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It was supposed to be simple. Find a date for Hogsmeade weekend before the end of class Friday. And with a few dozen eligible boys to choose from (some of them quite fit even), what could go wrong?
Except it wasn’t simple. Not in the slightest.
McGonagall had agreed to let 7th years stay in town late on the first Saturday of spring, and it was bound to be the biggest party off of school grounds all year. Rumour had it that Madame Rosmerta was going to let them use the side room all to themselves and she was known for turning a loving, blind eye towards any student nonsense.
The only task remaining for Susan Bones was securing a date that wasn’t absolutely tragic. And unfortunately, by the time lunch rolled around on Friday, she realised her options were slimmer than she’d thought.
Most of her first choices were already taken, which was unsurprising, really. Dean was paired up with Mandy, Ernie was taking Lavender, and no one in their right mind would step in the middle of whatever was going on between Ron and Hermione.
There were a few others that were off limits for different reasons, like Anthony, who’d broken Hannah’s heart in fifth year and whom Susan had thoroughly shunned in solidarity, and Harry, who everyone knew to avoid lest you wanted to find yourself in the morning’s edition of the Daily Prophet.
Then there were a handful that Susan would rather miss the outing altogether than go with. Like Crabbe or Goyle – Not like they were options anyway. The Slytherins never mixed with other houses for these sorts of things.
“And that brings me to you,” said Susan in a huff as she flopped down on an ottoman next to Justin, after she’d explained her predicament.
Justin looked over the edge of his book and raised an eyebrow. “Gee, Susan. As flattered as I am to be your last choice in the matter, I’m actually already going with someone.”
“What!” snapped Susan, leaning forward incredulously.
“Ouch,” grumbled Justin, burying his nose in his book again. “Didn’t realise you thought so little of me.”
“No no no, that’s not what I mean,” Susan backpedalled quickly, drawing his book away from his face and popping on a disarming smile. “I just thought I had mapped everyone out already. Who are you taking? It can’t be the Patils, they’re going with the other Gryffindors. The rest of the Hufflepuffs are all matched up. Unless maybe… Are you going with Michael?”
“Honestly, Susan!” said Justin, snatching his book back and tossing it in his bag. “If you must know, I’m going with Daphne.”
Susan’s jaw hit the floor, and Hannah, who had been working on an essay near the fire, immediately perked up as well.
“Daphne Greengrass?” Susan enunciated each syllable like it was a foreign word. “She’s been going out with Theo since the Ravenclaw game. They’re practically betrothed at this point.”
“Yeah, well, not anymore.” Justin scrubbed a hand across the back of his neck as his cheeks coloured. “They broke up. And she asked me out in double potions this morning.”
“But Justin, no one wants to be Daphne Greengrass’s rebound,” said Susan in her most compassionate voice. Surely house loyalty had to count for something.
It didn’t work.
“Give it a rest, Sus. I’m going with Daphne. You’ll have to find someone else.” With that, Justin hoisted his bag to his shoulder and headed to the boys’ dormitory.
Susan sighed, slouching over to rest her arms on her knees.
“You know,” came Hannah’s sly voice by the fire. “If Daphne is taken, then that means someone else has opened up.”
“Don’t even say it,” groaned Susan into her hands.
Hannah dropped her quill and hurried to take a seat in the armchair Justin had just vacated. Leaning in close with what was sure to be a conspiratorial look on her face, she said, “Theo.”
Susan sighed. Hannah was a good best friend, but surely there were rules about bringing up crushes that one wished to stay buried.
Theodore Nott had been the soul occupant of Susan’s romantic thoughts for all of fifth year and most of sixth year, and he was the worst sort of tenant. Not only was he too disinterested to give her the time of day, he was one of the fittest boys in the entire castle – and he knew it. Susan was probably the last in a long line of girls that had swooned over him since he’d placed as Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team. So much so that Susan could have sworn she saw girls from different houses wearing hints of green to the games under their house colours, just because of him.
