BORN TO DIE    ╱    DRACO MALFOY
꒷꒦ · ˚.‧ . written by ella . . . © -lostgardens
069 ━━━━ ❛ his sweater and her secret ❜

Sitting in the Great Hall the next morning was a feat of its own. Olivia was still covered in cuts and bruises, and everyone was staring at her, whispering amongst their friends, and giving her odd looks when she met their stares. At least the actions were now in good spirit, but that was only because she had won against the dragon in the first task. Everyone wanted to be friends with a winner, but everyone disliked a loser.

The girl who'd rode a dragon and won her first task, the girl who survived the killing curse—that was what she was to them. All she was to them. She was the one who had gotten first place over the famous Harry Potter and great Bulgarian Seeker Viktor Krum. She was the second known person to have lived after being hit with the glowing green light. It was all they saw her as. She didn't mind it, though. She took great pride in being the winner of the first task, not so much in surviving the worst Unforgivable, but she didn't let them know that. And it wasn't as if this behavior towards her was any different than usual—she was used to their looks, whispers, and gossip.

All she did, while she continued eating her food, was ignore them, as usual. She was sitting between Lucas and Pansy. And Draco, Theodore, and Blaise sat across from them. Her brother was reading The Daily Prophet while eating his cereal; she was focused on her book as she ate her breakfast; and Pansy was talking with the boys. Well, more like bickering with them. Their conversation was mere background noise in Olivia's ears while she took in the words on the pages of her book.

Then Lucas suddenly burst out into a fit of coughs, choking on his cereal.

Olivia turned to him quickly, her brows furrowed with concern and a slight confusion as she harshly patted his back with her hand, trying to ease his coughs. "Lucas, are you all right?" she asked, leaning down closer to the table so she could study his face better from how he bent over with each hack into his elbow.

He just nodded rapidly, still coughing, while everyone stared at him. After a moment, he sat up, straightening his spine and clearing his throat. He coughed a few more times, trying to get back to normal before focusing on Olivia. He countered the look of worry that was twisting her features with an almost weary one of his own. He just slid the post he had been reading to her. "You might want to read this."

She just looked down at the paper, her brows furrowing even deeper. She picked it up, scanning over it quickly, trying to find what had made him react in such a way. Her eyes landed on the section labeled 'Me, Myself, and I', immediately remembering how that was Rita Skeeter's article. It featured a photo of each champion during the first task. She didn't know why Lucas would be so startled by that, and she made that clear with the questioning look she gave him.

He sighed, pointing down at the Prophet to a different section than Olivia had been reading, right below the coverage of the champions' and their performances against the dragons. She found where his finger was, and her eyes went wider. There was a photo, but not just any photo. It was one of her and Draco. The boy was in the middle of placing a small, meaningless, should-not-be-thought-of-anything kiss on her cheek, and above it was the headline,

The Forbidden Love of Olivia Mallard and Draco Malfoy

The girl continued reading, finding how Rita wrote about how the two of them were both from powerful families who hated one another, so they had to keep their relationship secret, but "clearly they couldn't hide it well enough during a wish of good luck." It was then that Olivia wanted to end Rita and her bloody article for good.

"What is it?" Pansy asked, peeking over Olivia's shoulder.

Olivia looked up, glancing over at her best friend just in time to see the girl's eyes go a tad wider as her hand covered her mouth and she held back her laughter. "I should've killed that woman when I had the chance," she muttered under breath as she turned away from Pansy. Her gaze found the three boys sitting across from her, giving her curious looks.

"What does it say?" inquired Theodore, raising his brows.

Drifting her eyes over the familiar pair of cloudy gray ones, Olivia said, "Nothing of importance." She knew they'd find out sooner or later based on the looks she was still receiving and the number of people holding The Daily Prophet, as well as how fast gossip traveled around Hogwarts, but for now, she was keeping it to herself.

