To Those Who Will Listen - Draco Malfoy

• five •

DAKOTA

It was just my luck that I'd have to walk with Hagrid and Malfoy to the hospital. He was never going to let me live down the fact I was carrying his bag. He kept whining about how we should 'just wait til my father hears about this' and kept referring to BuckBeak as a chicken. Bloody fool still hadn't learned that Hippogriff's need to be respected.

We soon reached the infirmary and Hagrid laid Malfoy down in a free bed before hurrying off to talk to Madame Pomfrey, leaving me alone with lucifer himself. As soon as Hagrid was out of sight, Malfoy immediately stopped complaining about his arm and smirked at me.

"Enjoy carrying my bags for me, servant girl?" he almost cackled.

"I'm not a house elf, Malfoy." I rolled my eyes as I dropped his belongings. "I can't believe you. Poor Hagrid was worried sick that you were dying."

"That was the point, you moron." He went silent for a moment as I shifted my weight, unsure of whether I was allowed to leave him on his own or not. "You know..." he started, hesitating for a moment, "Potter isn't all that."

"What?"

"You were looking at him like he created the world. I'm just saying." He stared up at the ceiling.

"How did you know how I was looking at him?" I smirked but he couldn't see.

"Erm, I-I...Goyle told me. That's all."

"Careful saying things like that, Malfoy, anyone would think you fancied me," I said sarcastically, letting out a laugh at my own joke.

"Fuck off, Jednay. You wish. Can you leave already? Your weirdness is starting to make my arm sting more," he smirked at me, feigning a pain in his arm. Git. I turned to leave, but if I'd stayed a second longer, I would've noticed that he had a pink tint to his cheeks.

***

Weeks passed since the Buckbeak incident and the only conversations I had with Malfoy were us hurling insults at each other from across corridors or classrooms. Everyone around us found it hilarious, particularly Laura and Orion.

Speaking of Orion, he'd been walking me to most of my classes whenever he was free. Although it was slightly breaking my vow of no boys, I thought I deserved to have at least one boy that was nice to me. All the other boys in the school seemed to be too scared to be nice of me in fear of Malfoy being horrid to them. I couldn't really blame them, he could be extremely nasty when he wanted to be.

"So, what's school like in the muggle world? I've never been in the muggle world at all really," Orion stated as he walked me to my potions class.

"Oh, it's quite similar actually. A lot of cliques. Always a boy that everyone likes the look of, always a girl that they don't. Rather sad, if you think about it. How come you've never been? It's so interesting," I looked up at him as he smiled.

"My parents both work in the Ministry, so I've never really had a reason to go out looking. Maybe you can take me one day," he winked.

I was about to reply but I saw a familiar head of hair bouncing just ahead of me. Morgana. I still hadn't managed to speak to her since my sorting, and she was in my potions class but for some reason was avoiding me.

"Sorry, Orion, excuse me for a second. I'll see you in Devination class later?" I waved as I hurried to try and catch up to her.

"Morgana? Morgana! Wait, please!" I saw her stop abruptly and her shoulders rise and fall dramatically, as if she was taking the deepest breath of her life. She turned, knowing there was no way to avoid this situation now unless the ground swallowed her. "Hey," I smiled, "can we talk?"

"I know what this is about, and I'm sorry. It wasn't very Hufflepuff of me at all to ignore you like that. I can explain?" She almost cringed at how fast she was talking.

"It's okay, I was just confused, I guess? Was it something I did?" I questioned, slightly raising an eyebrow with concern.

"No." She took a deep breath. "I'm assuming nobody told you about last year?" I shook my head with a puzzled look on my face. "Okay, sorry, it's hard for me to talk about. I had a best friend, Slytherin just like you. There was a basilisk, somewhere in the school, I still don't know where. Basically," she paused to check I was still following, "it was going after what a lot of people in your house call mud-bloods and blood traitors. Because I'm a mud-blood and she sympathised with me as well as muggles, it petrified her one night."

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry if this sounds dumb but can't you cure being petrified? I read about it some-"

"Normally, yes." She interrupted. "But something was wrong with Ava and the cure didn't work. She died. Because she was my friend, she died. And when you got put into Slytherin, I was terrified something bad would happen to you because Slytherins are shunned if they associate with other houses."

I paused after she'd finished to take it all in. I felt awful. I felt selfish. I felt guilty. However, I also felt confused.

"My house? My parents told me that Slytherin was the nicest house..."

"Are you sure they were in Slytherin?" she laughed. "Come on, I'm okay now. Wanna sit next to me in Potions?" I nodded almost frantically, excited to finally sit next to someone rather than at the back by myself.

We slung our bags over the backs of our chairs after we'd got out our parchment and quills. I noticed that Snape hadn't arrived yet, and I sighed with relief thinking I had at least a few minutes of freedom left.

"So, was that Orion Lucas I saw you with?" Morgana looked at me whilst wiggling her eyebrows. "What's going on there then?"

"Yeah, Jednay, what is going on there?" I sucked in a breath as I recognised the voice. The familiar blond slumped down in front of me, his friend Blaise sitting in the chair next to him.

"None of your business, cockroach," I snapped harshly.

"Ooo, Blaise, looks like Jednay's boyfriend's a touchy subject," he nudged his right hand man as they both laughed.

Morgana giggled slightly, immediately stopping as she realised they were making fun of me. Her demeanour changed suddenly as she shot him a glare to leave me alone. I was already more than grateful to have her back as a friend. I'm sure her and Laura would love each other.

Potions class dragged on as we got into pairs and carried out experiments. Morgana and I spent most of the lesson laughing at how pathetic our attempts were and how obvious Snape made his distaste for us. The other part of the lesson was spent shooting insults back at Malfoy, who still seemed to get a kick out of picking on me in particular. Even Morgana whispered to me a few times that she had no idea what his problem with me was.

As Snape dismissed us with his low voice, I packed up my things and hurried out the classroom knowing that I had Devination right after and didn't want to be late.

"Jednay!" Oh, bugger off.

"Are you deaf as well as stupid?! Wait there!"

I halted at his demand, my cheeks flushing red as passing students glared at me for the scene Malfoy was causing.

"What do you want?" I glared up at him.

"I don't think you should be with Orion," he rushed.

"I'm sorry, what? I'm not with anyone. And even if I was, it's none of your business, Malfoy," I spat before turning on my heel and stalking off.

"Fine! It's your funeral!" I heard him call after me.

Nosy twat.