Slytherin Army [HP]

20. I Reveal My Long Middle Name

The four friends were at Hogsmeade, admiring all the shops and restaurants lining the street.

"Don't buy Love Potions," Blaise reminded them.

"I know," Drew rolled her eyes. "Thank you for the umpteenth reminder."

Blaise started to drag Cyndee away, indicating to them with glaring eyes and a lot of secret hand gestures that he wanted to be left alone with her.

"Great." Drew snorted, taking Wilby's arm, "now they're on a date. Let's go to Honeydukes first."

He followed her, "Is this a date too?"

At those words she paused, sighing exasperatedly and shooting him an amused look. "I'm not in a dating mood right now. Unless by 'dating' you mean paying for the food I'm getting, then sure."

He smiled innocently, "Is that all I need to do?"

Drew let herself inside Honeydukes, waiting for Wilby to nimbly maneuver himself around the door she'd let go of in his face. "It's the first step," she thrust a bag of Fizzing Whizzbees into his hand.

Half an hour later, she piled the sweets on the counter and passed the shopkeeper her own Galleons before Wilby could make a move.

They walked out loaded down with four bags of confectionery, snacking on Chocoballs. While chewing, Wilby dug through his Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans carton. "I didn't pay for any of this," he complained wistfully.

Drew shook her head. "Will, I know Hogwarts paid for your school supplies. There's no way I'm letting you pay for my sweets. I was joking."

He stared at her as if she were a saint.

"Don't look at me like that," Drew opened up Chocolate Frog. She checked the card — Cornelius Agrippa again.

Wilby eyes glittered light-heartedly. "Like what?"

She wrestled the frog back into its box for later. "Like I saved you."

He didn't answer, and she saw that it was because Theodore Nott was stalking in their direction. The pureblood smirked upon seeing them, and Wilby abruptly turned left, going across the street.

Drew followed him. "He's especially smug today."

Wilby walked faster, the conversation earlier apparently ended. "Do you want to check out Zonko's next?"

"Yeah, of course," Drew nearly had to jog to keep up with him.

He went in and held the door open for her — a rare occurrence since Drew was usually the one who got to it first.

She took in the sight with wonderstruck eyes. The place was packed to the brim with colourful joke objects, and she eagerly had a look around.

She was browsing a selection of Sugar Quills when she noticed just how tense Wilby was. "Hey, relax. He's not out there anymore. Has he been bothering you?"

"Not really," he answered, still staring out at the chilly street with an unreadable expression. "He's just giving me a bad feeling."

Drew nearly snapped a quill in half upon realizing what Nott must be up to. "I have to tell you something."

Wilby stared at her in surprise, "Yeah?"

"My boggart was you, but —"

"I know."

Drew's heartbeat was cut short, "He told you already."

"The day it happened," he confessed. And seeing her terrified expression, he launched into a lightning-fast explanation. "I guess I was rather upset, so I went to bed right after. Then after his patrols, Xavier came and told me about it. He'd seen Nott say something to me before he left, and then after he talked to you he put the pieces together. He figured I had to know as soon as possible that, y'know, it doesn't mean much."