Dressed for Ruin

chapter seven

It took a while for Draco to get it. "I thought you said you were just doing lines" he said, with a look of horror.  "We did do lines, but it was with one of her special quills." I told him, not wanting to talk about this anymore. "Helena Malfoy, how could you not tell me?" he was pissed, but I couldn't tell if it was at me or not. "I knew you'd be mad"I croaked. "Of course I'd be mad, only a complete idiot wouldn't be mad!" he shouted, "Come on, were going to tell Professor Snape right now." he said firmly, as if I didn't have a say. "Draco don't be so dramatic, I'm fine. I was just a bit bothered and in a bit of a mood, but I'm not hurt or anything." I said in my most confident voice. "I don't care, it's either you talk to Snape or I swear I'll go right now and send a letter to dear ol' dad" he threatened. "You wouldn't" I called his bluff. "Try me" he sang. "God, Draco, I knew I shouldn't have told you" I yelled at him. "Helena, you can't exactly blame me for worrying about you!" he shouted even louder than I had, probably waking up the whole House. "I don't blame you for worrying, I'd be worried too. I blame you for trying to control everything, just listen to me, that's literally all I ask for! I seethed. "What is going on here Mr. and Miss Malfoy?" said the unmistakeable voice of Professor Snape. "Surely the sibling fights can wait until morning, can't they?" he said in his classic chastising tone. "I'm sorry for waking you up, Professor" I said in my calmest voice, but Draco was still fuming, I could tell by his face. "Don't let it happen again, either of you" he ordered. 

I woke up the next day in the most horrible mood. I checked the time and noticed that in half an hour I would meet up with Blair at the Quidditch field to have a practice before the tryouts. She was already out of bed so I assumed she had an early start to her day. I got up and had a quick shower, before putting on last year's Quidditch uniform and tying my hair up in a high ponytail. I grabbed my broom and tried to leave as quietly as I could. I went to the Great Hall, and had a bit of toast. Luckily, the table was nearly empty because most people slept in on Saturdays. 

I got to the Quidditch field and almost started to wonder if Blair had forgotten about our practice and then I saw her flying about fifty feet above me. "Helena! I heard your little brawl with Draco last night." she said while getting to the ground. "Yeah, well, what can I say? Having a brother can be terrible." I said, shrugging it off, "You and Draco seem to have an amazing bond, it's not at all like you guys to fight like that" she commented. I agreed, Draco and I hadn't fought like that in years. "I guess it's not. Are you ready to practice or what?" I said, finally getting excited. 

I mounted my broomstick and swiftly started to fly. The feeling I get while flying is inexplainable, it's unlike anything I had ever felt before. I hadn't flown in the longest time, I don't know why I let myself get this far without flying, but it was as if no time had passed since I had last practiced.     Blair and I warmed up and just had a blast, flying over the whole field, even flying along the Black Lake. Soon everyone started gathering along the field for the tryouts so Blair and I got down and had a bit of water. 

Marcus Flint, the team captain and judging by the way they were looking at each other had a thing with Blair. Blair was such a good player, no one could ever say Marcus only got her on the team because they're dating, her talent is undeniable. In the field were a lot of students who wanted to try out. From intimidated first years to scary looking seventh years. Marcus divided us in two groups and had us do a bunch of drills. After it was clear, who could play and who could not. He finally had us play actual Quidditch. I played Seeker for my group and found the Golden Snitch in less than five minutes. And Blair played Beater, her preffered position, and beat Goyle who was trying out for Beater as well. After what felt like too soon, the tryout was over and Marcus promised to post the list with the people who got on the team by this evening in our common room. Blair and I walked all the way to our common room together, and we saw on the news board that this was a Hogsmeade week end, which was very exciting. This morning's bad mood was entirely lost. 

I had another shower and got ready, deciding to put way more of an effort into my looks than I had in a while. The first Hogsmeade week end of term was always very exciting. Eve, Blair and I went through Filch while he searched for our names in the long list of students who had permission to go to Hogsmeade. Once we got there, we went to the Three Broomsticks because it was quite a windy day and I fancied a butterbeer.  I took my first sip, and felt so peaceful. Right then, I saw Eve's expression, her eyes wide as she stared at something behind me. "Sorry ladies, but I'm gonna need to borrow my sister." I turned to see Draco standing behind me, staring at me. I rolled me eyes. "See you later, guys" I said in a hard voice. 

As soon as we got outside I said, "Thank you, for not telling Snape yesterday". "What do you want me to say? 'My pleasure'? It was hardly that." he replied coolly. "I know, but still. Thank you. That was proper decent of you" I told him, as I nudged his shoulder with my head. "I'm sorry for shouting yesterday" we said at the same time, which made us both laugh. "It's okay, I was being a bit of a dick about it." Draco confessed. "Yeah, and I wasn't exactly being helpful either" I answered.  As he was about to respond, I gave him a long hug. He hugged me back, resting his head on my own, just like he used to do when we were kids. "It's so weird, fighting with you like that" he said in a low voice. I let him go, "Right, it's very unlike us. Let's never do it again" I reproached. "Agreed" he said, while smiling. "Should we go back in?" Draco asked. "You go ahead, I'm going over to Honeydukes for a bit" I responded.

On my way to Honeydukes I saw Harry, Ron and Hermione walking, clearly discussing something private. I started walking faster, not in the mood for a row with Hermione. "Oh hey, Helena" Harry said loudly, if my name weren't as rare as it is, I would've thought he was speaking to somebody else. I just waved and kept walking at a quick pace. "Where are you going?" Hermione asked, in what I guessed was her normal voice. I wouldn't know, I'd only ever heard her sneer. "Oh, I'm just going over to Honeydukes." I explained, not even sure why I had. They walked towards me. "Well after, if you aren't busy, a few of us are meeting over at the Hog's Head" he said, earning a glare from Hermione. She was kind of starting to bother me, like what ever had I done to make her dislike me this much? "See you there!" I said in my flirtiest voice, wanting to get on her nerves. Without another word, I walked the rest of the way towards Honeydukes and got myself some Peppermint Toads and got some Fudge Flies for my mother, who I knew loved them. 

As I was walking towards the Hog's Head I wondered why we were even meeting there, the Three Broomsticks was far less sketchy, and had superior butterbeer. When I opened the door I realized there were a lot of people in the tiny space. Most of them I didn't know but recognized and other I knew like Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Ginny Weasley, the Patil twins, a few people from the Gryffindor Quidditch team, the Weasley twins, along with Lee Jordan, a girl who I vaguely recognized as Cho Chang. By the looks of it, I was the only Slytherin here, and by the looks I was receiving too. Fred Weasley ordered butterbeers for everyone, I accepted out of politeness because I wanted nothing to do with those dirty, dusty bottles.