There is only so much that a glittery dress can do for a broken heart.
A girl can spend an hour on her hair, perfect her makeup to a tee, and show up in the tallest high heels with everyone's eyes on her, but if he's not looking then...no one might as well be.
And believe it, he wasn't looking. Cue the disappointment. Not even a raise of his dark, oceanic eyes to acknowledge her presence in the cavernous Slytherin common room that first night back at Hogwarts.
Audette couldn't peel her burning, viridian gaze away from her handsome ex-boyfriend, Theodore Nott, probably in perfect imitation of a total psychopath. He was busy having a very calm and composed conversation with Gregory Goyle over by the licking green fire, none the wiser as it was. She hadn't seen him in months, and the mere sight of him was sending her heart into a painful intergalactic orbit.
Goyle did not appear to be listening as he swaggered with glistening eyes, burping in Theo's face obnoxiously, but Theo blatantly continued ranting about something inaudible to anyone not within a three meter radius. From the disinterest in Goyle's simple features it was likely the latest one of his grand theories about the universe and technomancy - something she had adored about his labyrinthine mind - now reminded that she was entirely excluded from his adorable rhapsodies.
Her thoughts swam once again for what felt like the thousandth time with the gut-wrenching imagery of his face on the quiet, arched stone bridge on his family's estate earlier that summer. Torment and exhaustion had lined his pretty features, his expression pinching with regret as he tore petals from a flower and dropped them one by one into the black, gurgling creek below.
She could recall thinking absentmindedly of the chant people often spoke when dismantling blossoms in such a manner, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me... Each petal that fell from it's ardent disassembly the pink rose grew more barren and depressing, and her heart had matched that energy with growing fearful anticipation.
Finally he'd stabbed the beast, his thick, dark eyebrows pushing together as he sighed, "Audette I'm tired. I need...I need time alone. We've been together since we were fourteen, and I just feel lost at this point, I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore." The last petal slipped out of his fingers alongside the last hour of their relationship.
When he'd looked at her then, remorseful and guilty, she'd swiveled away in shock and humiliation with her ears ringing so profoundly that it had muffled out the entire atmosphere - the breeze in her hair, the creek rippling, birds in the trees, and his endless apologies. He loves me not, apparently was the result. He'd side blinded her with the break up, or perhaps she had not been attentive enough to the preexisting red flags showcasing impending doom; either way she'd ended up spending the rest of the summer hiding in her bed and wallowing like a beached whale.
She sniffled in the dark lighting of the dank common room, wincing through the fiery burn of what was likely pure vodka in the drink she'd been handed by her best friend in order to deal with her undeniable grief. She'd put the entire female quarters through hell already, and it was only the first night they'd been back for their eighth year at Hogwarts.
"Four fucking years and now I don't even exist. If he sleeps with someone else I'll feed myself to the hags in the Forbidden Forest," she groaned to Guy Cosmos on her right, the most darling and devilish gay boy in the school. They had slumped into a green leather love seat with it's back facing the Black Lake's glass viewport, trying to avoid the spine tingling sensation of being watched by malignant aquatic creatures dwelling in the obsidian depths beyond.
Guy was a destructive gossip, suave, coy, critical, and bizarrely adored by the professors for his charming rhetoric. He'd somehow convinced the administrators that he should be permitted to sleep in the girl's tower, and it was only cleared on account of the dozens of recorded occasions he'd received violent attacks by the straight boys in their tower. That, and Severus Snape was far too uncomfortable to argue the topic.
Guy ran one of his lanky hands through his long lavender hair that stood on end as though he'd lost a fight with a hostile electricity pole, his icy white iris' scattering down Audette judgmentally with a deepening frown.
Inflicted with a rare magical gift at birth, Guy was a Metamorphmagus. His chosen physiognomy that night was sensationally vivid in the moody environment even for his dramatic self. He spoke bluntly out of compassion, "Now Audette see reason. He will sleep with someone else, he's a dodgy Slytherin bloke, just like all the rest of these dogs I'm afraid, and one of the hotties at that. Might as well brace that gooey heart of yours, or better yet beat him to it."
Audette growled at the helpless thought, her lovely face scrunching hideously as she attempted to bore two holes into the back of Theodore's head. They'd lost their virginity's to one another and she wasn't prepared to let that precious sentiment go just yet. Guy was right; it was inevitable, and perhaps she would be best off to jump into bed with someone else sooner than later, but it just wasn't in her nature to do so.
Guy had gone and strapped his green Slytherin tie around his tanned forehead, making him appear more akin to a young child at a camp instead of an adult moving into his final and quite serious years at the educational facility.
