Pure Toxicity [A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction]

3. Year 3, Potions

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It was like he could read her mind, and knew she was close to confronting him, to finally snapping. The look he shot her was almost daring, provoking her to do it so he could further humiliate her.

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The hallways of Hogwarts were cold on this autumn afternoon, and Juniper unrolled the sleeves of her green sweater as she headed for her last class before lunch. So far so good, she thought to herself. Her energy was still going strong and had no signs of a crash coming anytime soon. Please don't let me pass out in this class.

Since she didn't sleep last night, Juniper spent her time writing letters to her family. They always worried every time she departed for Hogwarts, so she made sure to remind them that she was okay and that she had made it to school with no troubles. She didn't tell them about what had happened, it wouldn't have done any good. Besides, it's not like they would've understood anyways.

The brown haired girl arrived early into her potions class, and gave Professor Snape a quick smile as she sat next to a fellow slytherin girl at a table who was very quiet and did not greet her back. As head of her house, he didn't voice his disdain for her bluntly, however he wasn't the most subtle man in the world. Soon, the class started to fill up, and Juniper could already feel her eyes starting to get heavy.

Beside her at the next table sat the Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Ron sat behind them with another Gryffindor, however Juniper did not know his name. She had become acquaintances with the golden trio, but would not call them her friends. However, they had always been nothing but friendly towards her.

Juniper looked towards their tables and smiled, offering a friendly wave towards them. She was greeted back with Harry's polite smile, Hermione's enthusiastic wave, and Ron's absent minded smile.

It wasn't hard to miss Draco Malfoy entering the room with his two henchmen, who were breathing disgustingly with their loud open mouths.

Please literally sit anywhere else not near me, I swear to god.

The young Malfoy's lips widened into a sneer when he saw the Slytherin girl sitting at a table, delighted he'd have this class to 'play' with her more. He saw her being friendly with Potter and his disgrace of a friend group, was she honestly trying to make herself more of a target for him?

"You'll just talk to anyone, won't you, Potter?" Draco spat, making it known with his eyes that he was talking about Juniper as he sat at the table directly behind her. "Are your current friends not charity enough for you?"

Juniper's face started to flush red from anger and embarrassment. All she had done was make a friendly gesture towards them, and now she is being called out for it? She darted her apologetic eyes to Harry who was now opening his mouth in response. "Screw off, Malfoy. I know it's hard for you to talk to people other than those empty headed ne'erdowells that follow you around."

"Take that back, Potter, or I swear to you-"

Professor Snape's voice interrupted the spat between the two boys and Juniper had never been so thankful for a potions lesson starting before. She made note to thank Harry after class, and to apologize for somehow getting him involved in whatever she was receiving from Malfoy.

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The entire lesson, Juniper fought to stay awake, which actually wasn't that hard to do with Draco Malfoy trying to get her in trouble the entire time. At one point during the lesson, he had gotten either Crabbe or Goyle to move the chair out from under her, and she fell onto the ground during the quietest moment of the class when they were meant to be reading. When she fell, she whipped her head around and shot Draco an intense glance while getting back into her seat. It was clear he was the reason for what had happened, and she opened her mouth to finally say something to him when she remembered that it wouldn't help her at all.

And of course, everyone had seen her fall and her chair slide. The skin of her face burned bright red, and she knew at some point she would have to deal with Draco Malfoy for real. Obviously ignoring him and wishing he would go away wasn't going to cut it.

Professor Snape had sadly missed who had messed with her chair, but made sure to punish the class by demanding an essay on the undetectable poisons for next week.

After class, she closed her potion textbook and notes. "Hey," she called as she followed Harry, Hermione, and Ron out of class. "Hey Harry, I'm sorry I got you involved with Malfoy back there.. Thank you for standing up for me though."

Harry smiled outside of the door to potions, and shrugged it off. "No worries, Juniper right? He's always got something to say. Sometimes it's hard to brush it off."

"Yeah don't worry about it, he's just a lousy git who needs to be put in his place sometimes." Ron added while munching on whatever snack he had retrieved from his backpack.

After saying this, Draco Malfoy and his henchmen strolled out of class; Draco wore a ridiculously snide smirk on his mouth as he passed the group conversing outside of the classroom, and glared at them through his platinum bangs. Juniper noticed his lips twitch further as he saw her, and she had a feeling that this was going to be an incredibly long year. It was like he could read her mind, and knew she was close to confronting him, to finally snapping. The look he shot her was almost daring, provoking her to do it so he could further humiliate her. She tried to push the whole thing to the back of her mind.

Hermione elbowed Harry sneakily, trying not to make it look too obvious. They waited to see if more would be said from Draco, but him and Crabbe and Goyle continued on their way. Suspicious.

"Well, even so," Hermione said in a lowered voice. " him and Malfoy's earlier conversation surely set Snape in a bad mood for the rest of class. Assigning such an essay because you were snatched out of your seat? The whole night is now gone." Juniper raised her eyebrows at the Gryffindor girl. That essay would take multiple days to finish, perhaps the whole weekend to do, and she was determined to finish it tonight?

Juniper wished she had that much motivation for her school work.

"Anyways," Harry said, giving the Slytherin girl a smile. "We should be on our way to lunch right about now, want to uh, walk with us there?"

The other two friends gave Juniper a somewhat sympathetic smile, to which she nodded her head. She knew that they were just being nice, and if Draco hated her, she couldn't possibly be that terrible of a person. The fatigue from earlier was feeling less and less potent, and was replaced now with a feeling of excitement and happiness. "Sure," she breathed, returning a smile. "I'm absolutely starving."