TRAINING WHEELS—

best friend.

Pansy and Amora chose a pretty open booth at the Three Broomsticks; two butterbeers on the table in front of them and a few bags next to Pansy's body. A couple of hours of shopping had gone by and Amora already felt better in herself. Draco hadn't been on her mind much at all-- it was actually hard to think about him when Pansy was yapping away in her ear and inspecting practically every item she drifted by.

"What about him?" Pansy whispered, pointing in the direction of a few older Gryffindors who were sitting around a table enjoying their drinks and some food. "Draco hates Gryffindors. That would make him more angry than anybody else."

Amora sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. "Pans, I already told you-- I'm not looking for some rebound or to make Draco jealous. I meant it when I said I loved him; I can't imagine myself with any other guy. Not right now, anyway."

"Fine..." Pansy sighed in defeat. "What about a girl?"

"Pansy!"

"Okay, okay, I won't keep on," the ebony-haired muttered, "But I mean it, Amora. I let you be sad for a week, but now you have to start getting over him. Draco's the most stubborn person I know and, I hate to say it, but he doesn't go begging for forgiveness from anyone."

Amora remained silent, thinking deeply as she reached forward and grabbed her Butterbeer, taking a long swig of it. Her brain barely processed the sweet flavour or how Pansy was still blabbering on, she was too busy thinking about the time Draco did come begging for her forgiveness. The day he asked her to be his in the hospital wing.

The same hospital wing that he proceeded to end things at.

"Hey!" Pansy clicked her fingers in front of Amora's face. "Enough of that depressing look on your face. It's starting to make me depressed, and I don't like seeing you like this."

"Sorry..." Amora muttered, attempting to block Draco Malfoy out of her head as best as possible.

It was going fairly well, the two girls conversing about nothing and whatever, until the boy Amora was trying to forget about walked in. Blaise and Theo were right behind him, the smiles wiping off of their faces when they saw Amora and Pansy.

Draco paused in his tracks. Silver met amber for the first time in a whole week. A painful, agonising week. Amora found herself ripping her eyes away from his before he did. She couldn't stand to look him in the eye, or even look at him at all. She heard him clear his throat before he carried on walking, the three Slytherin boys finding a booth on the other side of the pub.

"Arsehole..." Pansy muttered bitterly, "I swear to Merlin, just say the word Amora and I'll hex him so hard he'll go crying to his father."

Amora's face screwed up in anger. "Do you know what the worst part is?" She spat, her hand curling around her drink so hard that her knuckles turned white. "Is that he knows that I love him. I can't pretend I don't care, because that's literally the reason why we broke up."

Pansy huffed. "Yeah. That would annoy me too. Like he has the upper hand or something."

"And- And I would have been totally okay with him not feeling the same had he just let me down easily!" Amora continued, feeling her rage grow with every word that left her lips. "But no! He had to call me an idiot and yell at me and try to force me to leave. I mean, my ego is in no way as big as his, but it really knocked me down a peg or two!"

Pansy grinned, biting down on her bottom lip and rubbing her hands together. "I love it when you get angry. Beats Sad Amora."

"Yeah, well he's pissed me off," Amora huffed, slumping back in her booth and folding her arms. "Literally that morning he was kissing me and telling me that I was adorable or whatever! If he wasn't ready to hear it, he should have just said so."

"He should have," Pansy agreed quickly, her usual mischievous glint in her eyes. "And it's his loss if he wants to act like a complete dick when his own girlfriend wants to tell him something. The coward doesn't even realise how brave you are. You have way more balls than him."

"Yeah, of course I do," Amora hummed, knitting her brows together. "You know, if I could date myself, I would. And I would be the best girlfriend ever. I'd get on so well with myself."

Pansy cackled in amusement, shaking your head. "You got some Firewhisky mixed with that Butterbeer?"

"No, but now I'm thinking of coming up with some sort of spell that will let me get with myself."

"Let me know when you come up with it," Pansy hummed, taking a sip of her drink. "I think I might like some for myself."

"Or we should just get married," Amora suggested.

Pansy's lips quirked upwards. "So long as I get to chose our theme."

"Done," Amora agreed, "And I don't want to wear heels."

"Sorted, as log as I don't have to walk down the aisle," Pansy said, "Would our wedding be indoors or outdoors?"

"Outside," Amora said, "By the beach. I love the beach."

"I hate the beach," Pansy deadpanned.

"Damn," Amora teased, "There goes that then."