Then a thought hit her. Her parents religiously read the paper, so she knew she was destined for a few choice words from her mother. She just hoped the woman would be able to see through her own anger and Rita's lies. But knowing her, she would probably revel in the untrue information just to be able to tell Olivia what not to do with her life. And feelings.

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She couldn't handle it, not anymore. She could not deal with everyone staring at her. They smiled at her like they knew everything about her, whispered about her and her supposed relationship, and talked to her as if they'd been friends for so very long just to get a piece of gossip to pass along to others. She could not deal with it. She wished it would go back to when they did all of the same things because they were scared of her or were interested in her actions during the first tasks. Not because of... this.

Walking down the corridor, she heard her name linger in the air about a million times from all different directions. Either it was paired with Draco's name, relationship, secret, or dating. Or people wondered how she could have possibly gotten him or how he got her. They also wondered why it was forbidden and why their families hated each other so much, despite the obvious reasons for moral beliefs, which the Malfoys claimed on paper were no longer what they agreed with. It wasn't unknown, however, how Draco had called Granger that word a few times, and Olivia wondered when she had moved past that. Why had she moved past that?

She didn't think about it too long as she stopped in front of the familiar blank wall and whispered the password, revealing the door. She entered, and the hushed gossip didn't stop there. Of course, it was a major topic among the Slytherins. The deemed Slytherin Princess and Prince by their peers were together! Well, according to Rita Skeeter, that was. Olivia wondered why and when everyone had suddenly forgotten the woman's track record of telling lies in her articles.

Meeting the stares with glares, causing them to look away, she walked past each muttering housemate of hers, including Higgs and his snickering mates, who all sat at a round table together. The only one who stopped with their amusement as she made her way by them was Adrian, because he knew better.

She climbed the left stairs and went to her room to retrieve something quite important before she entered the common room again. She crossed the room once more, going to the opposite staircase. She knew it was a bad idea to go see him with all the rumors flying around, but she didn't care.

Behind her, she heard Higgs call out, "Going to see your boyfriend, Mallard?" And she turned around to see him and his friends, save for Pucey, still laughing as if they were comedians. They were definitely nothing of the sort. Perhaps the ones that no one paid to see. She sent him a glare before whipping around and going up the right stairs.

It didn't take her long to get to his dorm, seeing as though she knew where it was, having been there not long ago. When she reached the door, she knocked, and unlike the time when she came to check on him after the ferret incident, she waited until he said something or opened the door himself. He chose the latter, and when the wood pulled away from her, she looked up to meet his gaze.

He seemed a little confused by her being there, glancing behind her to see if anyone was with her, but he didn't let it linger on his face for too long. "Hi," he said, pulling the door a little further open.

"Hey," she replied. Suddenly, she felt like it was stupid of her to be there. The thought she had when she walked up the stairs to his door now seemed ridiculous. A small, quite faint, smile curled at her lips as her eyes drifted away from him. She looked in his room, then turned her head to the left and looked down the corridor, seeing it empty.

No one was around. No one was going to hear her request.

Her attention fell back on Draco, seeing him give her a questioning look. "Uhm," she began, taking in a sharp breath. She offered another tight-lipped smile, feeling awkward about something she hadn't even voiced yet. It was odd. "Can I... Can I, uh"—she watched him raise his brows—"rest in here? Or just hide out, I suppose?" she finally asked, letting out a sheepish chuckle. Merlin, this was a mistake, she thought, especially because of the surprised look on his face. "I just can't take hearing another word about all this"—she waved her hand in the air—"nonsense."

He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, and she could tell he was fighting a smile. "Of course." The door was pulled open even further as he stepped to the side, lifting his hand for her to come in.

"Thank you, Draco." She walked past him, giving him a curious look, which he matched as he closed the door and dropped his arm to his side. She entered the room even further, turning away from him as she went over to the bed. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she set her bag down on her floor and then found him still staring at her, his arms crossed over his chest and a questioning glint in his eyes. "I just can't handle the whispers and mutters right now," she explained, then realized she'd already said that. "And since you have a single dorm..." She waved her hand around the room, trying to help get her point across. "No one will bother me here," she elaborated, dropping her hand on the bed with a sigh.

