ELEVEN | BEING SOMEONES GIRLFRIEND

          BEING SOMEONES ACTUAL GIRLFRIEND VERSUS BEING SOMEONES SUMMER FLING WAS DEFINITELY AN ADJUSTMENT. Seline Winchester was used to kissing boys at parties and calling them on the phone for a few weeks until she got bored of the attention they gave her. Being someone's girlfriend had an entirely different set of parameters she needed to follow. Now, she couldn't go home and flirt with Dudley over the break or wink at boys in Tesco anymore. She was officially someone's property now (Wayne had told her that he hated sharing and she better be prepared to be in this for the long haul). Easy enough, she supposed. Pretty reasonable, she guessed.

Officially being someone's girlfriend also meant that people were bound to be talking about them—more then usual (and boy did people talk). On Tuesday morning they strolled into the great hall, hand-in-hand and she could feel the whispers. She'd done her hair up into an extra tight, slicked back high pony tail to make herself seem more put together and in control. Not a single hair stuck up. 

The sun rose on Hogwarts, as it did everyday (regardless of the shit weather that plagued the grounds five out of seven days of the week) and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Perfect weather to watch Harry Potter make an embarrassment of himself in front of the entire school. She'd hoped that it being the day of the first task meant that people had bigger things to be gossiping about but alas, her hand holding with Wayne Hopkins had people leaning over and whispering into their ears of whoever they were sat by. Some of the older Slytherins turned their nose up at them. (It was one thing to be friends with a mudblood but another to be canoodling with one. . . !)

Wayne, as gentlemanly as he was, brushed off the chair for her before guiding her down. His hand never left her lower back as he slipped into the bench beside her. A part of her wanted to snap at him and remind him that she was more then capable but another liked being fussed over. Her father never went to that kind of effort for her mother.

Seline looked up to see Nicolette and Astoria in front of her—so much for a good morning. "This is. . ." Nicolette pointed between the pair, eyebrows knotted together. Her hair was done up in tight space-buns and she had two black smudges of face paint across her cheeks (the closest anyone in Slytherin would get to wearing Hufflepuff colours).

"None of your business?" Seline suggested, a cool edge to her voice as she picked up the jug of orange juice.

Nicolette rolled her eyes just as Pansy filled the empty space beside Seline. "Just saw Potter get taken down, he's white as a ghost," she said excitedly. "I can't wait to see what they've got in store for that git." Pansy had been asleep when Seline slunk out of the dorms, it'd been a bit awkward since their double date and Seline was hoping to ignore it until it went away.

"Maybe they'll get him to fight a giant?" Seline pondered, putting the goblet to her mouth. The thought of watching Harry Potter, who'd not even hit his growth spurt yet, fighting a giant filled her with joy. Potter, who only knew one spell, trying to take down something so gigantic would be just the entertainment she needed.

Wayne placed a hand on her knee. "I think there's laws against that nowadays," he said, sounding sad about giant rights being protected.

"I'll even take Hagrid," the brunette joked.

"Please, that oafs basically in love with Potter," came the ringing voice of Draco Malfoy. He'd sat down beside Pansy at some point in the conversation. He seemed to be in a very cheerful mood—who could blame him? His mortal enemy was about to get humiliated in front of the entire school, government officials, Durmstrang students and hot French people. "He'd probably kill himself before purposely harming a hair of precious Potters head."

Seline scoffed. "Do wizards even have child protection laws against teacher-student relationships?" She paused, waiting for someone to at least snort at her joke.

Draco looked at her blankly. "I don't even know what that means," he replied, scrunching his nose up at her as if realising who he'd been talking to.

Seline looked around for someone who would understand her joke but she was met with a sea of pureblood blank stares. Her shoulders sagged. Sometimes being the only muggle-born in her cohort was lonely. No one had the same experiences as her. All her childhood references went over their heads and she often found herself explaining the most basic concepts to deaf ears. (Astoria hadn't even known who Michael Jackson is!)

She picked at her food as the conversations continued around her. Wayne and Blaise were debating on what the task could be while Pansy and Millicent were discussing if they could borrow Hufflepuff scarves from someone to show their support (they eventually decided yellow wasn't their colour). No one seemed to notice she was being quiet.