They’d been greenhouse partners in Herbology the previous year, where Susan had the chance to study him more closely and it did not help matters in the slightest. Not only were his eyelashes unreasonably beautiful when he was looking down into the plant beds, he was annoyingly clever as well. She’d heard rumours that he was an absolute bastard to the girls he dated, but somehow she just couldn’t see it.
Of course, once he’d paired off with Daphne, Susan had forced herself to close the book on the matter. Two gorgeous pureblood Slytherins together? There were so many reasons to give up on him that Susan had partitioned that corner of her heart and attempted to close it off for good. But now?
“Susan, are you in there?” asked Hannah, after what must have been a very long silence. “I said Th–”
“Yes, I heard you!” said Susan, peering around the common room to make sure no one else had. “Give me a minute, I need to think.”
“Well, don’t take too much time.” Hannah put a reassuring hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You’ve only got a few hours until the end of the day, and I’d bet my cat that if you don’t ask him, someone else will.”
“Thanks, Han. You’re a real pal,” said Susan miserably.
“Want me to make you an invigoration draught for the nerves?”
Susan looked up to spot her friend smiling with a glint of mischief in her eye. “Go on then.”
Susan couldn’t pay attention for the rest of the afternoon, and she’d be doing double work on Sunday to make up for it, seeing as she hadn’t heard a word Flitwick said on the topic of banishing charms. But at least she had worked up enough courage to commit to a plan: she would do it. She would finally stare her fears in their beautiful face and ask Theo on a date. Only she had no idea when she would get the chance to speak with him alone.
At dinner, Susan fidgeted nervously, pushing a pile of potatoes from one side of her plate to the other. She had made a point to be in all the corridors where she might intercept Theo between classes, but hadn’t seen him alone a single time. Looking up from her plate to glance across at the Slytherin table, she spotted him and immediately regretted it.
Theo was seated among the rest of the Slytherins, laughing and gesturing as he described something hilarious that had happened at the week’s Quidditch practice. Pansy cackled shrilly, Blaise pounded the table so his pumpkin juice glass rattled, Draco smiled in an annoyed sort of way, and Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other stupidly, clearly missing whatever was so funny.
“Finished it just in time,” said Hannah, sitting down across from Susan and blocking her view of the perfect coif of brown hair and emerald-lined robes.
“What’s that?” Susan refocused her eyes on her friend.
Hannah rolled her eyes and held out a phial of orange liquid. “Invigoration draught. You’re lucky I kept the notes from fifth year.”
“Hannah, you legend!” Susan accepted the potion without thinking and in one motion, she had downed it.
“I wasn’t about to let you miss out on this opportunity,” said Hannah, patting her hand gently. “Now get on with it!”
Susan felt a grin spreading across her face and was immediately filled with a sense of determination as the draught took hold. She stood up abruptly, startling a few nearby Hufflepuffs as she did so, and marched over to the Slytherin table. As she approached, a few of the surrounding students looked up, but Theo was so lost in the hilarity of his own joke that he didn’t even notice her.
“Hey, Theo,” said Susan, her voice sounding more brave than she felt.
Now his eyes really were on her and he straightened up, smiling in a bemused sort of way.
“What do you want, Bones?” he asked. A few of the surrounding Slytherins snickered. Pansy leaned over to whisper something to Draco, who looked disinterested.
Despite the invigoration draught, Susan could feel a knot forming in her stomach.
“I was wondering if you’d want to go with me to the Hogsmeade party this weekend?” From farther down the table, she could sense the blonde head of Daphne Greengrass turning in their direction as the surrounding housemates took notice of the strange interaction. “That is, if you’re not going with anyone.”
“And what makes you think I’m not going with anyone?” Theo arched one eyebrow defiantly. Damn, why hadn’t Hannah made a stronger potion?
“Only that I heard Daphne was going with Justin.”
“Is she now?” said Theo, a smile spreading on his face like a fox as he glanced her way down the table. Blaise chuckled at something Pansy said under her breath, as the eyes of about a dozen Slytherins were trained on Susan. “And what makes you think I would go with you instead?”