P.P + A.B

DA meetings became a regular occurrence again after Gryffindor had played and beaten Slytherin in the Quidditch match. However, Harry didn't seem to think of it as much of a victory at all since Umbridge had banned him and the Weasley twins from Quidditch for life, going as far as to even confiscate their brooms. Amora frowned as she listened to Harry go on about how angry he was, their mutual hatred for the Minister-loving witch growing.

"Angelina's pissed at the three of us," Harry grumbled, his green eyes watching Hermione as she placed the cushions out by the bookshelves. "She says we should have waited for our own time to get back on Malfoy. Even McGonagall says we overreacted... that he was just provoking us because he lost the game."

"Well, he shouldn't have said what he did," Amora huffed out, hoping that it would be enough for them to end the conversation about Draco there.

Harry frowned. "How do you know what he said?"

"W-Well, I don't exactly know what he said, but I know it must have been bad for you to react the way that you did," Amora excused her mistake, mentally cursing herself for slipping up. "Plus it's Malfoy. He never seems to have anything nice to say."

That was sort of a lie. He had said plenty of nice things to her in the past. Things that had made her blush, words that she swore would stick with her for the rest of her life because they had made her swoon so badly...

"Yeah," Harry muttered, "He... Said things about my mum."

Amora's heart dropped. Part of her hoped Draco had been exaggerating to get rid of her that day in the hospital wing, but he'd been dead honest. He'd mocked Harry's deceased mother to his face.

Her stomach felt like it was in knots, not just from feeling sorry for Harry, but because it was yet another thing she couldn't defend Draco from-- not that it was her job to make excuses for him. It just made her conscience feel a lot better about loving him when she did.

"I'd say that I'm sorry, but I know how annoying that gets..." Amora murmured.

"Doesn't matter, anyway. You're not the one that should be apologising," Harry huffed, climbing to his feet when the first few members of the DA began to file through into the Room of Requirement.

For the rest of the lesson, though, Amora felt like she should be apologising profusely to Harry. For falling in love with Draco, the same guy who mocked his dead parents and made fun of Harry's friends and the Weasleys who had willingly taken him like one of their own.

Harry ordered everyone to go off in pairs like normal and practice all of the jinxes and hexes that they had learnt so far against each other. Spells and sparks were echoing all around Amora and Neville, filling her ears and blinding her eyes as she thought about everything that had happened in the past week and a half.

Her heart wasn't in it when she cast the jinxes against Neville and that much was evident when one of his spells sent her hurdling backwards. Groaning, Amora swore she could taste blood in the back of her throat as she stared up at the ceiling above. Within seconds, Neville was standing above her, looking panicked as he yelled for Harry.

"I'm fine," Amora groaned, sitting up slightly and rubbing her chest as she coughed. "Just got a bit winded."

Amora felt a hand on her back and turned her head to the side, finding Harry kneeling down beside her. His brows were tugged down into a frown behind his circular glasses, his green eyes shining into hers.

"Amora, are you doing okay?" He asked softly, "Maybe you want to sit this lesson out?"

"Yeah, maybe that's best..." Amora admitted, grabbing his arm as he helped her back to her feet, his hand rubbing her back where it had smacked harshly against the cold floor. "I've just been having... a funny week."

Harry probably thought she was weird. A few days ago he had seen her burst into tears in the middle of a corridor and now she could barely concentrate long enough to block a spell from Neville. Not that there was anything wrong with Neville, but it wasn't like he was eager to knock her down, meaning she must have been pretty out of it for it to happen.

If Amora promised herself that she would never let a boy ruin her life, then why did it feel like that was exactly what was happening? Like every single little thing she did required so much effort? To even get up and wash her hair every morning felt more painstakingly hard than usual, or even to lift her lips to a grin at her friends.

Amora left the Room of Requirement and began to head down the empty corridors, her eyes trained to her shoes. It was cold in the late November weather, causing her to hug her robes closer to her body. Her hand brushed against something metallic on her uniform and she pulled it away from her, brown eyes latching onto the golden badger pinned to her tie.

Amora's heart stopped and without a second thought, she ripped it from her uniform and put it in her pocket, an action that would unknowingly to her have Draco's heart also freezing in his chest when he saw it the following day.

Amora wished she had never been trapped in the library that night over a year ago.

D.M + A.B

Weeks crawled by. It was a week until school ended for Christmas and Amora was exhausted, more than ready for the break. She finished up some of her Potions essay in the library, enjoying how warm it was despite the corridors being so chilly that students often walked about constantly casting warming charms over themselves.