When she said nothing but point her jaw away he sighed dramatically, "Yes sweetheart keep it up, that pity party for one. It's not exactly anyone's greatest achievement to sleep with only one person in their lifetime, you know. If this is a competition to move on first then put him in your tail lights and dust him. Bottoms up, and let's take inventory of some fresh meat for you."
He raised his chin to stare at all of the nefarious Slytherin boys in the room with a new perspective, "It'll be good for you, loosen up a bit. Have some fun, journey fourth into the world, try out some new broomsticks." With that he downed his goblet, and Audette did the same in silent agony.
She shook her head, which had now begun to throb with a dull weight, breathing out heavily as she watched Theo swirl his thick mop of brown hair to the side. It moved like a wave of silky chocolate, and her heart squeezed like it was being pushed through a juicer, "What fresh meat? I know everyone here and I don't want them."
She singularly and stubbornly craved Theodore, standing there in his expensive white dress sweater and dark blue trousers. Sure, the men in Slytherin were renowned for being the better looking in school, but they were brutal and conniving, and Theo was the golden goose in her opinion.
Guy tilted his head as he analyzed Theodore as well out of pure necessity. Theo's hair had grown longer than the year prior and his physique was in better shape than ever, even so Guy fibbed through his teeth for the most part to soothe Audette, "He's nothing but a stupid little boy at the end of the day, a dime a dozen. But he's got a great rump I'll afford you that."
Theodore was far from a dime a dozen. He was intelligent, confident, gorgeous and adventurous. She was obsessed with the way he conducted himself in reserved integrity, the articulate words he selected while presenting complex theories, the smell of his clothing in the hot sunlight...
She turned to her rapscallion friend, sporting a dramatic pout while adjusting her tight pink umbrella dress that was arguably too elegant for the setting. She had quite a penchant for dated fashion, anything at all that might be worn by Audrey Hepburn if one could imagine. She'd even shown up with petite lace gloves that matched the ensemble, batting her eyelashes desperately up at Guy, "I need some drugs. What have you got?"
Guy shrugged, "Anything and everything for you, blondie, but it'll cost you several feet of parchment when I need help in Magiozoology."
His fingers had just begun to slip into his hand-me-down robes when he froze in place.
She followed his bulging eyes begrudgingly to where his fixation had landed on a signature, demonic person.
With a nervous laugh Guy started to irrationally straighten his rumpled robes, "Oh! Oh it's Draco Malfoy. Just look at that flashy smile-" his voice dipped low then as if to whisper heavily, "-bloody hell I think he's looking over here Audette. I'm going to faint - be a doll and catch me if I do."
"We are literally sitting you stupid git, unless you're planning to morph straight through the cushions," she shot a dry look at the entrance to the boy's dorms where sure enough the Prince of depravity had just stepped off of the bottom tread.
He was still in his school uniform, loosened and stripped down to the collared shirt and green tie. He'd gone and rolled up his sleeves just to show off his toned forearms and expensive watch. His arms were wrapped around Pansy Parkinson who had just bulldozed him on the spot with an intimate embrace, but his laser blue eyes were indeed glued to them over her shoulder, sitting there on the outskirts like antisocial fairies.
"I think you're right," she raised an eyebrow in disbelief. She gave Guy a hard pinch in his side to snap him out of it, "Don't encourage him, I don't want to talk to his ruddy arse. He's rude as all hell."
Guy was hardly listening, instead doing best and seriously cringe worthy effort to send Malfoy seductive eyes. He'd possessed an out of control crush on the very straight, very cruel Slytherin boy for eight years running and it was no secret to the entire school. Despite having boyfriends and no matter how many times he'd been bluntly informed that he was barking up the wrong tree it never seemed to sink in, and now of all days he was acting like a total fool at the slightest sign of acknowledgement that he even existed.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Audette on the contrary had not allowed herself to balloon into fanatic hysteria, glaring right back at the platinum haired playboy that she did not trust whatsoever. He'd procured one too many fruitful jokes out of her before, and had a reputation with girls that could curdle milk if one had any self respect.
He straightened and smiled down at Pansy, speaking to her over the roar of the raucous music, but his frosty orbs kept flickering in their direction.
She scoffed in disgust up at Guy who had now waved at least once without proper warrant, "Will you stop gagging? I'm going to faint from mortification if you don't cut it out. He's more likely to be staring at an ugly Grindylow behind us than you."
Guy flared his freakish pearly gaze down at her, "Speak for yourself, you old codger. Check it out he's coming over, it's our lucky day."
She could sense the corners of her mouth drooping childishly at the sight of her ex-boyfriend's nasty friend indeed weaving his way between other students with a bottle of something questionable in one of his slender hands.