Susan opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Where the hell was this draught when she needed it? She clenched her fists at her sides as Theo looked around jokingly at the others, and a few of them burst into laughter.
She was about to walk away, or perhaps implode, when a voice from the Slytherin table said, “Forget him. Go with me instead.”
For a moment, Susan didn’t believe her eyes. It had seemed like the words that were just spoken had come from Draco Malfoy.
But when she blinked, he was still there, staring at her calmly while Theo was bent double, laughing, and Pansy swatted him on the arm.
“Don’t be cruel, can’t you see the poor girl is already going to have to obliviate herself after getting turned down?” said Pansy, with an unnerving amount of mirth in her voice. Susan wished she had paid attention to Flitwick’s lesson on banishing charms after all.
“Give us a break, mate, I’m dying over here,” said Blaise through bouts of laughter.
Even Crabbe and Goyle guffawed stupidly, though whether they knew what was actually funny was anyone’s guess.
“I’m serious.” Draco straightened up and folded his arms on the table, holding Susan in his steady gaze. “Theo’s a prick. You’ll have more fun with me.”
Susan hardly knew what to say. If it was a joke, she’d look like a right idiot for indulging him, but if he was serious, she definitely didn’t want to step farther into the snake pit than she already was. And there was something about his eyes, the conviction with which he said it, that made her feel like there was something more to the request.
“Well, I…” she began. Her eyes darted to Theo, who looked incredulous. “Suppose.”
“Great, glad that’s settled,” said Draco, ignoring Pansy’s tugging at his sleeve. “I’ll meet you in the great hall at five and walk you down.”
“Alright,” Susan found herself agreeing.
“What?” sputtered Theo, leaning over the table to look his friend in the eye. “Mate, it’s Susan Bones. She’s nobody.”
Susan wasn’t sure whether it was the potion or something deep inside her that snapped at these words, but whatever it was she whipped her wand out of her pocket, aimed it at Theo, and cast the strongest stinging jinx she had ever mustered in her life.
The spell hit him so hard in the shoulder it sent him toppling backwards off the bench and Pansy shrieked.
Blaise merely laughed harder. “You deserved that one, Nott!”
Draco looked at her approvingly and cracked the hint of a grin.
“See you at five,” she said.
“You look great, honestly,” said Hannah as she and Susan raced down the corridor from the Hufflepuff dorms at 5:15pm on Saturday.
“It doesn’t matter really,” Susan lied to herself openly. “It’s not like I actually expect Draco Malfoy to be waiting for me. I should probably just stay in and save myself the humiliation of being stood up by two Slytherins in less than 24 hours.”
“That’s enough of that.” Hannah shoved her friend gently as they wheeled around a corner towards the main stairs. “He’s right. Theo is a twat for treating you like that. People may talk badly about Draco, but I think it was gentlemanly of him to ask you.”
“Don’t give him too much credit,” said Susan, nearly out of breath as they began clambering up the twisting staircase. She knew she shouldn’t have worn shoes with a heel. Even if she’d let herself get caught up daydreaming as she got ready. “It’s probably all part of some bigger joke. For all we know they could be–”
As they turned the final corner of the stairs, however, a familiar blond head at the top turned to glance at them. Susan stopped in her tracks.
“You were saying?” Hannah whispered in her ear as she trundled past her up the stairs.
Hannah was quick to peel off with Terry and head towards the Hogsmeade road, before Susan even knew what she was doing. Draco Malfoy was waiting on his own, dressed in a fine black jumper and trousers under his school cloak. He looked dashing, albeit slightly cross.
“Are you always this late?” he asked as she came to a stop in front of him.
“Sorry, I wasn’t sure if you’d really meant it.”
“I always mean what I say. Don’t you?”
“Er yeah. For the most part,” said Susan, suddenly wishing she had asked Hannah to make her another invigoration draught for the evening. “Unless I’m lying.”
