Hope Starts Broken Hearts

“That’s utterly absurd!” Maggie screamed out loud, flailing her hands in the air for dramatic effect. That can’t be true! They—“

The rest of her sentence turned into loud muffling when Aspen wrapped his hand around the girl’s mouth to silence her outburst. I was shocked when merely a second later, he jumped backwards, waving his hand out in front of him.

“She bit me!” he complained, and Maggie snickered obnoxiously. “Bloody hell Maggie, I’m bleeding!”

“Goodness, can the both of you keep it down?!” I scolded them in a hushed tone, because apparently I was the only one who remembered to keep my tone quiet enough so that we didn’t wake the other Slytherins trying to sleep. I caught Aspen’s hand in mine, pulled out my wand from beneath my robe, and quietly whispered, “Episkey.”

The small bite mark disappeared just as quickly as it came.

“Thanks,” he said, pulling his hand back as I retracted my wand.

“Oh, man up, Triple A!” Maggie giggled hysterically, and Aspen reached up to smack her behind the head.

She instantly fell forward from the impact, and then shot right back up like a bullet. “Hey!” she cried. “Mira already did that to me earlier! I don’t need another from—“

“SHUSH!” Both their heads shot my direction at my sudden outburst. “SIT!” I ordered, and they obediently did so on the couch across from me. “Good.”

We were now in the Slytherin Common Room, where I told both of them to meet me after their roommates had fallen asleep. We hung out in our own rooms for a bit until the usual time everyone would be asleep. My roommates did so a little after 11:00PM, and I found Aspen in the common room who had been waiting for the past twenty minutes. Aspen and I chatted for a bit until ten minutes later, Maggie showed up, complaining how one girl in her room wouldn’t stop talking to her. I wanted to discuss with them the situation between Draco, Clyde and Heidi in private, which they apparently weren’t aware of, either.

“Okay, anyway,” I started again after it was finally quiet. No one seemed to have been awoken by our constant noise, so hopefully we could continue our earlier conversation.

“Yes, anyways,” stated Maggie, remembering to keep her voice down. “I think Clyde needs to break up with her. It’d be wrong to stay with her while she was in love with someone else.”

“But it’d also be wrong to break up with the person you love, even while they love you, as well,” stated Aspen from beside her.

“Merlin’s sake, this is so confusing!” she complained.

Aspen rolled his eyes, shaking his head slightly. “It’s actually quite simple. You’re just an idiot.”

“Hush up, both of you,” I growled, my patience growing shorter. They did as I said, so I continued. "Maybe we should leave them alone. After all, this isn’t any of our business.”

Aspen nodded his head, but Maggie furrowed her brows. “Or,” she started again, “we could try to save their relationship! After all, everything is bound to fall apart, one way or another.”

Aspen’s eyes shifted over to her in curiosity. “Why do you say that?”

“Because Heidi’s a chance taker, Clyde is a home wrecker, and Draco’s a heart breaker.” She crossed her arms, nodding furiously, while Aspen and I simultaneously slapped our hands onto our foreheads at our hopeless friend. She noticed and immediately glowered at the both of us. “Don’t look at me like I’m stupid, it makes sense!”

“Not really,” I commented.

“It does! Listen. Heidi’s taking a huge chance by continuing to date Clyde while she’s in love with Draco. Clyde got involved by dating Heidi when she was obviously still in love with Draco, considering she cried her eyes out for days straight when he dumped her. And Draco, well…We all know he, you know, breaks hearts, so it's inevitable that nothing is going to work out.”

“I suppose,” sighed an aggravated, and obviously grumpy, Aspen. “The last one especially. I don’t see why she went out with Malfoy when it's obvious he throws girls around like they're nothing.”

“Gee, maybe she liked him?” I told him sarcastically, only to receive nothing but a sharp glare back.

“Of course you would know that, Mira,” Maggie peered at me with a grin plastered on her face. “I hear you’re going out with Draco, supposedly.”

“WHAT?!” Aspen and I immediately burst, Aspen staring at me while I stared at Maggie.

“I thought it was a rumor at first, seeing as how you didn’t tell me about it. Although, when I saw you two walking together out of the Quidditch pitch, I couldn’t help but think—“

“Maggie!” I cut her off. I blushed furiously, feeling the heat rise up to my face. “I’m not dating Malfoy!”

“Well that’s what I heard.” She shrugged, and then yawned. “People are saying you went on a date with him, more specifically, at Tricks and Treats.”