As if in slow motion her eyes focused on his movements as he guided people out of his path with athletic precision, boasting one of the most heartthrob grins she'd ever seen in her life. Just as soon as the hypnotism had begun she shut her eyes in disciplined protest. No, absolutely not.
She did not want to partake in the mockery of the entire situation, and debated turning around and escaping to bed for the night. Each one of the Slytherin men in Theo's age group knew she'd not only been dumped over the summer but was sulking pathetically as well.
All of the years she'd spent at Theodore's side they'd been much more reclusive in public settings, Theo having been the gentlest of giants amongst the Slytherin hell hounds. As a result she had never grown close to any of the men he shared his private quarters with, and thankfully so.
Draco Malfoy was the last of them that she cared to explain the circumstances of their falling out to - he was quick witted and snarky, pompously wealthy, and took wicked pleasure in bullying those around him just to assert his dominance and status.
With women it was either this or arrogant flirting, expecting with mild realism that they would swoon over his good looks and charisma. She herself had fallen for it more than once only to be brutally awoken from the daydream by him snickering in her face and taking jabs at her starry eyes - it was not under any circumstances going to reoccur.
He stopped in front of them reeking of pretension and cigarettes, visibly chewing on his tongue and sliding his striking eyes between Guy and Audette as if they were two desperate puppies in a shelter competing for his selection. Guy might as well have been from the way he was perching precariously on the edge of the sofa, drooling thirstily.
Draco's silvery gaze rested upon Audette, sitting there providing no sort of hospitality other than a dusty sneer.
He predictably gestured in tease to her attire with the hand that was holding the pricey whiskey bottle, "How's it going Audette? The thirties called, they want their drapes back."
She instantly dropped her arms in a huff, surprised even with herself that she'd given him a momentary benefit of the doubt that anything other than an insult would've left his lips upon impact.
Guy laughed in her peripherals as if Malfoy had said something utterly hilarious. What a sycophant, she sarcastically thought in disapproval.
She rolled her eyes away, "And the ocean called, they want their crabs back."
Draco snorted, popping his eyebrows in amusement, "Seriously, it looks as though you attempted to peel the wallpaper off of Umbridge's powderoom." He bit his bottom lip baring flawlessly white teeth in order to keep from bursting out into a very rude chuckle at the reaction on her face, his pointy nose pulling back in an entertained jeer.
Audette flattened her expression then with controlled poise, wishing without rationale that he would just leave. He'd obviously sought her out just to make fun of the very blistering separation between her and Theodore. The entire Slytherin house was babbling on about it, and she realized in despair that this was going to become the norm.
She straightened her spine, "I know why you're here. Just get it out of your system Malfoy, so I can go strip down Umbridge's foyer and make myself a pair of pajamas for bed."
He turned his piercing attention to Guy then, who's eyelids had grown quite hooded with unmasked desire as he drunkenly stared up at Malfoy.
Draco made a silly face at the obvious adoration, "Why don't you take a spin around the galaxy, Cosmos?"
It took Guy an entire minute to comprehend that he was being unfortunately dismissed from the interaction like a discarded party cup. He sobered up with disappointment, stiffening from the couch and shooting Audette an intrigued look over his shoulder as he drifted by accident into the back of a large Slytherin boy, causing them both to spill drinks all over the place.
Draco fell next to Audette into the newly vacated spot, wrapping his arm brazenly around her shoulders with a masculine huff. A perfumery onslaught of booz and pine cologne suddenly grew rank around Audette as Malfoy hung his head sideways to stare up at her at an angle, "Boo hoo for you huh? Nott finally came to his senses and put himself back on the market."
His eyes danced all over her side profile, and she shivered at the unpleasant confrontation, "I suppose you suspect I'm in great mourning and my entire world has ceased to rotate." She stared straight forward as if hypnotized by the black pillar a few meters away which was supporting the vaulted ceiling above, holding her gloved hand out suggestively.
He surrendered the whiskey with a sly smile, watching her chug from it like a pirate, "Suspect? You're piss poor at hiding it, Bellarose. You stink of misery. You need an intervention, I can help with that."
"Disgusting," Audette hissed out icy hot air from the strong liquor as she lowered the bottle. She was genuinely stunned that even Malfoy would be willing to commit such voluntarily friendship suicide, as Theodore would surely be left injured by his best friend targeting his only ex-girlfriend.
"What's disgusting? I haven't mentioned anything in particular," Draco smirked crookedly at her.