To her surprise, Draco’s austere features broke into a grin and he actually laughed under his breath. He really was rather beautiful when he smiled.
At that moment, a pack of Gryffindors clamoured by, decked in red and gold scarves and merrily singing the refrain of some Celestina Warbeck song led by Seamus, conducting with broad sweeps of his arms. As quickly as it had appeared, Draco’s smile vanished.
“A snake on its own? How unusual,” jeered Ron as they passed.
“A weasel in a pack? How predictable,” drawled Draco, his back growing rigid.
Ron’s face twisted into a frown and he was about to lunge for Draco despite Hermione tugging at his elbow, when Harry put a hand on his chest. “Leave it. Let’s not spoil the night this early.”
“No need to be sanctimonious, Potter,” said Draco, taking a step towards the group. “Let Weasley fight his own battles for once.”
“It’s not a battle, Malfoy,” retorted Harry in an instant, drawing himself up to his full height to stare Draco in the face. Now Hermione was tugging at his elbow as well. “It’s a party. Everyone’s letting house rivalries rest. Let’s just be decent for one night and pick things up as usual tomorrow, alright?”
“Not sure what you’re implying,” said Draco, leaning in to use his few inches of height over Harry to his advantage. “Seems to me you Gryffindors are the ones who always travel in packs. Maybe you should take your own advice for a change.”
“Yeah and you Slytherins are any better?” called Ron from over Harry’s shoulder, oblivious to the crackle of magical tension between the two.
Susan thought she might have to fire up another stinging jinx, when Draco suddenly stepped back and draped an arm around her shoulder.
“Now do you really want the answer to that question, Weasley?” he said, a smile playing on the corner of his lips. Despite the realisation that she was a prop in the matter, she could feel the tinge of a flush creep onto her cheeks at being pressed against a sturdy chest.
“Unbelievable.” Harry’s eyes darted to Susan and back to Draco as the pack of Gryffindors started finally moving towards the door at Hermione’s urging. “I don’t know what you see in him, Susan.”
Susan started stuttering out a reply, when Draco called after the group, “Now who’s picking fights, Potter?”
Harry made a move to turn back, but both Ron and Hermione had hooked an arm under one of his and they determinately dragged him out of the castle and out onto the grounds.
Merlin. They hadn’t even made it to Hogsmeade yet and already she’d found herself in the middle of one of the most deep-seated rivalries in the school. Goyle was looking like the better option right about now.
“Insufferable. Who does he think he is?” said Draco in a huff, taking a few steps away to glare after them.
“You know what? Maybe we should just go on our own after all,” started Susan.
Draco wheeled back around on her. “Why? Is it what Potter said? I’ll hex him into next Tuesday for you, if that’s what you want.”
A funny feeling tugged at the back of Susan’s mind. She knew Draco and Harry had been obsessed with each other for as long as they’d all been going to school together, but she’d never witnessed it up close. More often than not, she just steered clear of any instance when the two would be together, and knew to never to sit in between their line of sight in the Great Hall, lest she wanted daggers stared at her from both ends all evening.
But up close, this had the feeling of something else. Something that reminded her of how she used to be about Theo.
“No, let’s not do that,” said Susan calmly, walking past Draco towards the castle doors. “Let’s just get to the Three Broomsticks and have a drink. And then maybe this will all be funny to us by then.”
At that, Draco seemed to catch himself and rearranged his features into a practised neutral, following her out onto the grounds where they started walking in silence down to the town.
As they walked, Susan mulled over an escape plan. Once they got to the pub, the Slytherins would surely see them together and then she’d be mocked all over again from the other side. Hopefully, they could avoid the Gryffindors altogether lest things come to blows. Her only hope for getting out of the evening as painlessly as possible was to melt into the crowd as soon as she was able and find somewhere quiet to spend the night in peace.
She glanced up at Draco, whose eyes were trained on the road ahead, a slight crease between his brow. With his lips pressed tight and a slow curl of steam rising into the night sky with each measured breath, he had the distinct look of someone who had a lot on his mind.
