they were just kids [draco malfoy]

Year 3 - 30

I hate it here...

It was Wednesday. HER private lessons with Lupin day. Yet for some inexplicable reason Potter the Chosen prat had turned up too. Not only was most of the attention on him, but this dude also had the audacity of practising the spell on a boggart dementor. No one had warned her properly and she had nearly shat her pants upon seeing it.

Not only that but Potter was clearly doing better than her. He hadn't produced a full Patronus but he had successfully pushed the dementor back in the box, while Astrid was just sitting there, the best her wand could do being spluttering out a few strands of light blue birdshit (not literally of course; that's just how Astrid felt about her progress compared to Potter's).

But Astrid couldn't deny she was quite happy about her birdshit progress. The spell had been working better than other days. Though it was exceptionally hard to keep her mind clear and happy when all she saw was the bloke, as always, getting chosen over everyone else. 

Of course, they couldn't have just cancelled Potter's lesson on Thursday. No. Haha. Funny you thought so. No, darling, he was going to be taking up your precious lesson time.

Either way, finally getting out of the Astronomy room had been so blissful, she almost thought she might be able to use the memory as one to try for the Patronus. 

Having been excused she quickly scurried the awfully long way down to the dungeons. Astrid burst through the entrance to her dorm and was about to start complaining (overexaggerating her experience, of course) when she heard the saddened cry of one of her friends. Seeing everyone huddled around the crying Millicent, Astrid slightly cringed. Her own petty problems were definitely way less relevant than whatever was going on here. If even Parkinson was stroking Mills' arm sympathetically then it must've been something utterly groundbreaking.

I swear if this is another Raveclaw's doing...

"Uh, what happened?"

Astrid instantly facepalmed herself.

'Uh, what happened'? Really? Astrid, you are an amazing person!

"Some boys in the common room laughed at her for being fat. Stupid pricks," Pansy scoffed and hearing the word 'fat' Mills winced a little.

She had always been insecure about her weight. That Astrid knew. In fact, all of them had noticed. It wasn't the first time they had caught the girl crying. Earlier that year they had even caught her trying to diet by not eating properly, or in other words - starving herself - and they had taken immediate action in preventing the girl from doing so. Not only would it barely bring any results and ruin her health, but it would also ruin her mind and spirit as well. Instead, they had, as promised to Mills, tried making sure she ate healthy instead, but that goal hadn't lasted for very long and soon the girl had returned to her earlier eating habits.

All of them had tried to comfort Millicent about her insecurity at one point or another. But comforting in the room of theirs was a very complicated art. All of them had pretty blunt personalities, that only lied to get them out of tough situations or to hide something about themselves. Lying about their thoughts rarely ever happened. And to tell Mills she wasn't fat would simply be a lie. Neither was Millicent the most stunning girl in the room. But she did have her charm about her and she did have a nice face. Daphne especially adored the shape of the girl's nails. 

Mastering the art of comforting Mills without telling her sweet nothings and sounding like a fake was hard. To make matters worse, Astrid was generally bad at approaching serious and sad situations. 

She had always liked Millicent. On many occasions, she had told her she was beautiful the way she was. But nothing appeared to be comforting enough for Millicent Bulstrode. She couldn't see herself any other way but large and ugly.