The Carnival ⌁ Draco Malfoy [1/4] ✔

8

"That was really foolish of you, Draco. What did you even say to them?"

"Gave them a piece of my mind," Draco gritted his teeth as he lifted himself up against the pillows he was leaning on. "Let them know they were my lyrics. Showed them the badge."

Daphne and Emma exchanged a look; they both knew that wasn't all Draco had said.

"Besides, it doesn't matter now," Draco smirked. "They're both in big trouble, they'll probably be banned. We'll have a better chance at winning the next game."

"Is that all you care about?" Emma asked in disbelief. "Winning?"

Draco looked up at her with innocent doe-like eyes. "Winning the game, or winning you, Freckles?"

"Look, who cares any more, the match is over, we lost," Daphne breathed out at once. "If anything, I think we -"

"Draco!" An annoying voice, which Emma hoped she wouldn't hear so very soon, exclaimed. Emma looked over to see Astoria and Blaise walking in with Pansy following closely behind with a look of concern on her face. "Draco! Oh, Draco are you all right? How are you feeling? Does it still hurt?"

"It's OK. Scar-head and Weaselbee punch like girls."

Emma laughed. "Is that why you were on the ground crying like a girl?"

"Where's Crabbe and Goyle?" Draco asked, ignoring her completely.

"Let me see your face," Pansy gushed. She moved over to Draco quickly and pulled his face in her hands and rubbed his swollen lip with her thumb.

"Ouch!" Draco yelled, slapping her hand away and rubbing his lip tenderly. "Don't do that."

"You hurt him!" Astoria breathed angrily, nudging her shoulder into Pansy's and took her place where she was standing in front of Draco by the bed.

Astoria ignored Pansy's scoff, and wrenched Draco's head back to get a closer look at the cut on his lip. Draco cried out, unable to escape her grip.

"Guys, just give him some room," Daphne growled, pushing Pansy and her sister away from Draco. She scowled at them and said, "Just because the two of you have some crush on him, it doesn't mean you have to hover so much!"

Emma bit back her laughter that was begging to escape at the look on Astoria's face. She looked so hurt and betrayed and her eyes were the biggest Emma had ever seen them. Astoria decided against saying anything to her sister and spun on her foot to go storming out the door.

Draco was able to leave that night but he decided against it and stayed in the hospital wing. It was obvious that he was in pain and probably didn't want to move, but Emma theorised that Draco feared Fred, George, or Harry would spot him in the corridors and hex him to death.

The next day Emma did spot Fred and George in the corridor that lead to the courtyard and soon learned that themselves and Harry had a lifetime ban from Quidditch all thanks to Umbridge. As unfair as it sounded, Emma was very grateful that Fred made no comment on her wearing a 'Weasley is our King' badge.

"Has Harry come up with a decision yet?" she asked after listening to George rant on about how much he wanted to tie Umbridge's bottom half to a pole while locking her upper half in a flying car, so that when they'd fly the car Umbridge would tear in half.

"A decision for what?" Fred asked, a crease forming in the center of his eyebrows. And then realisation dawned upon him and he exclaimed, "Oh, yes! The," he cleared his throat and whispered, "D.A. Right, well...no. He...well, I don't know."

"Come on, Fred," George mumbled. Emma had never seen the twins so dispirited and it broke her heart. "Just tell her. Harry won't and she deserves to know."

"You tell her."

"No, you tell her."

"Tell her, Georgie."

"You tell her, Fred."

"George...tell her."

Emma looked back and forth between the twins as they spoke and she could feel her heart hammering against her ribcage. It was clear that the answer to her question was not one she was hoping for, and deep down she thought she understood why.

"Harry doesn't know if he can trust you since you're all, what did he say, George? 'Goody goody' was it?"

"Fred, I never thought I'd say this, but, Harry would probably never say 'Goody goody.'"

"Basically you're friends with Malfoy," Fred finally finished, sharing a grave look with his twin. "So, uh, Harry doesn't think you should join. It's not that he doesn't trust you...well it probably is that he doesn't trust you. He doesn't trust Malfoy, I mean, who does?"

Emma could feel the hope she had for joining this illegal defence group deflating and she swallowed the lump in her throat which formed whenever she knew she wanted to drop a few tears.

"So," she began, her voice sad and shaky. "He doesn't want to teach me?"

"That's right."

The twins seemed to notice how bad Emma wanted to be taught, because after sharing another look, they both said, "We can teach you what we know."

"No," Emma shook her head, though she was quite excited at the thought of it. But she knew it was wrong of them to do such a thing without Harry knowing. It was like disobeying your karate teacher after being told you couldn't teach anyone outside of the class. Fred and George frowned. "Thanks, but no. Besides, I'm sure my O.W.L's are more important for me to be focusing on for now. And I've been told that there's a curse on the Defence against the Dark Arts position? I'm sure next year our teacher will be better."

George snorted and poked his twins shoulder. "Imagine if it was Snape."

"I'd rather not," Fred grinned. "If it was, then anyone would be much better off joining Harry right now."

"Speaking of the devil, why didn't Harry just tell me?" Emma frowned, deciding to ignore Fred and George's conversation about Snape. It did hurt Emma that Harry didn't say something and decided to just leave her in the dark of hopes that she'd be able to join.

"He's had a lot on his mind. He's had a bunch of detentions with Umbridge, which you probably already know, and Quidditch practice. It probably slipped his mind."

"Or he probably didn't want to offend you," Fred suggested. "He's never had to reject someone before."

"Then how do you know he was going to reject me?"

"Well, George and I like you, so we asked him about it," Fred admitted, looking over Emma's shoulder or at her shoes. It appeared he didn't want to say the wrong thing.

Evidently, George could sense his twin was lost, and dug through his bag that was rested against his thigh. Soon enough, while Emma frowned, a paper and quill was in George's hand.

"Wait -" George stopped, looking through his bag. "I haven't any ink. Where's my ink?"

Emma summoned a pen out of her bag and handed it to George, who spent a bit of time inspecting it, and then wrote on the sheet of paper. When Emma was handed back the sheet of paper, a list of spells and wand rotations were written on it.

"In case you want to learn anyway, you can at least teach yourself. We know you don't want us to teach you because Harry doesn't want to teach you. But this isn't exactly going against Harry's word."