It wouldn’t be easy, surely, living his life with all the pressures of family and status to uphold. Not to mention the landmine of social pressures when your friends were a group of backstabbing ladder-climbers. And though he played into the role, he’d been painted as a school bully for so long that Susan had forgotten the last time she’d actually seen him do anything to live up to the name. In fact, if he was such the villain that so many thought him to be, why were they even walking together now?
“So, did you really invite me just to stick it to Harry and his friends?” Susan ventured at last, breaking the silence of their walk. “The whole pity date for a Hufflepuff is a weak move, you know. It’s been done.”
“What? No, of course not,” said Draco, focus coming back into his eyes as he glanced down at her. “I’m not one for cheap ploys.”
“Why then?” she insisted, uncharacteristically brazen. If she didn’t know better, she might have thought Hannah had spiked her pumpkin juice with more invigoration draught. But the truth was, she genuinely wanted to know.
“Because I could see where it was all going. And Theo really is an arse,” he said with a sigh.
“Where what was going?”
“Come on, Bones. Everyone knows you’ve been obsessed with him for years. Where did you think it was going?” Draco arched an eyebrow in her direction.
Susan shrugged.
“Right. Hufflepuffs. Always so trusting,” said Draco, refocusing on the road ahead. “Look, Theo might have gone with you in the end. He might have even turned on the charm, made you believe you had a chance with him. But whatever’s going on between him and Daphne, it’s poison. All you would have been is a pawn in their twisted little game, and when he was through with his use for you, he would have tossed you aside. I’ve seen him do it before.”
The surrounding air seemed colder after this revelation and for a moment, the only sound was the gravel crunching underneath their feet. He’d confirmed her worst suspicions, but in her heart of hearts she’d always known them to be true. The fact that it was Draco Malfoy revealing this intimate information about another Slytherin though, was… unexpected.
“That still doesn’t really answer the question,” she said. “You could have let him. Since when do you have a heart?”
“I’m sure I deserve that.” Draco laughed under his breath. A warm sound, breaking up the cold of the night air. “You just seemed so unprepared for it. Didn’t seem like fair play.”
“Right,” said Susan, nodding along. “And who would you have taken if you really had your choice?”
“What does that matter?”
“It’s just a question.”
“Yeah, well, I’m taking you, aren’t I? So it’s a stupid question.”
“Alright then. Here’s a question; what’s one thing you know about me?” snapped Susan, stopping in her tracks and grabbing Draco by the elbow. She’d had enough of a runaround for one night. It was time for some honesty.
He turned to face her with a confused expression dancing across his noble features.
“Besides my name and my house. What’s one thing you actually know about who I am?” she continued, arms crossed.
“How should I know anything about you? We’ve got nothing in common,” said Draco.
“Because we’ve gone to the same school for seven years! Maybe if you bothered to listen for once instead of thinking about yourself, you would actually hear what Harry is trying to tell you.”
That got his attention. He focused on her, the wheels of his brain turning as he tried to think of something.
Susan broke into a laugh. “Merlin’s beard, you really can’t think of anything, can you?”
“Fine, if I had to guess, I’d say you grew up in a cottage somewhere idyllic and quiet. Your family probably had a cat and a dog and plenty of siblings who love playing Quidditch with you because you’re so small you’re probably a fast flyer. And you’ve never really had to think about the war going on outside these walls because at the end of the day, you sleep peacefully and dream about my mate, Theo. How did I do?”
The smirk on his face told Susan that he really thought he’d been able to rattle off her life’s story at the drop of a hat.
“Wow, have you got the Sight?” said Susan, crossing her arms. “Guess I better eat my words then.”
“It’s nothing personal, Bones. You’re just an open book,” said Draco, turning to walk on ahead.
“Except it wasn’t a cat,” called Susan after him. “It was a toad. Named Daisy. That I got for my 7th birthday.”
“Details details,” muttered Draco, walking away.
