An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Ten

A/N: Just a little trigger warning, the fifth paragraph of this chapter has a slight abuse depiction between Draco and his father. I put a little asterisk at the beginning of that paragraph so you can skip it if you need to ❤️❤️❤️ Also, since this was a slightly shorter chapter than usual, I'm gonna post the next one tomorrow instead of after the usual four days 😄😉👍🏼

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"What are you doing here?" he demanded, his tone laced with derision.

"Trying to enjoy myself. So, if you'd just get the hell out of my way..."

"And who is this, Draco?"

I looked past Draco to see another pale man with slicked back silver-blonde hair. Clearly, this was Draco's father.

**"This is the mudblood I told you about father," he sneered. His father hit him, hard, as soon as the slur left his moth.

"We don't say that word in such public places as this, Draco," he hissed, and Draco shrank away from him. I saw red immediately, and all the hate I felt for Draco was transferred to his father, who turned his attention back to me. "So, you're the Stark girl? I heard you made quite a splash in your first year at Hogwarts..."

The way he said it was clearly not a compliment.

"Thank you," I said anyway, looking him dead in the eyes. "The wizarding world certainly tried to throw some curveballs at me, but I managed to hit them out of the park."

"Hmm. And you made friends with Potter, Granger, and the likes of Weasley. Quite an interesting choice, though I suppose they are the right group for... your sort." The older Malfoy sniffed and looked down his nose at me, but I still didn't break my icy gaze. "Let us hope your luck continues to hold this year."

Maybe I was being crazy, but given my experience with my family, I felt pretty confident in my understanding of his deeper meaning: Malfoy was threatening me.

Instead of stepping back or looking a scared, which I'm sure he expected, I took a step forward. I was a bit shorter than him, but not by much, and I got in his face and stared him down as I reponded.

"Let me rephrase what I said earlier," I said, speaking calmly and quietly. I was going for that deadly calm voice Natasha had that just sent shivers up my spine. Based on the way Malfoy tensed (once he got over his initial shock), I think I managed to pull it off. "I said the wizarding world threw me curveballs. I meant that it tried to kill me. More than once.

"As you can see, I'm still here," I continued, taking a step back and adopting a more relaxed stance, like my dad used with my Uncle Loki back when he was the bad guy. I maintained the same tone. "All the things that tried to kill me failed. I met every challenge, and I overcame each one with ease. So let me make myself very clear."

I fixed Malfoy with my cold stare again, and to my delight, it was having exactly the desired impact.

"I fully intend to destroy any and all challenges—or threats—that come my way with extreme prejudice."

I paused and let my words hang in the air for a minute. The older Malfoy was glaring and sneering at me like he wasn't bothered by my words, but I'd seen enough fake posturing and bravado to recognize it when I saw it. At the very least, he was unsettled by me.

It probably wasn't every day he had a sixteen year old girl back him down without flinching.

Finally, once I was sure my words hit their full impact, I stepped back and broke into a smile.

"Well, anyway, it was... interesting to meet you," I said, bouncing past him and heading for the stairs. "Enjoy the match! See you at Hogwarts Draco!"