Willow couldn't shake the stirring feeling of illness wrestling in her stomach from the incident. Rumours spread fast and Willow was not ready for the negative attention: the looks, the questions, the teasing.
The anger boiling up in Willow showed itself in the fire beneath her skin. Oak knew of her efforts to hide her fairy inheritance, and here he shamelessly flaunts his winnings by bragging about it, announcing how it was all thanks to his fairy heritage.
She could faintly hear the surrounding students passing around the rumours of her. Their judging eyes following her and their whispering voices suffocating her. Her jaw tightened, and her fists clenched at her side. The people's glares and stares fueled her anger for her brother and her hatred for the purists. The anger pulsing through her veins pushed her faster forward, with every step she steadily picked up speed until she ran into someone, causing her to fall backwards and land solidly on the cold stone floor.
She blew the fallen hair out of her face, leaving room for her glares at the sturdily planted person standing between her, and her freedom. A slim boy with messy brown hair and circular glasses stood a above her. She immediately recognized Harry and dropped her hateful stare; Hermione stood at his side with surprise painted on her face.
"I'm sorry Willow, I didn't see you coming." Harry held out his hand to her to help her up. She took it with a tight smile, still tense with rage.
"It's okay, Harry." She brushed herself off. "Hey Hermione." She greeted briefly.
"Hey Willow." The frizzy haired witch responded with a friendly smile.
"Hey, congratulations on your win Harry." Willow's smile was more like an awkward grimace as she patted his shoulder.
"Thanks Willow, but it was nothing compared to your brother's, he was incredible." His admiring words made Willow's lips press together. She dropped her head with a clenched jaw, not wanting to relive what her brother had done.
"Hey, I get it. I know what it's like." Hermione said referring to her muggleborn status. "It's just the purest Slytherins that are being bigots. Ignoring them is the only thing that works."
Willow nodded although she disagreed, "As a Slytherin myself, it can be hard to avoid the 'bigots'." Willow said avoiding eye contact. I don't know how much longer I can ignore this, she thought. The idea of being untouchable by narrow-minded opinions and cruel words was a nice concept, but impractical. Quite frankly, Willow was done with tolerant silence. Whenever she heard the rumours, she wanted to tighten her fists and throw them at someone, anyone. Willow wanted to fight.
Harry gave her an encouraging pat, telling her it was nice to see her before she thanked them and walked away.
Willow took her time wandering the halls on her way to the library, with one thought stuck tenaciously on her mind: If only it was that easy.
>>> • <<<
Jordan, who had lost Willow in the crowds, couldn't find her in any of their usual spots, a fact that worried her. She wandered the castle looking for Willow until she found herself at the doors of the library, without a friend and without a comfort. Her worried searching left her cold and empty except for the heavy ball of dread resting in the pit of her stomach.
She entered the library alone, feeling slightly awkward without Willow at her side. She looked around for her, wondering if maybe she had already settled here, but the little fairy was nowhere in sight. Jo hesitantly made her way to the table occupied by Fawn and Tessa, who were already claiming the space with enough chairs for all six. To her surprise, they welcomed her with beaming smiles and joyful waves.
"Have either of you guys seen Will?" Jo asked from where she stood at the head of the table. "I was following her here but I kinda lost her."
"Don't worry about her, Jo, she'll come." Fawn assured her.
"She's right," Tessa agreed, "Now take a seat! It feels like we haven't seen you in forever!"
The girls caught up, talked and laughed together lightheartedly. Jordan's smile was genuine and pure, she almost felt as though things were back to normal between them, almost. A feeling of dread for the coming task hung far in the distance, and no matter where she looked, it could be faintly seen in the middle of her vision distracting her from true peace.
The boys, Michael and Tobias, approached the table of girls, engaging in animated conversation with each other. Tessa lit up at the sight of them.
"Did you bring me anything?" Tessa sharply asked the boys, skipping the greeting. Michael and Toby looked as though a professor had asked them to hand in homework they didn't know was due. Jordan swallowed a chuckle.
"Uhh, no." Michael broke the news to her, "Were we supposed to?"
