𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐬

Chapter 3

In place of lunch, Adeline took Pansy, Blaise and Draco back to the Common Room to eat, enjoying the solitude it gave them as everyone remained in the Great Hall.

"I don't get it. Potter thinks I like him, but he still doesn't want me. Isn't that how relationships work?"

"Not really," Blaise said, shaking his head in amusement. "He has to like you back for it to work. He probably doesn't."

"Yeah Potter doesn't like you, yet." Draco agreed.

"How do you know? It's not like you're the relationship expert here." Adeline retorted to her brother.

Draco opened his mouth to respond, but Blaise interrupted swiftly to any fight that was about to occur. "You need chemistry."

"We have chemistry. I don't have any other enemy like him. It's a special relationship."

Blaise and Draco, both laughed.

"Yeah, but there's a big difference between being an enemy and being romantically involved. You need friendship and a bond. And you have the best opportunity to work on this project with him." Pansy explained.

Adeline just rolled her eyes and zoned out again. She reached forward and grabbed the newspaper, which was next to her finished plate on the coffee table.

She unfolded it, feeling searing hatred as she looked at Potter, who took up the entire first page. "Bet he loved this. Potter's such a showoff."

Then Adeline put it down on the coffee table and flipped through it. The rest of the individual profiles filled the second and third page, but they were all smaller than Potter's. On the fourth page, there was a picture of all the champions together, and as the picture moved, it showed Potter with his ridiculous face.

"I heard Potter talking about that Chang girl today." Blaise brought up casually.

"No wonder my efforts aren't working, Potter has a crush on another girl!"

Pansy sighed, before taking a long breath and beginning her speech. "Or, you know, it could be the fact that you and Draco got him in trouble in First Year and made him take detention in the Forbidden Forest: in Second Year you and Draco tried convincing the entire Hogwarts population that he was the heir of Slytherin; you called his friends Mudblood and Blood Traitor. You have outwardly expressed that you want him to die a lot of times. You wanted an innocent hippogriff to die. You spelled his hair pink and didn't take it off for a week. You bully people you don't know. Badges. The list goes on forever, want to hear more?"

"No! But I have a crush on him now, don't I? That should fix it."

Draco and Blaise shared a look.

"What does Chang have that I don't? Sure, she's pretty and all, but I'm blonde! I have higher status. And I have more money than Chang has ever seen."

"She's nicer. She's genuinely good."

"At what?" Adeline argued.

"Being good. Potter is inherently good. It's in his blood. If it wasn't, he would have just let you keep bullying that kid like everyone else who passed you."

"He didn't do it for the kid, he did it because he didn't want me to have any fun."

"You still don't get it." Pansy sighed, though her tone was something Adeline couldn't place a finger on.

"Hey," Draco stepped up in front of Adeline. "No one talks to my sister like that."

"I didn't say anything." Pansy said, looking just as confused as Adeline and Blaise.