Chapter 4
Draco was draped lazily over a chair as he watched Lavina focusing on the leaves in the cup in front of her.
"Uhh..." she set the cup down and looked up at him. "How... how has your sleep been?" her brows furrowed in confusion at her own question.
"I'm not here for small talk, Pet." Draco rolled his eyes, muttering through his teeth.
"No-" she scoffed. "The leaves." she motioned to the cup. "They tell me you aren't sleeping and that's going to cause issues." she tilted it to him. "See the clouds? that's trouble. And the two half circles? Thats sleep." she explained, her fingertips gently motioning the different shapes.
"I don't see shit in that cup but a bunch of tea leaves." Draco mumbled. "I think you're even more of a nutter than Trelawney,"
"So..." Lavina leaned back in the chair, gingerly fiddling with the edge of a dish. "What happened last week? The thing with the Church. Was I correct? Or is that top secret Death Eater stuff?" She tilted her head down, looking at him through her lashes. When Draco didn't say anything, she tried a different approach. "You know... I get more accurate readings the more details I have. Or if you ask the leaves specific questions, they're more likely to answer them."
"I'm not speaking to leaves like a patient from St. Mungo's."
Lavina rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Drink a sleeping tonic or something." She stood up from the table. "May I go now?"
Draco responded wordlessly, releasing her with a flick of his hand. Lavina walked through the garden, mindlessly running her hands along the leaves as she passed. When she approached the swaying tentacles of a rather large collection of Flitterbloom she paused, allowing herself to dissociate.
~~
The Slug Club Christmas party was in full swing. Lavina stood with her back against the wall, observing the passersby quietly. It was then that she noticed Neville Longbottom in a servers uniform, carrying around a tray of drinking glasses. She walked over to greet him.
"Hi, Neville." Lavina spoke sweetly, taking a glass from the tray.
"Lavina." Neville smiled meekly. "I-I didn't get into the Slug Club. I-It's okay though-"
"Neville my boy. Bring another round of drinks over here, we're going to make a toast!" Professor Slughorn called from a few feet away.
"I've got to go," Neville turned to rush off.
"Wait, Neville!" She called out. "Will I see you in the library this week? I found a book I'd like to show you."
"Of course, Lavina. I wouldn't miss it. See you!"
"Bye, Neville." Lavina turned to press her back against the wall again but was interrupted by Cormac McClaggen.
" 'Vina," A sleazy smile tugged at the corner of Cormac's lips.
"Nobody calls me that, McClaggen. Least of all you." Lavina rolled her eyes, earning a wide grin from him.
"Well Maybe we can get on a first name basis. Anyways, have you seen Hermione? Slippery little minx, that one." His eyes traveled the length of Lavina's dress. You know, you don't look half bad when you doll up. If things don't go as planned with Granger, perhaps I'll take you for a spin, eh, Rickwood?"
Lavina's lip curled in disgust. This encounter being the last straw that made her decide to leave the party. She slipped out without much notice from anyone, walking under some floating lanterns. She found a secluded area just outside the entrance to the party and turned the corner only to find Draco sitting by himself deep in thought, something he seemed to be doing quite a lot of recently.
"Oh. Sorry to intrude, Draco." she turned to leave.
"Slug Club? Horrace handpicked you as one of his little pets, eh?" Draco replied, causing Lavina to turn back to him.
"Yes. The guest list was full of brown-nosers and try-hards." Lavina sighed. "Still, I would've thought you'd have been invited, on account of your passion for potions. And not to mention your last name. Anyways... What are you doing out here?" Lavina questioned. Draco chuckled in response to her comment about the party guests but his brows quickly knit back together. "What's wrong?" She sat down next to him. The music from the party was slightly audible, providing the perfect ambient for a quiet conversation. "You're going to give yourself wrinkles," she reached up and smoothed out the skin between his brows.
"Nothing." Draco responded. "Just trying to figure out this thing I have to do." He paused, opening his mouth to add to his thought but decided against it, shutting his mouth. He didn't want to say that he was stressed about killing Dumbledore. And he really didn't want to say that he had already tried and failed once. She could sense that there was something much deeper that he didn't want to say. Instead of pressing further, she decided to try to get his mind off it.
"That's a really nice suit you've got on." Lavina spoke gently.
