Draco, darling

32.

The newspaper fell on the table. More accurately, it got slapped down on it by Draco.

"Hey, what the hell?" Meli said, the milk in her spoon falling on the table.

On the front page, the title stood out in bold letters. Harry Potter; Teenage Tragedy. Below, a picture of Potter moving, his facial expression indicating the flash had taken him by surprise. Jane snatched the paper before Meli could and started reading, Blaise anxiously looking at the page over her shoulder.

"Mmmmnmnnm, eyes glistening from the ghosts of his past." she read out loud dramatically.

Meli grabbed the newspaper and placed it in front of her and a smirking Draco. Her eyes flew over the text and she laughed. "This is hilarious."

"Right?" Draco said from her right, looking like a kid on Christmas morning.

It was now Blaise's turn to take the newspaper from Meli and read it in his head. "I mean, she obviously deformed what he was answering."

"That's what make it even funnier!" Draco seemed so happy it made Meli smile even more.

Blaise murmured a very unconvincing 'yeah' and gave the thing back to Jane who gladly read the rest of the article.

Whispers spread in the Great Hall and heads turned to Potter walking in. Realizing all eyes were on him, the boy went red and shot a glance to the Gryffindor table. Weasley and Granger were sitting together. The girl looked at him invitinglyr but Weasley elbowed her and she looked back to her plate. Potter's face fell. He ended up sitting next to Longbottom.

"Who wrote the article?" Meli asked, leaning over the table.

"Rita Skeeter." Jane finally closed the newspaper and went back to eating. "Ok, hear me out. The woman is a complete bitch but..."

"Her articles are great." finished Meli. Jane pointed to her, nodding in agreement, and took a mouthful of eggs. "The drama, the rumours? I love it."

"You two are sick." Draco shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but you love it too. Don't lie." Meli slapped him behind the head.

"Only because it's about Potter!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meli replaced the lime green bralette she was wearing under a white oversized shirt. She was also wearing beige pants with black sandals.

She was waiting for Louis on the marches next to the school's doors. Jane had already made her way down to Hogsmade, arms intertwined with Cedric's, and Draco was... somewhere, probably.

A hand touched her shoulder and she turned, looking up to meet Louis' eyes. She smiled and he held out his hand to help her stand up.

"Hi." he said, still looking unrealistically beautiful in black jeans and a simple red shirt opened to let appear a white camisole.

"Hey." she said back. Her hand was still in his.

They walked in silence to the small village, crossing groups of friends and couples. Louis still hadn't let go of Meli's hand and they fell into an easy conversation, commenting on what was around us and what they had done recently.

Meli told him about how she had started taking piano lessons and how nobody in the Slytherin common room recognized the songs she would play because of how slow she was playing them for now. Louis told her about the difficulties of having your own bedroom for two months and then having to share a room with four other guys again, which obviously ended in their dorm being a complete mess.