Manipulation; Draco Malfoy

2 - L I B R A R Y

*TW SELF HARM*

Evangeline Carter

"You two will never guess who I caught making out in the hallways after class today," Char says with an excited voice.

"Who?" I asked.

"Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan! I mean, who would have known? They made me swear I wouldn't tell anyone, so you both must keep your filthy mouth shut."

"Who cares? I'm mad that you two are making me study on the first day of school!" Oliver groaned. Stretching his arms out while looking around the library.

"You'll thank us when you pass your classes with all straight A's," Char glanced at Oliver with a smirk.

"I guess it's just the Ravenclaw in you two." Oliver scoffed. It's true. As stereotypical as that sounds, Charlotte and I were always in the library. I guess that explains our boring social life, well at least mine. Charlotte was a fun, outgoing friend. She makes friends easily, isn't afraid to speak her mind, and is on the Quidditch team as well as Oliver.

I, however, am that quiet shy friend. The complete opposite, hiding my face behind a book. Char and Oliver can be friends with anyone, but they chose to stick with me. You know that they say, opposites attract.

"Eva, don't look now. But I think Elliot is staring at you," Char whispers to me.

"What? You're joking!" I dramatically spun my head around to see his brown eyes meet mine, with a smile on his face.

"You bloody idiot I told you not to look now!"

"I thought you were joking! Besides, how do you know he's looking at me? What if he's staring at you, Char."

"Why the bloody hell would he be looking at me?" Charlotte spat. "The whole school knows I'm a fucking lesbian!"

I can hear Oliver laughing at me. I'm still looking at Elliot across the library getting up from his seat, and walking over to mine.

"Oh Merlin, he's coming this way!" I whispered. "How do I look?"

"You look amazing, sweetie. Oliver, don't we have quidditch practice today?" Char stares at Oliver, giving him a look to agree. "It's Monday, we don't have"- Oliver's face crumples as he feels a hard kick under the table. "Yes! You're right Char! We do have practice today. I almost forgot!" Oliver and Char get up from their chairs.

"I can't believe you two are leaving me alone with him! I will not forgive you for this."

"You are so welcome, give me all the details later." Char winks at me. And with that, they're both gone.

Elliot Davis is now standing in front of me. I gulped and looked up at him. Merlin, he's so beautiful. His brown curly hair, defined jaw, and cheekbones, just looking at him makes me melt.

"Is this seat taken?" Elliot asks.

"Yes. I mean, no. It was taken a few moments ago but they left. So, it's not taken anymore." Oh god, why am I embarrassing myself? Why didn't I just say no!?

"You're cute." He smirks and proceeds to sit next to me. "Are you a new student? I don't believe I've seen you here before."

"I've been here since year one."

"Really? Wow. How could I miss such a pretty face like yours?"

I blushed.

My eyes immediately looked at the person who just came in, it was Malfoy with Blaise Zabini. He looked at me and his fists clenched. He looked angry.

"What are you reading there?" Elliot questioned, meeting my eyes.

"Um, The Notebook," I said shyly.

"The Notebook? I've read that before, surely you must agree that Allie should have ended with James."

"No, she belongs to Noah."

"What they had was just a summer fling, James was nothing but good for her and she just proceeded to leave him!"

"What, you suppose she lives the rest of her life miserable?"

"Allie and Noah were toxic for each other, he was miserable after they broke up. One needs to learn how to be independent without another. If not, that's not real love."

"Woah Elliot, who broke your heart?" I say laughing.

For the next couple of minutes, we kept talking about different books and hearing our opinions, and he made me laugh extremely hard. I noticed that Malfoy kept looking over at us with an annoyed face.

-

The next day I woke up to an empty room, Charlotte must have left for breakfast already. I proceed to the bathroom to freshen up. I was never the one to put on much makeup, only because I didn't know how to.

I looked in the mirror and realized how much thinner I got over the summer. No wonder Elliot is noticing me now.

Over the past years here in Hogwarts I would get teased a lot about my weight, I was very chubby. Charlotte would always stand up for me and would never let anyone tease me in front of her. One time Malfoy body shamed me and embarrassed me in front of everyone. However, Charlotte punched him right in the face. He doesn't even remember me. I look over to the book my therapist told me to write in. It's been months.

You see, my father killed himself last year and I have no idea why. I thought he was happy, my mother was good to him and he had a stable job. I guess we'll never know. Handling his death was very difficult, I began cutting myself, and I wasn't eating. I didn't eat for days, and whenever I would eat I immediately went to the bathroom and puked it all out. I guess that's how I lost a ton of weight.

After my mom found out about what I'd been doing to myself she was terrified, she got me a therapist and antidepressants. Don't worry though, I'm better now. I got my friends to thank for that, Oliver helped me eat whenever I was struggling.

I walk out of my dorm to the great hall. I always get tired walking from here to there. The distance from the Ravenclaw common room to the great hall was unbearable.

"There's our favorite girl!" Screamed Oliver.

"You have to tell us what happened yesterday!" Says Charlotte as she stuffs mashed potatoes into her mouth. "And by the way, you are so welcome for leaving you and Elliot alone."

"It was so embarrassing!"

"Did you guys do anything?" Asks Charlotte, raising an eyebrow at me.

"No, we just talked for a long time, he's nice."

"EVA'S GETTING SOME ACTION!" Screamed Oliver, causing the whole Gryffindor table to look at us.

"Keep your voice down you fucking idiot!" Charlotte smacks Oliver in the back of his head. "Eva, when you lose your virginity you have to tell us all the details."

"That's gross!" Oliver says while he's fake gagging.

"Oh shut up, both of you!" I say laughing.

I couldn't help but notice a Slytherin staring at me. However this time it wasn't Elliot, it was Malfoy. He looked up at me angry, again. His fists looked clenched and his jaw was hardening. Was he hearing our conversation?

"Anyways, I have to get to potions. Class is about to start. I'll see both of you later!"