Rivals | D.M

1. The Boy in Her Dreams

He grasps my hand and shoves it against the wall, his hot minty breath tickles my neck as he plants a soft yet forbidden kiss.

"Aster!"

A familiar voice sang into my ear.

"Girl get up already, we're going to be late"

My eyes spring open as the memory of my dream shifts in my brain. Harper sits on the edge of her bed, pulling her socks onto her feet, an impatient look strewn on her face.

I groan and twist back around, my thoughts tumbling inside of my head as I try to comprehend the meaning of that...interesting dream.

"Seriously Aster, you can't be late. Don't you want to beat Malfoy in Potions this year again?" Harper says as she pulls off my warm covers.

The name flicks a switch in my brain, and I jump up scaring Harper in the process.

"Morning Harpy, today seems like a great day to beat Malfoy to a pulp" I say, giving Harper my best cunning smile.

Harper rolls her eyes at me as she throws my robes in my face.

We end up rushing to breakfast, Harper desperate to at least shove a croissant down her throat before class. She heads towards a bench closest to the door of the great hall, our usual seats on our table. Blaise is already finishing his cereal as I drop myself down onto the hard wooden bench.

"You guys are late...again" Blaise says in between mouthfuls. His eyebrows go up in a nonplussed humour.

"Blame Aster" Harper says as she reaches towards a plate of pastries. I watch as she piles her plate up, my stomach twisting at the thought of food.

I rest my head onto my arms, desperate to get the inorganic thoughts out of my head. That stupid dream, has made me feel queasy. Queasy! I never miss breakfast.

"What's wrong with you Aster?" Blaise asks.

I lift my head slowly and see Blaise pushing his bowl towards the middle of the table.

"Bad dream" I mutter, before again slumping my head onto the table.

Before I know it, Harper's pulling me out of my seat and dragging me to class.

"Seriously girl, what's wrong with you this morning? I mean, you're not normally this tired" She says as she pulls her mousy brown hair into a messy ponytail. Her dark eyes watch me, concern shadows them.

"I'm fine, just had a bad dream" I mutter once again. I run my hands through my own hair, now awake enough to be concerned about my appearance. As we pass a window, I catch my reflection. My dark hair resembles nothing short of a nest. I rake my hands through it harder, desperate for it to flatten.

"Stop." Harper says, grinding me to a halt. She pulls my fingers away from my hair and pulls a small brush from her robe. I roll my eyes as she combs the ends of my hair.

"Seriously, what would you do without me" she mumbles a small smile growing on her face. Her upturned eyes glow with pride as she steps back to examine me.

"Ok ok, I'm a mess. What do you expect from me?" I say as I pull her towards the stream of students and into class.

We sit at a table in the back of the classroom and pull out our 'Advanced Potion Making' textbook. Both myself and Harper have always prided ourselves on our achievements in class, most would say we were nerds but only those brave enough to face us would ever say that to a Slytherin's face.

More Sytherin's and Ravenclaw's fill the classroom. I flick through my textbook, reading snippets of interesting facts. Potions was always my favourite, so much that last year I had come top of the year, surpassing even the one and only Draco Malfoy. Even Hermione Granger couldn't come close to the marks I had gotten.

Our new professor Slughorn, coughs awkwardly to get everyone's attention. Snickers echo throughout the room as the Slytherin's catch his lack of confidence. I roll my eyes at the group of Sytherin's at the end of our table. Malfoy and his gang whisper and laugh as Professor Slughorn tries to ignore the interruption.

Before I know it we're diving deep into the making of a new potion. A polyjuice potion. Harper and I work together, fluidly mixing the knotgrass into the cauldron. The next step allows for it to brew for 60 mins so while we wait, Professor Slughorn tasks us with answering multiple shorthand questions.

The class grows quiet as everyone finishes off the first step of the potion and everyone gets stuck into the questions. All the Ravenclaw's at the front of the class bury the heads in their notebooks. Before I can get stuck into my questions, Harper hisses to my right.

"What?!" I hiss back, cranky at her interruption.

"Malfoy's staring at you" she says, a hint of humour as well as concern in her voice.

"What do you mean.." I stop talking as I flick my eyes towards Malfoy. His piercing eyes stare straight into mine, they flicker as he realises I've caught him but he doesn't pull away. Instead he gives me a smug smile and then turns back to his textbook.

"What the fuck" I say, a chill running down my spine.

"He's just trying to get under your skin" Harper mumbles, apparently not fussed about the strange interaction I just had with someone who hardly looks at me on a regular day.

Before I go back to my work, I look up again. This time he's still looking down at his textbook but instead he holds up his notebook with the words "I will beat you this time" scribbled in his slanted handwriting.

I sigh in exasperation. Seriously, this is what we're doing. I roll my eyes for what feels like the hundredth time today and get back to my work.

As we take a break between our double period, Harper and I walk down towards a stone bench slotted in between two large windows staring out at the Black lake.

Harper sprawls on the bench, her dark robes slip off her legs revealing slim long legs.

"Harps, Cedric has no classes anywhere near here, you are not going to bump into him so put those long legs away will you and give me room to sit" I say as I push her legs off the stone bench and sit crossed legged by her side.

"You never know Ast" Giving me a cunning smile.

"A hufflepuff?" A squealing voice echoes from the hallway. "I guess that's to be expected from a half-blood". Pansy Parkinson struts towards us as she eyes up Harper. Harper's eyes sharpen, anger rising.

"Hey Pansy, it's a good thing we're learning how to make polyjuice potion, maybe you can actually turn that excuse of a face into something a bit more easy on the eyes?" I jab.

Pansy's eyes glisten with hatred as she steps towards me. I keep a smile plastered on my face, letting her know that this just amuses me.

"Draco seems to think I look just fine thank you very much" she counters.

"Oh honey, just fine?" I say gritting my teeth and giving her a cringe worthy smile.

Pansy's eyes blanch at my insult. She huffs in response and turns on her heels stalking back towards Malfoy and his gang.

"What a psycho" I say as I relax back into my seat.

Harper stares after Pansy, the anger in her eyes still blazing.

"Girl, don't listen to her. Pansy and every girl in this school knows that Cedric is probably the best looking guy in our year" I say as I pick the dirt out of my nails.

"Probably?" Harper questions,wiggling her eyebrows at me.

I frown at her.

"Who do YOU think is the best looking guy in our year?" she asks, giving me a playful nudge.

"Dunno" I mumble, as the flashbacks from this morning's dream flick through my head.

"Yeah...right.." Harper says her eyes now returning to their playful light.

I watch as Harper pulls out her mirror and starts to touch up her eyeliner. I find myself scanning the hallways absentmindedly. My eyes rest on one boy in particular.