When Draco Malfoy went to Hogsmeade with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott that Saturday afternoon, he was quite jumpy.

He was jumpy because he wondered if there was perhaps another letter waiting for him at Scrivenshaft's.

He was practically leaping to get to the quill shop to find out. A large part of him hoped that there was something there waiting for him.

And both his friends noticed.

"You got a ferret in your pants, mate?" Zabini questioned crudely causing Nott to laugh and Draco to glare.

"Very funny, Zabini." He spat. "You have a father yet?" He added harshly.

Zabini narrowed his eyes at him, glaring at the boy before turning his head with a sneer. Nott, unhelpfully, laughed at that too.

"That one had to hurt, mate..." Nott patted Zabini's shoulder to which Blaise jerked away from him and walked faster than his two asshole friends.

"C'mon, Malfoy was only joking!" Nott went after him.

Draco rolled his eyes, face still in a scowl as he followed after them.

Things like this happened between the Slytherin group of friends all the time, so it was no surprise when they were fine and cracking jokes ten minutes later.

Theodore Nott was attending the ball with Daphne Greengrass and Blaise was going stag — interestingly enough, he had no desire to 'limit himself' as he so gracefully put it. His mother certainly disapproved of that, but she was not here to make him do any differently.

Draco was slightly envious of Blaise the closer the ball got, he wished he had done that too. The more Parkinson all but forced herself onto him made Malfoy want to kill himself.

He decided that in a last-ditch effort to save what was left of his and Pansy's friendship, he'd do his best to give her a nice night at the ball and friendzone her the next day. Even if that day was Christmas, it had to be done.

She had to know that he would never see her as anything more than a friend.

The three boys were making their trip to Hogsmeade to get bowties for the Yule Ball. All of them had, of course, been sent nice dress robes from their rich parents. Draco would rather die than be caught dead in some shitty and cheap Hogsmeade dress robes.

Not to mention, Narcissa Malfoy was quite good at picking out clothing for the two men in her life. AKA, her husband and son.

Lucius Malfoy would never admit that it was his wife who picked out his clothing.

Draco was sent everything but the bowtie as it was traditional for the male to match their bowtie with their date's gown. Of course, seeing as Pansy told him she would be going in a frilly pink gown and there was no way that he'd get a matching frilly pink tie: he figured a white one would suffice.

It was freezing outside, a light flurry having just started from the grey clouds. Draco did his best to not walk in any snow that was on the ground.

Even as his fur boots were thick and warm, he had no desire to slip and fall.

He paused as they passed by Scrivenshaft's.

"Oi, I'll catch up with you later!" Draco shouted to Nott and Zabini who turned around.

"Whatever, Malfoy!" Zabini called back with his hands in his pockets, but the playful glint in his eye let Draco know that he was joking.

Nott was running ahead, shouting that he had to get a red bowtie before they ran out.

Of course, seeing as it was Theodore Nott, the lovable Slytherin clown (to the house of the serpent — all the other houses only saw him as another rich douche), the young man proceeded to slip on ice.

He screamed as he was launched in the air, landing on his back and groaning in pain.

Zabini was doubled over in laughter, pointing at him.

Draco rolled his eyes at the sight before opening the door and walking into the quill shop. The cozy store had not changed since the last time he'd been there which was only a week or two prior. Its low ceiling made the place easier to warm — a nice break from the cold of the outside world.

He wasted no time, wiping his snow boots off on the mat in the front before darting through the shelving aisles to get to the back.

"Old man Scrivenshaft!" Draco yelled obnoxiously as he got to the back checkout counter with all the expensive quills in their casing.

He eyed a black and silver quill with a rather extravagant dotted feather — it must have been new as he had not seen it before.

Scrivenshaft hobbled from the back in an annoyed manner, staring at Draco who sneered right back.

"You have anything for me?" Draco asked hotly.

Scrivenshaft grumbled while walking forward, pulling a folded piece of parchment from the shelves. Draco all but lit up — his eyes bright and lips twitching into a smile of excitement. So he had thought right to come here!

"If ya' came fifteen minutes earlier it wouldn't be me givin' this to ya..." He grumbled.

Draco took the parchment from him with wide eyes.

"Wait, she was just here?" He asked in shock, his voice for once not holding its typical snideness. "Do you think she's still in Hogsmeade?"

Scrivenshaft waved him off. "Beats me, lad. Now just read the damn letter, why don'tcha?"

Draco scowled, ready to chew this man out but the thought of the letter in his hands stopped him. He was too eager to read the letter, choosing to unfold it and devour its contents instead.

His pale pianist-like fingers fumbled with the parchment for a few moments.

Draco read through the first part, unaware of the wide smile on his face when his secret admirer called him out on his relations with Pansy. Apparently, it was more obvious than he thought about his disdain for a romantic relationship with her. It was astounding that Pansy herself still did not get the message.