“And I’m an only child, just like you. I haven’t played Quidditch since the summer I fell off a broom and broke my collarbone,” said Susan, marching after him. “And I didn’t grow up in some shitty cottage. I grew up in a fine house on an estate, just like you. Or didn’t you know that my grandfather was the head of the International Confederation of Wizards for twenty years?”
Draco stopped in his tracks as she approached. She could feel the fury rising in her chest as she wheeled on him.
“Yeah, it’s true! You don’t have to be pureblood to be well off, or is that news to you too?” she continued, jabbing him in the chest with a finger. “And while we’re on the topic of things you don’t know, you probably missed all the articles about the casualties at the hands of the Death Eaters over the past few years. Which included my Uncle Edgar, who was murdered in cold blood last summer. And my Aunt Amelia, who was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.”
“I… I didn’t know,” said Draco, his eyebrows drawing together in a frown.
Susan could feel tears welling in her eyes. “You think you’ve got pressure because you’re the son of a noble? Try being the only daughter of a family who has held positions at the top of the Ministry for decades! On the nights when I’m not plagued by nightmares of dark wizards torturing my family, I stay up knowing that I’ll never be good enough to take their place.”
Darkness had fallen completely as they walked and the air around them now hung with silence. Only the castle on the hill at their backs and the glow of the windows in Hogsmeade town below illuminated them. She hoped he couldn’t see that she was crying.
“You’re right, I had no idea,” said Draco, seeming to be uncharacteristically without a quippy retort. “Maybe we’re more similar than I thought.”
“Hardly,” said Susan, rubbing at her eyes. “I would never ask someone on a date just to stick it to the person I really liked.”
Draco sighed. But he didn’t deny it.
“Look, I promised we’d have a good time together, right?” said Draco, putting an arm around her shoulders and leading her down towards Hogsmeade as the first few buildings loomed ahead. “Fuck the rest of them. If I have to spend one more night playing at inter-house unity when there’s an actual war going on outside, I’ll go mad.”
“Same here,” said Susan, at last feeling her shoulders release a tension she didn’t know she was holding. “What do you suggest?”
“Follow me,” he said, and took her by the hand.
Next thing she realised, Susan was sitting in a leather armchair by the crackling fire of the Hog’s Head. She’d never been in here and she could hardly picture this was a place Draco frequented. Yet the warmth of the fire and the warbling of an old gramophone in the corner held a certain undeniable charm to it.
“Here you go,” said Draco, handing her a bevelled glass mug of mulled wine that smelled of cloves and cinnamon and taking a seat in the chair opposite. He held up his own glass to clink with hers. “To being misunderstood.”
“Hear, hear.” She smiled and clinked her glass to his. She took a sip and felt the warmth of the drink flooding through her. “You know you’re kinder than you make yourself out to be.”
“I trust you’ll keep that to yourself,” said Draco, taking a deep drink of his own glass. “Can’t have it getting out that I have a heart.”
“It would ruin your reputation,” Susan agreed, nodding along sarcastically.
For what it was worth, she was glad not to be two streets over at the Three Broomsticks, where there was probably a raucous party going on, and plenty of drama, and everyone waking up to regrets in the morning. She probably would have wound up chasing Theo around if she hadn’t been told what an arse he really was.
It was funny what a crush could do to a person, she thought as she looked at Draco. His sharp features were softened by the glow of the fire as he started over his glass, lost in thought.
“So tell me about Harry?” she ventured.
She thought she saw a glimmer of nervousness in his eye as he turned to her, but he carefully masked it with his normal, scheming smile. “Where to begin,” he said, before launching into a diatribe of all the many petty slights he had endured at Harry’s hands over the past few years. They carried on for hours, sharing stories and laughing until she had tears running down her face.
If someone had told her she would spend an evening with Draco Malfoy, swapping tales about their crushes, she would have called them mad. Yet here she was doing just that and having one of the best nights of the year. And whatever it was, it was better than the night she would have had with Theo.
Even though it hadn’t been the night she’d planned, it turned out it was just the night she needed.