"Right." He dipped his head, put his arms to his sides, and stood up straighter. Then he walked over to his desk, his back to her, and began to mess with some parchment on top of it. He didn't seem to be questioning her reason, which was good because he had no need to. She was being completely truthful.

A moment later, Olivia fell on her back, putting her arms over her face to shield her eyes as she closed them. She wasn't going to sleep—or, at least, not planning on it. The room was silent for a few minutes before she felt the bed dip next to her. She put her arms to her sides and opened her eyes to see him sitting next to her, looking down at her. She couldn't even say anything when he spoke.

"Do you have Mr. Snake with you?" he asked, almost teasingly, with a small smirk.

Her brows rose as she sat up. She just stared into his eyes for a long second before she smirked and grabbed her bag. She dug in it for a moment before she pulled out the familiar stuffed bear. Showing it to Draco, she watched as his smirk turned into more of a smile.

He lifted his hand to the bear and gently took him from Olivia, then placed him in his lap, still holding him, as he looked him over. "Tell me the story of him." He focused on Olivia, who was staring down at her bear.

She leaned down and took off her boots, then turned on the bed so that she was sitting side by side with Draco. Their shoulders were brushing as she moved closer to place her hand on Mr. Snake. She messed with his ear as she stared down at him, and Draco stared at her. "When I was five, my father came home from one of his business trips and brought me this bear." She paused, inhaling a breath. "It was one of the only times he acted as if I were more than just a heiress to my family's fortune. It was like I was actually his daughter," she revealed with a small smile, getting lost in her thoughts. "And I've never been able to sleep without him since. He brings me a sense of comfort, I suppose."

Looking up, she saw him giving her a look of interest, and she realized what she had said. She turned away from him, feeling her face heat as she gently shook her head and fought to keep her smile from growing larger. "I've said too much." She lifted her hand to his face, gently pushing it so that his gaze was no longer on her. "Go away," she joked.

He stood up with a short chuckle, then he turned to her, handing her Mr. Snake. "Was your age at the time the reason he's named something so—?" he trailed off, waving his hand in a circle as he tried to find the right word to use.

"Ridiculous?" she finished for him, raising her brows. "Yes."

He titled his head and gave her a knowing look. "That's not what I was going to say," he told her, staring at her for a long moment. "Childish," he watched as her brows furrowed, "in a good way." Then he turned around and went back to his desk.

Her eyes followed him, seeing him mess with the parchment and books that covered the wooden top. She scooted back further onto the bed and leaned her back and head against the headboard, watching him. If he felt her staring, he didn't make it a point to show her. Her hand subconsciously reached for her necklace, and she pulled the charm across the chain, back and forth. It was then that she realized just how tired she was, and his bed being comfortable and his duvet being soft didn't help the matter either. She moved down so that she was lying down rather than sitting up, with her eyes remaining on him. After a moment, she felt her eyelids grow heavier with each blink she'd taken. All the stress and tension that roamed her body, in her muscles and mind, slowly began to come less and less. She could barely hold her eyes open. And then...

She hadn't meant to fall asleep. Especially not in Draco's bed and room of all places, with him there nonetheless. But she did. She'd fallen asleep in Draco's room. In his bed. With him working at his desk. Her head was on his pillow. Her body was not wrapped in a blanket to provide warmth—she was only clad in her school uniform—but her slumbering mind did not seem to notice. And her hand was still holding onto the charm of her necklace—the one he'd gotten her. Mr. Snake was by her side, but she wasn't cuddling like she usually did whenever she slept. Her mind was completely blank—not a hint of a nightmare in sight. No children, no chained-up adults, no heat, no threats, and no faceless man.

