Guarded - Draco Malfoy

Lola Nott has always been difficult to understand.

To most people, she is the stubborn Slytherin girl with a sharp tongue, a quick temper, and a habit of pushing everyone away. She's known for her arguments with her twin brother Theodore, her refusal to accept help from anyone, and the walls she refuses to let anyone break through.

Especially Draco Malfoy.

Growing up as neighbours, Lola and Draco have spent nearly their entire lives arguing over the most ridiculous things. From childhood competitions to endless sarcastic remarks, they have always been determined to get under each other's skin. Everyone knows that if Lola Nott and Draco Malfoy are in the same room, an argument is never far behind.

But beneath the bickering is a history neither of them likes to admit matters.

Lola has never been cold.

She's guarded.

Raised in a family built on old pure-blood traditions, Lola learned from a young age that showing weakness only gave people something to use against her. So she became someone who fought for everything she had, trusted almost no one, and kept her feelings buried where nobody could find them.

Starting her fourth year at Hogwarts should be another year of pretending everything is fine. But returning to school means facing the past she's tried so hard to leave behind, while the people closest to her begin noticing the cracks in the walls she's spent years building.

Including the one person who has known her longer than anyone else.

Draco Malfoy has always been the boy who could make her angrier than anyone, yet somehow he's also the person who notices when something is wrong. And as secrets begin to surface, Lola has to decide whether she can keep everyone at a distance...

Or if the boy she's spent her whole life fighting with might be the one person she can finally trust.

Because sometimes the strongest hearts are the ones that have spent the longest time protecting themselves.