star shopping ✰ d.m.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The rest of the weekend for Arabella consisted of trying to convince Hagrid (who had finally returned from his mission all beat up) to settle for boring lessons in order to pass Umbridge's inspection, detention, and avoiding all Slytherin students at all costs. With Monday came Potions, however, forcing her to face Draco, Pansy, and all of their friends. She managed to ignore them for the entirety of the class, but once it was over, if they wanted to speak to her, whether it be nice or not, there was nothing that could be done.

"Belle! Belle, wait!" Draco called after her, trying to catch up with her in the corridor as they all left Snape's classroom.

Rolling her eyes, Arabella whipped around to face him, and upon seeing her angry expression, Draco realized doing this in the corridor in front of everyone might have been a mistake.

"What, Draco?" Arabella said impatiently.

"Where have you been all weekend?" he asked, trying to ignore his peers watching the exchange.

"Why do you care?"

"Why wouldn't I care?"

"Oh, don't play dumb, Draco. You know exactly why." He gave her a look as if prompting her to go on, and she rolled her eyes yet again before continuing. "You really thought my brothers weren't going to tell me everything you said? As if they would have any reason to want to cover your ass. They don't like you, they've never liked you, and as it turns out, rightfully so."

"Right, so then I guess we should be discussing how you walked up to Pansy after the match and punched her for no reason."

"And I'll do it again! Because she deserved it, and so did you."

"Oh, we deserved that, did we?"

"Yes, you did! And you know you did! As if you wouldn't react the same way if someone was having a go at your parents. In fact, I think the exact words you used to describe my mother were 'fat and ugly.' You know I look like her, right? She is my mother, after all. Does that mean I'm fat and ugly too? Is that what you think of me?"

"I-"

"Shut up! There's nothing you could say to make this okay. Nothing. And to think I actually believed that you'd changed, that you would never do something like that. That's what I told everyone who told me that I shouldn't be dating you, and you know what? In the end, you were the one that proved them right. So I think you know what I'm going to say next."

Draco found himself at a loss for words as he just looked at her.

"Right. Goodbye, Draco." And with that, she walked away from him, joining Ron, Hermione, and Harry, who of course had stopped to watch the whole thing.

"Wow," Pansy said quietly once the four were out of earshot. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

"You-" Ron began, but was quickly stopped by Hermione.

"Don't, Ron," she said, knowing that he was going to say something along the lines of 'You did the right thing,' which would not help the situation. "Let's just go to lunch."

"Yes, please," Arabella agreed. "I'm starving."

Harry and Ron exchanged a look, having no idea what was going through the girls' brains.