Rivals | D.M

34. The Library

Aster's POV

I fiddled with Draco's ring on the silver chain I had clasped round my neck. I used an old chain long enough so that I could tuck the ring under my t-shirt.

I ended up drifting back to sleep after Draco left me in the hospital wing, the next morning Madam Pomfrey discharged me and I headed to my room, desperate for a shower.

Harper was nowhere to be found, a huge part of me was devastated that she never came to visit but something in me switched last night and I felt angry at her. Angry that she could just shove away our friendship like it meant nothing, presumably over nothing as well. Right now, I was happy for her to give us the silent treatment.

Once I was showered and changed, I quickly downed my contraceptive tonic (a bottle kept hidden in my trunk) and headed to the common room. I hoped Blaise had waited for me to have breakfast, I don't think I could have handled eating alone today.

Thankfully, Blaise was leaning casually on the back of one of the couches in the common room. Head bowed down, reading a magazine.

"Hey"

He looks up, and gives me a gentle smile. A Blaise smile.

"Hey, how you feeling?"

"I'm feeling fine, much better actually" I say, pulling the sleeves of my black knitted crop down over my fingers.

He snaps his magazine closed and flicks it down onto a nearby side table.

"Lets get breakfast" he says, giving me a forced smile.

We both walk to The Great Hall side by side in silence. The silence wasn't awkward but it didn't seem right.

"You've seen Harper haven't you?" I ask.

He doesn't answer straight away, as if thinking of way to explain.

"Yeah...um...she looked upset so I asked her if she was ok and she uh...snapped" he mumbles, his voice wavering slightly.

I look to my side to see his dark eyebrows wrinkled, his eyes narrowed.

"Snapped?"

"Yeah she just shouted at me to leave her alone...so I did" he mutters sadly.

I feel my heart slightly crack, but my anger quickly fills that small fissure.

"Just forget about her Blaise. Let's just let her do what she needs to do." I try to make my words sound comforting but instead they sound slightly threatening.

"Lets just hope they have pancakes this morning" Blaise says in reply.

Draco's POV

I wake up to a stiff, sore shoulder. I forgot to produce a healing spell on it last night, I was too exhausted to even remember I had even been in a fight. If you could call it that.

It wasn't the first time I had thrown a punch, there was more than one reason why people seemed to follow me around. They knew I had a temper, they just didn't know that I threw punches out of fearfulness. To be honest, I was fretful every day that they would see straight through me, see that I wasn't as strong as they thought. Wasn't such a Malfoy after all.

I look into my smudgy mirror and find a huge fresh and livid purple bruise growing on my right shoulder.

I carefully manoeuvre my arms into a black t-shirt and step into my familiar black jeans. Combing my hair with my fingers I wince as I also realise my knuckles were also infected with blue-purple hued splotches. While examining my fingers, I quickly notice my ring was gone.