When she woke up, her eyes slowly peeled open. At first, in a sleepish haze, she looked around, confused about where she was and whose bed she was in. But then she remembered everything—coming to Draco's dorm, talking with him, and falling asleep. Her head turned to her right, finding the boy still at his desk. She wondered how long she was asleep and if he even noticed that she had fallen asleep. Surely he did.

Slowly, she rotated herself so that her legs hung off the side of the bed, then she stood up. She walked over to him, curious as to what he was working on. She assumed it was homework. Stopping behind him, she looked at the back of his head. He met her gaze almost instantly, offering a small smile.

"Good morning," he teased, his smile turning into a smirk. She narrowed her eyes, her face twisting in faux amusement, which only made his smirk grow ever wider. He stood up from his seat, making it so that he was looking down at her instead of the other way around. "Was my bed comfortable?" His voice was playful, but he had a fake, genuinely questioning expression on his face. She just rolled her eyes as she turned around, walking towards the other side of the room. "What are you doing?" he asked, following her.

"I'm going to borrow a jumper," she told him, not even glancing back as she stopped in front of his wardrobe. "I'm quite chilly." It was the truth. But her robes were in her bag. She could easily grab them, but some part of her, which she did not want to think of, wanted one of his jumpers. It felt right. Or it didn't. She wasn't quite sure.

That seemed to be a recurring thing when it came to Draco—her not being sure.

He stopped behind her, leaning against the opposite wall from where his wardrobe was placed, with his arms crossed over his chest. He watched her pull open the double doors and examine the clothing inside.

The first thing Olivia's eyes immediately landed on was the familiar all-black suit that he had worn to the Quidditch World Cup. She remembered what he looked like in it but quickly shook the thought from her mind as she grabbed the suit from where it hung. Turning around, she raised her brows at Draco, keeping hold of the attire. He just countered her expression with a questioning look of his own, his eyes not leaving hers. "You brought it here with you?" she asked, holding up the suit a little higher.

"Yes," he replied.

She just hummed in response before turning back around and placing it on the hanging bar. She pulled the jacket off the hanger and put it on, then untucked her hair from under the collar. It was too big for her, obviously. But that was the fun of it. Facing Draco again, she placed her hands on her hips with raised brows. "I think I pull this off quite well. Don't you think so?"

He looked her up and down and then focused on her eyes. "It's too big on you."

"That's not what I asked," she retorted. "Does it look good?"

He sighed. "Yes, Olivia, it looks wonderful."

A smile curled at her lips, and she turned around so that her back was to him again. She took off the jacket and put it back on the hanger. She then began sifting through his other clothes until she found a jumper. It was gray with green stripes on the v-neckline. Grabbing the hem, she pulled it over her head and put it over her plain white button-up. This fit her well more than the suit jacket, and she remembered that the suit had seemed just the slightest bit too large for Draco. Just like before, she placed her hands on her hips, giving him a questioning look as a way to ask him his opinion.

"It looks much better on you than it does on me," he told her, smirking.

She smiled at this and then turned to close his wardrobe doors before she walked back towards the bed. He followed her, stopping when she stopped, but neither of them sat down. Looking up at him, she asked, "Why did you have to get so tall? My neck hurts from having to stare up at you." She made it a point to rub her neck to show the discomfort.

He leaned down closer to her, narrowing his eyes teasingly and keeping a smirk on his face as he watched her fight her own. "Just grow taller, and you won't have that problem." He stood up straight again, placing his hands in his trouser pockets. His chin lifted as he thought. "Though I suppose I could say I have a similar problem. You're so short that my neck hurts from looking down at you."

She wasn't even that short. She was growing by the day, only an inch below the average height for English women. Playfully rolling her eyes, Olivia turned around hastily, her hair whipping with the movement, and she went over to his desk. She pulled out the chair and stepped up onto it. Meeting Draco's gaze, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Now who's the one looking down at whom?"

