Habits Of My Toxic Heart - Draco Malfoy

Chapter twenty - Withdrawal and hallucinations

Holly

"Ron!" I whispered to the ginger who was seated one bench away from me in Astrology. He finally turned his head and noticed me.

"Holly?" He looked at me confused, I didn't really talk much to him, I mostly spoke to Harry or Hermione. I always thought he disliked me.

"I know you don't like me very much, but you need to tell Harry something about the first task." He just looked at me, even more disorganized than before.

"Holly, I really do not know why you'd think I dislike you? I'm more afraid of you if anything.." he looked at me, apologetical.

"Afraid? Of me?" I laughed which got Ron to roll his eyes.

"It's not so hard to believe.. You clearly have Malfoy bedazzled under some sort of spell, you sent your mom to Azkaban and then have had some mind-experiments done to you," he laughed as he playfully punched my shoulder.
"Oh shut it Weasley.. Let me get to the point. I spotted one of my mothers old colleagues here at Hogwarts from when she worked with dragons back in Romania. I hope that wasn't a lie like the rest. Anyhow, your brother worked there as well, right? Do you think the first task could be dragons of some sort?" I asked him, hoping he would know more than me.

"Yeah, I spoke to Charlie earlier. And if I weren't bloody pissed at Harry I'd probably tell him about it, but I refuse to talk to him." I realized Ron was poutier than a five year old.

"Ronald... You're gonna sabotage for your best friend in a deadly tournament because you're grumpy? Let Hermione tell him then? I can talk to her?" I egged on.

"Fine. You sure are stubborn. I am now more convinced that you've hexed Malfoy, because he sure doesn't listen to anyone." I yet again rolled my eyes at him.

"You really think he listens to me? Honestly then you're more delirious than me," I clapped back.

"Touche Greengrass, touche," he smiled at me as we returned our focus to Trelawney's jabber about how Venus currently was in retrograde.

***

I had just gotten seated for my class in Muggle Studies, last class of the day. I had neatly placed my quill, ink and notebook at my desk before me when in the corner of my eye I saw someone sit down at the empty seat next to me.

"Harry?" I greeted him, surprised he wanted to sit by me.

"This seat wasn't taken, was it?" he asked and I shook my head.

Professor Burbage entered and we turned our attention forward to yet another non-surprising lesson in stuff I already knew.

"You too were raised in a muggle home, right?" I asked Harry quietly, not wanting to get caught chit-chatting.

"Yeah, maybe not a healthy normal one like you but they were muggles at least," he smiled and I didn't know if he actually was amused or just hiding his emotions.

"Well, not very normal mine either."
"You wanna bet?" He dared me. And I couldn't refuse to accept the invitation.

"You're on," I slyly smiled at him.

"Did you live in a cupboard filled with spiders and dust for almost your entire childhood?" he shot at me.

"No, but I had 34 square meter to share in total with my mother all my upbringing.." I shot back at him.

This pretty much continued on the entire class, only staying silent whenever the professor got closer to our table or happened to look our way. We both took it with humour and actually bonded over the fact that our childhoods had been very absurd. As we were excused from class, I declared Harry the winner of the shitty childhood award, which he accepted with thanking the Dursleys for making it possible for him to win this prestigious award. As we were walking out of the classroom Harry changed the subject.