To Those Who Will Listen - Draco Malfoy

• six •

DAKOTA

I'd managed to push what Malfoy had said to me after Potions out of my mind as I sat myself down next to Orion.

"You look angry...Malfoy again I assume?" Orion chuckled to himself as he noticed my expression. My cheeks were flushed red and my hands were shaking slightly.

"That obvious? He's just sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, as usual." I sighed as I saw his blond hair enter the room, late might I add. His lips were pressed into a thin line and his eyebrows were furrowed. His eyes locked with mine and upon realising who I was sat next to, he almost growled as he rolled his eyes and slumped into a seat near the back of the classroom.

"Ah, Mr Malfoy..." Professor Trelawney spoke slowly, "Don't worry, I saw that you would be late to this lesson." I almost snorted, not believing a word she said. Hermione, almost as if she appeared from nowhere, laughed with me too as we shared a look.

"Let's get started then, shall we? Get into your pairs and I want you to try and foresee something in their future."

Orion looked at me and winked, causing me to feel blood rushing to my face. "Partners?" He smiled. I nodded, almost too eagerly and got my cup in my hands.

"So, um...Shit. I'm not very good at this at all. I guess that could be a...sun?" I squinted as all the tea leaves blended together.

Orion laughed loudly as he swirled his cup around in his hands. "Okay, so. I see...that you have very pretty eyes and a really nice smile." Oh my. If my cheeks weren't already red, they were burning for sure now.

I heard a loud gag from behind us.

"Merlin's beard, Lucas. Could you be anymore cringeworthy? Someone, for the love of Merlin, please hex him before he gets on one knee and proposes," Malfoy addressed the rest of the class who cackled at his comment.

"Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon, Malfoy," I spoke, earning just as many laughs as he had done.

"Please, Jednay. You're so desperate for attention, you'll even take it off a-" He stopped short, realising where we were and took a deep breath. "Nevermind."

I furrowed my eyebrows together and tilted my head to the side. A what? He was so ominous sometimes it would be the death of me if I tried to understand what he was talking about.

I glanced at Orion to see he could've had steam coming out of his ears. If looks could kill, Malfoy would've been six feet under- something I pondered over whether I'd actually enjoy that or not. I thought he was about to hex him when Trelawney interrupted sheepishly, trying to continue with the lesson.

I could see Harry and Ron laughing to themselves over the angered state of Malfoy, clearly enjoying someone arguing back to him.

I had no idea what Malfoy's problem with Orion was, but it was probably severely stupid. I decided on the fact that Orion probably just said something against Malfoy's family- something I'd taken note that was off limits on the comeback front. I would stick up for myself against anyone, but I'd never use someone's real life problems against them. That was probably what separated me from most Slytherins, I'd come to notice.

I spent the rest of the lesson pondering over how different Slytherin was in real life compared to how my parents had described it. It made me question whether they were ever in Slytherin at all. Even Morgana had nearly stopped being friends with me over my house, which spoke volumes to me.

I decided that I'd just owl them later after dinner tonight. My stomach growled at the thought of food, making Orion chuckle from next to me. I jumped at the sound, forgetting that he was even there I was so deep in thought.

I almost leaped out of my seat when Professor Trelawney announced that it was the end of the lesson, and therefore the end of the school day. Thank Godric.

As I walked out the room, Laura appeared next to me.

"God, Malfoy's basically obsessed with you. The look of hatred he was giving you, I'm surprised he didn't burn holes into your head," she laughed as she linked arms with me.

"Actually, I think the look of hatred was for me," Orion smirked from behind us both.

"What did you even do to him for him to hate you so badly? He warned me to stay away from you. Weirdo," I emphasised the last word as I laughed between the two of them.

"Oh, he did? Fucker," he muttered under his breath. "He just hates me because I'm a 'blood traitor', I guess." He shrugged his shoulders, before a wide smirk found itself on his face. "And, hes probably jealous that he overheard me telling Goyle that I wanted to ask you to Hogsmeade this weekend..."

Laura dug her elbow into my side as she muttered something about having somewhere to be. She winked at me, not-so-subtly at all before rushing off to the Great Hall.

"W-What?" I stumbled over my words. Back at my high school in the muggle world, boys didn't even breathe in my direction, let alone ask me on dates. I was more than confused as to why someone as seemingly perfect as Orion would even want to be my friend, let alone date me.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me...erm, this weekend?" I could only nod as my throat went dry. "Okay, perfect. Hungry?" I nodded again as he grabbed my hand lightly and tugged me into the Great Hall.

Still hand in hand, we found Laura and sat down to start eating. I tried to focus my attention on the food in front of me, but I couldn't help but glance at a group of snickering Slytherins further up the table. A group of girls sat whispering whilst staring at Orion and I.

"What are you looking at?" Laura exclaimed, making me jump. The girls jumped too and looked away, still laughing and whispering amongst themselves. What was that about?

We were soon dismissed from dinner and headed back to our dormitory in the dungeons below. Still loosely holding onto my hand, Orion was talking to me about something I had no idea about. My mind was too busy focussing on the girls from dinner earlier, and how weird his hand felt in mine. I thought that when you dated someone you were supposed to get this giddy feeling in your stomach, but somehow this felt odd.

Pushing the feelings out of my head, I headed straight up to bed and fell asleep, completely forgetting about my quest to question my parents about my house.