The Project
1991-First Year
Elizabeth didn’t go back to the kitchens after the ordeal for a while. She didn’t talk to Malfoy after it either and he didn’t talk to her. She guessed he would rather forget about their small encounter as much as she did. She really didn’t want to get caught for being out past curfew and she guessed it was the same for him.
The only time she saw him was during class and him and his group of friends who honestly looked more like his followers, would torment other students. They often called muggleborns ‘Mudbloods’ and half-bloods ‘Half-breeds.’ The names were mean, but her friends tried to steer clear of them.
Professor Snape had given them back their papers expressing disappointment in no one getting an O on any of the work they had given in. Elizabeth was rather confused by it. She looked at her paper and she had gotten an E, but with no other marks on it. Erin however had an A with plenty written on it. Most of them were things she forgot to write about.
She had told her friends to go on ahead and she went up to the professor after the class to ask about it. He simply said to be happy with the grade and that he rarely gave an O. He left for his office in an adjacent room without another word.
Other classes started asking for homework. Some were long and others short, but most do the next week. That meant Elizabeth wanted to get them done as soon as possible instead of waiting till the weekend. She had certain plans with a house elf on Sunday.
Thursday afternoon, the girls had History of Magic with the Slytherins in which Professor Binns was announcing their mid-year project. One that was to be finished before winter break.
“It will be in assigned pairs and you must schedule a time with your partner to work on it.”
There was a collective groan.
“No time in class will be given. The names will appear on the board. Find your partner and exchange schedules. Please pick a subject for next class as I will have to approve it. That will be all for today.”
The ghost got up from his chair and walked to his office as the names started to show up.
Erin had been paired with one of the boys from their own house luckily. Luna was with a boy named Theodore from Slytherin. He seemed rather shy, and not overly mean like his other peers. Elizabeth looked for her own name and, unsurprisingly, she was paired with Malfoy.
“Of course, it had to be him. At least it wasn’t Parkinson. That witch would probably not do any of the work and curse me the whole time,” she thought.
She looked over at him and he was already staring back at her with a small fire behind his eyes. He saw her looking back and he seemed to make a decision. He grabbed his things and marched over to where the Professor had wandered to, seeming dead set on getting a new partner. When he came back, even more furious than before, he stood in front of her and grabbed a piece of parchment and started scribbling.
“This is the only time I am free. I do not want to speak to you outside of this time and place. Got it. Good,” said Malfoy, not leaving much space for discussion. He left quickly with his two lackeys, Crabbe and Goyle, following behind.
On the paper, in impeccable handwriting, was:
Tuesday 7pm. Library.
Nothing else. Just date and time. However, there was one thing wrong with that time. How could they choose a subject when their next class was Tuesday morning?
“That sucks. You got paired with Malfoy,” Erin joined her side.
“Oui and he’s already decided when to meet.”
“But class is-”
“Yeah. Don’t know how I’m going to approach him. Is walking up to him at dinner a bad idea? Feels like a bad idea.”
“Bad idea.”
“Probably…”
…
At dinner, Elizabeth had a knot in her stomach. She kept procrastinating going up to him to ask.
“Go. Go. Go. Go…now,” she kept repeating to herself, but she could not will her legs to move.
Elizabeth looked back over at the boy. He was sending small bits of food at the Gryffindor table with his wand and having a great laugh.
He did say she couldn’t talk to him, but nothing about writing something to him.
She pulled her notebook out of her bag and wrote about meeting over the weekend to choose a topic. She balled it up and threw it in his direction, but it didn’t make it that far. It fell between the two tables.
“Well, that didn’t work,” she thought to herself. Elizabeth looked at him again. “Wand. I need to use my wand. I’m an idiot.”
She pulled her wand out and before she started casting, she looked around. Was anyone paying attention to her? She felt like everyone was looking at her. It really wasn’t that far. She could do it. Better than having to walk over there.
She casted her spell.
“Wingardium Leviosa.”
The ball of paper lifted up and it started moving towards Malfoy steadily. It was almost there when-
“What are you doing?” someone asked.
Elizabeth jumped at the sound and the paper went flying. Flying straight into Malfoy’s face. She looked at Erin who had asked the question, mouth agape.
“WHO THREW THIS?” Malfoy was standing up looking around. Everyone’s attention was now turned to him and he looked mad. The ball of paper had hit so hard, he had a small paper cut on his forehead.
A boy with dark skin grabbed the paper from him and opened it. He passed it back to Malfoy pointing at the message.
“I’m just going to leave now, girls. I’m quite tired. See you later,” Elizabeth smiled at them and motioned to sneakily leave, hoping no one would see her.
She got maybe halfway to the door of the Great Hall before a piece of potato hit in front of her face. She looked to the side and saw Malfoy looking at her fuming.
“Okay, honestly why was he so angry about a piece of paper,” she thought staring back at him. “It’s just a small cut too. Not bleeding. He could’ve seriously hurt me with whatever he just threw.”
“I told you not to talk to me,” he shouted over the table. People were still staring at them, whispering.
“I wrote to you which is not the same thing as talking if you hadn’t noticed. Honnêtement, si ça c’est comment tu réagis à un bout de papier, je sais pas comment nous allons travailler ensemble. (Honestly, if that's how you react to a bit of paper, I don't know how we're going to work together.)”
He did not like that comment and thought the best course of action was to throw another piece of food in her direction. She ducked in time. It hitting the spot where her head just was.
Someone screamed “FOOD FIGHT!” and the hall erupted in screams. Food started flying everywhere. The professors looking extremely loss and trying to stop the chaos.
Elizabeth fell to the floor and went under the table to avoid being hit. She crawled in direction the direction of the door.
“I suppose I didn’t really think the paper thing through,” she thought.
When she got to the end, she crawled out, but someone was waiting for her.
Professor Flitwick was standing there. “Come with me, Miss Blanchet.”
She looked over at Malfoy. He too was being pulled out of the room.
In the corridor, the two professors looked disapprovingly at the two young students.
“Extremely disappointed in both of you,’ Professor Flitwick started. “Miss Blanchet and Mr. Malfoy, why did you start a food fight?”
“She threw a piece of paper at my face. She should be the one in trouble here. I’m just a victim,” Malfoy stated not even deeming to look at her. She looked at him in disbelief.
“I knew he was mean, but a liar too,” she thought.
“Oh. Mon. Dieu. Actually, this started with us being paired for a project and him saying I can’t talk to him at all. But we have to pick a subject for next class and he doesn’t even want to meet until afterwards. So, I sent over a note. I was just going to gently send it over, but someone distracted me and it went flying. I never meant to hit your face, idiot.”
“You still hit me!”
“You didn’t have to throw a potato at my head. A much harder projectile than paper that could have concussed me.”
They continued screaming at each other about who’s fault it was until Professor Snape silenced them both.
“I’m deducting 15 points from each of your houses. I don’t think detention is going to help either of you since I think working together will be detention enough. Professor Flitwick?”
“Fully agree. Both of you, off to your respective dorms. We need to sort the mess you both made.”
The professors walked away to help deal with the Great Hall.
“So, …” Elizabeth said trying to fill the awkward silence.
“We can meet on Saturday to pick a subject.”
“2 pm okay? Library?”
“Yeah.”
They both walked away in separate directions.