Tessa relaxed her fiery gaze and slumped in her chair. "No, I just really want marshmallows right now." She said with an overly dramatic quivering lip.
"Why marshmallows?" Jordan puzzled.
"Why not!? Doesn't smores just sound like the best thing right now?" Tessa's mouth watered.
Fawn sat with her cheeks in her fists daydreaming, oblivious to the conversation. At this, Jo smirked.
"Did you know, that in Asia, marshmallows grow on trees?" She enquired. Fawn snapped back into reality at the new 'information'.
"They do?!" She asked in surprise. Toby raised his eyebrows in surprise while Tessa shamelessly smacked her palm to her forehead. Fawn's face lit of in realization. "Oh you were kidding!"
"Good Lord, Fawn." Tessa marvelled. "What did you hit your head on as a child?"
"Well,-"
"-Jordan!" A voice called, recognizable enough to eliminate the need to look, Jordan answered. "Hey Draco."
"What are you doing here? You promised to accompany me to Diagon Alley today." Draco sneered at mixed blood group as he cautiously sauntered closer.
Jordan choked up, "Uh, I... "
"She meets with us every Thursday." Michael interjected sternly.
"Well, no bother," Draco shrugged as he took the last seat ment for Willow. "I'll just wait until you're done."
Awkward silence fell on the group, the girls exchanged glances of confusion, taken aback by his boldness and comfortable posture. Toby twiddled his fingers beneath the table with his eyes glued to them. Meanwhile Michael held a cold glare, fixated on the pale, blonde boy who seemed to radiate with ignorance.
"So, half witts" Draco smirked, filling the empty air with indifference lacing his voice, "what's so important in your lives that you have to have a meeting every week?"
Tessa fluttered her lashes in an eye roll, attempting to diminish the rising annoyance Draco brought to the table.
"We don't need a reason to hang out. It's just nice to see each other every once in a while." Fawn explained with her brows furrowed.
Tessa whispered, quiet enough for only Fawn's ears to hear, "You can't expect him to understand, he's never had a friend to just 'hang out' with in all of his sad lonely life."
Fawn snickered at full volume, grabbing the attention of the rest of the table, who were unaware of the spiteful exchange.
The boy's cold eyes burned holes in the Veelan's skin. Fawn swallowed hard.
A malicious idea came to light in Tessa's head, and she smirked with a devious glint in her eyes. "So... Draco. What was it like being a ferret?" Fawn giggled at the remark before quickly coughing to cover it up.
Blood flushed through Draco's features, burning his cheeks with unfiltered fury before snapping, "That's none of your damn business." His retort didn't have the effect he had intended because more snickers erupted, and there was a particularly loud snort from Michael. Jordan brought a hand to his tense arm to comfort him.
Tessa's grin widened at his defensive reaction. "Hostile, okay. You know, I would have thought you would have lost your clothes when you shrunk, but it's probably for the better. No-one wants to see the cause for your insecurities."
The angry red colour that bloomed on Draco's face made Tessa's smile stretch so wide it looked as if her face would spilt.
Jordan while she was slightly enjoying herself, decided to break up the fight before Draco started using his fists, or worse, Tessa used her wand. Malfoy did not want to be on the receiving end of the Gryffindor girl's hexes.
"C'mon Draco, we should get to Diagon Alley early enough to avoid the rush of middle-aged witches." Jordan said as she tugged the furious boy to his feet. Tessa looked smug as she watched a red-faced Slytherin boy being dragged away by Jordan who matched him in colour from embarrassment. On their way out however, the pair ran into a pale-skinned and dazed, Willow.
"Will!" Jordan cried before roughly gripping the girl's shoulders. "I couldn't find you after the first task, I was starting to get worried about you."
"I'm fine, I just-" She caught sight of Draco who was listening intently, "I just got caught up with something."
Jordan knew she wasn't telling her the whole truth, but she could sense the discomfort in her voice and decided to let it go. "Oh, okay. Well I'm glad you're okay." Jo gave her friend a comforting squeeze before and heading for the doors.
"Hey where are you going?" Willow called, making Jordan pause to reply.
