Chapter 5: Argument



The following weeks were a little bit awkward for Astoria and Draco. Slytherins just love teasing them both. Draco didn’t like the idea because it feels awkward for them to just be together alone. Astoria thinks it’s a little bit childish of them. Still, both were completely normal with how they are in school. Draco is still bullying Potter and his friends. Astoria is still an introvert. Even with her sudden popularity when the school knew Draco was dating her, she felt awkward about it. She didn’t want the attention she was getting. It was stupid and irrelevant.

During breakfast she receives a gift from her parents. She opened the black packaged and received a new pair of black gloves for winter and a new book to read. Astoria read the first chapter for awhile and liked the book. Although she got irritated because she wants to concentrate reading it and everyone was just too noisy. She decided to read it at the Hogwart’s Astronomy tower.

It was getting colder nowadays. Snow has been around for a couple of days and students are getting sick because of the cold weather. As she got nearer to the top she heard someone sobbing.
“Who could it be?” Astoria thought. The person who was crying felt so hurt. She was sobbing a lot and you can almost feel her pain. It was like someone held up crying for so long that it was finally time to cry it all out. Astoria went further to see who it was.
“Pansy?” Astoria called her name. Pansy was crying a lot. No one has ever seen Pansy cry, heck, no one ever saw her with genuine feelings. Pansy wiped her tears when she heard Astoria call her name.
“What do you want, Greengrass?” Pansy asked but she was still sobbing.
“Are you oka—“
“I don’t need your sympathy!” Pansy was back to her straight face.
“What’s wrong?”
“You want to know what’s really wrong?”
“Yes, I wann—“
“It’s you!” Pansy looked at her. Astoria was confused to her accusation. “I like Draco—A LOT! I’ve never told this to anyone but you don’t need to be a genius to know how much I yearn for him.” Pansy started confessing. “Astoria I hate you and probably I won’t make sense right now but I want you to break up with him or I’ll do it myself. You don’t deserve him.”
“And you do?” Astoria answered back sarcastically. “Draco is no genius and yet he doesn’t know about the feelings you’re talking about. He can date whoever he likes.”
They both looked serious enough to kill each other at the tower but no one drew their wands.
“I’m his best friend, Astoria. No matter what you’ll do he’ll listen to me first.” Pansy left the tower.
Astoria sat on the side and opened her book but as she continued reading, she can’t stop thinking about what Pansy just told her. She didn’t bother reading that day so she left the tower instead.

The next day she went to get some peaceful reading at the Hogwarts Lake but instead she saw Draco waiting for her.
“It’s cold outside. Students get sick because of it. You should go inside, Draco.” They both stared at the lake. It was slightly turning to ice.
“That’s the same thing I would tell you, that’s why I’m here.” Draco offered his scarf to Astoria.
“We need to talk Draco.” Astoria thinks that it’s probably a good time to discuss about what Pansy told her the other day.
“Go ahead.” Draco sat to listen.
“It’s about Pansy Parkinson” Astoria started.
“What about her?”
“She told me to stay away from you… break up… she’ll get revenge if I don’t… stuffs like that.” It got silent for awhile. No one looked at each other, they just stared at the open body of water in front of them.
“She’s mean to me, Draco. I get it she doesn’t like me but she could at least give me some respect because you’re my boyfriend.” Astoria turns to Draco.
“You know Pansy, she’s always like that.” Draco stated.
“That’s it?”
“What?” Draco looked confused.
“You’re not going to scold her about this?”
“Why would I Astoria? It’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal?” Astoria raised her voice.
“We’re talking about Pansy. Of course she’s mean, she’s bitter, she’s prejudicial, she’s Pansy.”
“I can’t believe this—you’re actually taking her side.” Astoria was already annoyed.
“No! I’m just saying—“
“But no, I need to go.” Astoria stood up and Draco caught up with her.
“Astoria, listen.”
“WHAT?!” Astoria started to tear up. “I’ve been holding up to this conversation for days now and you act like it’s perfectly normal for her to that to me. Yes Draco, she bullies people but I thought—I could be an exception to that.” Astoria walked away.

After the conversation Astoria and Draco hasn’t been talking to each other. They would come to class, go to lunch but they neither speak nor look at each other. As the days go by Astoria was starting to disappear from Draco’s areas. Draco doesn’t see her as often and there were times that he would stay up in the common room to wait for Astoria but he never saw her. Draco wanted to ask but his pride was too high. The next few days, Astoria was just absent at all. It’s been 2 days since Draco didn’t see her come to class. It was bothering him a lot.

The following morning Hermione went in the classroom a little bit late.
“You’re late Hermione, it’s not like you.” Ron baffled.
“Astoria has been absent for 2 days or so, what happened to her?” Harry randomly asked Hermione. Draco heard their conversation and started to listen.
“She’s sick” Hermione took out her DADA book from her bag and looked at Draco strongly.
“Sick? How come?” Harry added.
“She told me, Harry. She’s going to be absent for awhile.” Hermione knew that Draco was listening to her.