The Eye of the Snake [Draco Malfoy]

o21: Don't Call This Love

Cassie’s mouth was gapped open, her eyes unbelieving as she stared at Melissa—whose cheeks had flushed a bright red. The happenings of a couple nights ago finally became clear to Cassie, and she shook her head, trying to understand what had been told to her, but she could scarcely believe it. She looked at Melissa and opened her mouth to ask a question but nothing came out but a high pitched confusing noise. Melissa pushed her hair back and waited for Cassie to say anything, but she could tell nothing but odd and slightly awkward noises were going to leave her mouth. So Melissa stood up and changed into her school clothes, ready for another uneventful day of classes. When Melissa walked out of the dormitory, Cassie was still sitting on her bed with an unbelieving look on her face. Melissa shook her head and headed down to the common room, humming cheerfully to herself. Pansy still had a fading black eye, which made Melissa smirk happily as she left the Slytherin common room.

The corridors were filled with students—some wearing their thick dragon hide gloves to guard their hands from the stinging cold that’d taken over the castle—all rushing to get to class on time. The Great Hall’s ceiling was a dull gray, as it had been for the past week or two. Students filed out of the Great Hall and mixed with the students who had opted to skip breakfast that morning.

In History of Magic Melissa was forced to pay attention to the dull drone voice of Professor Binns. Every couple minutes Cassie would pinch her arm to keep her awake, and each time she would receive a harsh glare from Melissa. For the first time since first year she’d managed to stay awake through a full class and even take plenty of notes, and make a couple inappropriate drawing to amuse Cassie as well. Charms class went as swimmingly as usual, though Melissa didn’t have anything thrown at her head which she was grateful for.

“I can’t get it to move.” Cassie said as she hit the piece of paper in front of her that had been folded to look like a bird.

“Me either,” Melissa said in a tone of defeat.

“Come now ladies,” Flitwick said and walked over to their seats, an empty next to Melissa made her miss Ayanna more every time she glanced at her. Cassie took a deep breath, regaining her usual over confidence in herself. She flicked her wand with the proper charm, or so she thought, and the bird began making unusual ghastly noises and flying around wildly.

“What’d I do wrong!” Cassie exclaimed as the little paper bird began to dive at people. Flitwick began trying to undo the charm but nothing seemed to work. Melissa was laughing hysterically as the bird dove at Lavender Brown and Padma Patil, both girls screaming in terror. Suddenly the bird dove at Melissa, giving her a rather long paper cut on her cheek.

“Why do your mess-ups always have to hurt me!” Melissa snapped bitterly. She took out her wand and snapped Incendio angrily. The bird caught fire and soon fell to the ground in ashes. She touched he cheek lightly and winced a little as a sting shot through her cheek. Slowly, she turned to glare at Cassie who was trying poorly to hold back a laugh.

“I strongly dislike you at the moment.” She hissed.

“Here,” someone said and she turned her head to see Draco beside her. He handed her a handkerchief. She dabbed her cheek lightly, still glaring at Cassie who had developed a wide smirk across her face.