TRAINING WHEELS—
DRACO THE FERRET.

009

Amora's eyes flickered open due to a bright light shining in them, her brown orbs flinching at the sunlight streaming through the high windows and directly onto her face. Only then did she remember that she was still in the library, and realise that she was slumped against Draco Malfoy of all people, a stiffness to her neck that she was familiar with from falling asleep upright whilst reading. Her shifting caused Draco to move his head, his silver eyes blinking and confused.

"What the..." Draco's voice sounded deeper in the morning and he cleared his throat, sitting up straighter so that they weren't touching. "Oh, right."

"It must be seven at least," Amora insisted. "The sun's too bright for it to be any earlier."

Draco nodded in agreement, running his hands through his blond hair as he collected himself. He released a small yawn, about to say something when they heard the clicking of multiple locks. Their eyes widened simultaneously and they scrambled to their feet. Amora started to rush towards the exit when Draco grabbed her by the arm, yanking her backwards.

"What are you doing?" Amora questioned him. "Madam Pince is opening the doors--"

"Do you want us to get in trouble?" Draco looked at her as if she was stupid, tugging her by the sleeve of her robe even further towards the back of the library. "We can sneak out and if we don't get caught then we can get away with this whole thing. No points are taken away from either of our houses."

Amora looked like she was considering his idea, a small pout on her face. "But what about you telling your father? There's no point if you're going to te--"

"I won't tell him," Draco huffed. "In fact, I think it's best we tell as minimal people as possible, don't you? And we definitely tell nobody about..."

"The penguin thing?" Amora referred to them sleeping beside each other with a sly smile.

"Right. The penguin thing," Draco confirmed, looking down at her with a stern face. "I'm serious, Amora. If your roommates ask, you got sick or something and went to Madam Pomfrey."

Whilst Amora didn't think it was a big deal that she was stuck with Draco in the library, the blond boy clearly thought so, so she did her best to nod and respect his wishes-- even if it would have been a funny story to tell everybody. Draco sighed with relief at the brunette's agreement, and that's when the library doors were finally pushed open.

Draco held a pale finger to his own lips, warning Amora to be quiet. He held a hand on her wrist as he walked ahead of her, the two of them trying to stalk around the perimeter of the library as quietly as possible. They could hear Madam Pince at the desk of the library, most likely setting everything up for the day.

"She's not gonna move from the door," Amora whispered worriedly.

Draco closed his eyes with a regretful look on his face. He pulled out his wand and whispered a quick 'Wingardium Leviosa' on one of the books, lifting it up higher and higher and higher. Amora craned her neck to watch him slowly levitate the book aisles over, all the way to the other side of the library, and then he swished his wand and dropped it, a loud bang echoing on the other side of the silent room.

They heard Madam Pince's actions freeze before she took off rushing to the other side of the library. Draco grabbed Amora's wrist and the pair rushed towards the exit, breaths caught in their throats as if they couldn't believe that they were actually about to get away with it, despite being locked inside overnight not really being their faults.

As soon as they'd rushed out of the library and a little further down the hall, Draco pulled his hand off of her skin and the pair burst into laughter. Amora giggled, her forehead leaning on Draco's arm and his hand on her shoulder as they tried to calm down. After a few moments, they pulled away, cheeks rosy and eyes glistening with what could only be described as euphoria.

"That was so clever," Amora beamed at him.

Draco shrugged in almost a bashful way, smiling. "Yeah, well..." They heard footsteps coming down the staircase nearby and he grabbed her shoulder, gaze turning intense again. "Remember what I said," he hissed.

Amora frowned but nodded, and as a group of Ravenclaws came down early for breakfast, Draco took off in the other direction, leaving the brunette standing by herself. She watched as he marched away, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach like something might have changed between the two of them. Something small that might just lead to bigger things.

D.M + A.B

The only people in the Hufflepuff common room when Amora finally reached it were some seventh years who paid her no attention as she snuck by them and headed towards her dormitory. She dreaded pushing the door open, standing outside it for a few seconds and taking deep breaths whilst she counted herself in. Finally, she forced herself to open the door, nearly wincing when four pairs of eyes snapped towards her.

Kathy, Hannah, Susan, and Zena Jacobs looked a mixture of concerned and curious, and it was Kathy who was first to jump into action, rushing towards her and grabbing her arms.