She swallowed away the tang of the alcohol residing on her tongue, "No respect for your relationship with Theo I see." Across the room she ignored the craning of Pansy and Guy's necks as they not-so-covertly watched her and Draco actually speaking to one another for more than ten seconds.
He shook her shoulders interactively, forcing her to lean her face towards him with a look that could melt granite, "Come now darling, don't you want to make him jealous? He's already proclaimed you're fair game. It's a win-win." He took back the bottle, winking at her sideways as he poured it down his throat like water.
His white hair slid in silky arcs as he tilted his head, his jawline sharp, and Audette had to keep reminding herself of how slimy his personality was underneath the beauty right in front of her.
She watched him with a blank glare meant to exact discomfort, but instead his crystalline orbs held her eye contact boldly. He was dripping with confidence and smug superiority; it was downright intimidating. Internally her heart began to shrivel away like a dehydrated mango at the news. Theodore had told the boys she was fair game? It truly was over then; very, very over.
Malfoy's eyes slid sideways without changing the angle of his face so that he could peer at Theo while whispering in her ear authoritatively, "Check it out, already he's bothered. Should we rub in just how much of a pig's ear he's made of letting you go?"
With Draco's warm, minty breath tickling her neck Audette sat mesmerized by Theodore's freshly formed scrutiny of her cuddling up with another boy in the same room. And just as quickly her hope was blown like a bomb when he nodded carelessly at Draco, his eyes slithering away in awkward jilts with only a hint of injury.
"What are you playing at?" she turned her face so quickly into his that their noses collided and Draco pulled back laughing.
Audette was jam packed with disbelief and distrust. As it was their first night back everything felt warped and unreal now that she wasn't with her beau of so many years at her side. It all presented as a fever dream, one that she would hopefully wake up from any moment.
Malfoy tickled her shoulder with his fingers where his arm was still wrapped around her figure, running his cool eyes down her body like a predator.
He frowned sarcastically, "You seem like a...habitual female. Sparky, though. Just shooting my shot before you land yourself in another long-term nightmare. Are you offended?"
Of course she was offended.
Again, there is only so much that a glittery dress can do for a broken heart. Apparently, all it did was attract unwanted attention.
There existed in the back of her mind the very real possibility that he was hitting on her without any sincerity whatsoever; for all she knew it was meant to be a total farce intended to get the better of her in a public setting. Audette preferred to think that she was fairly attractive, but never before had she established any concrete synergy with the dastardly player until that very night.
She sucked in air so deeply that her lungs burned from the volume she was demanding they play host to. Her lips formed a hard, defensive line, "Yes and you yourself are habitual but not in any manner I'd care to describe. I'm abhorred by your feeble efforts to seduce me, and I'm going to bed Malfoy. Maybe you aught to do the same. You're acting a nutter. You and I - what a jest."
She wasn't stupid enough to risk ruining her chances of a reunion with Theodore right off the bat by sleeping with Hogwart's biggest aristocratic womanizer the very first night.
Draco snorted loudly as she gathered herself with inebriated grace, almost tripping as a curtain of her long, wavy blond hair blinded her while she slipped her tall heels back on in a stumble.
She caught a sympathetic glimpse from Theodore watching her struggle, holding a bottle midway to his lips, and her stomach did a nauseated flip. Everything about that night was wrong.
Malfoy called out to her as she beelined with a broken heart for the stairs, her little fists clenched so hard that the fabric of her gloves was getting sucked into the vortex of her tense palms, "Offer still stands when you come crawling back, Bellarose!"
To her sheer embarrassment she overheard more than half of the common room cackling at the communal display as she waltzed angrily around the rotund flight upwards. She stomped aggressively on the ancient stone treads, muttering curse words in conjunction with Malfoy's name under her frightfully spicy breath.
Down below she could just barely make out the grouchy voice of Marcus Flint brusquely chuckling at her expense, "Absolute smoking wreck, Malfoy, good effort but it won't materialize. You realize she's the kind of dame who bawls after sex. Would put fifty galleons on it."
Audette stopped in horror on the fifth floor of historical circular architecture, slanting her skull against the archaic brickwork of the castle just to listen in carefully.
Theodore was presumably still in the common area, and despite everything he had no reason not to defend her honor. As such, she was surprised when no proper interjection on his part of any sort occurred. Perhaps he had gone to bed just as quickly.
There was a dreadful silence in the conversation - only the sounds of low discussions and the music playing - then Draco's bored voice cut through the reticence, "Only one way to find out."
Audette didn't need to hear any more. She continued barging up the vertical ascension in outrage; she absolutely did not cry after sex, but Draco Malfoy most certainly was not going to confirm that. Perhaps she would have some fun driving him up the wall trying to though.