She felt like she could fall asleep at her desk, the scratching of her quill against parchment like a lullaby to her sleepy brain. She nearly gave in a couple of times, but the thought of being woken up by Madam Pince was enough to lurch her back to life, her brown eyes narrowing to focus on the words she was writing again.

A bag placed itself down in front of her and the chair scraped back. Amora was less than surprised to see that Pansy had joined her, but the ebony-haired girl looked nervous. That filled Amora with anxiety. Pansy never looked worried.

"What's wrong?" Amora questioned, dropping her quill and creating a quiet clattering sound that echoed in the large room.

Pansy rubbed her shoulder and avoided her eyes for a few moments. "I..." She sighed heavily, as if to release some stress from her shoulders, her entire body sagging in her chair a bit. "You know my parents threw a fit when I came out to them?"

Amora frowned and nodded. "Yes?"

"Well, I was thinking I was just going to stay at Hogwarts this Christmas," Pansy admitted, sounding less than enthusiastic. "I just need help writing a good enough letter to them. Which I-- Well, I haven't written to them all year so far."

Amora's heart thudded sympathetically. She reached across and placed her hand on top of Pansy's much paler one, giving it a small squeeze. Pansy didn't even flinch at the action- didn't tug her hand away. She'd started getting used to Amora's touch, even if it was a little bit too frequent for her liking.

Pansy often felt like things that didn't require ending in hugs alway did with Amora. Pansy finished her essay right before the deadline? Hug. They were calling it a night after spending the day together? Another hug.

"You want me to help you with a letter?" Amora asked, shoving aside her homework that was due by the morning.

Pansy pursed her lips and nodded. "If that's okay? You've always been... better with words than me."

"Of course..." The two girls spent the next hour writing up the best excuse that they could think of as to why Pansy needed to stay at Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays. There was about a dozen balls of parchment sat to one side, some from messing up and others completely joke-letters where the two girls had gone off on tangents and insulted Pansy's parents in the most creative ways they could think of.

When Madam Pince hushed them with one of the fiercest glares that Amora had ever seen, the pair got on with the letter. Amora watched Pansy sign off their work with a small smile.

"Yay!" Amora beamed, "That's done, then. All you have to do now is take it to the Owlery."

"Yep," Pansy sighed.

Amora's grin faltered. "What's wrong?"

"Well, I just... Have never spent Christmas without them," Pansy admitted, "It's going to be strange. But I'd rather be here by myself than in that vile house with them."

Amora looked lost in thought for a few moments. "Why don't I stay with you?" She suggested.

"No way!" Pansy shook her head quickly. "You've been way too excited to get away from this place for the past few weeks. You need to get home and clear your head, babe."

"I don't think I'd be able to clear my head knowing you were here spending your Christmas alone," Amora admitted, "And it would be cool, anyway! I get to spend Christmas with my best friend."

Pansy grinned. "It still throws me off when you call me your best friend."

"Well you are my best friend," Amora shrugged, "And a total upgrade from Leon, if you ask me."

Pansy flipped her hair mockingly. "Oh, I know. And you could ask anyone, actually."

The next day, Amora found her mother in her usual Muggle Studies classroom and, rather nervously, told her about her plan to stay back at Hogwarts for Christmas with Pansy Parkinson. To say her mother was shocked would be an understatement, but after a bit of convincing and a flash of her brown puppy dog eyes, her mother was putty in her hands.

"I have so many more Christmas' to spend with you and dad," Amora exclaimed, "But right now Pansy is having a rough patch with her parents, and she doesn't really have any family to spend her Christmas with-- I have to be here for her."

If anything, Professor Buckley had been more happy that Amora was such a loyal friend than sad that they wouldn't be spending Christmas together. So, Amora set off and signed her name to say that she was staying at school for Christmas, as did Pansy after they went together to send her letter.

Amora spent the rest of her week trying to get on with school work and ignoring the voice in her head that kept telling her to go and seek out Draco. Pansy said that if he wanted to find her, he would, so she just had to stay put until then. But the longer time dragged on, the more painful it hurt. And the more Amora began to think that maybe that really was it for them.

It came to her attention that perhaps Draco had never been looking for someone to fall in love with. Perhaps he had cared for her and liked her, but always knew that that was all it would be— nothing any deeper than that. Nothing as serious as love. After all, they were still just teenagers.

She began to think maybe she had overreacted. Amora didn't like to think about their last argument, his words cutting deep every single time. No. No, I don't love you.

