Since that first year on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, you were always someone Draco Malfoy chose to tolerate and even prefer over others—not because he cared about your lineage or your house badge, but because you were the only reflection he found of his own youthful arrogance and that need to have someone to laugh at his jokes while he felt he owned every corridor of Hogwarts.
Time, however, changed things. Draco began to surround himself with people he considered his equals. Little by little, he stopped seeking you out, until one day, when you tried to strike up a conversation, he brushed you off with a dismissive gesture, as if your presence didn't deserve a second of his time. He simply acted as if you had never been part of his life. He never offered an explanation, never asked why.
The Hogwarts Express moved through fields tinged with the first colors of September. The windowpanes were fogged with cold, and the carriage was overflowing with students laughing and searching for empty seats. You had been walking through the compartments for a while; your left arm started aching from carrying your heavy trunk when you arrived, almost by accident, at the compartment reserved for prefects.
And there he was...
Draco occupied one of the seats with that confident, arrogant posture he had always possessed. Beside him sat Astoria Greengrass, wrapped in Draco's old black sweater.
You recognized it instantly.
It was the same one that once, during a cold afternoon in Hogsmeade, ended up on your shoulders while Draco muttered, with evident annoyance, that he only did it because it irritated him to see you shivering. He never lent it to you again, but it wasn't necessary. That gesture had been enough to turn that sweater into one of your favorite memories.
Now, it was she who wore it...
As if he had sensed your presence, Draco looked up. His gray eyes barely lingered on you before turning away with total indifference. Then he leaned toward Astoria to whisper something in her ear. She laughed softly, and Draco, with a slightly crooked smile, draped an arm around her shoulders to pull her even closer to him.
It was a scene too calculated to be casual.
And it shattered you completely...