Bones ⋆ Draco Malfoy (3)

| SIX: Weird/Resourceful/Lonely/Making the Best of it

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SIX WEIRD/RESOURCEFUL/LONELY/MAKING THE BEST OF IT

     LIVVY'S PUSHED FORWARDS by countless hands surrounding him, mostly the ones that aren't his friends. His friends, for the most part, sit in silence. In slight surprise. He hates to class them as friends, but Crabbe and Goyle look amazed. Livvy looks towards the Gryffindors, where Harry's being treated the same, only more verbal than physical.

     He tries to get to the door before he's beaten to death. Harry's hot on his feet, and Livvy — being unable to give up his gentlemanliness — waits to open the door for Harry, and then close it behind both of them. As the door finally shuts behind him, he hears his sister shout, "You can't make them compete! They're not old enough! They're not as experienced as the other three! It's unfair on both the other schools and Harry and Livvy! You can't make my brothers compete!"

     His stomach begins to sink, before one of the nasty voices in his head whisper, please, she's only pissed off that Cedric won't get any of the attention. He frowns. He doesn't want to think about, hey, that makes sense. Like, she's been encouraging Cedric to compete since he mentioned it. But, then, she wouldn't dare let the twins go for it — Fred, of all people, said that she was being a hypocrite. Like, Fred, the idiot that's been fancying her since last spring. Hmm, he thinks. Food for thought.

     The three actual champions — Livvy's not classing himself as one, he's not a champion, he's just incredibly unlucky — stand around the fire. They look like heroes, the kinds books were written and drawn about. He's the complete opposite. Livvy's his own main character, yes, but of a story about dead mothers and psychic sisters and genius adoptive mothers and werewolf adoptive fathers and crushes on best friends and the likelihood of a terribly sad ending.

     Livvy lets out a breath, a quiet sigh. He wishes that he looked back, that he saw Draco's reaction. That's childish of him, he decides immediately afterwards. But, it's very him. Trust him to be mostly concerned about what his best friend (crush) thinks about the ordeal. He hopes his best friend (crush) knows he isn't lying. He hopes his best friend (crush) is also optimistic, though. Like, he could win. He most likely wouldn't, but it'd be nice if someone was hopeful.

     But, right now, Livvy's still convinced he's asleep. Maybe he fell asleep in History of Magic, maybe he's accidentally napping in the common room. This is, hopefully, just a dream. A horrible, nasty, painful dream, where he'll wake up and realise that he was just having a nightmare for eating cheese or something, and then he'll laugh, because, in what world could Livvy fucking Gordon-Isley be a champion? Of all people? How the fuck could it be him?

     Maybe it's a stab at his mum, or his dad. Which makes sense. He knows that Briar would fucking excel at this. She's a Gryffindor, and she's psychic. That's, like, two advantages over everyone else. Livvy? He's not psychic, he's not Gryffindor, he's against all sorts of violence, and he gets freaked out in adrenaline-inducing situations. He can't even play video games without freaking the fuck out. And they expect him to battle fantastic beasts—?

     Fleur Delacour asks, "What is it? Do they want us back in the Hall?"

     Livvy is silent. Harry blinks. Cedric shares a look with Viktor, and then Livvy. He frowns (down) at Livvy, as if to ask, you all right? Livvy frowns back at him. In an ideal world, he wouldn't have people looking out for him because his sister's popular, and apparently, the friends of older siblings look out on the older siblings' behalf. He figures, anyway. He's currently the youngest, he doesn't know.