"My father took me to Italy to have some made." Draco responded absently, still mulling over whatever was bothering him.
"Draco." Lavina's voice was soft, trying to pull him from his mind. "Whatever it is you're worried about, is it something you can fix overnight?"
"If I make the right choice."
"Is it something that will still be an issue tomorrow if you ignore it for a night?"
"Unfortunately."
"Let yourself just be a boy for a night then. You are just a boy, aren't you? Make choices that aren't going to matter in the long-run. Do something stupid that wont have lasting consequences." She paused, allowing herself the courage to ask the next question. "Do you want to be my date to the Christmas party?" She asked, rising to her feet and standing in front of him. Her words seemed to reach him, his expression changing as if he was starting to see her in a different light.
"Let's sneak you in." she held her hand out to him. Draco raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Lets gatecrash."
"You? Breaking the rules?" a smirk pulled on the corner of Draco's mouth, as he stood up, towering above her. "I've got to see this," he took her hand, allowing her to pull him towards the party.
~~
Draco's voice pulled her from her thoughts.
"When I was younger I was terrified of this plant. My mother told me how dangerous Devils Snare is." he spoke gently. "But she used to tell me that this one knew I was special and that it would never hurt me." He held back a reminiscent chuckle. "I felt like a right fool to believe her for so long when I found out in herbology that Devils snare-"
"Devils snare can't stand sunlight." Lavina finished his sentence and pulled her gaze from the rhythmic movement of the plant. "This is Flitterbloom. Its actually often mistaken for Devils Snare, they're really similar-" she paused realizing she had interrupted him. She grimaced and forced herself to meet his gaze.
"Yes." Draco watched her intently. "Flitterbloom."
Lavina swallowed, turning her attention back to the plants in front of her. "I don't know if I told you before but I think your mother's garden is really beautiful."
"You did. You did mention that before," Draco muttered. "said she had good taste or something like that,"
"She did. Not just in material things like clothes, hair and interior decoration, but I mean wow. This isn't just beautiful to look at, this is Dittany. From Crete."
Draco's blank expression exposed his lack of knowledge on the subject.
"Have you seen what essence of Dittany does to a wound? I mean-" she pulled a leaf from the plant and sniffed it. "I bet essence from this plant could double the growth rate of new flesh over an open wound. This garden is a healer's dream."
Draco's expression elongated with boredom. "You're starting to sound like that fumbling Longbottom. That fool never shut up about plants."
"I really liked Neville." Lavina responded. "He and I used to study together."
Draco looked at her like she had just said the most egregious thing. "You're joking."
"No. I'm serious. Sweet guy. He was really talented in Herbology." Lavina answered curtly. "We were good friends."
Draco didn't like the feeling that grew in his gut at the mention of another man from Lavina's lips. "I don't want to talk about Longbottom anymore and I don't want to talk about plants anymore. I came to ask you something."
"Okay," she turned her gaze back to him, waiting for him to finish his thought.
As if it was taking a great deal of pride to ask this, Draco took a deep breath before speaking. "You were right the other day about the attack on a church. We used to keep our injured from the battles and skirmishes at this Church. The Order planned an attack by disguising one of their own injured as one of ours. I got there just in time, managed to get most of our people out, but we will have to rebuild most of our supplies." he explained. "So can you keep getting accurate readings like that?"
Lavina's brow twitched with empathy at the mention of injured people. Her heart squeezed but she remembered that those people were injured fighting for Voldemort.
"Your efforts wont go unrewarded. I spoke to the Dark Lord, told him that you guessed an attack correctly, and while he still wants to try to get you to force visions or premonitions, he would like me to work with you to use other Divination methods to guess The Order's next move."
"Draco-"
"Am I interrupting Something?" A familiar voice spoke from a few feet behind them. Both Draco and Lavina turned around to reveal Astoria Greengrass. Astoria seemed to be equally as shocked as Lavina to see her there. Astoria, however quickly recovered from her shock. "Draco darling," she held her hand out which Draco ignored. In return, Astoria ignored Lavina. "Did you forget, my darling? We were supposed to go cake tasting today."
"Tori, I do not have time for wedding nonsense. Just pick whatever you like," Draco answered with an exhausted sigh. "I'm busy today."
