Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

38. Playing the Part

Chapter 38 - Playing the Part

"I'm dying!" I moaned, falling to the Slytherin table and slamming my sensitive cranium against my hands. I let out something between a strangled cry and moan that reverberated in my ears painfully - which, naturally, made the whine worse. "I'm dying and I'm warning you all that if this life is any indication: there are no bloody golden gates. Everyone who says different are liars or idiots. And to make it worse, I do not want to spend my time in hell with the lot of you. Oh, Merlin, get it over with and kill me!"

"Why is she dying?" Zabini asked conversationally, not needing to acknowledge how my whining was a common occurrence. Still, he kept his tone playful while he sat himself beside Malfoy, meaning that Blaise was now across the table from myself while Theodore and Lillian had taken to either side of me.

"Trelawney needs to stop burning those herbs, that's why!" I yelled at him, only to moan again from the volume of my own voice between my ears. I buried my eyes into the heel of my palms, favouring the pressure against my eyelids and the absence of stabbing light that tried to blind me when these headaches hit after every Divination class.

Godric, I never should have thrown that moonstone at my brother's head - I needed the relief of it now more than I could ever say.

"Why don't you stop going, then?" Tracey asked conversationally, sitting a few seats down as both Crabbe and Goyle were on Malfoy's left and she was stuck on the far side of them. I frowned but did not leave the solace of my palms.

"If I were allowed to just drop the subject, I would. I don't have enough courses and I'm not really looking into Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, or Muggle Studies." I frowned, daring to look up from my eyes and wincing at how bright the Great Hall was. "At least with me being the only real clairvoyant in the class, the old bat can't fail me on principle."

"Why not take muggle studies?" Theodore asked with a shrug, scooping himself some soup. The smell made my stomach churn thanks to the migraine. "It'd be an easy O for you, wouldn't it?"

"I don't want to be reminded of the muggle world at all, actually," I mumbled, grabbing myself some Caesar salad just to appease the looks that the three blonde purebloods sat at the table were giving me. "To be honest the minute I graduate I plan on leaving the muggle world behind me for good. I'm all for progression and equality for muggleborns and all that shite you lot hate, but I never want to have to live there again."

"Here, here," Tracey called from across the table, leaning forward so that we could clink our pumpkin juice goblets together. As Tracey was also a halfblood - though she was still tightly-tied to the pureblood circles - she felt almost the same way...well, except she had no qualms calling people mudbloods or blood traitors and tended to think she was better than most people, no matter their blood status.

"Draco," Lillian began by drawling his name with a slow smile. "Do you think we'll have any of our classes inspected by Professor Umbridge?"

Ah yes, I had nearly forgotten through the haze of pain that today we had heard the news of Umbridge's Ministry 'promotion'. I hadn't really understood what it meant at first until Tracey had pointed out just what 'class inspections' might mean for the teachers of Hogwarts. Inspections mean questions. Questions mean dirt. Dirt gets messy. And mess gets people fired. Theodore and I had hunkered down and tried to understand the rationale behind the whole idea of class inspections - but it was still just a jumble of words in my sore frontal lobe.

"Not today," Malfoy informed simply while he buttered his scone. "Today she was testing a Charms and Divination class with the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. We only have to see her for class today and then for Care of Magical Creatures tomorrow - she knows which classes we like least, see? She and my father are very close."