𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑 | draco malfoy

6. an unbreakable vow

TRAINING WHEELS

AN UNBREAKABLE VOW

( Wednesday 26 September 1997 )

Don't be too mean — but don't be too nice either! You can't scare him off. He can't suspect a thing. If you give it away too soon, you fuck up the plan. You can't fuck it up. Don't fuck it up. Don't smile too much — don't smile at him at all just yet. Don't —

"What the fuck are you looking at me like that for, Yaxley?" Draco spat, glaring up from his seat at the breakfast table.

Rowan immediately froze up, but shook it off. "I wasn't staring at you," she replied, perhaps a bit angrier than Theo would have wanted her to be. It was a good thing he wasn't here to tell her off.

"Oh, really?" Draco hissed, "There's nobody else around."

It was true, the Great Hall was quite bare. Rowan had woken early, barely getting any sleep the night before, tossing and turning as she wondered whether the deal she had made with Theo was a good one or not. She couldn't help thinking that she would come to regret this whole thing. She worried she wouldn't be the 'different' girl that Theo and Blaise wanted — that, to Draco, she would be like everyone else and that he would throw her away after he got in her pants.

Which was why she wouldn't have sex with him too soon.

Rowan cringed thinking about letting Draco have his way with her. Merlin, she had rules against this kind of thing. No matter how drunk she was, Rowan never let herself stare too long or wonder if the other girls he slept with could be infatuated with him for a reason. She didn't think like that so that she could stay sane.

This was horrible.

"Right," Rowan huffed and then forced out, "Sorry."

Draco's eyebrows raised. "Did you..." His nose scrunched up. "Did you just apologise to me, Yaxley?"

Rowan said quickly, "Don't think about it too much, Malfoy. Doesn't really mean anything, does it? Just a word people say."

"Whatever," he scoffed.

Rowan sat down in her usual seat. Opposite Draco. He picked up the Daily Prophet that he had been reading, using his other hand to shovel cereal into his mouth. Rowan picked up a crumpet and smothered it heavily in butter and jam to take her mind off of the monster she was sitting in front of.

She remembered what Theo had said the night before. It was important not to freak Draco out — she couldn't do a one-eighty on him overnight. He told her to bring up something to do with quidditch or prefect duties. Ease themselves into a conversation. First establish mutual grounds, then move in deeper.

"We have prefect duties tomorrow night," Rowan blurted.

Draco looked up slowly from the newspaper, glancing towards her and then behind him. "You're talking to me?"

She rolled her eyes. "You're my prefect partner, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but why have you got to tell me that?" Draco grumbled, "I already fucking know, obviously."

Rowan thought about finding Theo and telling him that this was impossible. Neither of them could say anything without pissing the other off.

"We can just split up again," she burst without thinking — every moment mattered. She needed time to get Draco to warm up to her, then time for him to actually fall in love with her. Theo had told her specifically to use every opportunity to get closer to him.