𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗦

𝘈𝘉𝘙𝘖𝘈𝘋 𝘞𝘐𝘛𝘏 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘏𝘖𝘎𝘞𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘚 𝘌𝘟𝘗𝘙𝘌𝘚𝘚

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The days passed by peacefully and uneventfully since what happened at the Quidditch World Cup, and now it was time for all the students to return to Hogwarts.

Alina was walking down the train's hallway, holding Kaiser, her Bengal cat, in her arms, lightly rubbing her fingertips underneath his chin.

She was going back to the compartment she came from, but right before she could reach the doors, they opened and revealed Draco and his two friends, Crabbe and Goyle, and they were all laughing as they stepped out of the compartment.

Alina cleared her voice to make her presence felt, and the three Slytherins turned to her. Draco stopped laughing, but his two minions didn't.

"You're having fun with my friends?" Alina asked, looking Draco straight in the eye.

"You should have seen Weasley's dress!" Goyle said between laughs. "Maybe he's going to let you wear it, van Blumenthal."

"Shut up, idiot," Draco said, hitting Goyle with his elbow. "She wasn't talking to you."

"Oh, kitty!" Crabbe pointed out, reaching his hand out to pet Kaiser, who hissed at him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were—" Alina started, but she didn't get to finish her sentence before Kaiser actually bit him. She sighed and finally said the last word: "—you."

"Your stupid cat bit me!" Crabbe shouted, wiggling his hand in the air.

"And you are the one complaining?" Alina asked, arching one eyebrow. "Now I have to brush his teeth because he touched you, ew."

"Draco, why don't you say something?" Crabbe said, complaining to his silver-haired friend.

"What do you want me to say?" Draco asked. "She told you not to touch the cat, didn't she?"

"Now that the problem has been solved, will you to find someone else to bother for a couple of minutes?" Alina clicked her tongue. "I have something to discuss with Malfoy. In private."

When hearing about this, Draco raised both of his eyebrows in surprise and shoved his hands in his pockets. He waited for Crabbe and Goyle to leave, but they didn't move.

"We're not going anywhere, van Blumenthal," said Goyle. "Whatever you want to say to Draco, you can say to us too."

Alina scoffed.

"Leave," Draco dismissed them, already annoyed with their presence.

"But Draco .. " Goyle started.

"Did you not hear him?" Alina asked. "Or do you want Kaiser to bite you too? Now shoo."

She waited for Crabbe and Goyle to leave, and she pulled Draco out of the doorway, so that their conversation wouldn't be heard by her friends either. She motioned for him to follow her, then she started to make her way to the other end of the car.

"Where are you going, van Blumenthal?" Draco asked. "Are you trying to parade with me in front of every compartment? Are you that desperate for attention?"

After asking his last question, he chuckled softly.

Alina's steps came to a sudden halt and she quickly turned around to him. Draco stopped right on time, slapping one of his hands against the walls of the car so that he wouldn't stumble over her.

"You could have warned me you were going to stop," he commented.

"Don't be ridiculous, Draco," said Alina.

"You said you wanted to talk," Draco pointed out. "Go ahead, talk. But you might want to make it fast."

"Why?" Alina asked. "Are your friends suffering because of your absence? How sad."

"No," he corrected her, "but Diggory might show up soon, and I doubt he'd like to see you talking to me."

"I don't think bringing Cedric's name up was necessary," Alina pointed out. "Look, I don't know if you tell your friends—if we wanna call them that—who to talk to and who not to talk to, but we don't do that. So you don't have to worry, nobody is going to interrupt us."

"Friends?" Draco asked, scoffing. "Is that what you and Diggory are? Sure, whatever you say."

"Mind your own business," Alina warned him.

"You were the one who brought me here and now you're telling me to mind my own business? Make up your mind, van Blumenthal, will you?"

"I did, because I wanted to talk to you," she reminded him.

"About what?" Draco asked.

"Why did you save me?"

Alina's question caught Draco off guard. He took a deep breath and looked away for a moment, trying to collecting his thoughts.

"Would you rather I left you there to die?" He answered her question with another question.

"That's not a proper answer, Malfoy. Try again. And how did you know it was people with Muggle blood they were after? Who are they?"

"You just happened to be in front of me at the campsite. I saw you were overwhelmed by the crowd and you were about to be stepped on, so I pulled you out of there. Is it that hard to accept?" said Draco.

"That wasn't the first time something bad happened next to you, but it was the first time I saw you moving a finger to help someone," Alina reminded him. "Why?"

"And here I was, thinking that you might actually be grateful I saved your life, but you're attacking me with questions instead," he complained, then pointed at Kaiser. "What's next? Are you going to make her bite me?"

"I am grateful, but I want to know what was the reason behind your actions," Alina explained. "It's a he. His name is Kaiser, and.. he doesn't look that bothered by your presence."

If anything, Kaiser looked like he didn't mind Draco at all. He was pretty content and his eyes seemed glued to the blond Slytherin, as if he was analyzing him. Usually, he wasn't happy about other people approaching Alina, and it took some time to get on Kaiser's good side.

"Maybe I just didn't want you to die, did you think about that?" Draco snapped, feeling trapped by her questions. "As for the other questions you asked, you'll get the same answer as Harry did in the forest. Even if I did know the answers, I wouldn't have told you. So stop asking stupid questions and stop getting yourself in unnecessary trouble, stupid girl."

Malfoy rolled his eyes and turned on his heels, strolling down the hallway. Alina called out his name several times, but Draco didn't turn around, neither did he stop until he reached the Slytherin compartment.

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hi everyone! i'm back, thank you for not giving up on me and my stories! please give a lovely welcome to our new draco, danny griffin! i've been looking for a replacement for tom felton for obvious reasons and i finally found someone who fits draco's vibe and looks perfectly! what do you think about this new fc change?

i know this chapter is short but i promise i'll get a new one up by the end of the week!

lots of love,
victoria