He rolled his eyes when he got to the part about him crushing his secret admirer's dreams. He probably would have asked her if he knew who she was. Or she could have asked him — while Draco could not promise he would say yes to just anyone, there was a good chance he would have.

So long as it was not a Gryffindor, but Malfoy did not need to worry about it seeing as she specifically said she was NOT a Gryffindor.

He bit back a snicker at her random thoughts, finding the inner workings of her mind quite e̶n̶d̶e̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ amusing. Especially the part about the dance-off. Draco envisioned that if the invite came from anyone but her, it would certainly be a no.

What does a dance-off even entail? Draco had never heard of such a concept.

Shock fell over him when he got to the next part.

A seer? She had the rare gift of the Inner Eye?!

That was... well, it was quite amazing actually!

While Draco was slightly concerned seeing as the only seer he'd ever met was crazy-ass Trelawney, he somehow knew that the Divination teacher's personality was not a reflection of all seers.

At first he thought he would be able to figure out who she was by simply asking around and finding out the student seers of Hogwarts. However, he soon came to the part about no one except her best friend, whoever that was, knowing about it.

She was also apparently the only seer on campus.

Well... that was that he supposed.

Although, he was flattered about being one of the only people to know about it. The trust this person had in him, especially with his reputation, was wild. Seeing as Draco had a soft heart toward this little bird of his, he could not imagine doing anything to bring harm to her.

Not like he did with most other Hogwarts students.

That meant no spreading rumors about her, no bullying her, no spilling her secrets, and not telling anyone about these little love notes she was sending him. The school had gone crazy enough when they heard about the first one (Draco only told everyone about it to see if she'd come forward), he could not imagine the gossip if everyone learned that it was not a one-time thing.

No one would dare mess with him, other than the jesting that would no doubt come from his friends, but people would not hesitate to humiliate his little bird and stomp her fragile heart into the ground.

He tilted his head when he got to the end of the letter. Of course there was no name attached to it. No hint of who she was — all Draco knew was that she was a seer. He assumed she must also be in his grade level as she had the opportunity to notice such little things about Draco. An opportunity that came only with time spent near him.

Either that or she was a Slytherin who saw him around the common room... but Draco was beginning to doubt that she was Slytherin. He supposed the original note could have came from anywhere, a Slytherin girl did not necessarily need to leave it in the common room for him.

Perhaps that was his issue when trying to find this girl: he was not looking broadly enough.

However, he also knew that she was not in Gryffindor as she stated. He doubted she was in Hufflepuff, but he could not completely cross that house off. That left his most likely options as Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

A Ravenclaw seemed reasonable — she appeared to be smart and witty based on what he gathered. And she was a seer: a trait often associate with the House of the Wise.

When he envisioned the girl while no physical picture of her came to mind, he still imagined a girl soft in nature who wore her heart on her sleeve. A girl with humor: the out of pocket things she wrote about in her letters were quite funny to Draco.

Draco was only half correct — Isabelle Lockley had humor, and she certainly did wear her heart on her sleeve about her feelings for Draco Malfoy (to her friends only, and kind of to him, of course) but she was very much detached when it came to everything else.

However, there was another concern.

Draco Malfoy decided then that he would never want to hurt this girl. Again, even if they proved to be incompatible (which Draco highly doubted after reading all these letters from her, he was getting to know her more and more with each one) he would never want to hurt her.

But Draco was a mean boy — no getting around it. He was a total asshole to most people and the traditonal beliefs he was raised into was not popular.

What if she was muggle-born?

He doubted that, for a muggle-born to actually be in love with someone like him they would need to be insane.

Nevertheless, he bullied and mercilessly teased a good amount of people at Hogwarts.

Did he want to stop? Definitely not.

But did he want to chance taunting his little bird by accident. That was also a definite no.

He was only glad that there was no chance of it being a Gryffindor — that meant he could still mess with the red house of idiots.

Draco decided that he would simply need to be more careful. Not exactly kinder, but he did not want to poke at anyone from Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff unprovoked.

Especially girls he'd never taunted prior. He had a feeling if this girl was "in love" with him, then he must have never heckled her before.

He wanted to keep it that way.

"Who is it?" Draco finally deadpanned while folding the letter and putting it back into his pockets. "Or were you still not paying attention?" He sneered, knowing the chances of Scrivenshaft spilling was low.

Scrivenshaft smiled brightly. "Why would I pay attention?"

Draco growled in annoyance, spinning on his heel and beginning to strut toward the door.

"Aye — laddie!"

Draco paused as the owner yelled to him.

"Why don'tcha write one back?"

Why the bloody fuck did Draco not think of that?

