BORN TO DIE    ╱    DRACO MALFOY
꒷꒦ · ˚.‧ . written by ella . . . © -lostgardens
085 ━━━━━━━ ❛ times are changing ❜

Olivia sat at her desk, doing the one thing she never thought she'd be doing: she was writing to her parents, specifically her mother. She had to, unfortunately. Umbridge was practically the head of the school now (though not in title yet), enlisting and enforcing all of these stupid rules to make Hogwarts "better" or whatever she thought she was doing, and Dumbledore was nowhere in sight.

Where was he?

Olivia didn't mind not seeing the Headmaster as much as she could, but it was strange. How did Umbridge so easily get so much authority at the school? Wait, Olivia already knew that answer—her little friend, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister.

Dear parents,
First off, don't question why I am writing to you because I am not sure of the answer myself. Second, I would like to inform you both that the Minister's little lap cat (Professor Dolores Umbridge) is trying to take over Hogwarts, making it more of a prison than an actual school, which I am sure you are quite aware of. Can she and Fudge actually do this? Is there anything I can do to help stop this? Where's Dumbledore? He's seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

A truthful response would be appreciated.

Your daughter (unfortunate for all),
Olivia Mallard

When she was done and satisfied with her words, she folded up the parchment and sealed it with green wax stamped with the Mallard crest, then wrote her parents name on the back of it, closed her inkwell, and stood up from her desk. She made her way over to the door, not before grabbing her wand and bag off of her bed, and exited, going down to the common room. There, she left through the entrance door and made her way through the dungeons, to the upper corridor, and then to the owlery. She handed the letter to one of the owls, placing it in its beak, and told it to take it to Mallard Manor. With that, it flew off.

She left the owlery and went back to the common room. When she walked in, she made her way over to the surprisingly empty couches, sat down, pulled her book from her bag, and began reading. She only got through a chapter and a half, during which she blocked out the noise of others chatting around her, when the door of the common room opened. She knew that it was her friends who walked in, even before they sat down beside her and across from her. Draco, of course, chose to sit beside her, closer than necessary.

"Hi, Olivia," Pansy greeted with a smile, though Olivia didn't look up at her.

"Hello," Olivia replied, continuing to read.

After that, the others started talking, and Olivia kept her focus on her book. She could feel Draco staring at her, but she just ignored him, not in the mood to deal with him. Even when he brushed a bit of her hair behind her ear, sending a chill down her spine with the feeling of his touch, she did not give him any attention.

"Olivia," he whispered, but she did not acknowledge him.

He sighed, then repeated her name.

Still, she ignored him, focusing even harder on the words that were on the pages.

He said her name again, and she did not respond, flipping to the next page. She was not catching a single thing that she had read, however. And they went on and on like this a few more times, while their friends not-so-secretly watched the interaction. Then Draco asked, "You're not seriously upset with me, are you?" whispering into her ear.

Olivia lifted her eyes from the pages of her book but didn't raise her head or look at him. She just stared forward, thinking to herself if he was serious about his question or not. She was sure he was. It was Draco, after all, always thinking that something would be resolved if it was ignored for a few days and never spoken of again.

Slowly, she turned her focus to him, holding back what she wanted to say—shout—to him. Of course, she was still upset with him! And he was a fool to question that. Her eyes flickered between his, and she saw a smirk on his face at the fact that she had finally acknowledged him, thinking that she was close to speaking to him again. Oh, she was close to saying something, but it wasn't in the sweet and forgiving way he was expecting. Their friends had fallen silent, staring at the two with wide eyes and complete focus.

Olivia stood up from her spot, snapping her book closed as she looked down at him with a look that could kill. She took a step closer, watching as his confidence faltered, and began leaning down closer to him. "Did you really believe a week or so's break from each other would truly be enough for me to move on—or no longer be 'upset' as you put it—from the fact that you don't believe me?" Her knee fell between his legs and rested on the leather of the couch, while one hand rested on the armrest and the other, which was clutching her book, found the back of the couch. She had him caged, and he seemed to realize that. Some of the other conversations around the common room had fallen quiet, but Olivia didn't notice, too busy trying to control her rising anger. "Did you truly think that?"

The expression on her face and the lingering emotions in her pupils were unsettling to Draco.

She was glad for it.

"If so, you were mistaken, Draco," she told him. "You think I am a liar."

His mouth was hanging open, but he seemed to be at a loss for words.