Across the great hall, she saw Denika huddled with Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger, it was like the trio of people that annoyed her most. Put her in a room with them three and no one was making it out alive. Her eyes lingered on her younger sister, the brunette was biting her lip worriedly as Hermione seemed to be speaking at a rapid pace. Before she could catch her sisters eye, the trio got up and stalked out of the great hall. Gryffindor loved to act like the rules didn't apply to them—they were clearly instructed not to go down until they were told.

Soon enough, however, the heads of houses had begun ushering their respective students down to the quidditch grand stands. There was a vapid buzz amongst the students as they filed behind their teachers. Wayne held her hand tightly as to not let her get lost in the crowd. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle were all walking behind them and the latter two kept stepping on the back of Wayne's sneakers. Seline looked back at them to see Draco grinning ear-to-ear and nudging them to do it again, however, the smirk slid right off his face when he saw her unimpressed glare. Wayne muttered something under his breath to her about them creasing the shoes.

Stairs had to be Selines mortal enemy (closely followed by enchanted stairs). She hated the acts of climbing them, it always felt endless. She could see the light atop the grandstand stairs slowly expanding with every stride and she wanted to cheer when she finally made it to the top. Wayne pulled her along until they sat in the second row of the Slytherin green coloured stands. The Durmstrang students had already claimed the front row (which was annoying because most of them were tall).

Making a clicking noise at the back of his throat, Draco sat down next to her. Seline turned to glare at him again. "Seriously? You couldn't sit anywhere else?" She looked the blonde boy up and down.

Draco looked around dramatically, waving his arms for emphasis. "Can you see any other seats, Winchester?"

Seline looked past him and all the gaps being filled by the influx of students that didn't seem to be stopping and huffed, annoyed. She crossed her arms across her chest and leant into Wayne. Draco watched her for a moment, eyeing the way Wayne's hand kept snaking up and down her leg. Did he have no class? They were in public. If Draco were dating someone, there would be much more civilised PDA then the kind Hopkins was so insistent on. He acted like he needed to mark his territory constantly, like a dog and fire hydrant.

"Excuse me, coming through, thank you!" Draco looked down the row to see Pansy Parkinson pushing her way towards them and he sighed internally. He didn't feel like having Pansy shoved in between him and Seline—especially after the earful shed given him proceeding their date. According to Pansy he'd paid more attention to Seline then her which was absolutely ridiculous. He'd rather be caught dead then giving that muggle any attention. She was making a big deal out of nothing.

A whistle went off somewhere from the commentators box and Pansy was forced into a random seat by those around her. She sent him a pleading look that he pretended not to see. He know she was not going to be happy about him sitting by Seline and not her (like it was his choice!).

Ludo Bagman had begun shouting through the microphone about todays challenge. Dragons. The champions were to fight against dragons to secure one of the beasts golden eggs. It was quite simple—if your name wasn't Harry Potter and you knew more then two spells. Draco imagined himself fighting a dragon, the corner of his eye catching Selines side profile. He wondered what she'd say about him beating a dragon. He imagined the roar of the crowd screaming his name. He's sure he could break some sort of record for how fast her defeat the beast.

While he was busy daydreaming, Cedric Diggory was brought out and everyone cheered for the Hufflepuff—Hogwarts' real champion. A Swedish Short Snout with blue scales was let out of its cage and it let out a ferocious roar as it stomped towards the young wizard. Not even shaking, Cedric stood his ground and stared the beast down. Draco isn't sure he'd be that brave.

Beside him, Seline leant forward in her seat and squinted to see the face off below. God, she wished the grandstands weren't so high above the action. Her heart lurched as the overgrown lizard coughed fire at him. As Cedric fought gallantly, the crowd 'ooed and ahed" at every sudden movement or flick of the wand.

Yeah, Draco could do that. Easy.

NO ONE EXPECTED HARRY POTTER TO HAVE ANY CHANCE IN THAT FIGHT. Seline watched with a sour look on her face as he was taken to the med bay, golden egg in hand. Surely summoning a broom had to be against some sort of code of ethics? She hoped they docked points off him for that. He was the most boring competitor. She looked over at the Gryffindor stands that had still yet to quieten down. The egotistical students flourished the lion flag through the roaring windows and Seline imagined it catching fire (sadly wand-less magic wasn't her speciality).

"That was a load of rubbish," Draco huffed, looking for someone to validate him. His cheeks had turned pink again his pale skin thanks to the wind.

