Meant for No One but Each Other

Time seemed to go on in a blur. When the first snow fell, Danica was accustomed to Ravenclaw, and actually found she was enjoying it. For once, she was free of all the pure blood, half blood fighting and it was just knowledge. She was free to learn as much as she could take in. She was finding herself happy with the hat’s sorting. She was happy that everything with Draco was working out smoothly too. Being in different Houses was proving to be a smaller obstacle than she thought it would be. Granted, that did mean she had to watch that old cow Pansy Parkinson throw herself all over him when they were in the Great Hall, but thankfully, Draco still showed her no preference.

She was also glad at how her arrangement in Ravenclaw helped with seeing Neville. She wasn’t immediately shunned for hanging out with a Gryffindor as she would have been was she in Slytherin. The only problem was that there was always some Gryffindor with him. Sometimes it was that Hermione Granger, and sometimes it was someone else like Dean Thomas or Seamus Finnigan. Luckily, she hadn’t had to hang out with him when he was with Harry Potter or his Weasley best friend.

Unfortunately, the fates seemed to be toying with her today because when she sat down next to him in the library, they were soon joined by three Gryffindors, Hermione, Ron, and of course, Harry Potter. News had gotten around of the troll on Halloween. The three standing in front of her had beaten it thanks to sheer dumb luck. Unfortunately, that meant they were always together now, much to Danica’s disapproval at this very moment. “Hey Neville,” Hermione said, grinning at them. “Hey Danica. Mind if we sit here?”

Danica looked grudgingly around. Of course, everywhere else was full. She sighed and nodded. Ron and Harry both glared at her a moment before Hermione called their attention to a piece of parchment. Apparently she was ‘helping’ them with their homework.

“Sorry,” Neville whispered to her, probably knowing how she felt.

She smiled at him and shrugged. She turned back to her Herbology homework. List the properties of the Alihotsy. What? How was she supposed to know that? She absentmindedly thumbed through her Herbology textbook. “Hey Nev, do you remember that day we went to Morin’s Peak?” she asked, suddenly remembering something.

He seemed to be thinking for a second. Then he turned red, and she knew he remembered. “Yeah,” he said nervously, fully aware that Hermione, Ron, and Harry were all staring at him intently.

“Remember that plant I dared you to eat?” she continued.

“You dared him to eat a plant?” Ron blurted out. “That’s stupid.”

“I’m sure you could have done much better when you were 9,” she said coldly, narrowing her eyes at him before turning back to Neville. “What was it called again?”

“Alihotsy,” Neville mumbled.

She grinned, turning to her parchment. “Excellent.”

“What happened when you ate it?” Hermione asked curiously.

“He went hysterical,” Danica explained, looking up. “His gran had to fix this special tea to stop it. It was funny.”

“Yeah, the misfortune of others,” Harry chuckled sarcastically. “A real laugh.”

Danica’s face hardened as she looked at him. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand how Neville and I are. Of course I was horrorstruck at what happened. But when we learned he would be okay again, it turned out to be quite funny thank you very much.”

“It was kind of funny,” Neville said, his ears red.

“But you were okay Neville,” Hermione smiled. “That’s good.”

Neville nodded before turning back to Danica. “Are you doing that for Herbology?”

She grinned, knowing how much he liked Herbology. “Yeah,” she said. “Professor Sprout is making us write the properties of it. I knew I had seen it before, I just couldn’t remember where.”

“I’ve read about it,” Hermione said, trying to make peace again as Ron and Harry continued to glare at Danica.

“Of course you have,” a snide voice said, approaching them. They all turned to see Malfoy coming towards them. Neville went paler than Draco. “We know how much of a know-it-all you are Granger.”

“Don’t,” Hermione whispered to Ron and Harry, white faced. They had both stood pulled out their wands. They didn’t put them away, but sat back down.

“Wise move,” he smirked before looking at Danica. “Come on Dani, we’re going to the courtyard. You can get away from this vermin.” He looked at Neville when he said that.

She sighed. “Draco,” she said warningly.

He rolled his eyes as Ron and Harry smirked. “Are you coming or not?”

“You go ahead,” she said, crossing her arms. She was so infuriated with him. He just had to say something about Neville, didn’t he? Always!

He looked at her hard for a second before shrugging and walking away. She sighed, and smiled at Neville reassuringly who was still pale as anything. “Sorry Nev,” she said quietly.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Neville piped up, his voice just as low.

She sighed and looked after Draco’s retracting figure before smiling back at Neville, her best friend. Betrothed or not, Draco had to learn that Neville was not going anywhere so he better start acting a little nicer, though even as she thought it, she knew it was no use. She sighed, trying to smile. “Yes, yes I did,” she said. Ron and Harry were gaping at her and Hermione was smiling. She knew they were probably shocked at this side of her. But she could care less what they thought. “So anyway, you read about it Hermione?” she asked, continuing as though nothing happened. They all stared at her for a second before shaking their head and following her lead.

“Um, yeah,” Hermione said nervously. “They’re supposed to be really powerful and useful too.”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything. She sighed. She knew Draco was going to be angry with her for that. She wondered how angry he’d be.