"But darling-"
"I said I do not have time for this Astoria." Draco warned, earning a glare from Astoria. Lavina felt as if she was intruding on a private conversation. She stood there, staring at the ground and wishing it would open up and swallow her whole.
Astoria glanced quickly over to Lavina before she stepped closer to Draco, reaching up to adjust his tie. "So devoted to the Dark Lord. I'm counting down the days until you'll be just as devoted to me." She gave Lavina another glare before walking off.
Lavina decided not to speak about the conversation that just transpired, as she had a gnawing in her gut that she did not like. Why did seeing Astoria bother her so much? She was able to get over the end of their friendship rather quickly in school, she thought. So why did it bother her to see her standing so close to Draco? It was just two people she didn't not like. That's what she told herself.
~~
After avoiding Lavina for a week, Draco could no longer stand the fact that he was thinking of her often. Draco found himself wandering to her wing of the manor. He spent a few hours every day in the drawing room of that, drinking, smoking, reading, but least of all, sleeping; wasting time all in an effort to see Lavina by chance. This was something he didn't want to admit to himself, simply coming to the conclusion that if he really did want to see her, he could simply go to her room. But that was one thing he couldn't bring himself to do.
He hoped she was enjoying the books he would leave for her. He didn't know why he felt such shame and embarrassment after Lavina witnessed his conversation with his fiance. It wasn't a secret, him and Astoria. In fact, they've been betrothed for years. Even before their graduation from Hogwarts, all of Pureblood society knew those two had been arranged. So Draco didn't know why he couldn't bring himself to face Lavina. Perhaps it was the fact that he still couldn't understand why his stomach dropped at the mention of Neville Longbottom from Lavina's lips. He wondered if that's how Lavina felt when she saw him with Astoria. Draco shook his head, that was impossible. She hated him. There was no way Lavina would be jealous of Astoria over him. He felt foolish for having that thought.
Still, Draco couldn't stop his thoughts from being pulled towards Lavina. He thought often of how much Lavina still resembled her younger self. Draco toiled internally over the girl he kept in his house. He had so many things he wanted to ask her. He wondered if they would ever speak about their time together in Hogwarts. He wondered if she remembered the night they spent together after Professor Slughorns Christmas party. He wondered if she thought about it as often as he did. Probably not. She hated him, he thought. She was his prisoner and he was her warden. There was absolutely no way Lavina shared the growing feelings that he did.
~~
Later on in the week, Lavina would see Astoria repeatedly walking through the grounds. Though Lavina had been given a bit more freedom to walk amongst her wing of the house, she stayed in her room almost as much as before in an effort to avoid Astoria. She hated the twinge in her chest when she would see Astoria from her window. She hated the pooling in her gut every time she pictured Astoria's hands on Draco's tie.
She hated her. She hated them both. She especially hated Draco for everything he'd done. In an effort to restore the waning hate in her heart, Lavina resorted to making lists of things she hated about Draco. She hated the face he made when he was bored. She hated his icy glare. She hated his disregard for those the viewed as lesser than him. She hated his entitled attitude, she hated his friends and she hated his devotion to the Dark Lord. She hated how he called her his pet, how he screamed at her like her father had, how he didn't seem to care about her boundaries, or anyone else's for that matter. She hated how warm his hands were when they'd accidentally brush hers. How was he always so warm when she was always so damn cold? She hated the fact that lately when she would be falling asleep, she couldn't stop her mind from drifting away to the kiss they'd shared after Slughorn's Christmas party. She really hated that he was always so rough with her.
But he was gentle too. He was gentle when he noticed the scar on her chin, he was gentle when he carried her to bed that one time and he was gentle when he helped her out of the tub after screaming at her. He brought her books often and when he realized she was always cold, he had five new blankets delivered to her room along with having the elves clean out the fireplace and tasked them with keeping it going day and night. She hated the way he seemed so concerned after witnessing her anxiety attack in the tub. She hated the way he only used her name when he was trying to get her to listen. She hated the way that she was starting to like the way it sounded coming from his lips. His lips. She hated the way she couldn't pull her gaze from them when he would stand too close. She hated that he always stood too close. Lavina recalled the scent of cedarwood and lavender that invaded her nostrils when he was near. And most of all, she absolutely hated that when he stood too close, she secretly wished he would stand a bit closer.