"I'm going to Diagon Alley with Draco."
Willow wrinkled her nose. "Oh right, of course. I almost forgot you and Draco were attached at the hip." She turned and walked away with an eye roll, not bothering to hear Jordan defend herself.
With a sigh, she made her way over to the table by the window. The group's beaming smiles and contagious laughter brought a grin to her face, making her previous frustration fade into background noise.
"Willow!" Fawn gasped for breath. "You just missed the funniest thing!"
"Oh? Do tell." She pried as she took her usual seat beside Toby.
"Tessa asked Draco what it was like being a ferret." The statement sent Fawn into another round of gasping giggles.
"Wait seriously?" Willow imagined the interaction between the fiery latina and the pale boy. She pictured him going beet red while trying to make a comeback, but failing.
"Yes! You should have been here!" Fawn clapped her hands on the wooden table.
"I love you, Tess." She smiled brightly, "You are my new hero."
"I wasn't before?" She pouted. Willow simply responded with a cheeky wink.
The meeting eventually came to an end as the moon took the sun's spot in the sky and the early winter's night brought most of the other students to their dorms. The group packed up their stuff as they bid each other goodnight before too heading to their dorms.
Willow walked peacefully through the corridors on her way to her room, the cool breeze of a distant open window chilling her exposed skin, although it didn't bother her.
The sound of hurried footsteps brought her attention to the tall, brown eyed boy effortlessly catching up to her.
"Willow," Toby breathed, "I wanted to talk to you but you disappeared before I got the chance."
Something in his voice wavered and she could tell he was nervous.
He gently grabbed her hand, bringing her to a stop in middle of the cold, empty corridor. His eyes locked onto hers and she felt the nervousness in his voice transfer into the tinge of her cheeks as her chilled, exposed skin suddenly became warm with rushing blood.
They stood like that without words and without movement until Willow was nearly bursting at the seams in suspense.
Finally, he spoke. "Willow, I was wondering if maybe you would like to go to the Yule Ball..."
"Well of course I'm going to the Yule Ball, Fawn already promised to design a dre-"
"-I mean with me."
Willow's heart nearly dropped along with her jaw, such an action that grew into a bright smile at the realization of his sincerity.
"Yes, Toby. Yes I'll go with you." She excitedly threw her arms around the blushing boy, hardly able to contain the excitement showing through her own cheeks.
Toby pulled away slightly, just enough to see the unique purple tint in her eyes, but not quite far enough to let her out of his arms. Watching her joy filled expression, Toby smiled. He then decided to do something he had been wanting to do for a long time, almost since he had first saw her.
He leaned in gently and placed his soft lips on Willow's fair cheek, brushing against the corner of her pink lips. Her heart felt as if it had burst into a kaleidoscope of butterflies that then fluttered down into her stomach.
As he pulled away, a soft smile grew on his face. "I look forward to it." He whispered.
Willow could muster nothing more than a dropped jaw. Dazed, she watched Toby walk away with a lightness to his step. After a minutes or so, everything that had happened sunk into Willow, and a brilliant grin broke out on her face. All the way back to the dorms until she climbed into bed, Willow was floating. With the smile still stuck on her face she drifted off to sleep.
>>> • <<<
The following day's potions class was finally over and Fawn couldn't have been more relieved. She concluded that potions was an awful idea and hereby named that the most embarrassing class of her life.
"Hey Fawn!" Draco called while sauntering up to the table where she was packing up her stuff. "I'd just like to congratulate you, I've never met someone who could manage to make a beautification potion explode." Draco laughed coldly in Fawn's face who was still trying to fix her matted hair from the incident.
Fawn made no reply.
By then, Crab and Gloye stood at his side, laughing along with him. "It's too bad really, with that face, you really could have used it." Draco attempted to hold himself back from laughing but his hysterics burst out of his mouth.
"I've always found the Veelan kind quite disturbing," Draco continued, his cold eyes drilling into Fawn's, "Never fully human, yet never fully beast either. They just sit somewhere in between with hideous faces in both forms."
