dislike ↠ draco malfoy

twenty-two

"Oh god," I muttered. I snatched up the half-eaten cupcake. Crumbs fell out onto the floor. Pansy must have somehow baked the love potion into the cupcake. I held it up to Draco's face. "Did Pansy give you this?"

"Huh?" he said, his eyes still glazed over. He was staring into the fire as if it was the most attractive thing he had ever seen. "Oh, yeah, she did. It was brilliant, tasted amazing."

My eyes widened. "I think I actually hate her, how could she do this?" I muttered.

He sprung up off the floor. "Don't insult her!" he snapped. "I love her!"

I stood up and put my arms out. "Draco, calm down."

"Where's Pansy?" he asked. "I want to see Pansy!"

I stared at him. It was truly strange, seeing him like this. He was a completely different person. "Draco, we've got to get you to the hospital wing—"

"Hospital wing, why would I need to go to the hospital wing?" he inquired. she

I grabbed his arm. "Come on, let's go."

He jerked his arm away. "Where's Pansy?" he asked again. "Pansy!"

"Pansy," I said, suddenly thinking of an idea, "is in the hospital wing."

He stared at me, his eyes wide and unfocused. "Why's she in the hospital wing? Is she all right?" he asked quickly, his raspy voice filled with concern.

"She fell," I lied, "and hit her head." I suddenly had a vision of Pansy falling hard on a concrete floor and breaking her head open— I snapped out of it. "But she's fine. Come on, let's go visit her." I grabbed his arm again.

This time, he didn't pull away. "Yeah, let's go," he said in a small voice.

I led him out of the common room and to the hospital wing. Draco was walking sluggishly, as if he was drunk. I pushed open the large door and we walked inside. Madam Pomfrey was tending to a young boy.

She turned to us. "Is everything all right?"

"Madam, Draco's consumed a love potion," I explained.

"A love potion? Oh dear, come sit him down."

I grabbed his arm and pushed him down onto a cot.

"Wasgoinon?" he said in a very slurred voice. "Where's Pansy?"

"Just stay here, Malfoy, okay?" I told him.

He nodded and laid down on the cot.

I turned around so that I could talk to Madam Pomfrey without Draco hearing us.

Madam Pomfrey glanced at me. "How did he come in contact with this love potion?"

I swallowed. I wasn't sure if I should tell her the truth, as Pansy would surely get into trouble. But then I decided that I really didn't care if Pansy got into trouble. "Pansy Parkinson slipped it into a cupcake," I replied.

She frowned and shook her head vigorously. "Some nerve girls have these days. They were never like that when I was a girl."

"So, how do we fix him?" I asked. "Surely you have some sort of antidote or something?"

"Yes, he will need to take an antidote. I'm sure Professor Slughorn can brew some up. Can you do me a favor and go fetch him?"

I nodded. "Yes, anything."

I turned and walked out of the hospital wing. I made my way down to the dungeon, where the Potions classroom was.

Before I could get there, however, I saw Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass emerging from the Slytherin common room.

"Pansy!" I shrieked.

Pansy turned her head sharply in my direction. "What's got your wand in a knot, Hastings?"

I strode over to her, my face red from anger. "You drugged Draco."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

I stared at her in disbelief. "If you don't know what I'm talking about, why is it that Draco is moaning your name and saying he's in love with you?"

She shrugged. "He must really like me," she said, seemingly nonchalant.

"Don't play dumb!" I snapped. "What you did was really bad, Pansy, really bad..."

"Why do you care so much?" Pansy retorted. "I didn't realize that you even liked Draco that much."

"I don't— that's besides the point— giving Draco a love potion is not okay!" I exclaimed defiantly. "How did you even get a love potion, anyway?"

"Pocketed some from our class where we brewed Amortentia," she explained smugly. She reached into her robes and pulled out a vial filled with potion. "Still got some leftover—"

I reached my hand out and slapped the vial out of her hands. It fell to the floor and shattered. The potion lay wasted and useless on the floor.

Pansy shrieked, "What the hell, Hastings!"

"Got any more?" I inquired aggressively.

"No! That was my last bottle!"

"Good," I stated.

She stared at me, her pug-face contorted into a furious expression. "You've ruined my whole plan!"

"Grow up, Pansy," I said. "Fall in love in the normal way. Don't use magic to help you."

Her face softened slightly. She almost looked sad. "Boys don't like me very much. I'm ugly and awful."

"Maybe if you just be yourself and don't act all crazy all the time, they'll like you. And you're not ugly," I added.

"Is Draco going to be okay?" she mumbled.

"He'll be fine eventually," I replied softly.

"Oh god." Tears started to well up in her eyes. "I'm so sorry."

Daphne, who had been so quiet that I had forgotten that she was there, reached out and wrapped her arm around Pansy.

I smiled slightly. I felt slightly bad for Pansy. I mean, she was awful, but also desperate. Desperate for love and affection.

——————————————————————————
Author's Note

hello lovely people! thank you so much for the support on this story. it's just hit four thousand reads and i just want to say thank you! <3