TRAINING WHEELS—
THE SUSPECT LIST.

029

When Amora was finally released from the Hospital Wing, Professor Sprout had guided her through the Common Room and to her dormitory, banging on and on about how if she felt sick at all then her office wasn't too far. Amora appreciated the older woman's words, smiling politely and promising to come and find her if anything else happened, but at the same time, all she wanted to do was lay down on a bed that was comfortable.

The rest of the girls were all in their first period when Professor Sprout led her to her own devices inside the large room. Amora sat down on her own bed, popping Kathy's book and Leon's sweets on the table next to her. She felt cold-- she had ever since she had woken up from falling in that icy lake. She grabbed her Hufflepuff jumper and pulled the black and gold material over her head, bunching the sleeves past her hand.

Despite the fact that she had been given the permission to have that Monday off from classes, Amora didn't want to waste her day and instead moved to the library. Madam Pince squinted her eyes at the girl as she picked out a few books on Herbology, hoping to heighten her knowledge and maybe impress Neville during their next study session with some niche facts.

"Buckley," Pansy chided, sliding into the seat next to her.

"Hi, Pansy," Amora murmured, looking up from the books sprawled out in front of her. "No lesson this morning?"

"Yes, I just couldn't be bothered," she admitted, "How are you feeling, anyway? Did they find out who did this to you? People are talking-- Malfoy's names been flying around."

Amora frowned slightly. "That's nonsense," she muttered, "I don't know who did it, but it certainly wasn't Draco."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Pansy huffed, "He always get Crabbe and Goyle to do his dirty work, anyway. Besides... He was quite the wreck after he found out what had happened."

The brunette's eyes widened a little. "Really?"

"Yes." The Slytherin didn't hold a mocking tone anymore. "He had a panic attack. I've never seen Malfoy so freaked out."

Amora's heart skipped a beat. It didn't feel good to know that Draco had been so scared that he'd suffered a panic attack, yet it was reassuring in a way that he definitely cared about her. She was just glad that he was okay now. He seemed like he was fine when he had come to visit her last night, and she knew he certainly retreated back to his dormitory okay.

"He asked me out," she blurted to him.

Pansy didn't look surprised. It felt nice to get it off of her chest. Amora had been so excited that she'd even wanted to blurt it to her mother this morning, or Madam Pomfrey when she was signing her out, and even Professor Sprout as the curly-haired woman made sure she got to her dormitory alright.

"I take it you said yes?"

"I did," Amora gushed, before her smile faded, looking at her new Slytherin mentor. "Should I not have said that?"

Pansy thought it was nearly cute how much Amora took Pansy's advice and words to heart. The girl almost resembled a lost puppy, listening to every word Pansy said as if all of her opinions on relationships and Malfoy were completely objective. You would think Pansy was the smartest person in the school by the way that Amora considered all of her advice.

"I think you said the right thing," Pansy agreed, taking Amora by surprise. "Malfoy was a mess. I can assure you that he doesn't care about anyone in this bloody castle like he does you. Besides, if he asked you out then you can be sure he truly means it this time. Everything's serious with that boy."

"Has... He ever had a girlfriend before?" Amora asked.

She didn't think that he had, but she could never be sure. She didn't know quite how to ask him either.

"No," Pansy deadpanned, "I didn't think he'd ever get one, either. I mean, I'm pretty sure his first kiss was you. He'd kill me for telling you that."

Amora wasn't sure why Pansy irritated Draco so much. She had only ever had a handful of conversations with the Slytherin girl, and Amora thought she was wonderful. Or maybe it's just because she said everything Amora wanted to hear-- she wasn't sure. Either way, Pansy wasn't as bad as she had thought.

The brunette blushed, pushing some of her hair out of her face. "You wouldn't have thought so with the way he walks around like he owns the place," Amora said, "I was half-worried you would tell me that he's snogged half the girls in Slytherin or something."

"Malfoy's more reserved than that. He hates when anybody even sits too close to him. Unless it's, like, Zabini or Nott," Pansy shrugged.

