Marked ⁂ Draco Malfoy ⁂

Year 4: Status

My first few months at Hogwarts flew by surprisingly well. I hadn't gotten in any trouble or caused any issues so I'm sure that was a win for more people than just me. I had gotten extremely close with Luna, Cho, and Zara. We were quite the odd group of friends, each of our personalities were wildly different and would seem incompatible.

Luna was the reserved quirky one who everyone was convinced she was little off her rocker every time you'd talk to her. Cho was a bubbly and chatty girly girl who really kept the group together and bonded. Zara was a little anti social book worm, we often had to pull her from her studies to have a night out at Hogsmeade, but when she could leave behind the schooling she really let loose and had fun.

I was sometimes the abrasively and overly honest one who sort of played mom and kept everyone in check. I enjoyed being a leader and I cared about my friends very much so I tried my best to take care of them. I hadn't made many friends in my life so those who I did care for, I truly cared.

We had also added in a few new faces into the group. Blaise was a Slytherin in our year and he had taken a liking to Zara after us all becoming friends. She was of course completely distracted and oblivious to it. He tried very hard to fight for her attention, but she was just entirely unaware of anything of that manner was going on.

Cedric had joined us shortly after the year started. He was in almost every single one of my classes and we had grown to study together often when exams came around. He was a Hufflepuff which surprised me because he wasn't as bad as I would have thought. I may have had some biases based on my family, but he seemed very exempt of any of them.

Neville Longbottom came around often. He was a weird fellow, not to mention a Gryffindor. He clung to Luna like a puppy and she seemed to enjoy his company. I often wondered if they liked each other or if they just had a mutual weirdness they could bond over.

We were all currently in Hogsmead having some butter beer celebrating the end of the semester. We'd be headed home in a weeks time to our families for the holidays. I was a little excited to go home, but I was even more excited for the Winter Ball. It was something I never did at Durmstrang before. We had a similar event but it was to celebrate the summer solstice when the weather was it s warmest.

The girls and I went out shopping earlier this week for our dresses and I had gotten a beautiful rhinestoned light blue dress. It had flowing tool and I felt like a total princess in it. It wasn't really my normal style, but the instant I put it on I felt beautiful. That and I don't think Cho would have let me leave the store without it. She was practically more excited for it than I had been.

None of us had dates, but we all talked about going as a big friend group and I was absolutely not opposed to it. I loved all my friends and it would be fun as group. With everything going on I had gotten the bothersome thought that it was odd to be so heavily focused on such things, rather than what lies outside of this castle. I'm sure I'd be hit with reality over winter break, my parents were not one to sugar coat things.

We walked into our normal spot and it was busier than normal. It was the last day of classes so I'm sure more people were out celebrating. Cedric and Blaise left to go get drinks for everyone and the rest of us went to our normal table which was left open. I took a seat and shortly after we sat, they returned with all 7 pitchers of butter beer. We all cheered to being finished with the first half and we all got to talking and hanging out.

After a while I started to look around this place and noticed Draco and his group. He was stood at the bar talking with Goyle. He looked to be discussing something super serious. His eyes wandered to meet mine and I quickly looked away.

We hadn't spoken much all semester. We both were summoned to Snape's office to hear personal messages and reports from the Dark Lord and our parents. Past that we acted as if we didn't know each other. With both of us involved in something so serious it's better we don't associate in public anyways. With how annoying he was I definitely didn't mind. I had honestly started to forget about him more and more.