“I didn’t date Draco Malfoy,” I said ever so slowly, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

Aspen stood up from his seat on the couch and stretched his long arms out. “Alright, well, this soap opera is really getting to me.” He yawned sleepily. “Everything is okay, for now. Heidi’s resting peacefully in her hospital bed, Clyde is too busy worrying about her to be worried about her liking Malfoy, I’m going to visit her in the morning, Malfoy’s still a jerk, Maggie’s still a moron, and Belle is still single.” He flashed me a wide, bright grin, and waved a hand up. “I’m heading to bed. Goodnight, you two.”

“Me too!” Maggie jumped up as Aspen began walking away. I sat there, watching her, and she looked at me with a puzzled expression. “You coming?”

“No,” I told her. “I’m just going to hang out here for a few minutes.”

“Alright then,” she smiled, and then skipped off to her dorm room happily. “Goodnight, then!” she shouted behind her.

My attempt at having a quiet conversation in the common room seemed to have miserably failed. I sighed to myself, falling backwards onto the couch so that I was now facing the ceiling. Silence enveloped the entire common room, and I slowly felt my eyes draw heavier as the seconds ticked by. I couldn’t even find the strength to drag myself to my bed when my eyes were already completely shut. It’s been a really, really long weekend, and I felt the need to forget all the drama that was currently going on.
But I couldn't, because my friends were all I had going for me and I'd do anything not to lose them.

“There’s a reason you have a dorm room,” a cold voice startled me, causing my eyes to shoot open immediately.

I blinked a few times, comprehending the icy, gray eyes I now found myself staring into. “Is it morning already, Malfoy?”

“Quite the opposite,” he replied, and as I sat myself back up, he asked, “why are you here?”

I watched as Draco made his way around the couch and sat at the one Aspen and Maggie previously were on. It was well over midnight and all of the other students were fast asleep in their dorms. Naturally, his presence struck me puzzled.

“I was…Talking.”

“Obviously,” he replied corrosively, resting his elbow on the arm of the sofa and lazily leaning his face into his hand. “I could hear you and your friends all the way from my room. People are trying to sleep, you know?”

“I’m very well aware of that,” I replied. “Sorry. I tried to be as quiet as possible, but they didn’t seem to cooperate.” I watched him, but he seemed to silently be watching me instead. I decided to save the moment from turning awkward. “Why are you here?” I asked him this time.

I watched as his mouth opened to yawn. His eyes met mine again as he replied, “couldn’t sleep.”

“Was it because of us?” I wondered, horrified. Out of all the people I could have annoyed, why Draco Malfoy? I’d be much happier if Vincent Crabbe or Pansy Parkinson came down to tell me they couldn’t sleep because I was too loud.

“I couldn’t sleep anyway,” he said, and I instantaneously sighed in relief. “Although, I came down to tell you guys to shut up so I can try to sleep, until I heard my name.” His mouth curved into a bold smirk.

“Yeah, well,” I scoffed, looking the other direction. “You were a lot more involved in the conversation than you think.”

“I suppose,” a snide laugh escape his lips. “Apparently I’m nothing but a heart breaker.”

My attention shifted over to him in surprise. “You were listening to our conversation for that long?”

“Obviously,” he repeated.

I crossed my legs over each other, crossed my arms in front of my chest, then turned my head away to hide my tinted cheeks when Draco continued to sit there, smiling at me as deviously as ever. “Eavesdropping is bad, you know," I said.

In the faint lighting, he looked amused. "I’m not a good person.”

I stared at him from the corner of my eye, pouting slightly. “You should mind other peoples' business.”

“And you shouldn’t?” he asked me; his silver orbs focusing in on my steady gaze. “I’m not the one intruding on that Hayner kid’s business, while dragging Aldridge and that Brenin girl in with me.”

I faced him, staring at him rather scornfully. “I’m just worried about him; he’s my friend!”

Draco rolled his eyes. “You shouldn’t even be his friend. Isn’t he a Gryffindor?”

“We’ve been friends before we were even sorted into our houses,” I growled.

“Hey, don’t get feisty with me,” he returned my glare with equal the amount contempt. Draco picked his head off of his hand and straightened his figure on the couch. “I’m just saying it’s only natural that you shouldn’t be friends with Clyde Hayner. But it’s your life.” He tore his eyes away from mine and pressed his face into his hand again, looking away. “I’m not stopping you.”

Sounded familiar. Clyde didn't want me talking to Malfoy and Malfoy didn't want me talking to Clyde.