Amora thought of Pansy's words, even as she trailed to dinner that evening after being cooped up in the library all day, keeping her head down to avoid any students that happened to wander inside during their free periods or to get materials for class. She nearly tripped over her own feet, her brain consumed by the thought of Draco, her boyfriend.

A giddy feeling spread across her again. She took her usual seat at the Hufflepuff table, the small smile on her face being wiped away when Justin tossed what she believed was a crouton at the side of her head. Amora frowned, picking it up and tossing it back at him. Justin released a sound as if she had punched him across the cheek rather than caused the small piece of food to collide with his shoulder.

"Oi, you okay, Amora?" Justin asked, "We all heard what happened."

Others at the table were looking over at her, causing her to smile nervously. She wasn't used to this kind of attention. Other than being friends with Harry Potter, Amora tended to keep under the radar. She never really had any reason to be the talk of the school. Her cousin was talked about, so was her mother, and definitely her friends, but never her directly.

"I'm fine," she said, "thank you for asking."

"Is it true that Malfoy did it?" Susan quizzed, her nose scrunched up as she glanced over her shoulder at the Slytherin table where rows of students in forest green robes sat, minding their own business.

"No!" Amora huffed defensively, grabbing a bowl and a large spoon, pouring soup into it.

"Well, how do you know?" Ernie asked. "People are sayin' you can't even remember who did it."

"I just don't think it was him, okay?" Amora sighed, rolling her eyes.

Zacharias scoffed. "What valid reasoning," he remarked sarcastically. "I would bet all my Galleons it was a Slytherin that did it."

"Maybe a Durmstrang or Beauxbaton!" Justin gasped as if they were simply playing some sort of game of Guess Who.

"Why would they do it?" Hannah retorted.

"To throw Cedric off! So they win!"

"Or maybe a Gryffindor-- they might be angry that Hufflepuff are finally going to win something for once," Ernie suggested.

Nothing they were saying was helping with the slight paranoia that had been following her around all day. Amora's face scrunched up as felt disgust surge through her veins. She couldn't believe the way that they were talking about her as if she wasn't even there, or as if she hadn't stopped breathing and nearly died.

Maybe even if she had died they would still talk about her like this. Like it was some sort of clue game.

"Would you lot shut up?" Amora snapped, "I don't think you understand how pathetically stupid you all sound right now!"

Her housemates all raised their eyebrows, cautiously backing off the teenage girl who was gripping her spoon far too hard to be natural. Someone muttered something under their breath, but Amora didn't catch it. She was glad she didn't catch it as well, otherwise she would have most likely bitten their head off. She wasn't in the mood anymore. Part of her wanted to just take her bowl down to her room with her.

Thankfully, Kathy and Leon came to join her about a minute later. Leon extended his arm and threw it over Amora's shoulder casually, squeezing it and then releasing her. Amora got a whiff of the familiar scent of his cologne and the clean smell of his school uniform-- like baby powder or something. It calmed her as she sent him a small smile.

"All right, Amora?" He asked as he reached forward to the middle of the long table and grabbed a jug of pumpkin juice.

"Don't ask her that," Zacharias huffed, rolling his eyes. "She'll snap your head off, mate."

The sandy-haired boy's words pushed Amora over the edge. She dropped her spoon far too harshly, the clattering sound making Leon jump. He frowned between Amora and Zacharias as the brunette moved onto her feet, glaring down at the Hufflepuff Leon often found himself clashing with too. He was quite cynical, preferring to keep to himself unlike the rest of the Hufflepuff boys who looked out for each other.

"You bet I bloody will," she spat at him. "But not his-- yours, you useless twat."

Leon began to choke on his pumpkin juice, Kathy smacking his bed whilst watching with wide eyes as Amora pulled her legs over the bench. Hannah called her name, but the brunette was already storming out the hall and into the foyer.

"Amora!" Hermione beamed innocently as she passed the Golden Trio heading towards the Great Hall, but she ignored them, trying to get to the Hufflepuff dorms as quickly as she could.

"Amora?" Harry called worriedly. "Amora!"