His smirk just grew as he took a few steps towards her and took his hands from his pockets. He lifted them for her to grab, and even though she was more than capable of getting down by herself, she took hold of them. She stepped off the chair, her sock-clad feet landing on the floors, and their still-connected hands fell to their sides. When she looked up, she realized just how close she had landed to him, and a thought crossed her mind. And when thoughts crossed her mind, she usually didn't think to not voice them.

"Everyone thinks we're together." It had been the elephant in the room, had it not? Or was that just for her? She watched the surprise take over his face at her abrupt statement, and she wished she could take it back. Find a time-turner and go back to a minute ago.

He swallowed a lump in his throat, then said, "An odd thought."

That was not the response she'd been expecting, nor was it the one she wanted, which she realized after she thought about it for a moment. She took her hands from his as she looked down at the action. She saw them flex by his sides as she clasped her behind her back. Then she looked up at him again, seeing his jaw clench and his eyes searching for something in hers. "Yes, an odd thought indeed." She forced a smile, then brushed past him and sat down on his bed.

It took him a moment, but he eventually turned and sat down next to her.

They were both quiet for a long moment as Olivia's hands rested on top of the duvet and his in his lap. She was staring down at the floor, and he was staring at his hands. And then she spoke, letting out a deep breath. "Tell me something about yourself that I don't know." Her gaze found the side of his face, watching as he turned to her at the sound of her voice. "Or something no one knows."

Inhaling deeply, he focused forward, looking at the wall opposite them, where the door was. "Uh..." He paused as he thought of something. "My favorite candy is saltwater taffy," he admitted as he found her eyes again.

Again, another answer she had not been expecting. But this one made sense, and it explained why whenever she was close to him, she smelled the scent of the candy. "Is it really?" she asked, raising her brows with a small smile fighting its way onto her mouth.

"Yeah, I get it every time we go to Hogsmeade."

"Huh," she muttered, looking ahead. She felt his left hand fall beside her right one on the bed, them brushing against each other. Neither said anything about it or even acknowledged it, but the flutters in Olivia's stomach spoke volumes in her mind. Her face heated, and she cleared her throat. "Tell me something else," she said, focusing on him, "like a secret."

"I don't have secrets," he said with his usual teasing tone. "Oh, wait, that's you."

He smirked as she faked laughter, then rolled her eyes. "I do have secrets," she revealed, though it wasn't very surprising information. She had once said she didn't, but that was besides the point.

Draco gasped in faux shock. "Tell me one of them."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because they're secrets, and I don't need to risk you running off and telling everyone." Olivia leaned closer to him with a tight smile. She didn't actually think he'd do that, but still, her point stood. Her secrets were secret, and secrets were best kept if only one person knew them. And that person was the one whose secrets they were in the first place.

He leaned closer to her, staring right into her eyes as she did the same to him. "I would never do that," he assured, his tone now serious, unlike before. "Tell me the tamest, least secretive secret you have, and I promise I won't tell a soul."

The corners of her lips curled up just barely, but he still saw. He glanced down at her mouth, then found her eyes again, watching her copy his actions. She seemed to be thinking about his words. He wanted her to trust him. He did so with her. Then she sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you the tamest, least secretive secret I have," she repeated his words. She breathed in and out a few times, biting at her lip, then she opened her mouth. But then it closed a second later, with her not knowing if the specific thing she was thinking of was the best thing to admit aloud, especially not to the person involved.

"Do you remember how you wore that suit"—she nodded to his wardrobe, keeping her eyes on him—"to the World Cup?" She knew that it was a ridiculous question to ask. Of course he remembered; it wasn't like it was that long ago.

He nodded. "I do."

