~The Slytherin Princess~ Draco Malfoy

N I N E

October rolled around quickly and the school of Hogwarts was becoming slowly decorated with Halloween festivity.

"This is stupid." Draco muttered, using his wand to levitate pumpkins to decorate the Slytherin table in the great hall, "this is servants work!" He huffed, looking in disgust at the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor prefects, "I can't wait for this year to be over so I don't have to do this shit anymore, once my father hears about this-"

"Malfoy!" Adeline yelled in annoyance, "please do us all a favour and shut up!" Adeline swore she heard Granger and Weasley snigger at her from the Gryffindor table,The girl was working beside him, placing fake cobwebs around the pumpkins and bewitching fake spiders to crawl around on them, "honestly you act like we're being made to clean out the toilets or something."

Draco looked at her in horror, "people get made to do that?" His face turned a stark pale as panic filled his voice, "am I going to be made to do that?"

Adeline only sighed and smiled slightly as she picked up a dyed ruby red flower.

"What's that?" Draco asked her curiously, peering at the flower the girl was twirling around in her finger.

"It's an orchid." Adeline smiled fondly, "mother used to plant them all the time in the garden, they're my favourite." Suddenly the smile fell from her face, "now that father is occupied with more work she doesn't have time." Adeline trailed off quietly, looking down at the floor and placing the orchid down.

Draco Malfoy frowned as he too fell into silence, all too familiar with what the girl was going through, the Malfoy's and the Charm's were once loyal death eaters, and with the new rising of the Dark Lord... their fate was becoming darker by the minute.

"How is your father anyways?" Draco questioned curiously, "I haven't seen or heard from him since him and my father left our holiday early."

"I don't know. He never came home, mother won't tell me what he's doing or where he is." Adeline gulped, not wanting to imagine what her father was doing, although she had a strong incline it was nothing good, "I miss him." Although the Charm had faltering relationship with her mother, although her father was heavily involved with the Dark Arts she loved him dearly and could be classed as a daddy's girl.

"You'll see him at Christmas." Draco smiled softly.

"Hopefully..." Adeline whispered, eyes trained on the orchid.

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Adeline smiled as her eyes shot open, November 5th... also known as her birthday, but not any birthday, her 16th birthday.

Excitedly, the girl quickly shot from her bed and frowned, Daphne and Pansy has spent the night with her, yet the two girls were no where to be found.

"Daphne?" She called out hesitantly, knocking on her bathroom door, "Pansy are you in there?" Hearing no response Adeline gently nudged the door open, greeted only by an empty bathroom.

Sighing, Adeline decided just to get ready for the day of classes ahead and worry about her friends whereabouts later.

Descending into the prefects common room, Adeline looked around, a small fraction of her hoping maybe at least Draco would have waited for her, but no. Silence greeted her ears.

"At least you're here, huh." Adeline cracked a grin at her black cat as it rubbed it's face against her leg, purring loudly, "I love you Emerald." Adeline bent down and picked up her cat, stroking it softly before placing it down onto the satin couch by the fireplace.

The Charm heir walked towards the Great Hall, spirits dwindling as multiple people who she passed wished her a 'happy birthday' causing her to shoot them half-arsed smiles back. Walking into the dining room, Adeline felt her mood couldn't grow any worse, the Slytherin table was barren, completely empty.

That morning, on her 16th birthday, the brunette sat and ate alone, completely isolated, having no clue where any of her friends were.

"Adeline!" The girl's head shot up at the sound of a male voice, hoping it would be Blaise, hell she'd even want it to be Crabbe or Goyle at this point. But it wasn't.

"Harry?" She looked up at the Chosen One, his raven hair messy, his wide rimmed glasses tilted, "What are you-?"

"Happy birthday." He grinned a toothy grin, handing her a present she didn't realise he was holding, "it's nothing much." Harry rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I hope you like it."

"Why are you being nice to me?" She looked up at the boy who looked nothing but happy, she couldn't detect one ounce of maliciousness in his eyes.

"I think that under your mean exterior you're actually a nice person." Harry explained, sitting down on the Slytherin table, an action that made Adeline widen her eyes, Harry Potter was a very unpredictable character sometimes, "I think you just need a little nudge for that niceness to come out."

Without a word, Adeline unwrapped the gift, admiring it in awe. It was a blank diary, it's spine encrusted with shimmering jewels, it's cover a satin emerald.

"It's beautiful," she gasped, remembering her first detention with Umbridge "it matches my quill."

"That's why I bought it." Harry smiled at her, "when I saw it, it reminded me of you, I knew you liked to write so I thought-"

"How do you know I like to write?" Adeline scrunched up her face in confusion, shocked at his knowledge about her, "only Da-"

"Only Daphne knows, yeah." Potter nodded his head, like the information was common knowledge, which it most certainly was not, "I'm more observant than you think."

"Thank you, Harry." And for once Adeline smiled, a genuine smile, one of gratitude and thankfulness. Little did the boy know he had just brightened up her entire morning.

Harry Potter felt fear, a deep unsettling fear bubbling from within as his heart started to beat rapidly.
Would it be wrong if he said he wanted to see her smile more often?