"Amora, where were you last night?" Kathy demanded. "I was waiting for you for hours. I was worried! We almost went to Professor Sprout about it!"

The brunette froze, her lips parting to voice the lie that Draco had come up for her earlier. She regretted not mentioning to him before that she was possibly the world's worst liar.

"I- I was at the hospital wing," Amora managed to squeak out.

"Oh no!" Hannah gasped, moving forwards to stand next to Kathy as they gushed over the girl. "What happened? Are you all right now?"

Amora forced a small nod and a fake smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, of course! I got to the, um, the library last night and some first years were practising spells or something. Got hit in the head by a flying book!"

She breathed out in relief as Hannah pulled her into a hug, clearly believing the lie that she had given. Amora felt like her skin was crawling with shame and guilt, yet at the same time, she felt somewhat proud of herself for coming up with a lie that quickly on the spot. As Hannah pulled away, Amora met the brown eyes of Susan. The ginger girl was staring at her unsurely, and then she scanned Amora's body over.

"Amora!" Susan practically shrieked. "Why on earth are you wearing a Slytherin jumper?"

Amora's eyes enlarged and snapped down to her chest where the green crest was no longer hidden by her robes. Everybody looked to her unsurely, waiting for her next move. Amora felt like her throat was closing up, panicking as she tried to come up with yet another lie.

"Um-" She stammered. "I was cold! And there was a seventh year Slytherin-- I can't remember his name now. But he was in the wing too, and he gave me his jumper."

Everybody seemed a little suspicious at this point, everybody apart from Zena who was a little ditsy anyway and probably didn't care enough to question her. The ebony-haired girl just went back to getting changed ready for breakfast which was quickly approaching.

"I need to shower," Amora cut in before anybody could ask any more questions, her cheeks burning red. "I'll meet you down at breakfast."

Hannah moved out of the way so Amora could grab her stuff from inside her trunk and then rush to the bathroom. She slammed the door shut behind her and stared in the mirror, realising that she looked sleepy... but alive. Her face was slightly flushed from a mixture of lying and running away from Madam Pince, and her hair was a little messy at the top from not having access to a brush when she woke up.

Amora took off her robes and left herself in Draco's jumper. She smoothed her hand across the crest and the neckline, wondering how she was going to return it to him without anyone suspecting anything. Normally, students had about two jumpers in case one got dirty, so Amora assumed Draco could hold off for a day or two until they were alone. Maybe she could pass it over next week in their Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

As Amora pulled it over her head, she caught a whiff of Draco's cologne and she recalled falling asleep against him last night. For some reason, she didn't feel as embarrassed or grossed out by it as she thought she would. Amora folded it neatly on the side as well as the rest of her uniform and climbed into the shower, letting the hot water stream down her body and heat her up.

Something had definitely changed, but Draco had made it transparent that they would not be talking about it anytime soon.

D.M + A.B

The weekend came and passed slowly. Amora didn't see much of anybody apart from Leon and Harry. After spending Saturday at Hogsmeade, Amora and Harry played Wizard's Chess where he told her how Ron still wasn't talking to him. Apparently, the Weasley boy believed whole-heartedly, just like the rest of the school, that Harry had cheated and put his name in the Goblet himself. Amora couldn't believe that Ron was so blindly following the crowd.

When Monday rolled around, Amora was less than surprised but still disgusted to find that half the school were wearing badges with Harry's face on it that read 'Potter stinks' and made whirring noises when they spun. Amora had a small headache by the time she'd walked halfway down one of the corridors, and she really hoped that Cedric had nothing to do with them.

"Amora!" One of the sixth year boys Cedric hung out with rushed towards her with a box full of badges. "Want to support your cousin? You can have a free--"

"No thanks, Benny," Amora pushed his hand away as he went to hand her one.

Benny didn't seem to care as he jogged further down the hall to hand badges to more students who were more than willing to take them. Up ahead, Amora saw the boy everybody had been talking about rushing ahead, trying to ignore everybody who was muttering crude remarks as he walked by.

"Harry!" Her voice stopped him and caused him to turn, a sigh of relief crossing his face as she rushed towards him, her robes flying slightly behind her.

"Thank Merlin it's you," Harry muttered. "I thought you'd be yet another person to yell 'Potter sucks' in my face."