The brunette felt a hand grab her arm and she turned, facing Harry. Hermione and Ron were gone, leaving her with just a worried-looking green-eyed boy. He peered at her cautiously and took a step back, his hand falling from her wrist as he scanned her up and down, as if looking for the reason her face looked so furious.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I will be fine," Amora couldn't remove all of the venom from her tone as she sighed heavily. "I just want to be alone right now, okay?"

"What happened?" Harry urged, grabbing her hand. "Did someone say something?"

"For Merlin's sake, Harry!" Amora cried, tugging her hand out of his weak grasp. "I told you I wanted to be alone! What part of that are you struggling to comprehend?"

Harry looked taken aback, hurt even, as he took a step back. He watched as Amora scoffed at him, looking like she wanted to apologise for a second, but her eyes filled with tears and she took off in the direction of where the yellow house resided. He was dumbfounded, turning around to head towards the hall after Ron and Hermione.

Draco Malfoy stood at the entrance doors, leaning against the wall with his arms folded and a vicious smirk on his face, green eyes glittering. Harry glared as Draco pushed himself up from the wall, burying his hands into the pockets of his green robes as he sent Harry a small shrug.

"What's that all about?" He teased.

Harry said nothing but shoved Draco's shoulder with his own, storming towards the Great Hall. However, when he turned, Draco wasn't snickering at him like he expected, but already gone.

D.M + A.B

"Amora?"

She turned from where she was facing the wall of barrels, about to tap her wand to the usual rhythm on the correct one, her heart thumping at the sight of Draco. He looked worried, brows furrowed as he moved forward. Amora met him halfway down the hall, his hand grabbing her jaw and lifting her face to meet her eye. Her hand grasped his wrist weakly, his touch freezing yet burning her skin simultaneously.

"What happened?" He demanded.

"They were all pissing me off," Amora admitted, "Saying it was you that attacked me."

"They don't know what the fuck they're talking about," Draco snapped, his large hand trailing down her jaw to her neck. "You know I would never do that."

She felt the cold metal of his ring press against her skin as he lightly placed his fingers there, backing her against the wall. There was nothing aggressive about the way he kissed her though. His lips were soft and tender against hers. It was like he was trying to kiss her in replacement for the words he wished he could get out but couldn't. Amora hoped one day he would be able to talk to her properly.

His breath fanned her face as they pulled away. Amora's hand stroked up his cloak and she tugged at his sleeve, bringing him closer so she was even more sandwiched against the wall, his intoxicating scent filling her nostrils. It calmed her in a different way to what Leon's smell did. She felt safe now, like nothing any of her Hufflepuff friends said could ever hurt her. Not when Draco was this close.

It scared her how fast and hard she had fallen for somebody that she swore to hate merely months ago.

"Pansy told me a lot of people have been saying it," Amora said, watching as Draco's face hardened. "Is that true?"

"It is," Draco huffed, running his fingers through the hair that was sprawled in front of Amora's face, tucking it behind her ear and stroking it. "Saint Potter and your friend Holloway were going on about it yesterday. Zabini told me they were saying it was probably me to Longbottom and that lot."

Amora found herself frowning. She'd specifically told the two of them that she knew it wasn't Draco, that not only did she have a feeling but she personally knew, and they had still gone around, spreading harmful assumptions. Draco smoothed the frown lines on her forehead out with his fingers as the rest of his hand stroked through her hair, dragging her attention away from her thoughts.

"I'm sorry," Amora blurted, "I told them it wasn't you, but they never listen."

"It doesn't matter," Draco grumbled, "You know it wasn't me, so no other opinions matter. So long as the stupid rumour doesn't get out to Dumbledore and my father doesn't have to get involved."

Amora shuddered at the idea. Lucius Malfoy was quite terrifying.

They heard laughter echo around the corner and Amora flinched away from Draco's hand. He leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead.

"Sleep well," he said, glancing over his shoulder one more time and heading down the hall, pulling his cloak over his head to hide the back of his platinum hair from the second year Hufflepuffs arriving back to the Common Room.

"Hi, Amora," they all greeted her sweetly.

"Hi, girls," Amora replied absentmindedly, forcing a small smile as she watched Draco's figure finally disappear around the corner.

