Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 19: i thought we were friends

Lorelei Jones | 3rd Year

The day after her birthday was quite miserable at first. When the door had opened the night before, someone had seen Lorelei and Enzo together, and they told everyone. Enzo said he was trying to sort it all out for her because he wouldn't allow them to say these things about her. She was relieved. He was taking control of it. She was grateful to him again and started to feel comfortable around him again.

Over a month had passed now, and while Enzo was often busy with his Beauxbatons friends, he liked to study with Lorelei and Luna sometimes. On the days where the weather wasn't too bitter, Enzo, Luna, and Lorelei would wander around the Hogwarts campus together. When Luna was there, it made Lorelei instantly more able to be herself, but sometimes Enzo wanted to hang out, just the two of them. Lorelei usually just studied with him in the library those days, or they took walks around the crowded corridors and talked about random things.

Lorelei didn't like to be with him alone for very long; something about it always made her heart race and her chest hurt. She didn't understand why she felt this way — Enzo was so pleasant and charming to her all the time — but those rationalizations didn't help to soothe her anxieties. So, Lorelei just stuck to hanging out with him around other people.

However, today Enzo had asked Lorelei to come up to the Astronomy Tower with him after dinner, and she agreed without thinking, and now she wanted to throw up. She had no idea what to expect, but her nerves felt frayed while she climbed the steps to the tower.

She hoped he didn't kiss her again.

Once she made it to the top, she was encased in a hug, and she jolted. Her heart pounded, but she tried to hug Enzo back as well as she could.

He pulled back and led her over to the railing. When she was about to sit down, Enzo grabbed her shoulders and pretended to shove her over the railing. Lorelei shrieked, and Enzo put his hand over her mouth and tugged her back against his chest straight away with a laugh.

"I was just messing with you, mon amour. I wouldn't actually ever hurt you," Enzo chuckled and released her. If he noticed her shaking, he didn't bother to address it.

Lorelei sat down with a good couple feet of space between her and the railing now. She gave him a half-hearted smile. "How was your day, Enzo?"

"Interesting. Madame Maxine told us about a ball today. Will you be attending, ma belle?"

"Oh, probably not. I can't go unless someone older asks me because I'm a third year," Lorelei said and tugged her knees to her chest, carefully ensuring that her long robes still cover her legs with the movement.

"Well, I'm older. I could ask you," Enzo offered with a bright smile.

"You would do that?" Lorelei asked, immediately perking up and facing him. "I've only heard such amazing things about the Yule Balls of the past, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I really want to go if I can."

"Oui, mon amour. Let me ask Madame Maxine to be sure we don't have different rules, and I'll let you know later this week," Enzo chuckled and shoved Lorelei's shoulder.

She smiled brilliantly at him and made a silent wish to the heavens that he would be able to ask her. She would like nothing more than to be able to get all dressed up for this beautiful ball and dance the night away. She would write Gran write away about this ball to get some funds to go shopping with. Oh, she couldn't wait.

As the sun set behind the hills, Lorelei suddenly popped up. "Oh no, I told Emily I would help her with Charms tonight. I've got to go," Lorelei said as she scrambled back towards the exit.

Enzo let out a melodious laugh and waved. She stumbled down the steps and apologized to a girl from Durmstrang because of a near collision. The girl waved Lorelei off with a grin, and Lorelei hurried back to the Hufflepuff dorms and hoped she wasn't too late for her study session with her roommate.

She made it back, only a few minutes late. Heather wasn't there when she got back, but Emily and Ashley were both lounging on their beds with Quidditch magazines in front of them. Ashley was tapping her foot on her headboard to some melody that only she could hear, and Emily was aggressively chewing her gum. Upon Lorelei's arrival, Emily sat up and sighed, "Finally."

And so their studying session began.

-

Two days later, Heather came into the room with a brilliant smile and a giddy voice that morning. She woke Lorelei up from her deep sleep with her next words.

"You'll never believe it, but I've been asked to the Yule Ball," Heather squealed and bounced around the room. She was making more noise than her roommates thought humanly possible.

"That's fantastic," Emily murmured into her pillow without opening her eyes.

"Yes, it is," Heather sang as she flopped onto her bed happily.

"Who asked you?" Ashley asked as she sat up and rubbed at her eyes. She was tugging her dark hair back into a high ponytail when Heather answered with a beaming smile.

"Oh, well, it was Enzo actually. It was quite cute how he asked me actually. He had a bouquet of wildflowers and called me mon amour or something like that," Heather said while she admired her flowers.

Lorelei froze in her bed. There was no way. Heather had to be lying. She sat up and blinked heavily, but when she saw the bundle of wildflowers in Heather's hand, she frowned and pushed back her covers. She shoved her feet into slippers and grabbed her robes on her way out the door.

She stormed to the common room and climbed out of the exit. Enzo was still there, dancing in celebration, and Lorelei felt betrayed.

"Did you seriously ask her?" Lorelei wondered without giving him even a warning of her presence.

He whipped around and looked down at Lorelei, who felt like she was shrinking in her small frame at this confrontation. Enzo slowly nodded and sighed, "You have been giving me mixed signals, mon amour. Heather made her feelings clear."

"I thought we were friends...and stop calling me mon amour!" Lorelei yelled.

"Wait-"

Lorelei didn't wait. She just brushed past him and went straight to the Ravenclaw dorms. She needed Luna.

//