So she continued, leaning closer and bringing her lips right in front of his as she sneered at him. "Tell me, do you believe that I killed Cedric like everyone else does?" Her words danced across his mouth while her eyes stayed locked on his. "Do you?" she asked more urgently, her tone growing more irritated. "Do you also think I am a murderer?"

Draco couldn't come up with a response, opening and closing his mouth a few times as if he were going to answer her, but nothing came out. He stared up at her with wide eyes and seemed shocked and slightly frightened by her demanding tone and actions.

Olivia took another moment to continue staring into his eyes with a tad bit of unhingedness, wanting so badly to curse him and kiss him at the same time, taking one glance at his lips. But eventually, she relaxed her expression into one of sadness and disappointment, and she pushed herself up from the couch with a small hum. She straightened her spine, keeping her eyes on Draco, but she could also feel the others staring at her with much of the same shock and fright that he was. Then she turned around, her eyes finding them for a moment, seeing Theodore and Pansy with apparent shock on their faces, Blaise with impressed surprise, and Lucas with a hint of pride. She moved her gaze away from them, bending down to grab her bag from the floor. She placed the strap on her shoulder, still holding her book tightly in her other hand, and then she left the common room.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then Theodore cleared his throat, sitting up better in his seat with a small smirk on his face. "Well, that was... thrilling," he admitted, causing Pansy to look at him with a look of bewilderment. Blaise snorted, and Lucas shook his head with a roll of his eyes. All the while, Draco just sat with his mouth hanging slightly open and his eyes wide as he stared at the door that Olivia had left out of, still leaning back from where she had gotten so close to him.

Olivia walked down the corridors with stomping steps and a scowl on her face as she made her way to the library. She pushed through the double doors when she arrived, and that was where she spent the next few hours of her time, sitting at an empty and quiet table in an empty and quiet corner, trying to calm herself from all that was going on. And when she was done, she placed all of the books she'd gotten back on their respective shelves and made her way back to the common room.

Right as she walked in, her expression was blank and almost threatening as she scanned her eyes around the room. She didn't see her friends or Draco anywhere.

"Uhm, Olivia," a small voice muttered, causing her to look to her left, where it was coming from, only to see a first-year staring at her with fear. He shakingly lifted his hand, giving her a letter that she knew was from her parents. "I was told to give this to you."

After she took it from him, practically snatching it out of his grasp, he ran away without saying another word, like she was going to bite his head off if he stayed any longer. She assumed most people typically thought she would, and her stern look was helping prove them wrong. Releasing a breath, she turned the letter over, going to peel up the wax stamp, but then she felt a chill creep down her spine.

"What do you have there, Olivia?"

She practically shuddered as Draco's words fanned against her ear, his voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes squeezed closed briefly before she opened them again and looked over her shoulder at him. He was leaning down closer to her, and his face was unreadable, which made her curious. She looked him up and down, and then she finally focused on his cloudy eyes, which were staring deeply into hers. "None of your business, Draco," she told him, and then she brushed past him, moving towards the left staircase.

"Olivia," he called out from behind her, but she didn't look back.

She tried to get to her room as fast as she could when she heard the echo of his footfall behind her, but she didn't quite make it. She felt his touch fall on her wrist, and he turned her around to face him and see his pleading look. But before she could react or tell him to piss off, he grabbed both sides of her face and pressed his lips hard against hers. She took a step back, and he followed her, guiding her backward so that her back hit the door of her room. They kissed each other desperately, Olivia's hands resting on his arms as he continued to cup her face with his hands. His thumb brushed the underside of her jaw and her throat, but it didn't linger too long as he ran his fingers through her hair and pushed it back behind her ear.

She let out a sigh into his mouth, shaking her head, knowing that they shouldn't have been doing this, no matter how much either of them wanted to. She shouldn't have been doing this, no matter how much she wanted to. A kiss didn't change the fact that he still didn't think she was telling the truth.

Breaking her lips from his, Olivia pushed Draco backward. "No," she said sternly, both of them breathing heavily, their chests rising and falling hard. "You can't do that!" She slashed her air through the air, still gripping onto the letter in the other. "Not until you can prove to me that you believe me about what happened in the graveyard and to Cedric Diggory."

Draco stared at her with a torn look. "I do believe you."

Olivia felt her heart beat a little faster, a bit of hope returning to her. "Then prove it," she told him, praying to Merlin that he would soon. She missed him so much. She hoped he missed her just a tad bit as much. "Until then..." She paused, not wanting to say her next words but knowing that she needed to. It was best if she did.