She could get used to this Draco.

D.M + A.B

A week had passed since Amora had blown up on Zacharias in front of the Hufflepuffs, but word had spread because of it that Draco was innocent. In public, they acted as though they meant nothing to each other, sometimes exchanging small nods and only ever talking about the work during Defence Against the Dark Arts, however, as soon as the dark blanket of stars fell over Hogwarts, they were roaming the halls with one another, hiding in the shadows and kissing on top of the Astronomy Tower.

It was a wonder that nobody had caught onto them yet. Kathy was so wrapped up in Leon that she barely noticed Amora sneaking in and out of the dormitory. Most of her friends were more worried about looking out for whoever had attacked her. Amora was concerned about it too, but the worry had faded more into the back of her mind as time slowly crept by.

People had stopped talking about it as much now. Nobody really cared much anymore. There were bigger things to talk about, like the fact that Barty Crouch's body had turned up dead inside the Forbidden Forest. Amora had shuddered when she found out about it, especially since Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been the ones to stumble upon him whilst out with Hagrid.

That's why she was so surprised to hear her name being hissed whilst she was sat in the library, studying and minding her own business. She heard girly whispers as she stood from her table, heading over to one of the book shelves and pressing her ear against it in order to listen to the students talking about her.

"Shh!" She heard a familiar hiss. "Somebody might hear you."

"I'm sorry, Ginny, but I need you to promise me. You need me to promise that you didn't do it."

"I didn't do it!" Ginny cried, making Amora frown. "Why would I hurt Amora?"

"Because you're jealous of her," the other girl whispered in response. "You told me you hated her a couple of weeks ago because she kissed Harry under the mistletoe and you think he's in love with her!"

"I can't believe you'd accuse me of hurting her," Ginny replied, "I didn't mean it when I said I hated her! I was angry and upset--"

"Okay, okay," the other girl cut her off. "I was just scared that it really had been you."

"Eavesdropping, Miss Buckley?"

Amora jumped, her heart already pounding loud from Ginny's conversation as her eyes landed on Professor Moody. The man's magic eye twirled into the back of his head as students walked behind him, into another aisle. Amora stared at him uncomfortably, grabbing the closest book to her right and shaking her head.

"Just browsing, sir," Amora lied, glancing down and realising she had selected an Arithmancy book-- a class in which Amora didn't even take.

Moody freaked her out. He had ever since his introductory lesson to Defence Against the Dark Arts, where he'd performed all three of the Forbidden Curses. She hated his magical eye, too. She never knew where it was looking or what it could truly see.

Moody adjusted himself on his staff, his nose, which had a chunk missing from it from his days as an Auror, scrunching up. "I see," he muttered, "That's good, then. I'd be worried if you were listening in on things that were none of your business."

Amora's heart started to pound harder and she nodded quickly, shoving the book back where it belonged. "Right. I should go..."

As she moved to walk past him and get back to her belongings, his hand pressed onto her shoulder and she froze, her breath hitching.

"Good luck," he said.

"What?" Amora whispered, horrified.

"With your Arithmancy exam," Moody replied, "I heard there's a test coming up."

"Oh, right," Amora swallowed and ducked out of his way. "Thank you, Professor."

Amora swiped her books back up and didn't look behind her until she was in the comfort of her Common Room. Something didn't feel right about that man.

....

i'm so excited to write about this other side of draco that's trying to be open with amora!! BUT PLEASE LET ME KNOW if you think anything is moving too fast or if something doesn't make sense/is complicated etc.,, i would love for somebody to tell me now rather than when the book is complete and i can't go back and edit or adjust things for the next chapter if that makes sense!

like let me know if draco's being really OOC, or any of the characters actually, although it is my intention to make draco a little softer around amora and i have basically given blaise and pansy brand new personalities sooo

also i updated the playlist for this book (it's on the chapter called 'training wheels') bc the neighbourhood released "over the influence" and it literally made me think of them (but sixth year them)

anyways, hope this chapter was okay! last week of college next week and then i'm free for a couple of weeks :))

dyiansobrien <3333