Wayne shrugged. "It was a clever play from Potter, I'll admit."

Seline shot him a bewildered look. "Did you just use Potter and clever in the same sentence?" She looked at Draco, as if for confirmation that her boyfriend had gone mad. Draco looked just as shocked as she did.

"I can't say I would've been able to think of something like that," Wayne continued. "He played to his skills, can't fault him for that." Wayne reached for Seline's hand but she pulled away.

Seline crossed her arms. "I didn't even know Potter knew how to do a summoning spell," she mumbled, searching the crowd for her sister.

There she was, in the middle of the madness with her face painted red and gold. Her hands were cupped to the sides of her mouth and she was cheering along with the rest of them. Seline often wondered how two people raised in the exact same environment could turn out so differently. Sometimes she was jealous of Denika and her un-marred, bright eyed gaze at the world around them. Seline had long since become jaded.

Draco snorted. "Neither."

Crabbe and Goyle made comments but the crowd was too loud for Seline to hear them. She did, however, feel Draco vibrate in laughter beside her.

Potter emerged once again—this time with a whole entourage (who let Granger and Weasley down there?). She least forward once again to see what the judges would rate him. Currently Viktor Krum was in the lead. Madam Maxine—eight, Barty Crouch—nine, Dumbledore—nine (bias prick), Ludo Bagman—ten (what was Potter paying him, all his commentary was very bias as well) and finally, Karkaroff—four (the only one with eyes, clearly). That meant Harry Potter and Viktor Krum were tied for first place. What a joke.

Soon enough the crowd dispersed and they followed behind Draco back towards the castle. Pansy pushed her way against the sea of people until she was at his side again. "Rubbish, that was," she said to Seline, looking over her shoulder as she interlocked her arms with a stiff looking Draco.

"Can't believe Potters tied for first," Seline grumbled. "I'll feel scammed if he somehow wins the bloody competition." She tightened her scarf around her neck to hide her face from the wind.

Wayne shook his head. "You can't fault talent." The other four looked at him, annoyed and he raised a hand in surrender.

The sun had properly set by the time they got inside the cobblestone turrets,the task having spanned the entire day (not that Seline was complaining, it meant their lessons had been cancelled for the day). The crowd of Slytherins followed the enchanted candlelight down to the dungeon-dormitories. Any muggle school would definitely have some sort of audit from the education department about students sleeping in the dungeons but alas, this was Hogwarts. There was a steady chatter following them all the way inside—student excitedly recounting their favourite parts and what they think the competitors should've been scored. There was nearly a unanimous decision that Harry Potter did not deserve nines and tens.

Seline flopped onto one of the many satin couches and Wayne followed closely, laying his head face-down in her crossed legs. Theodore Nott, having caught up with them, squeezed in the end of the couch and was working on tying Wayne's shoelaces together. He held his fingers to his lips, pleading with Seline not to tell him. She squinted at him for a moment before grinning and turning a blind eye. Draco sat down on the couch across from them, with Crabbe and Goyle flanking either side of him like the cringe body guards they thought they were. Pansy sat on the floor between Draco's legs with Millicent beside her while Daphne laid across one of the arm chairs, legs hanging off the armrests. Blaise sat on the other arm chair across from her.

Seline looked around at the friend group she'd somehow found herself assimilated in and could help but smile to herself. If you'd asked Seline at the end of third year if she'd be here, boyfriend on her lap and best friends with Pansy Parkinson, she'd think she was on an episode of Punk'd. She took it all in as they spoke amongst themselves animatedly. She hoped it'd stay like this forever.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Nicolette and Astoria slip through the common rooms and down to the dorms. Their heads were down and she could've swore they were holding hands—maximum efficiency when navigating crowds. A pit formed in her stomach. She'd not really allowed herself much time to really think about or process what happened with them. She felt Wayne stretch on her lap and she decided now wasn't the time she was gonna think about it either.

🌸 KARLA YAPS ! 🌸

so this chapter felt like utter filler but i feel like it built up a lot of things we need for later so it's not entirely useless!! besides, the next chapter should be fairly long because i wanna fit all the yule ball stuff into one chapter.

i'm hoping we can wrap up act one in like maybe 5 more chapters? i've literally been writing act one for over four years now, i need to finish it lmao.

i really miss my girls being friends ong

@QUICKSILVRS | 2024