Draco turned back around immediately, storming toward the counter. His warm hat that covered almost all of his white-blond hair nearly fell off at his ferocity.

"Some parchment and a quill please," Draco demanded, and despite saying 'please' he still sounded ever so bossy.

Scrivenshaft had every right to ask the boy to leave — everytime Draco had come in as of late, his attitude has been sour and he had been rude.

But the owner only found amusement in this, invested in the love life of these funny teens.

Scrivenshaft pulled out a piece of parchment before reaching to grab a quill.

He attempted to hand the quill to Draco only for the rich boy to scoff and recoil as though offended.

Scrivenshaft paused as Draco held up a hand while shaking his head. "I only use expensive quills, thank you..."

Scrivenshaft pursed his lips with a roll of his eyes, setting down the normal quill and reaching into the expensive casing to pull out the black and silver one.

"Here, this is the one the girl used when she was here..." He handed over the quill with the extravagant dotted feather.

Draco tried to hide it, but his eyes lit up happily as he delicately took the quill from Scrivenshaft. He got to work soon after.

Little Bird,

Three love letters + one note later and you finally hear from me. Do excuse the late response, Mr. Scrivenshaft suggested I leave this for you — I can't believe I did not think of doing this myself.

Firstly, I am not creeped out by these letters as you were fearful of, but flattered. And slightly confused seeing as even I will admit that I am quite mean.

Not that I care to admit it, but I'd even expect Potter to receive a love letter from someone other than Pansy Parkinson before me.

I have a feeling that it doesn't matter how much I try to convince you to tell me who you are. I know my reputation is quite concerning, but I do promise to not humiliate you, little bird. I simply wish to meet the sweetheart who I have managed to seduce without doing anything?

Then again: I suppose it is quite hard to resist my dashing good looks.

Quite the amusing thing you are — your insults toward Élise Barbier a few weeks ago made my day. Especially seeing as our date was one from hell itself. She had the audacity to call ME 'immature' when she spent the whole date talking about herself and looking in a mirror! Even I'm not that vain!

Pansy Parkinson, on the other hand, while you are correct and she has become quite annoying, is a little more difficult. We were great friends up until this year, then she started to fancy me and it became weird.

I won't bore you with the details of me realizing that I could never see her as anything more than a friend and her not getting that message.

She asked me to the Yule Ball and seeing as I don't know who you are (worry not, you'd be my first pick), I accepted. I plan to deliver the cold hard truth to her the day after the ball so she might finally come to understand.

Yes, I'm doing this on Christmas Day. Harsh I know, but I could care less.

Now, I must ask: what is this dance-off you speak of?

Furthermore, what house are you in? I suspect Slytherin or Ravenclaw after reading your letters. If you were a Gryffindor (which you've confirmed you're not) you probably would have made some wild gesture like randomly snogging me in the corridor by now. I can't say that I would've reacted kindly to a random Gryffindor running up to me and snogging me.

Now: a pretty Slytherin or Ravenclaw and I might be a bit more understanding.

And I doubt a Hufflepuff would have been able to insult Élise Barbier from so many different angles.

Sending me these charming letters was no doubt the best way to catch my attention. Other than trying to talk to me, of course, but then again I can understand why you might've not wanted to do that.

Not to mention that you're a seer? That screams Ravenclaw, but I also know that not all traits are boxed to just one house.

My father once told me that being a seer is an admirable gift that only powerful wielders of magic have. Most seers, according to him, have been pureblood, of course. However, he also claimed that it can be a curse that drives people insane.

Trelawney is a good example of this, although sometimes I doubt she's as powerful as she claims. My father doesn't even believe she has the gift at all, only that she's managed to fool idiot Dumbledore into believing it.

Nevertheless — you better not go insane before I figure out who you are. Although, I suppose your first vision being positive is a good sign.

Now, I have a proposition for you, little bird.

You continue to feed me these breadcrumbs about yourself and I am willing to bet that I figure out who you are. It's only a matter of time, love, the question only remains as to whether I will be able to do it by the end of next semester or if it will roll into our fifth year.

You are in the same grade as me, right? It's fine if not, but I will need to know if I hope to solve your mystery anytime soon.

Glad to know that you love me — and through your letters, I've come to be rather fond of you myself, little bird.

Good luck on finals and have fun at the ball. Even if I don't recognize you, I will no doubt see you there and maybe you'll be bold enough to come to me.

I, Draco Malfoy, swear to give you a kiss if you reveal yourself to me at the Yule Ball.

No matter how ugly you may or may not be... I'm kidding! I'm sure you're beautiful, little bird.

You have my word on that, love, and then we can call off this little game. Of course, I'd also need to take you up on your offer for a Hogsmeade date. Our lovely conversations can move from the parchment to the real world.

Not to mention that we both must really love quill shopping if we're trusting ol' Scrivenshaft with our personal letters.