Her bottom lip fell between her teeth again as she thought about backing out and saying something different. But she was already this far; she might as well admit it. It wasn't like it was anything major. Or perhaps it was, and she was just convincing herself otherwise. Leaning closer to Draco, she placed her mouth right next to his ear, not wanting to be staring into his eyes as she said what she was about to say. "I thought you looked really good in it," she told him in a whisper. Then she pulled back, bringing her face in front of his. They were close again, and she could feel his breathing on her skin, and she was sure he could feel hers as well. "That is my tamest, least secretive secret."

His eyes flickered between hers, his expression full of surprise with his slightly raised brows, agape mouth, and the pink tinting his cheeks. She placed a small kiss on his cheek, like she had done many times before and he'd done to her a couple of times, and moved off the bed. She bent down and brought her boots in front of her, then put them on. She then grabbed her bag, as well as Mr. Snake, as Draco continued to watch her. Stuffing the bear into her bag, she moved back to stand in front of the still-shocked boy.

Messing with the ends of her sweater's sleeves, she muttered, "Thank you for the jumper, Draco." Her eyes met his as she took a step backward and towards the door. "I'm going to head down for dinner." She softly smiled before turning around and preparing to leave. Her hand reached for the door handle.

"Olivia, wait." His voice stopped her, and she faced him. He stood from his bed slowly, brushing his hands on his trousers. "I'll walk with you." He walked towards her, not waiting for a response, and she kept up with his every move. He opened the door for the both of them, lifting his hand for her to go first, which she did. And then he followed, closing the door behind him.

They walked down the stairs, ignoring the stares of the lingering students in the common room as they entered. Then they walked the length of the dungeons and the other corridors leading to the Great Hall in complete silence, neither knowing nor having anything to say. When they entered through the double doors, the loudness of the hall countered their quietness. Eyes found them right away, followed by whispers and mutters. All of the rumor-spreading. Olivia swore Hogwarts got its power from it. She and Draco just continued to their table, finding their friends.

"Ah, there you two are," Pansy began when they approached her and the others. "Where have you been all day?"

"All day?" Olivia raised her brows. "Pans, it has not been all day."

"Okay, fine. Most of the day," the short-haired girl corrected herself.

Olivia gave her a pointed look as she took a step forward, sitting down on the bench across from the girl she was speaking to and beside her brother. She shrugged the strap of her bag off her shoulder and set it to her left. Draco copied her movements, sitting beside her bag and directly across from Blaise, who was sitting next to Theodore. "Pansy, we've been gone for a few hours at most," she told her.

"Really?" Pansy's brows lifted questioningly. "It felt longer." She sighed almost dramatically, and out of the corner of her eye, Olivia could see Lucas shaking his head in amusement. "Also, if you two are trying to kill the dating rumors, disappearing for a few hours and then strutting into the Great Hall together isn't going to accomplish that." She smirked, and Olivia gave her a bored look as the others, besides Draco, snickered. Then she looked down at her plate, muttering, "Though I'm sure Olivia wouldn't mind that."

Olivia's eyes went slightly wider. She wanted to curse both Pansy and Lucas. Her brother for telling the girl about their late-night conversations about a particular boy over the summer, and Pansy for knowing and alluding to it any chance she got. She also wanted to hex Blaise and Theodore, who now undoubtedly knew bits and pieces of the information and were giggling like little school girls with every comment that was made.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Draco.

"Nothing," Olivia answered quickly, widening her eyes at Pansy, who just returned the look, though hers was a little more teasing than her best friend's. "It's nothing." She focused on Draco, seeing his curious expression as his eyes darted between her and Pansy, who was smirking.

"I feel as if you all know something I don't." His cloudy eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Olivia scrambled for something to say, but she had no clue as to what she should say, so she turned to her brother, gently elbowing him. That took his attention away from his food, and he looked up quickly, focusing on Draco. "No, Pansy is just having a go at Olivia," he said, trying to help the situation, but perhaps he was just making it worse.

Draco's brows lifted. "About what?"

"Uh..." Lucas mumbled, not knowing what to say. "Good question." He pretended to be clueless with a breathy chuckle.

