A/N early update!! things are gonna start getting interesting 🤔 hope you're ready!

Draco's POV

I watched as she frustratedly stirred the pewter cauldron steaming in front of her. We were supposed to be partners in this but I couldn't bring myself to talk to her. The way she pushed me away instantly not only made my blood boil but I felt all air in my lungs suck out in one swift motion. I didn't want to feel that.

She was also silent as she worked, she hadn't spoken to me since I told her she couldn't crawl back to me. Instead she threw her fury into the black smoking cauldron. Every now and then I saw her flick her eyes towards Harper, her eyebrows furrowed and stern. Harper was ignoring the blazing looks and instead focusing on her own work but I could tell she was flustered. She kept dropping her ladle and cursing under her breath.

They were so similar, Aster and Harper. Both stubborn, both fiery, but Aster was warm amidst her fire, Harper always seemed to leave ash in her wake. I remember Bainbridge's tryst with Peter Higgs, a half blood a year older than us. She completely ripped his heart into two when she decided to leave him stranded at the Yule ball to go with a Hufflepuff. The wet blanket had pissed off the whole Slytherin house for weeks, with his incessant winging and outbursts. She just laughed every time she saw him glaring at her when she strolled through the common room. At least Aster had the decency to cringe every time Harper chuckled at Higgs' expense. I'm pretty sure she said sorry to the poor bloke once.

I had no idea why the two were always so inseparable. Maybe Blaise was the calm to their burning storm. He didn't seem as bad as I always thought him to be.

Aster's yelp pulled me out of my thoughts. She had ironically burnt a strand of hair from a wafting flame. Her cheeks were bright red and her stern eyes made the whole look quite humorous.

She slumped onto her stool in defeat. In the corner of her eyes I spotted a trickle of a tear. The sight made my heart skip a beat.

"Don't fucking cry over a spoilt potion Flint" I scoffed.

Her eyes turned heavily to me, shooting fiery daggers.

"Maybe you could actually help me" she said through gritted teeth.

"Nah" I simply said, giving her a smirk.

This time my smirk didn't work. Her wet eyes draw themselves back to her cauldron.

Her stubbornness made me furious. I had no idea where it came from but I hated the fact she simply relented and didn't give me anything back.

I shoved my stool closer to hers, and instantly grabbed her thigh with my right hand underneath the table. I squeezed possessively, enjoying the heat radiating from her bare skin.

"Don't turn away from me" I hissed into her ear.

He shoulders tensed at my breath on her ear. I was too close to her in such a public place but I couldn't let her dismiss me like that.

"Fuck off" she whispers back.

I watch as she looks towards Crabbe and Goyle. She finds them both dumbly fussing over their own cauldron.

"They aren't paying attention to us. But I will need you paying attention to me" I whisper, causing her to turn her head slightly towards me. Her eyes don't look at me, instead they look down at her textbook.

"Darling, are you listening to me?"

She nods her head ever so slightly, and I feel her legs clamp together.

"No I need you to relax" I order, pushing her leg off my hand still clamped on her thigh.

"You can't come crawling back to me and expect me not to punish you for how you acted"

"I told you, I didn't come crawling back to you. I had no choice" she mutters angrily.

"You chose me over her" I whisper back.

Suddenly, her own hand clamped around mine on her thigh. She wiped her head towards me, and looked at me confused before pushing my hand off her thigh and standing up.

The abrupt force made me stumble on my stool.

What the fuck?

She was really getting on my nerves today.

I watched as she continued to stir her cauldron with no effect.

"Dude her best friend just fucked her over, give her a break" Goyle's thick voice sounded from behind me.

I flicked my gaze to him.

"It's none of your fucking business" I grunted before I pulled my stool away from Aster and continued doodling on my textbook.

Goyle stayed standing behind me. I flicked my gaze towards Crabbe's seat but couldn't find him anywhere.

"I need to talk to Bulstrode," Aster suddenly piped up, her eyes glaring at Goyle with determination.

"Uh ok?" Goyle stumbles confused.

"I need to know what's happening..."

Goyle and I looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

"Well Parkinson won't ever tell me what's going and apparently she won't either" she says, nodding her head towards Harper. Harper was still busy with her potion, unseemingly not listening to our conversation.

