Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 5: draco's first letter

Draco Malfoy | 3rd Year

It was time to receive his first hint about his soulmate, and Draco had an unexpected wave of nausea rising up in his throat. When Blaise started to tease him about looking slightly green that morning though, this infuriated Draco, and it reminded him of his mission to humiliate Blaise.

He gave Blaise a sour expression before pushing his way into the nearby bathroom to get changed into his robes for the day. He took his time to get ready, which greatly annoyed the overeager Blaise and the ravenously hungry Theo.

"Draco, I haven't eaten since dinner last night. I'm starved. Quicken your pace, mate," Theo pleaded, but Draco moved slower after that.

He hated being rushed.

Draco ended up taking so long to get ready, in fact, that Theo ended up leaving without the rest of his roommates. He would arrive at their table just before the rest of the boys, feeling grateful that they weren't there to see his flushed cheeks after he had once again ran into someone. He swore that this really wasn't his year. He hadn't even been away from home for twenty-four hours at that point, yet he had already lost his wand and crashed into a girl. He was just completely out of sorts, although that was his everyday really. Draco and Blaise took particular joy in teasing him about this.

When the girls in Draco's year arrived soon after the boys, Theo realized that he was safe. No one had noticed his pink cheeks.

Blaise had been eyeing the oblivious Briar when she was walking up to the table, but Draco noticed. Better to start early, Draco figured, even if his plan slightly made him feel sick.

"I bet you hope it's me. Everyone does, obviously," Draco taunted as he smirked at Briar and leaned across the table.

Blaise stiffened with a fury burning up inside. He had wanted to be the first one to flirt with Briar that year. Draco was ruining everything, and this didn't sit well with him at all. His annoyance only rose higher when Pansy nodded at Draco's every word. He felt sick.

His only condolence was the way Briar stared at Draco in utter disgust before she turned to look at Dumbledore, who had started to address the students.

"Hello, students. For the third years, today is the first day you'll receive a hint about who your soulmate is, and this will hopefully start to spur some of you on towards your soulmates. As you will see shortly, your first soulmate hint will tell you a letter in the first or last name of your soulmate. This will hopefully get you thinking about who your soulmate could be and assist you in creating some of those deep connections with your peers," Dumbledore announced with a curious smile on his face underneath his half-moon spectacles.

As if on cue, owls swarmed the Great Hall, releasing dozens of letters to the students, and each letter found its home on the correct recipient. Draco still didn't quite understand how the ministry had organized so many owls in that way, but he didn't think about it long, for his letter landed on his plate soon after that thought.

Draco opened up his letter along with his peers, and he was surprised to see that the note just had a single letter printed into the middle of it.

N.

Relief flooded his system instantly over knowing that there was no way Briar could be his soulmate. She didn't have an N in her first or last name, and from what his mum had told him, the letters could only come from first or last names, not middle names. He folded up his note though and tucked it into his bag before anyone noticed his letter.

By then, Pansy had already torn the letter from Briar's hand, and Draco looked at the note curiously. Briar had an L. Could she actually have Zabini then?

Draco knew that Blaise would have a field day with that information once he learned it, and he felt much less nauseous knowing that Briar couldn't possibly be his soulmate, so he was completely fine lying to Briar if it meant he could bother Blaise.

"See, I told you it would be me. My name has an L in it, Davies," he said after sitting back in his seat with a smug smile.

"Blaise and Goyle also have L's in their names, genius," Briar immediately fired back, and this deflated Draco's ego faster than the balloon Theo accidentally popped last year did.

Draco especially hated how Blaise started to smirk at Briar's statement. Draco already could imagine their later conversation, and he was absolutely dreading it. Because while Draco was just using Briar to irritate Blaise, it still bothered the boy that Briar wasn't falling at his feet like the other Slytherins in their year were.

Briar tore the letter from Pansy's hands and stormed from the Great Hall, but Draco wasn't paying any attention to her anymore. He had glanced over and saw that Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent were all staring at him, and this both weirded him out and fixed its previously flattened ego. He smirked at the three of them before he tucked into his breakfast with his mind spinning with who his soulmate could be.

Parkinson, Millicent, and Daphne were all potential options. His father would be satisfied with any of those three honestly. As long as his soulmate was a pureblood Slytherin, then Lucius would be satisfied. Otherwise...?

Draco shivered at the thought.

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