Luckily, Pansy was there to save the day. "It's truly nothing, Draco. You know how I am with my assumptions and jokes when it comes to rumors that are clearly not true, like you and Olivia dating," she explained. "I'm just picking at her. I know that you two are just friends and nothing more."

Olivia was staring at him, watching how he seemed to think about the girl's words, not looking too convinced. Or perhaps it was a look of disappointment about the "just friends" bit. Or perhaps that was just wishful thinking on Olivia's part. Wait, what? Wishful thinking about what? She shook that from her mind as he met her gaze. She sent him a tense, close-lipped smile, then faced her plate a little quicker than she probably should have and began to fill it with food, her stomach rumbling from hunger. Or maybe it was something else.

Merlin, what was she feeling?

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"All I'm saying is that there's something there, Olivia," Pansy said as the two girls lay in their beds, about to go to sleep. She did this every night, rambling on about a topic until she was too tired to even utter another word. Tonight's topic of choice? Draco and Olivia and their so-called infatuation with each other that Pansy wasn't going to let up on. "Every time you are around him, your face flushes and your eyes twinkle. Everyone sees it."

"That is completely false," Olivia countered with a scoff. Her hands rested on her stomach as she turned her head to the side, only seeing the silhouette of her best friend lying in her bed in the green tint of their room. "There's no flushing," she continued, knowing that it was a lie. "And there's definitely no twinkle." She wasn't sure if this was true or not, but she was convincing herself that it wasn't. It couldn't be. "I don't care what anyone sees, or rather, what they think they see. There's nothing to see."

"Olivia," Pansy went on, like she knew something she shouldn't, ignoring all the denial from her best friend. "Whose jumper were you wearing earlier when you came into the Great Hall with Draco? I've never seen it before."

The room fell silent while Olivia grimaced at the question. She knew if she told Pansy that it was Draco's, then she'd run with that and interrogate more about these "feelings" that she saw between them. But if she lied and said that it was hers or someone else's, Pansy would see right through that. She knew Olivia too well. All her friends knew her too well; she was starting to notice. It was quite annoying. It made her feel vulnerable.

Sighing, Olivia rubbed her eyes, then dropped her hands to her sides, feeling Mr. Snake brushing against her arm. "It's Draco's," she admitted quietly. She heard Pansy let out a breath like she was about to speak, no doubt wanting to tell Olivia that she knew it. "Before you say anything, the only reason I have it is because I was cold. I went to his room to get away from everyone. And I only went there because he's the only one of us that has a single dorm." She paused, letting out another breath. "It was meaningless. I wanted to be alone. There's nothing to read into."

"You wanted to be alone, yet you were fine with spending a few hours with Draco in his dorm," Pansy summarized, though her tone was more questioning than anything. "That sounds like something to me, Olivia. Something more than meaningless and nothing."

Squeezing her eyes shut, Olivia inhaled and exhaled heavily. Then she opened her eyes to stare at the darkness above before turning on her side, her back to Pansy. She brought Mr. Snake closer to her, cuddling him against her chest, and closed her eyes tightly. "Goodnight, Pansy." Her voice was barely above a whisper, almost full of tiredness.

"Goodnight, Olivia," Pansy replied, knowing that the conversation was over and she did not need to push any further. Olivia would figure it out eventually; she was sure of that. It was right in front of her after all. "Sweet dreams."

Olivia had anything but sweet dreams that night, just as always.

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━━━━ ella's speaking !
i was gonna wait a couple more days to publish this chapter but since born to die hit 15K reads and 1K votes, i thought it would be nice to publish this early! i hope you enjoyed this chapter, and tysm for continuing with me on this journey! i am so so grateful for everything 🤍

make sure to comment and vote 🫶🏻

kisses.

━━━━━━━━━━ born to die,
© -LOSTGARDENS, apr 2024

word count: 6008. written: 3.16-21.24. published: 4.4.24.