Amora frowned sympathetically, placing a hand on the taller boy's arm. "I'm sorry, Harry. We should talk to Cedric about it, he can probably get everybody to stop wearing them."

Harry nodded in agreement as the pair went to walk down some steps outside, only to get blocked by Hannah and Ernie Macmillan, another Hufflepuff in their year. Ernie grabbed the badge and practically forced it into Harry's face.

"Like the badge?" He grinned teasingly.

Amora's face scrunched up in slightly disgust from behind them. "Not cool, guys," she spat, shoving them apart and walking through them so Harry could follow.

Cedric was lying across a bench in the middle of the grass, some of his friends hanging around him as they all messed around, laughing and yelling. Amora sighed and grabbed the sleeve of Harry's robe, dragging him over. Cedric sat up as soon as he saw his younger cousin and Harry Potter, shoving off his friends.

"Hey, read the badge, Potter!" One of them laughed above the others who were making mocking sounds.

Harry ignored them. "Can I have a word?"

Cedric looked slightly surprised that it was Harry who wanted to talk to him and not Amora, but he nodded and walked away with the younger boy. The rest of the Hufflepuffs called rude chants after him and Amora folded her arms across her chest, a glare on her features.

"You guys are seventeen making fun of a fourteen-year-old. Grow up," she hissed.

"Oo, sorry Professor Buckley," they all mocked, making her roll her eyes.

She watched as Harry and Cedric spoke and it looked like Cedric was trying not to smile at the remarks his friends were continuing to call whilst he nodded politely with whatever Harry was saying. Amora started to walk over when Cedric grabbed Harry's robe.

"About the badges, I asked them not to wear them--"

"Don't worry about it," Harry shook his head before his eyes landed on Ron walking with Seamus and he started to storm over.

Amora moved straight past Cedric and jogged to keep up, one hand on the strap of her backpack to keep it from falling off. She could sense the tension between the two best friends as Harry stopped right in front of the red-haired boy, a furious expression written across his face.

"You're a right foul git, you know that?" Harry spat at him.

Amora's eyes widened, wondering what could have possibly happened between the pair that caused Harry to be so rude. Nevertheless, she kept quiet as she hovered beside him, exchanging a glance with Seamus.

"You think so?" Ron muttered darkly.

"I know so," Harry insisted.

"Anything else?"

Harry looked a little taken aback as he contemplated his next words. "Yeah, stay away from me."

"Fine," the Weasley boy grumbled, making sure to bump his shoulder as he moved past, Seamus following him.

Amora frowned softly. "What happened, Harry?"

"Ron didn't tell me about the first tournament," he said. "There are dragons, Amora."

"Dragons?" She squeaked back, feeling lightheaded at the idea of her cousin and Harry having to interact with the creatures that breathed fire and were big enough to crush stadiums of students.

Harry nodded before they heard some more snickering coming from the left of them. When Amora glanced up, the last thing she expected was to see Draco sat in a tree, a grim smirk on his face whilst his friends stood around the bottom. They briefly made eye contact before Amora tore her eyes away, about to insist that they go somewhere else, but Draco had to open his gob.

"Why so tense, Potter?" The Malfoy boy grinned, making Harry pause and close his eyes. "My father and I have a bet, you see. I don't think you're gonna last ten minutes in this tournament."

Draco dropped down from the tree and started to march towards them, his entire gang following behind. Amora grabbed onto Harry's arm, trying to pull him away, but he shrugged her off. Draco's eyes burnt into her hands and his smirk turned even eviler.

"He disagrees. He thinks you won't last five!" Draco and his friends began to laugh as Harry stormed right up to him, finally bursting as everybody's words started to get to him.

"I don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy," Harry yelled, shoving Draco back and wiping the smile off of his face. "He's vile and cruel and you're just pathetic."

As Harry started to head towards Amora, his back to the bullies, Draco grew angrier and angrier and reached into his robe to grab his wand. Amora grabbed Harry as she yelled Draco's name, but Professor Moody had already clocked what was going to happen, snapping his wand in the direction of the ice-haired boy and causing a shriek to escape him.

Amora's eyes widened as Draco quickly shrunk smaller and smaller, turning into a white ferret on the floor. Harry looked equally as stunned as their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher marched over, practically growling with fury.

