BORN TO DIE    ╱    DRACO MALFOY
꒷꒦ · ˚.‧ . written by ella . . . © -lostgardens
024 ━━━━━━━━ ❛ disappointment ❜

A few days had passed. Classes had been going by rather smoothly, meaning there were no more incidents with pixies, and Lucas had been settling in to his new routine rather nicely, which filled Olivia's heart with happiness.

Her shoes clackered against the floor of the outside corridor. She was on her way to the library, ready to study the rest of her day away. Not wanting to be bothered by anyone and having a little peace and quiet. But as she passed the grounds, she noticed the Gyffindor and Slytherin teams having a little chat. Curious, she searched the faces of each player, stopping in her tracks.

"Easy, Wood," Flint said as Olivia stepped a bit closer. "I've got a note." He handed the boy in front of him a roll of parchment.

Olivia watched closely as the Gryffindor boy, Wood was his name, boredly took the parchment and began to unravel it. "I, Professor Severvus Snape, do hereby give the Slytherin team permission to practice today," Wood read as Granger and Weasley came up to the interaction. Olivia stayed in her spot in the corridor, not really caring about it all, but caring enough to not want to leave—her house was involved, after all. "Owing to the need to train their new seeker," the boy finished, dropping his hands down to look at Flint annoyingly. "You've got a new seeker? Who?" he asked.

Olivia took a step closer, a curious building in her mind. The Slytherin boys moved out the way, presumably to showcase their new seeker. And that was when Olivia's jaw almost detached from her skull with how hard it dropped. Malfoy, the new Slytherin seeker? Huh.

"Malfoy?" Potter asked in disbelief.

Malfoy had a smug look on his face—the one he always had—as he stepped forward. "That's right. And that's not all that's new this year," he gloated, looking down at the new brooms. But Olivia wasn't focused on that, seeing as though she was heading in the direction of the blonde boy.

First, Olivia was in the corridor, then suddenly, her arms were wrapped around Malfoy's neck, bringing him in for a tight hug. She didn't know why she was doing it, and she sure as bloody hell didn't know why she whispered, "Congrats," to him.

He was still as she pulled back, finally realizing what she was doing. She looked him up and down in disgust, noticing the slight blush on his pale face. Her eyes narrowed, and he cleared his throat, looking away. Her cold gaze found the Slytherin team and pointed a telling finger in their direction. "If I hear that any one of you said that I did that, I'll curse you," she threatened.

After a moment of awkward silence, where Olivia felt her own face slightly flush, she didn't look at Malfoy. Not once.

"Those are the Nembis 2001s! How did you get those?" the young Weasley boy asked, breaking the silence and focusing on the brooms.

"A gift from Draco's father," Flint replied.

"You see, Weasley, unlike some, my father can afford the best," Malfoy teased, causing Olivia to roll her eyes.

He's never going to change, she thought. Turning to walk away, freeing herself from the awkwardness she was feeling in her body, she made her way over to the corridor.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," Granger retorted, almost causing Olivia to laugh. Almost. "They got in on pure talent," she stated matter-of-factly.

Olivia was so close to the corridor when Malfoy's next words slipped from his arrogant mouth. "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood," he sneered, causing Olivia to stop dead in her tracks.

Slowly, she turned back around to face the boy, feeling more anger than she probably should. It wasn't like he called her that wretched word. But still, he shouldn't be calling anyone that, no matter who they are. "What did you just call her?" she asked, her voice dangerously calm as she glared at him. The Slytherins immediately stopped snickering as she approached like a predator after their prey.

Malfoy turned to her, all of the color draining from his already pale face. He looked unhealthy. He swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling quite uneasy under Olivia's look. "Just what she is... a Mudblood," he replied, trying to act cold-hearted in front of his teammates.

"Oh, don't look so glum, Mallard." Flint stepped toward her, giving her a smug look. "You're not quite acting like yourself," he said, messing with her hair.

She looked up at him, sending him a rather nasty look as Pucey said, "You might not want to do that." Olivia glanced behind the Slytherin caption and at the player behind him, who quickly looked away when he caught her gaze.

Before Olivia could say something about Pucey still being scared of her, the youngest Weasley spoke. "You'll pay for that one, Malfoy," he threatened, pulling out his wand. "Eat slugs!" He pointed his wand at Malfoy, but it seemed to be broken. Because instead of hitting Malfoy like intended, the spell shot back and hit Weasley square in the chest, sending him flying to the ground.

The Gryffindors all rushed over to the boy as the Slytherins laughed, and Olivia moved to stand beside Malfoy. She studied Weasley for a moment before looking over at the blonde boy. He met her stare, his laugh falling short when he saw nothing but disappointment in her green eyes.

The smile on his face dropped as she shook herself and turned away, starting to walk away once more. He reached out and grabbed her wrist, but she shrugged off his hold. "Olivia," he muttered. She ignored him and continued to the corridor, continuing on her original journey to the library.

The library was where she spent the rest of her day before going straight to the astronomy tower. She sat there looking at the stars, wondering why the fact that Malfoy had called Granger that awful name was hitting her so hard. Maybe it was the fact that she knew the meaning of it. Maybe it was because she didn't think Malfoy would stoop that low—that he'd be that buried in the 'Pureblood' propaganda.

She wondered if he'd always been like that—if he'd always believed Muggle-borns and half-bloods to be lesser. If he'd always thought that since he was a Malfoy (and a Black by blood), apart of one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families, and a Pureblood, he was better than everyone else,

Was it his beliefs or the ones he'd been fed his whole life?

And why did she care?

"Hey," her brother's soft voice caught her ears as he walked closer to her. "I knew I'd find you up here." He sat down, not even getting a glance from her.

"Yeah, hey," she replied, resting her head on her propped-up knees. Her arms were wrapped around her legs as she tried to find warmth, not even bothering to cast a warming charm. She was too lost in thought.

"You didn't come to dinner. What's wrong?" He asked with nothing but sympathy in his voice.

She glanced over at him, seeing his curious and worried eyes. Then she looked back at the stars, not wanting to see that look. "Nothing. Just something that Malfoy said upset me," she admitted.

"So, it's not nothing," he replied, trying to lighten her mood. But when she didn't laugh, he looked at the stars, asking, "What could have Malfoy possibly said that upset you?" His tone made it seem as though it was almost unbelievable, which sort of was, which was why Olivia was even more confused by her feelings.

"He, uh—he called Granger a... Mudblood," she admitted, her face twisting in disgust as she said the word that left a bitter taste on her tongue.

Lucas's gaze snapped to her. "What?" he muttered, shock in his voice.

"Yep." She sighed. "I knew his father subscribed to those beliefs, or once had, but I didn't know... I didn't think Malfoy would, too, but I guess it's to be suspected."

"I suppose so," Lucas replied.

Then they sat there in the quiet, just like they had a few nights prior. Neither one said a thing as Olivia rested her head on her brother's shoulder and watched the stars till it was way past curfew, and they knew they had to sneak back to the common room.

Olivia went to bed that night with one thing on her mind and one thing only. She wasn't going to talk to Malfoy until he agreed to apologize to Granger. It was now her mission to get him to not be a blood-supremacist.

He was only twelve; how much damage could his father have possibly done?

A lot was the answer.

≀⋆⁺₊⋆ ꗃ 𖦹⨳✺

━━━━ ella's speaking !
hella short chapter, but i hoped you enjoyed nonetheless !!

comment and vote 🫶🏻

kisses.

━━━━━━━━━━ born to die,
© -LOSTGARDENS,          oct 2023

word count: 1519. written: 9.25.23. published: 10.3.23.