"Stay away from me."

"Olivia," he breathed out, taking a step forward.

She held up a hand, stopping him as she used her other to find the doorknob of her room. Once she did, she opened the door, turned around, and entered the room. She closed the door behind her quickly, leaving him alone in the hall to stare at nothing but the wood separating the two of them. She pressed her back against the door, resting her head on it for a moment as she closed her eyes and took in deep breaths. Then she looked down at the letter, seeing it a little crinkled from where she had been holding it tightly, and peeled it open so she could read it.

Dear daughter,
There's nothing you can do. That is the truth. Just keep your head down as best as you can, focus on your studies, and don't do anything reckless, but knowing you, you probably will. As for your question pertaining to Dumbledore, I suppose he's keeping a low profile as to not give the Minister any reason to fire him. Also, we wish for you and Lucas to come home for Christmas this year—see that you do so.

Your Mother,
Clodagh

Even if the woman hadn't signed her name at the bottom of the parchment, Olivia would've known that it was her that was writing just based on the tone alone. But the words were what were lingering in her mind the most.

Was there truly nothing she could do to help?

Her mother had told her that, yes, and she herself had assumed that it would be the case, but it still seemed too simple. But apparently, the only thing she could do was keep her head down. It wasn't the first time her mother had requested—demanded—that she do so. That had been before, though, when all Clodagh Mallard wanted was to save face for the sake of preserving what was left of their family's somewhat good image.

But now? Voldemort was back, and they were facing a Ministry takeover at Hogwarts with Umbridge and Fudge at the head of it, and the Mallard family's good image was all but dead and buried since most believed Olivia to be a killer of the Golden Boy of Hufflepuff.

Not to say that many hadn't thought of her as one before. Those had been mere rumors, however, spewed about by people she hadn't even met in her life. This time around, she not only knew the boy who was murdered, but she and Harry had been alone with him for some unsupervised time and were now telling everyone that one of the greatest—if not the greatest—dark wizards was back and had ordered the murder. No one wanted to believe that, so they pointed fingers wherever they could, and Olivia was the more obvious option when up against the great Harry Potter.

There truly was nothing she could do, she finally concluded. She just had to keep her head down and focus on her studies—those were her orders. No one would believe or help her anyway. Letting that sink in, Olivia sighed in defeat, resting the back of her head against the door again.

≀⋆⁺₊⋆ ꗃ 𖦹⨳✺

The next morning, Olivia began trying to do her best with what she was told to do. She went to her meeting with Snape, where she talked about anything but Draco the whole time, then she walked around the corridors until it was time for breakfast.

When she pushed through the double doors of the Great Hall, she saw the dying spirits of her schoolmates due to Umbridge's excessive rules and went over to the Slytherin table to sit with her friends. She sat in between Pansy and Theodore, who offered her smiles, which she returned.

They'd seemed to be in the midst of a conversation, but Theodore quickly forgot that and turned his attention fully on Olivia, who was beginning to fill her plate with food. "Olivia," he said, causing her to hum questioningly. She didn't look up from the food as she forked some of it onto her plate, but she raised her brows, telling him that she was listening. "You know how you seemed as if you wanted to pounce on Draco for two different reasons yesterday in the common room? I was wondering if you could look at me like that," he requested, thinking back to how Olivia looked like she wanted to kill Draco and snog him at the same time. "It made me feel something," he admitted, then shrugged. "Or maybe you could even speak to me the way you spoke to him? I think that would also suffice."

Pansy let out an amused snort, while Lucas and Blaise did the same. Draco just remained quiet as he ate his food. "Yeah, Theo said that it was thrilling," the girl told her best friend, smirking as she looked over at her.

Olivia then smirked as well, turning to meet Theodore's gaze. She saw the sly grin on his face, and she knew that he was clearly flirting with her, so she decided that she might as well play along with him. "Oh, yeah?" She raised her brows, not even noticing Draco glaring at her and Theodore. Or perhaps she did, and that just made the flirting even more appealing.

"Yeah," Theodore replied, his grin growing larger. "It made me all tingly inside. I liked that feeling, and I'm sure it would be even more intense if I were the one your fury was directed towards." He tucked a bit of her hair behind her ear, then brushed his fingers along her jawline.

