The Malfoy Project

𝟒𝟐 - 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

     "He's manipulating you, you know?"

     Ernie is standing by the entrance of the Hospital Wing, bundled head-to-toe in knits and wool, hair ruffled by the winter raging outside.

     My emotions run wild — at the fact he is talking to me, what he had said, and the uncertainty of how to respond. So I do the next best thing I know: scramble to put my walls back up. "Oh, you're talking to me now?" I say icily and carry on my way.

     He chases after me. "You can't marry him." I keep my head down so he won't see my burning eyes and sore head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

     "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Ains— AINS!" He grips my shoulder and swivels me around, bringing me face to face with his freckled nose. "You can't marry him."

     "And why ever not?" I shoot back. "I don't know who you think you are but you can't just ignore me for months, then be all up in my face the next day telling me who I can and cannot marry!" I knock his arms away, turn back around, and stride away.

      "I'd like to think I'm your friend."

      My shoes squeak against the floor. "My friend?" I pivot on my heels and march back angrily, my previous despair burgeoning into an insatiable rage. "Wow, Ernie, guess it took you only three months to finally grow a pair. And they must be made of steel because honestly, the audacity to even call yourself that to my face! After ditching me just because of a bunch of lies some newspaper printed, which, by the way, are completely untrue! Okay, not completely— but that's not the point! The point is how dare you, Ernie! How dare you. I'd expect this from Hermione, Sue Li, maybe. But not Hannah, not Susan, and most certainly not you!"

     He lets out a breath and his eyelids slide halfway down, as if he'd expected this. "Yeah, alright, I was an idiot, okay? I should've said something, or at least asked you, but come on, Ains— you did lie to us."

     "Because I was told to, you— you— pillock!" I screech in infuriation. "Rita told me I wasn't to tell anybody. You and everybody else from the Digest would've done the same. But whatever, because now I'm already screwed over, alright? So if you're here to take a massive dump all over me, I'm sorry but you'll have to get in line."

     His face scrunches in confusion. I roll my eyes and throw my hands up in the air. "Ugh, never mind! You wouldn't understand anyway."

     "Then help me!"

     "Help you! Why should I, when you've done absolutely fuck-all this entire time?"

     "D'you know what, maybe if you haven't been so busy making goo-goo eyes at your Slytherin hunk you might've noticed that I've actually been trying to talk to you!"

     "Oh!" I laugh sarcastically. "Oh, so it's my fault now? You're a terrible friend because I'm too busy looking at my own boyfriend?"

     "I wasn't talking about him! Ainsley, Montague—"

     "—was right about all of you from the very beginning," I cut in. "He's told me from the very start that I can't trust any of you and I didn't listen. But he was right, wasn't he? He's been right the whole time. The very moment you saw what was in those papers you believed it and never thought to come and ask me."

     "And you never thought to come and tell us."

     "How could I? Hannah refuses to speak to me and Susan can't even look me in the bloody eyes even though her bed is right next to mine!"