Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 58: let's not do anything irrational

CW: I break canon in this chapter a decent amount.

Lorelei Jones | 5th Year

"Lorelei, could I-"

"Potter, you've got some nerve to even look in her direction right now," Theo bit out. He glared at Harry over Lorelei's head, and his hand twitched in the direction of his concealed wand.

"Please. I just wanted to talk to her," Harry pleaded with Theo now, seeing that he wouldn't get anywhere with Lorelei without the Slytherin's blessing.

"No thank you," Lorelei spoke up.

Theo lifted his eyebrows at Harry in challenge. If he didn't walk away and drop this whole thing in the next five seconds, Theo wasn't going to be able to be patient any longer.

"But, Lorelei, please. Just give me a moment to-"

"I said, no thank you." Lorelei glowered at Harry now. She wasn't happy with the 'chosen one' at the moment.

He had gone around the school, telling everyone that he was completely justified in attacking Draco because he had cursed Katie Bell at Hogsmeade the weekend before. Lorelei and the rest of their friends explained profusely how Draco had never gone to Hogsmeade that day. He was with them the entire time.

Lorelei even said this under veritaserum for Dumbledore.

Harry's continued insistence that Draco deserved to be banished from the school for being an evil death eater made Lorelei angrier than anything else ever had before. Draco wasn't a death eater. She saw him without a shirt on just a couple months ago when she bandaged his wounds on the train, yet Harry claimed to everyone that Draco was already a death eater at that point.

"You're making a mistake to trust snakes like them, Lorelei. I'm just trying to help you and Luna," Harry pleaded and ignored the lethal glare from Theo.

"The only person you are interested in helping is yourself, you... you twat. You cannot redeem your image with me after what you did, so please stop trying."

Lorelei flushed at the use of the rude word, but she felt it was necessary to get Harry to understand her position. She frowned; why did she have to try so hard to get him to leave her alone?

"Goodbye, Potter," Theo said with a shaking voice that barely concealed his rage.

Harry rolled his eyes and stomped away. Lorelei's lips pushed out into a slight pout, but she moved on towards the dining hall anyway.

Pansy met up with them along the path. "Are you alright, love?"

"Harry Potter was harassing me again... I called him a twat. Does that make me a bad person?"

"Not at all. I'm proud of you for standing up to him," Pansy said while she slung an arm over Lorelei's shoulders. She shot a look back at the still fuming Theo and knew this conversation would be continuing later. If Potter said anything too foul, Pansy would be washing his mouth out with soap.

And then punching his teeth in.

"Do you think they'll have any warm soup for supper? I feel cold today," Lorelei said. She rubbed her hands together as she said this. The castle was chilly today; the sun had been hiding all day, and a bitter wind was cutting through the openings in the castle walls. It was a rare cold day at the end of the school year, and Lorelei hoped this frigid air would end soon.