Her eyes followed his hand, smiling with satisfaction, before her eyes flickered up to find his dead-eye gaze. But before anyone else, including Olivia or Theodore, could say anything or continue on with the flirtatiousness of the conversation, the sound of a goblet falling over echoed from opposite them, spilling pumpkin juice everywhere. Olivia looked over at Draco quickly, along with the others and some students sitting around but not part of the conversation, and saw him staring at her blankly.

"Sorry, my hand slipped," he told them, clearly lying. He wasn't subtle about it at all.

Blaise clamped a hand down on the blonde's shoulder with a knowing smirk on his face, but Draco's eyes did not leave Olivia, who'd narrowed her gaze at him. "Right, mate, I'm sure it did. Hands can be quite slippery and hard to manage."

Pansy held back her amusement and waved her wand, getting rid of the mess.

The rest of breakfast was mostly silent between the group, with no more flirting, slippery hands, or spilling beverages. When they finished eating, they stood from their seats, left the table, and exited the Great Hall, going into the corridor. Pansy dragged Olivia in front of the boys, while Lucas and Blaise walked behind them, and then Draco and Theodore.

Draco, who had his hands tucked in his pockets, removed his left one and pressed the back of it to Theodore's chest, stopping in his tracks and causing his friend to do the same. They turned to each other while the others continued walking, the brunette with a questioning look and raised brows on his face and Draco with a stern and slightly annoyed look on his own.

"What were you doing, flirting with Olivia like that?" Draco asked, tucking his hand back in his pocket.

Theodore put his hand against his heart, looking innocent and apologetic. It was clearly faux, just a sarcasm-filled act. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you two were together," he said, knowing he was hitting Draco where it hurt. Or, at least, that was the goal, and it seemed to work.

Draco scowled. "We're not, but—"

Theodore wagged a finger in the air, looking as if something had come to him—a light bulb had gone off in his head. "Oh, right!" He pointed the finger at Draco, then placed his hand in his pocket with a smirk on his face, quite apparently enjoying the annoyance that was not-so-hidden in Draco's sneering expression. "You mucked that up."

That was when Draco shoved Theodore, sending him a couple of steps backward. Theodore, however, wasted no time in shoving him back, his amusement no longer on his face. He moved closer to Draco, both boys right in the other's face, sneering and seeming ready to throw punches or hexes if necessary. But fortunately (or unfortunately), Blaise and Lucas caught them both before anything larger than shoves could happen, with Lucas stepping in front of Draco while Blaise did the same with Theodore, putting distance between the two.

Pansy and Olivia turned around to see what the commotion was all about, noticing Draco and Theodore glaring at each other with hard expressions, while Lucas and Blaise stood between them. Olivia furrowed her brows, not in the mood for whatever they were up to. "What are you two idiots fighting about?" she asked with a sigh.

Pansy turned away from the boys, putting her focus on her best friend with a look of amusement and bewilderment. "You can't be serious."

Olivia faced her, her brows still furrowed with confusion, then glanced over at the boys, who were all staring at her now. Lucas and Blaise had looks similar to Pansy's, while Theodore and Draco still looked rather annoyed. "What?" She tossed up her hands, waiting for an answer. They were all looking at her, like she should know why Theodore and Draco were going after each other.

Well, Theodore had been flirting with her at breakfast, but that was just who he was. She was sure Draco wasn't jealous over something as small as that. They weren't together, after all. He made sure of that.

When no one answered her, she just rolled her eyes and turned around. She had places to be, and she wasn't going to be held up any longer by them. "Whatever, don't tell me. It doesn't matter," she said, beginning to walk again. But none of them moved with her, so she stopped again, glancing over her shoulder and seeing that they hadn't moved an inch from their spots. "Come along now; I don't want to be late to class."

She swore she heard Theodore let out a sigh.

Then, finally, they followed her.

≀⋆⁺₊⋆ ꗃ 𖦹⨳✺

━━━━ ella's speaking !
the boys are fighting teehee

if you understood my little nod to the book "twisted games" by ana haung with draco's "my hand slipped" line, then i love you 🤭

tysm for 25K reads on this book btw!! i'm so, so grateful 🤍

also, i finally finished writing act five, so updates should be more frequent from now on! not every day frequent, but not as slow as they have been.

i plan on prewriting act six so that i can make sure it is perfect, so i need to preserve my prewritten chapters (by only updating like once or twice a week), that way i have enough time to write and not stress about publishing the chapters right when i finish them, if the makes sense.

i really hope you enjoyed this chapter!

make sure to comment and vote 🫶🏻

kisses.

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

word count: 3780. written: 6.15-17.24. published: 8.4.24.