And if not, well all is fair in love and war. And I am not the nicest soul to grace this Earth — I will find out who you are by any means necessary.

With Much Endearment,
The-Boy-You-Claim-To-Love
D.M.

Draco ended the note by dotting his I's and swirling his T's.

He wanted to make sure that it was entirely legible.

There were so many thoughts running through his mind — namely what her reaction would be the next time she stopped by intending to write him a letter only to see that she had one waiting for her.

Oh — it was bound to be good.

He meant everything he said in that letter, while he doubted she would reveal herself to him at the Yule Ball, he would honor his word and give her a snog if she so wished.

...Even if she was ugly.

Draco hoped to Merlin that she was not ugly.

He shook his head, Draco had some investigating to do if he hoped to figure her out sooner rather than later.

Folding the letter, he handed it back to Scrivenshaft along with the quill.

"To Ms—" The owner stopped himself just as he was about to reveal the girl's name.

Draco glared harshly at this, especially when he realized that based on the glean in Scrivenshaft's eyes, the older man was just messing with him.

Seriously, fuck this guy.

"Yes, to her," Draco ground out before adjusting his hat and leaving the place.

He nearly forgot what he actually came to Hogsmeade for. A bowtie for the dance and new Quidditch cleats.

Even though Quidditch was not to be played this year, Marcus Flint, the Slytherin captain who was to graduate this year wanted to set the Slytherin's up for success next year.

Therefore, practices would be held once a week on Thursday evenings after the holiday break.

Despite Quidditch being on his mind, the boy eyed nearly every girl he passed in Hogsmeade. It was exciting and slightly nerve-wracking to think that any of those girls could be his secret admirer.

Of course, Draco did not know that his secret admirer was no longer at Hogsmeade and rather curled in the Ravenclaw common room, her head buried deeply into her family Divination grimoire.

★✯☆★✯☆★

And it was later that night when Isabelle Lockley was forced to stop reading, setting her grimoire on a side table as the older Ravenclaw students forced everyone who was attending the Yule Ball to practice a stupid dance.

If there was such a thing as a theatre kid or choir nerd at Hogwarts — that title would proudly belong to House Ravenclaw. Even Isabelle would admit that she enjoyed attending the theatre and the ballet.

However, the students from this house were taking it a bit far — coming up with the hilarious idea to have a choreographed dance for the Yule Ball.

It was laughable, really. Something out of one of those muggle movies where a bunch of people just break out in a dance mob.

Isabelle was down for a good dance-off, but to have the entire Ravenclaw House randomly break out into a choreographed one was pushing it a bit far. Of course, most found the idea hilarious and wanted to do this: if only to see the rest of the student body's reaction.

Not everyone was a good dancer though, and so the seventh-years decided to teach everyone a simple muggle dance.

Something called the "Electric Slide" was perhaps the easiest dance Isabelle had ever learned.

"Stay in your rows! Corner fix yourself, you look horrible!" A muggle-born seventh-year, Amanda MacDonald, called loudly.

Isabelle smiled as she heard Michael Corner groan at the insult, turning along with everyone else as the dance took them in a new direction.

"You look good doing this!" Clementine said happily from her spot next to Isabelle.

Isabelle scoffed. "Of course I do! If I couldn't do this then I couldn't call myself a good dancer!" She explained as she followed the moves of the dance, throwing herself forward and back before kicking her leg out and spinning.

Everyone followed, many not looking as 'groovy' as Isabelle.

The Electric Slide was a muggle line dance that had apparently gained popularity around the world. Seeing as it was only in the non-magical world, it was the muggle-born Ravenclaws who suggested and taught the dance.

The song was playing on some muggle stereo one of them had smuggled into Hogwarts.

Isabelle would not admit it out loud, but she quite liked this dance.

"I can't believe the seventh-years are making us do this!" Anthony cried in disdain, shuffling backward with everyone else.

The beginning of send off activities for the seventh year students who would be graduating. Each house did their own thing for the seniors, and this was one of the things the seventh-year Ravenclaws apparently wanted to do for themselves.

A Ravenclaw dance mob.

"It's electric! Boogie, woogie, woogie!"

Of all the line dances Isabelle had learned — magical and muggle alike — this truly was the easiest. So the fact that some people still looked like ass while doing it — cough, Michael Corner, cough — was embarrassing.

The seventh-years thought so too.

"Michael! I swear to Merlin—!" Amanda screamed at him, causing Michael to yelp and do it better.

Isabelle laughed at this.

"Don't be mean," Clementine chided but was laughing herself as they all once again turned.

Isabelle who was slightly embarrassed by this truly did wonder what the rest of Hogwarts' (and the other two schools!) reaction would be when Ravenclaw randomly pulled this out of their asses.

Rowena would be so proud.