"Screw off Draco." Fawn said calmly with an aggravated sigh. She gathered her things she had been packing and walked away, but Draco chased after her.
"Except for you of course, Fawn." He smirked, "You'd be prettier as a Harpy." Draco's idiotic friends laughed. Fawn furrowed her eyebrows, confused by how cruel people can be.
Fawn was not generally self conscious which allowed her not to be so bothered by the boys. However, she was not so careful to hide the features of her heritage leading to some much unwanted attention from a certain group of Slytherins, and she wasn't sure how long she could hold up to their incessant teasing.
"Come on Fawn! Show us your true form!" Crab insisted.
"Yeah Fawn, show us. Prove that your ugly face is actually worth something." Draco said with a stinging venom dripping from his teeth.
Tessa suddenly came around the corner in front of them, just in time to catch Draco's last words. Fury rose up inside of her until it spilled out of her mouth, "Tell me I did not just hear that!"
Draco wasn't scared of many people, but Tessa was one of them. Though she was shorter than him, she nearly doubled him in strength while her voice seemed as if thunder followed it. Although Draco did not show any wavering.
"Oh you heard me." He hissed, "Once the Dark Lord rises, all you half breeds, muggleborns, and half bloods will perish and all you have to stand up for yourself is a Veelan who won't shift." He half laughed, "Pathetic."
Fawn was only half Veela, from her mother, and what Draco didn't know was that she wasn't even sure if she could change form, even if she wanted to.
Tessa growled fiercely, "We 'half breeds, and muggle borns' are your girlfriends closest friends." she spat as she took a protective step in front of Fawn who was holding Tessa back from clawing the boy's eyes out. "What do you think Jordan will say when she finds out you are bullying her friend!?"
"You call this bullying? I am merely stating the truth. And do you really think Jordan wants to be friends with you? You are disgraces to the wizarding name. You filthy blooded freaks." He said with a look of pure distaste.
Tessa stood with her mouth wide open, shock showing on her features at Draco's perception of Jordan. He doesn't know her at all! She thought to herself, but just as she was about to say her thoughts out loud, Fawn held her back.
"It's okay Tessa." Just as she spoke, Willow entered the scene.
"What is going on?" Anger boiling up inside her at the sight of Draco's familiar cruel smirk.
Tessa ignored Willow and whipped out her wand. "It will be okay once I hex him!" Before she could complete her threat however, Fawn pulled Tessa back.
Fawn struggled with her grip on the strong witch. "It's not worth the fight Tessa!"
"No need for that, De La Rosa." Draco chimed in, throwing his hands up lazily, "I was just finishing up anyways." With that, he spun on his heel, walking back the way he came taking the two other boys with him.
With a growl, Tessa gave into Fawn's pleads, turning away to shove through the curious crowd with fury still consuming her.
Willow stood there dumbfounded, trying to piece together what she had just heard before finally deciding to chase after Draco. She slipped through a pack of second years to catch up to the Slytherin boy. She forcefully grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face her.
"What the hell was that? What right do you have to talk to Jordan's friends like that? Just because they're different than you?" Willow's anger slowly grew the longer she looked at Draco's smug face.
"Because they're unclean." He corrected, "And who are you to talk? You are no different than the rest of them."
Willow's heart dropped, perspiration revealing itself on her forehead, her fingernails piercing her palms. Draco noticed her shift in confidence and smirked, "I heard your brother talking about his fairy heritage. How that is what won him the dragon's golden egg." Draco sneered, "You will have the same fate as them. Slytherin or not." He picked up his pace, leaving behind Willow who had stopped dead in her tracks.
"And you're just a purest monster," She called after him, nearly choking on her words, "you know nothing of what it's like to be discriminated against. You are cruel."
Draco merely cracked a devilish smile, his back still turned to her. Maybe he was a monster, but the fact didn't waver his confidence; it fueled it.
Watching Draco saunter away, Willow knew she has lost, and Draco had won. He always won. Willow was left with a fury so intense that her nails pierced her skin inside her fist.
She vowed to herself then that one day Draco Malfoy would lose. One day, the King of Snakes would fall.
Word Count: 3220