Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 25: more letters

Lorelei Jones | 4th Year

Lorelei hadn't seen her mum since that fight between her and Gran at the beginning of summer. Her mum didn't return to honor the anniversary or to celebrate Gran's 60th birthday or Lorelei's last days at home before the school year. Lorelei truthfully wasn't sure if she'd ever see her mum again, and her heart ached with this thought. Luna had noticed straight away, but Lorelei told her she didn't want to talk about it yet. As always, Luna accepted that answer and moved on.

On the first morning of their fourth year, Luna and Lorelei walked to the Great Hall together after meeting outside the Ravenclaw tower. Lorelei was nervous about learning the blood status of her soulmate. She wondered if this would help her narrow down her soulmate more. Luna was unconcerned as always and told Lorelei she needn't be worried either.

"It just all seems so random and...vague," Lorelei had said with a rumbling nervousness in her stomach.

"Nothing is truly random, is it? Even our very existence goes against randomness, Lorelei Jones. Just embrace it. It'll hurt less that way," Luna murmured as she picked at a loose thread sticking out of her newest hat. This one had lots of feathers and was quite large. A particular dangling string had been tickling Luna's forehead for the past ten minutes, and she wished she had a pair of scissors to chop the offending string.

The two girls had to go to their separate tables when they entered the Great Hall that morning, but Lorelei was immensely relieved that the Beauxbatons students weren't there anymore. She hated seeing Heather and Enzo all over each other for the rest of the school year. Truthfully, she didn't even care much about them dating, but she hated that he was such a traitor.

You can't break a promise with a Hufflepuff.

Lorelei sat in her seat off by herself and tried to not think about how well her three roommates seemed to be getting along without her. She wondered why they never seemed to want to hang out with her and why her comments always got washed out in the tides of their endless chatter.

An owl dropped a letter onto her plate, so Lorelei picked it up and mentally reminded herself that of the Hufflepuff boys in her year, only the Westwood boys were still possibilities. Arthur and Albert picked up their letters in unison and roughly tore open their envelopes.

Lorelei decided to just get it over with, like ripping off a band-aid. She tore open her letter and fished the note out from inside.

Pure-blood.

She stared at it and blinked slowly. Her soulmate couldn't be a Hufflepuff in her year. The Westwood brothers were half-bloods, along with their older sister Marilyn.

Lorelei carefully pocketed the letter and stared at her plate quizzically. Who could her soulmate even be?

She thought of some of the Weasleys and thought that that wouldn't be too terrible. She could be soulmates with Ron or George Weasley. Harper Crow, a boy on the Slytherin Quidditch team in her year, was also a possibility.

She frowned slightly. This new hint did narrow down her options, but she still hadn't the slightest clue as to who her soulmate could be.

Draco Malfoy | 5th Year

God, he was absolutely dreading getting this letter. He knew that it was only the number of years between him and his soulmate, but nothing about this soulmate business left him peaceful anymore. He was doomed already because he had gotten the worst possible blood status. It had been quite the ordeal to lie to his father about that all summer, but he had to.

It was already bad before; Draco didn't want to find out what happened when his father learned this truth.

With shaking hands, Draco opened up his letter, but his eyes seemed to fog over before he looked at the number printed there. He was absolutely terrified. How did Briar handle this so carelessly? She looked so unbothered when she opened up her letter and then tucked it back into her own bag.

It was cruel to him that she got to have a pureblood soulmate while he had to have a Muggle-born.

Pansy had curiously glanced over at him, so Draco decided that he really needed to look at this letter and put it away. He blinked and stared at the center of the page.

1.

Isn't that just lovely? Draco thought to himself. Of course his soulmate had to be in a different year than him as well as a Muggle-born.

He climbed out of his seat with a scowl and marched away with his bag. He wasn't even sure what was making him so supremely pissed about this situation, but he knew he had to get out of there.

He peeled off into the first empty corridor he could find. He leaned back against one of the walls and stared at the one opposite him. He knew he wasn't really upset about his soulmate being either one year above or below him, but the entire situation struck so much fear into him. His father had been telling him all summer how he and Briar's father had already agreed that the two would marry after their graduation from Hogwarts. He could throw up at the idea of it.

Footsteps echoed into the empty corridor from where he had just come, so his eyes snapped over to look at this intruder. Briar was slowly approaching with a bored expression on her face, so he figured Davies wasn't coming to attack him again.

"What do you want?" Draco demanded with a scowl.

"They voted me to come check on you," Briar said with pursed lips. Her gaze drifted about the corridor randomly as she spoke.

"You?! Why would they send you? I can't stand you," Draco questioned with clenched fists and a heavy frown.

Briar shrugged and grunted, "I don't know."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked back down at his hands. As a heavy silence fell over the two of them, Draco finally sighed, "I got a 1. My soulmate isn't in our year."

"Are there Muggle-born Slytherins in the year above or below us?"

"No... I just hope they aren't a Gryffindor," Draco spat, feeling disgusted at the possibility. He couldn't imagine ever being with someone from the house that prided foolish bravery and poor impulse control. Everything about his future was controlled, precise, and planned, and the Gryffindor way went against everything he had ever known.

At his remark, Briar lost all color in her cheeks. Draco wondered if she was going to throw up. The two Slytherins stared at one another uncertainly. Gideon must have mentioned his plan with Lucius to Briar.

A thick tension filled the space between them while the heavy silence threatened to suffocate them.

"I'm going to go," Briar eventually said.

Draco nodded without saying anything, so Briar just backed away. Her eyes were vacant as she left, and Draco's expression was nearly a carbon copy. No one dared to bother him that day, even though they could tell he was hurting.

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