"I'll teach you to curse someone when their back is turned!" Moody snapped, lifting him up and down with the wand as everybody else laughed, including Harry. "You stinking, cowardly, scummy--"

"Professor Moody!" Amora cried, not finding the act funny whatsoever as he lurched Draco up and down and up and down. "Turn him back!"

Even Draco's friends were snickering and Amora found herself feeling immensely sorry for him. Nobody deserves to be humiliated like this in front of everybody. Draco deserved a smack on the wrist and a few house points taken away, but this didn't feel right to Amora one bit. It felt cruel and an abuse of power. She would have stuck up for anybody in that scenario.

"Professor Moody, what are you doing?" Professor McGonagall came rushing over to them.

"Teaching," Moody growled.

"Is that a-- Is that a student?" She gasped in disbelief.

"Technically, it's a ferret," he replied.

Moody lifted the squeaking animal even higher into the air and dumped it down the front of Crabbe's trousers, making the boy cry out. They'd attracted an even bigger crowd of laughing students and Amora felt sick to her stomach.

"Professor McGonagall, that's Draco Malfoy!" Amora cried to her.

The laughs grew even louder in her ears as Goyle tried to grab the ferret out of Crabbe's trousers, only to retreat his hand, shaking his bitten finger. Amora held her hand to her mouth as Draco slivered out the trouser leg and onto the floor. McGonagall pulled her wand out and pointed it at the ferret which quickly transformed back into a panicked Draco.

He stood up, his hair ruffled as he turned to face Moody, flinching and jumping back. "My father will hear about this!"

"Is that a threat?" Moody yelled and started to chase Draco around the tree. "I could tell you stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair, boy!"

Amora looked physically pained as she watched their less than sane teacher yell after Draco. She glanced at Harry who was still grinning from ear to ear before she set off in the direction that Draco had disappeared in, leaving Professor McGonagall to scold the ex-Auror.

Her short legs attempted long strides as she turned a corner and saw Draco storming towards the direction of the Slytherin common room. Not many people were around so she called his name, eyes widening as he whirled around with a glare on his face. Amora rushed over to him, ignoring the look he was giving her.

"Are you okay?" She asked him worriedly. "Moody shouldn't have done that--"

"Why do you care, Amora?" Draco spat cruelly, making her flinch backwards. "Listen to me very clearly, okay?" With every step he took towards her, she took one back. "Just because we both ended up in the library last week does not mean we are friends. Not now, not ever."

Amora's face fell. Of course, she wouldn't call Draco Malfoy a friend of hers, but she thought that after that Thursday night that they'd grown civil with each other. The way he hadn't glared at her when they locked eyes at Hogsmeade on Saturday had confirmed that for her, but apparently she couldn't have been further from the truth.

"Draco--"

"What is it?" Draco sneered. "You got some sort of crush on me now because I gave you my jumper? How pathetic!"

Amora's face was red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. Her nose scrunched up and she shoved Draco backwards by the shoulder, just like Harry had done to him earlier. Draco looked at her with the exact same expression he had given the boy with glasses.

"You wish, Draco," Amora hissed. "Trust me, you would be lucky if I had a crush on you, but you're the last person I would ever like. You're cruel and heartless and selfish and downright mean!"

Draco's lip was curled as he stared down at her, his eyes burning with something Amora couldn't quite detect. She somewhat hoped her words were hurting him, perhaps knocking some sense into him. She'd seen how he could be good if he wanted to, but Draco seemed to make all the wrong mistakes over and over.

"Is Malfoy bothering you, Amora?"

Amora and Draco turned to face Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff friend of Amora's. Although, she hadn't really spoken to him yet this year. He was supposed to be a friend of Harry's too, but since he was announced a Triwizard champion, Justin, along with a lot of other Hufflepuffs, believed that Harry was just trying to steal the glory from Cedric.

"No, I'm fine," Amora insisted, starting to back away from the white-blond haired boy.

"Are you sure?" Justin questioned.

Draco glared at Justin, no doubt because he was not only interrupting them but also a Muggle-born.

"She said she's fine, Mud—" Draco stopped himself from finishing his sentence and clenched his jaw before turning on his heel and marching back to the Slytherin common room.

It looked like Draco and Amora were back to square one.

...

tried to proofread this last night but i literally fell asleep whilst doing it so it's not done properly

thanks for reading and check out my tumblr (malfoysstilinski) if you want :) i have multifandom imagines up there, including a draco one :)))

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