the girl with all of the choices

t w e n t y - s i x

**TW: blood**

4613 words

september fourth- the first day of classes

Fifth year. OWLs. A lot rides on fifth year. If you do good on your OWLs, you take NEWT classes for your last two years at Hogwarts. But if you don't, well, I didn't want to think about that.

I was determined to do good in all of my classes. If I could get Os on all of my OWLs then I could do literally any job I wanted. I could live in the Wizarding World forever. My parents would hate that, but who cares. It's my life, isn't it? The only class I had to worry about would be Potions. Draco helped me a lot last year, but I wasn't sure it was enough. I just don't like to brew potions. I'm not good at it.

Professor Sprout handed our timetables out earlier this morning. Once we got to breakfast, we frantically compared which classes we all had together. This year, I didn't have many classes with my friends. I had Astronomy and Divination with George, Transfiguration with Fawn, and Justin, Charms with Justin, Fawn, and Ainsley, Potions with Justin, Neville, and Ernie, History of Magic with Justin and Ainsley, Defence Against the Dark Arts with Draco, Justin, Fawn, and Neville, and Herbology with Draco, Justin, and Neville. Justin was in all of my classes, save for Astronomy and Divination, because we were both prefects. I wished Justin could swap places with Draco. We barely had any classes together this year. We didn't even have Charms or Potions together, so we wouldn't get to help each other.

After comparing my schedule with my friends at the Hufflepuff table, I went over to the Slytherin table to compare with him. I knew he wouldn't come over to see me, considering he was who is is. I got weird looks from the other Slytherins, especially when I sat next to Draco. He glared at them though, which was reassuring, in a way.

"You're going to have to help me with Potions outside of classes," I said sadly up at him. He was wearing his Slytherin robes, which made him look just as dashing as always, if not more so now with his new height.

"Well it's a good thing I was already planning on spending time with you," he teased back. "At least we have two classes together."

"I guess you're right," I sighed, unable to hide my unhappiness. He picked up on this and grabbed my hand under the table, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I should probably get back to my table," I said. I didn't want to leave his side, but the looks I was getting from the other Slytherins were starting to bother me.

"Meet me outside of the Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom?" he asked as I stood up.

"Absolutely," I smiled at him before turning to walk away.

"Corbyn," he called after me, standing to get closer to me. "If you have any classes with Potter, stay away. I have a bad feeling about him this year."

"Draco," I chastised, "you always have a bad feeling about Harry. He's just like the rest of us. The only difference is that he single-handedly murdered You-Know-Who as an infant."

"Just promise me," he said, his eyes meeting mine. They were endearing, but also extremely worrisome. Does he know something I don't?

I couldn't ignore the pleading in his eyes. He looked scared. I figured it would be best to go along with it. "I promise. Now let me go see my friends."

His worried expression faded and he smirked at me as I turned and walked back to the Hufflepuff table. As soon as I sat, we were greeted by three Gryffindors, one of which I had just promised to stay away from.

"Hey Harry," said Fawn warmly.

"Hey Fawn," he answered. "We were just wondering if we could compare timetables?"