my thighs.

I smiled. "Thanks."

+

The Slug club consisted of a bunch of eight graders I had never heard of as well as few fifth, sixth and seven graders ... and Alicia. The golden trio wasn't there; Slughorn had said that they had all declined, since they had lots of work to do; Harry was teaching flying lessons with his girlfriend, Ginny Weasley, Hermione was busy with an important project and Ron was apparently running a chess club, starting today.

Even Slyghorn had a hard time saying it, especially when he came to Ron's excuse for not coming.

It was weird but fun as well - Slughorn always seems to slip in his connections somewhere, heavily promoting his Christmas party, on which he would invite lots of celebrities only the Slugclub would get to know. He highlited each persons achievements so far. It was alright until he started talking to me.

"So, Miss Eletherya, What was your life in the muggle world like? Did people admire you?"

"Uhm", I said, "no not really."

Slughorn seemed a little dissapointed, especially since Alicia just boasted about her fame and how everyone admired her.

"I'm sure the muggles must have noticed that you're a little different. What was it like?"

"They were rather scared since it was new to them, I guess."

"Oho! You must have left a big impression on them. No admirers?"

"No.", I said, feeling uneasy.

Slughorn smiled at me regardless. "Neither than less we can expect great things from you in the future, since you are the daughter of Hecate herself."

Oh yes, no pressure at all. I smiled back and he moved on to Cecily, praising her school grades.

+

"It wasn't that bad, was it?", Laurel said. "Sure, Uncle Horace can get on your nerves and sometimes makes you feel uncomfortable, but deep down, he's a good guy."

He did seem like a good person, but I had the feeling that he wouldn't offer the chance to meet all his connections to people without influence, money or a showcaseable talent. For example, some people are really good at photography, though they don't get the chance to meet those connections. That didn't however mean that they weren't good at what they did - Slughorn simply did not see any value in picking up random people in Hogwarts and asking them about their talents, which was bugging me a bit.