"The only person that will have some kind of information would be Bulstrode" she explains.

"Information?" I ask her.

She sits back down on her stool and runs her hands through her now frizzy hair.

"Apparently something's happening at Hogwarts that we are completely oblivious to"

I look at Goyle, but he seems just as confused as I.

"Boys are useless" she mutters, before picking her wand up and making her useless potion disappear.

"I don't think Millie knows anything" Goyle says quietly.

"She might" Aster replies, "Does she take divination next?" Aster asks Goyle.

Goyle looks up in surprise.

"Why would I know?" he asks skeptically.

Aster smirks and the familiar gleam to her emerald eyes makes my body shiver.

"I thought you guys were close" she says, raising one eyebrow.

Goyle stutters and looks nervously around the room.

"Yes she has divination next" he huffs out in defeat.

Aster smiles and taps him on the shoulder as a thanks. I watch them both, the friendly scene between the two so odd and unusual.

"Why does no one know about the two of you?" I ask curiously.

Goyle's pale face goes a splotchy red.

"Why does no one know about you two?" he asks, motioning to Aster and myself.

I glare at him lividly. Does he really need me to explain?

"I'm a half-blood remember?" Aster pointedly says, her eyes now coldly blaring into my own.

"Oh yeah, I forgot Malfoy over here was fucked up" Goyle chuckles, punching me on my arm.

"Fuck off. You have no reason to hide your relationship with Bulstrode" I jab, rubbing my arm from his unnecessary punch.

"I haven't hid it, no one has asked" he mumbles before heading towards Crabbe, now returning from the bathroom.

Aster's POV

I didn't bother with the potion in the end. Professor Slughorn told Malfoy and I that he was severely disappointed in his top students and ordered us to write an essay on the Wound-healing potion and its properties instead. That was the least of my worries though. I had to find Millicent and ask her about Harper.

I left class without saying goodbye, leaving Malfoy to clean up our mess, something I was sure to be 'punished' for later.

Instead I rushed to Charms, desperate to find Blaise and pull him along to see Millicent before she got to class herself.

Blaise was talking to a few Ravenclaw's outside the classroom, he seemed a bit more relaxed than he had been the last few days. Hastily apologising for interrupting their conversation, I pulled Blaise away and towards the direction of the Divination stairwell.

"Aster, where are we going?! we have charms soon" he complained, trying to pull his arm away from my forceful grip around his wrist.

"I need to find Millicent Bulstrode" I said, storming towards the stairwell now only meters in front of me.

"Why?" Blaise called from behind me.

I span round.

"Millicent told Goyle that Harper was supposed to be the one that stunned me the other day, but instead Pansy did it" I rambled giving Blaise an exasperated look before letting go of his wrist and running up the stairwell, dodging students as I went.

I didn't wait for Blaise to catch up, a sudden flooding of urgency filled my veins and I was desperate to sort my racing thoughts.

I hadn't had much to do with Millicent, apart from living in the same dorm room as her for six years, she kept to herself and normally followed Pansy around.

I found Millicent, huddled in the back of the Divination classroom. Hopping over the small cushions spaced around the round, heavily perfumed room, I found myself standing squarely in front of the large girl.

She was extremely tall, with a round face and long coarse black hair. She outsized me favorably but that didn't stop me from staring her down.

"Bulstrode" I said in greeting.

She looked up at me her round eyes wide in surprise. It looked like Parkinson didn't take the same class as her, she was oddly surrounded by a group of Gryffindor girls.

"Flint?" her timid voice questioned suspiciously.

"I need to ask you about Harper and Parkinson" I stated, staring down the girls beside her. The Gryffindor girls wisely backed away and left Millicent and myself alone.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

She was actually quite timid for a girl so large and threatening. I knew from the years we spent in the same room, that she normally kept to herself and avoided drama.

"I heard that you stopped Parkinson from hurting me" I started, suddenly not sure how I was going to go about this discussion.

Her eyes go wide again but quickly narrow.

"Where did you hear that?"

I looked around us. I wasn't friends with Millicent but that didn't mean I had the right to talk loudly about her private life.

"Um Goyle told me" I whispered.