I looked away as he did, adverting my eyes onto the first thing I noticed about the dark common room, which happened to be the dim, green light that emerged from the lamps. It was so quiet by now that you could hear a pin drop, which was almost unbearable. I looked at Draco after a few seconds, and he looked like he was lost in his own train of thoughts. I even wondered why he was still here; we had class tomorrow morning, after all.

We had class tomorrow. Together. I had almost forgotten, and the thought nearly sent my heart pounding.

“How’s Heidi?” he suddenly, sort of awkwardly asked.

The sympathy was obviously fake, but I couldn’t help staring curiously at him. “Now you’re worried?” Thinking about earlier, when I was alone with Malfoy, it triggered another painful feeling in my stomach for some reason. But I remembered the lack of concern he showed when Maggie came running at us with news, and it reminded me just how cold hearted he was.

Sometimes.

“I’m sure she’s fine." He looked bored now. “Just making sure she didn’t, I dunno, die or something.”

“You know,” I muttered, and Draco’s eyes rolled up to look at me. “This is all your fault, anyway.”

“My fault?” he repeated spitefully, his expression both confused and offended.

I let my head fall in a nod. “Why did you have to go and break up with Heidi, anyway?”

“Because if I hadn't then I'd end up marrying that wench,” the statement sounded like a very sarcastic question and I held back from walking up to him and smacking him across the face. Draco abruptly scoffed. “And Merlin knows I don't want that.”

I couldn't tell if he meant marrying Heidi, or marrying in general.

I tried not to snap angrily but my blood boiled under my skin. “If you didn't fancy her, and Merlin knows you didn't, then why did you bloody date her in the first place?"

“Why else?” He sneered. “To get Pansy to leave me alone, of course.”

“Of course,” I calmed myself down, breathing evenly before I ended up hyperventilating because of his rudeness and arrogance. “And how did that work out?”

“Well, for the month or two I dated Heidi Ellison, it worked.” It was so dim in the common room that night but his pale, cunning face looked cockier than ever. “But I got bored, almost too bored. The poor thing was in tears faster than I can say, ‘It’s over.’”

I rolled my eyes and looked the other way. He was obviously trying to irritate me more than I already was. “I thought you liked Pansy’s attention.”

“And I thought the Sorting Hat was joking when it called you stupid,” he mocked, “but apparently not.”

“That’s really getting old!” I growled. Did I mention I bloody hate that foul hat?

“Get used to it,” he spat back. “People are going to tease you about it until you leave Hogwarts. At least—I know I will."

I shrugged it off, thinking of a way to get even, rather than smacking the blonde like I felt the need to so desperately. “I guess I shouldn’t have told Pansy you were with me at Tricks and Treats to make her jealous, huh?” Draco’s eyes narrowed when he turned to me. “She’s quite encouraged that you miss her now, you know.”

“You what?” Malfoy glared intensely at me, standing up from his seat. I cowered behind a false complexion when he hovered over me in quite a hostile manner. “You’re why she’s so overly-annoying lately?!”

I had to admit that evil never looked so bloody good before I met this boy.

"No," I laughed, standing up as well and taking a few steps toward him. I poked him in the chest as he glared down at me in pure aggravation. “She’s just overly-annoying in general. I was kidding about the Tricks and Treats thing.” Neither his glare nor his frown withdrew. Apparently he didn’t find my joke very funny like I had. "Although I quite should tell her that, should you piss me off again."

The remark seemed to have sparked his interest. Draco Malfoy took a menacing step toward me, closing the distance between our bodies. His eyes grazed over my figure slowly. My dignity drained with every second it took him to eye me up and down and I nearly took an insecure step back.

And then his wandering gray eyes found mine again. "Is that a threat?" he whispered, dragging on the question, and beneath the green glow of the Slytherin common room did I see his lip curl in his sultry, signature smirk.

I couldn't lose, no matter how nearly my legs buckled under me. I had to keep a fearless facade up even though every nerve in my body went mad. If this were all fun and games then he was not walking away victorious tonight. I had to think quickly.

I grabbed a hold of the front of his robes, crept onto the very tip of my toes and reached my lips up to that devastatingly seductive smirk of his.

Our lips were a mere centimeter apart when I smiled.

“Goodnight, Malfoy,” I whispered back, and then trailed across the common room towards the girl’s dormitories.

I could still feel his strong, lingering stare, even with my back turned to him. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t bother taking a glance back at him. I turned the corner, trotted up the steps and then produced a smirk of my own.

He still had quite a large lead over me.

But don't you dare count me out of the game just yet, Draco Malfoy.