Slytherin Princess | ✓

nineteen

The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavy clouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as the owl post came over. To my great surprise and happiness, a large black eagle owl landed on Draco's shoulder with two parcels of cakes and sweets for him and me.

"I love your mother," I sighed as I pulled out a Peppermint Toad.

Our Monday class schedule wasn't as bad as I expected, though, unfortunately, fourth year Slytherins had Cares with Gryffindors and then Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts with them, as well, on other days. Cares wasn't as bad as intended, being I had gotten hurt the first lesson last year, but it was still pretty awful.

Hagrid showed us these creatures that looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads. Unlike the Hippogriffs, that were slightly more attractive, these did nothing and managed to almost singe a Gryffindor's hand.

And after all of our lessons, before dinnertime, Draco had gotten his hands on today's Daily Prophet which trashed Mr Weasley due to his poor control of the events last week and his inability to still account for the disappearance of one of the Ministry Witches. On top of that, they got his first name wrong.

Just our luck, the Golden Tetrad came into the entrance hall where Draco was showing around the newspaper. Seeing as he was too distracted laughing at the article, I decided to get their attention,

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"

He turned to face us as Harry, Kemper, and Granger turned as well. At my voice, Draco looked up and smirked, pleased that I had gotten the tetrad's attention. Crabbe and Goyle looked thoroughly pleased also.

"What?" said Weasley shortly.

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Draco, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet, throwing it into his chest.

I watched as Weasley read the article with Harry and Granger looking over his shoulders. Weasley promptly looked up and was his usually red embarrassment.

"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" I said, raising a brow at him.

Weasley threw it back at me, trying to hit me, but missing greatly.

"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Draco, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house — if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

My eyes widened slightly at Draco's comment and I froze in my spot. Uh-oh, I thought. Weasley was shaking with fury and everyone was staring at him for his reaction. Harry narrowed his eyes at Draco while Granger looked just as surprised as I did.

"Get stuffed, Malfoy," Kemper shouted. "C'mon, Ron, let's go."

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Kemper? You too, Potter?" sneered Draco. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

"You know your mother, Malfoy?" said Harry — he, Kemper, and Granger had grabbed the back of Weasley's robes to stop him from launching himself at Draco — "that expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"

"Don't you dare insult her, Harry Potter," I shouted furiously. Draco's face went slightly pink at Harry's comment.

"Tell your little boyfriend to keep his fat mouth shut, then," said Harry as they turned away.