Cursed (D.M)

four

The following morning, I was awoken by Pansy shaking me as hard as she could so we could get down to breakfast.

"Come on, Rose! We have to get our new timetables!" she shouted in my ear.

"Ugh, I don't care, I'm having another 100 years in bed" I said, rolling over so my back was to her.

I couldn't stay asleep for long however, our dorm door soon burst open and who should come in but Blaise and Theo.

And Theo, being the extravagant person he was dragged me out of bed with the strongest grip on my wrists.

"Right, I'm up, can you leave now? I need to get dressed" I said warily.

"Well we have some gossip" smirked Theo.

With that, I sprinted into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and changed as quick as I could. After all, why would anyone want to miss a chance of gossip? Not me.

Blaise, Theo and Pansy were already in engrossed conversation when I came back in from the bathroom.

"Erm, I hope you're not gossiping without me!"

Blaise looked at me before shuffling along to make a space for me. But as I sat down it hit me. I must have been so tired this morning to not realise it. Where's Draco? Everyone knew that he was the master of gossip so why was he not here?

"Guys, where's Draco?" I asked, looking each of them in the eye.

"That's what the gossip is about" replied Theo, looking more excited than ever before.

"Ok, you're scaring me now, Theo. What is it?"

Theo then proceeded to look at Blaise and said, "Maybe Blaise should say it, I'm far too excited so i'll probably mess it up"

"Oh for Gods sake, will someone just tell me!?" I finally exclaimed. Blaise took at deep breath and we were all listening as hard as we could.

"Over the summer, Draco has been acting extremely weird. That's why we never wrote to you and Pansy inviting you to come over. Draco kept stopping us. I know, we shouldn't have listened, but he seemed so serious we just had to figure out why"

"Well why, what's wrong with him?" I asked.

"He didn't say. We only figured out last night. Did it not occur to you the way he was staring at you? The way he acted? He's been avoiding you all summer. Come on Rose, it's not that hard to spot" replied Blaise.

There was an awkward silence before Blaise continued, "Obviously he's just found someone else to obsess over apart from Potter"

There was another pause before Theo sniggered, "Someone's got a little crush on Rose" Blaise and Pansy giggled but I was so confused.

I always thought Draco saw me as a friend and nothing else. I had a crush on Draco back in second year but I always thought I had an attraction for someone who I doubted would even give me a chance. I'd never felt 'out of someone's league' before then .

"Yeah well, you don't know if he actually does like me. There could be other reasons. I don't want to get my hopes up"

Yes I was dying to know, but I think I was just afraid to find out.

"Rose. How he treats you is how he feels about you" assured Pansy.

"What so he thinks i'm just this stuck up, annoying brat who deserves to be shoved to the side and is allowed to be walked all over?" I said quite a bit more forcefully than I intended. There was a cumbersome silence.

"It's ok, I have a plan! Theo to the rescue!" laughed Theo.

"What's your brilliant plan then, Theo?" questioned Pansy.

We all knew Theo's plans were never serious. "Tonight, let's hold a massive game of truth or dare in the common room at midnight for just Slytherins. We all know Draco is too much of a pussy to do a dare so he will obviously pick truth, and then we can ask him if he likes Rose" Theo rubbed his hands together, I could see the eagerness building up inside him.

"Yeah, well, how do you know he'll tell the truth?" replied Pansy. Theo reached inside his robes and pulled out a tiny glass bottle with a clear liquid inside it.

"Veritaserum, of course, Pansy. Do you really think i'm that stupid?"

Pansy rolled her eyes but I knew deep down she was just as eager as Theo.

"Theo! Did you steal that from Snape? He will kill you!" I asked, worriedly.

"Not exactly. I stole it from the Gryffindor common room last night. I'm guessing those Weasley twins left it there from their last Gryffindor antics" replied Theo.

Before I could ask how Blaise cut in "I saw the Weasley twins in Snapes potion cupboard so I knew they'd be stealing it."

"So this is it? The plan goes ahead tonight?" questioned Theo, his eagerness now spurting through his eyes.

"Yes, I guess so" I replied, half excited but mostly nervous.

"HAHA, time to see if The Draco Malfoy has a crush on The Ambrosia Letrova" chuckled Theo, clearly glad one of his plans were finally going into action.

"We'll meet you in the Great Hall, we left Draco with Crabbe and Goyle so he won't be very impressed with us" said Blaise.

With that, him and Theo strode out our dorm, Theo winking as he closed the door.

"Come on, Rose, we need to make you look extra stunning. I wanna see Draco's face when he sees what he's missing out on" said Pansy as she grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the dressing table.

Well it was happening. Tonight I found out, we all found out one of Draco Malfoy's secrets which was a massive deal because he never shares secrets about himself. Twelve year old me would be quaking with nerves right now but for some reason I was calm, like nothing could go wrong. I knew things would change despite Draco's answer.

But I didn't care, I'm allowed to make a big deal out of things that feel really big to me.