Her face paled but she nodded.

"I can't tell you what you want to hear" she said after a few seconds of silence.

I narrowed my eyes again in frustration.

"Someone has to tell me what's going on? You can't expect me to get fucking knocked out and not know why they did it?!" I argue, my face getting hot, my patience thinning.

Millicent sighed heavily.

"Flint, I seriously can't tell you why. I could get hurt myself" she said quietly this time, her eyes flickering around the room in agitation.

"Who would hurt you?" I ask. I tried to keep my tone soft but it comes out rash and impulsive.

Hey round eyes shot to the floor, and I watched as she fiddled with the edges of her robe.

"All I can say is that there's more going on around here than you think, specifically in Slytherin" her eyes didn't leave the floor, "You need to be careful Flint, I don't want anyone hurt either but some of us have no choice in the matter. Some people have to do things they don't want to do" she mutters almost inaudibly.

My blood boils at the lame explanation.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I yell, now completely enraged.

I ball my fists up and have to stop myself from grabbing my wand and doing something I'll regret.

Millicent looks up at my raised tone and looks at me with sympathy. The weak look makes me want to punch her in the face.

"For fucks sake" I mutter, realising that she wasn't going to explain anything further.

I storm out of the now full classroom, passing displeased looks from students as I push them out of the way. Blaise hangs by the door, a look of worry coating his sharp features.

"What was that about?" he demands.

I push past him and rush down the stairwell. My head was going to explode from all the questions swirling around in my thoughts.

"Aster, please talk to me!" Blaise yells, his tone far from annoyance now. The unfamiliar pitch of his voice makes me freeze.

I hear his steps hurriedly make their way down to me.

"Aster, what's going on? What did you mean about Harper?" he asks, his voice softer now, almost scared.

I look up to find Blaise's dark eyes wide with worry.

I wasn't used to this dynamic with Blaise, normally it was him comforting me, righting wrongs and talking sense into us girls.

"Let me explain" I say, before pulling him towards a nearby bench and letting it all out. Letting the last few days of pent up anger and frustration spill.

--

Blaise decided to write to his parents, to see if they had heard anything from Harper's family. He thought it had something to do with her mum. I had no idea why stunning me would have anything to do with her mum but he seemed relentless.

I thought maybe Draco knew more than he was letting on, or if maybe the other boys in Slytherin were involved like Millicent said. It didn't sound like Goyle was involved but maybe Montague and Crabbe knew something.

I thought back to the beginning of term, when Nott had to be sent home. Blaise mentioned that it had something to do with his parents ordering him home and I distinctly remembered a rumor about the dark lord. If it had to do with the Dark Lord I had no idea what I was going to do. I was just a measly Hogwarts student that really didn't have much of a talent for dueling or the dark arts. I had no chance against a force that big. The thought of Harper being involved with the Death Eaters made my stomach coil and my throat dry. No matter how horrible she had been to me the last few days, I couldn't let her go down that road.

I mentioned this theory to Blaise but he wouldn't hear it. I don't think he could even stomach the very thought of Harper being involved in the Dark Arts. I don't think his heart could handle it.

Then as if my thoughts had suddenly sorted themselves out in my frazzled brain, something clicked. Draco. His father was a Death Eater.

I didn't mention this to Blaise. I promised Draco I wouldn't say anything to anyone.

A mix of dread as well as hope filled my stomach. If Draco found out more about the Death Eaters, maybe we could cross out the fact that Pansy and Harper had something to do with them.

All of a sudden, a bubble of laughter spilled out of my mouth.

The very notion that Harper was a Death Eater was foolish. The very notion that Hogwarts Students were Death Eaters was idiotic. Dumbledore would never let that happen.

I shook my head. I clearly needed some sleep.

This was probably just some stupid school drama. It was just Harper being dramatic. She was probably acting out because her mum was sick. Maybe I should just give her space and things would get back to normal after Christmas in a few weeks.

Draco's POV

I was still furious at Aster leaving me in Potions to clean up. She was clearly pushing my buttons to get a rise out of me.

I was just about to find her when a large Eagle owl swooped from a nearby open window and dropped a letter into my hands.

It was from my father.

I was being ordered home immediately.