That would hurt anyone to hear.

But it wasn't exactly his fault that he didn't love her back-- and he acted badly because he had clearly been startled. She shouldn't have sprung it upon him like that. Amora knew he was scared of feelings and she told him in the middle of a heated conversation, like some sort of last resort to get him to see her point of view.

At the same time, he'd said some nasty things that still couldn't be justified. He'd hurt her and made her feel insecure and worthless, and he'd been avoiding her ever since.

For over a month.

Amora moved through the doors and into the Great Hall. Tonight was the last meeting of the term for Dumbledore's Army, and then there was only a couple of days left before Christmas started. None of the other Hufflepuffs in her year were staying at school, so she'd have the whole dormitory to herself.

The twelve huge Christmas trees decorated the hall like they had been all month, as well as Hogwarts' usual Christmas decorations. Amora would know— she'd been on the prefect team helping everybody prepare before the first of December struck the school. It had been a lot of taking up jobs that were furthest away from whatever Draco was doing, which wasn't a lot. He seemed to think he was too good to help them with such tasks.

"Amora." Harry waved her over.

His voice had carried above the excited chatter of the hall and gained the attention of some members of the Slytherin table behind him. Amora caught Draco sending a fierce glare at the back of Harry's head, before his eyes drifted over to her. It sort of filled her with a sick rush of power to know that it would piss him off if she sat with the Gryffindors, particularly his enemy.

The brunette stared back at him for less than a second before hurrying towards Harry who was sitting with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and even Luna, who was a Ravenclaw. She settled down beside the younger girl and Harry, giving Luna a smile.

"Hello, everyone," she breathed.

"Hello, Amora," Luna chirped back, not afraid to look her in the eyes despite them being inches apart. "I must ask if you are doing okay? You have been giving off the most awful energy recently... very negative. Not good for you or anyone else."

Hermione sent Luna a glare. "You don't say things like that, Luna!" She hissed.

Hermione and Luna seemed to clash quite a bit due to their differing personalities and beliefs. Whilst Hermione believed in facts (which meant hard proof and no emotions attached), Luna was quite the opposite.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to offend," Luna said.

"No, no. It's fine," Amora promised with a small smile. "Just been stressing about exams being right around the corner. That's all."

"I can help you with Herbology if you want, Amora," Neville offered eagerly.

"Right around the corner?" Ron scoffed, "They're not until summer term, Amora."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "With an attitude like that, we can only hope you get more O.W.Ls than Fred and George."

"Amora's concerns are perfectly rational, Ronald," Hermione huffed, "Between all of our subjects, we have five years of content to revise. Six months is not long at all."

"I'll just wing it..." the red-haired boy grumbled, earning a small smile from Harry.

"Excited for DA tonight?" Amora whispered in his ear, smiling mischievously.

Harry chuckled and held her arm briefly to pull her closer so he could whisper back. "I'm thinking we start Patronuses after Christmas. Just some duelling tonight, maybe."

Amora nodded as she pulled away. "Sounds good."

A small crash came from the Slytherin table and suddenly Draco was flying out of his seat, storming out of the Great Hall with his robes flying behind him. Everybody frowned at his dramatic exit and Amora felt her heart sink, wondering what had happened.

"What got his knickers in a twist?" Ron raised his brows.

Hermione sent a look to Amora, but the Hufflepuff ignored her gaze.

"Probably on his way to cry about losing the match last month," Ginny snickered.

It earned a small chuckle from Harry and Ron, but there was a sinking feeling in Amora's stomach and she hated herself for it. Hermione wouldn't stop staring at her either, making it ten times worse.

"Actually, he's probably jealous of Harry and Amora," Luna said in her usual dreamy tone as she pushed about some peas on her plate. "I have seen the way he stares. He looks quite sad these days."

Hermione scowled. "Luna, would you please stop?"

Amora swallowed thickly. "Malfoy does not like me. Trust me."

Before the tears could burn in her eyes, Amora swung her legs over the bench and shot her friends a small smile.

"I'm going to head to my dorm and get a little rest before the meeting tonight," she murmured quietly.

Harry nodded. "S-Sure. See you there."

...

so i already have the next chapter written, it just needs some heavy editing because i'm not 100% satisfied with it and it's quite a big one. amora and draco will interact next chapter!

thanks for reading guys <333 also i posted a draco x reader x blaise smut to my tumblr the other night (just thought i'd do a bit of self promo bc you guys seem to like blaise!!)

dyiansobrien.