𝐎𝐇 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐒//𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐎 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐎𝐘 (staying unfinished)

•Part 4•

If only I knew it was bad when I wished there were days where I would go to sleep and never wake up.

The next day, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and I were walking down the hall to our last class of the day, potions.

"Has Malfoy been bothering you at all today?" Hermione asked out of nowhere.

"Oh, no not yet," I say shyly.

"Malfoy was bothering you, Ali?" Ron asked with a worried look on his face. Harry looked a bit worried as well.

"Yeah but it's fine," I say, trying to show them that I didn't need their help.

When we got to the door, I knew it was the worst class of the day. I walked in dreading every step.

"Tomorrow is the exam, so I hope all of you feel very confident in yourselves, and know what you are doing," Professor Snape said. "This should be easy for most of you."

"Yeah right," I mumbled.

"What was that, Ali?" Ron asked.

"What?" I said trying to play it off. I was a bit embarrassed that I said that out loud.

"Today I will assign you partners," Professor Snape said slowly. "You'll be grading each other on your potions."

"Oh great," I said sarcastically.

Professor Snape started partnering random people up. My heart was beating hard out of my chest, hoping I wouldn't get a person I didn't know.

"Sanders and Malfoy, you two are together."

I sighed and went over to a table with a cauldron on it. Of course, I got the boy who I hated the most.

"Well hello again," he said grinning.

I didn't respond. I just ignored him. Not making any eye contact with him either. Now that I think about it, it was embarrassing knowing I didn't have a single reason to be doing that either.

"You know Sanders, the only way we're going to get through class is for you to talk back," he said whispering in my ear. It made me shiver.

"Yeah, you can make your potion first then," I said kind of caught off guard. He went on while I took notes in my head since I couldn't get the potion right.

"Ok test it," he said once he was done. I tested it, and it worked.

"Ok, your turn," he said grinning.

He probably knows I can't make the potion, since he saw me studying last night, but I tried anyway because I didn't want to say I couldn't manage to make it. I tried to remember the notes I took while Malfoy made his potion, but I forgot most of them.

"Done," I said, knowing that I messed up more than once. He went to test it.

"It doesn't work," he said. "What did you do?"

"I have no idea," I said, not wanting him to give me any tips.

"I can help you if you need me to," he asked kindly.

"No thanks, I'll get Hermione to help me."

"That mud-blood?" He asked in disgust.

"Don't call her that!" I said, raising my voice at him.

Everyone stared at me. My cheeks grew red. Very red. Malfoy just smirked.

For the rest of the class time, we just sat around. It felt like it was never going to end. But once Professor Snape dismissed us, I ran to catch up with Hermione, Ron, and Harry since they were lucky enough to be with people they were friends with.

"You guys were so lucky," I said. "I had to be partners with someone who thinks they know everything."

But the thing is, Malfoy did know everything. He was smart and never seemed to show it off. I felt embarrassed that I failed the potion in front of him. And even more embarrassed that everyone stared at me when I raised my voice just a little too high.

—•—

Later that night after dinner, I went up to the library to study again. Hermione came with me because she needed specific books in the library to figure something out. We sat down in two open chairs. I began to read through many books, trying to find better ways to make the potion successfully. As I finished my second book, Hermione was packing up her things.

"Alright I am done for the night," she said. "I'll be up in the common room if that's alright?"

"Yeah go right ahead," I said. But I felt like without Hermione's company, I had no energy to finish the other books. All of a sudden Malfoy comes up to me.

"Is this seat taken?"