Chapter Text
Neville enters the library alone, looks around and finds Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson sitting at a table.
It's usually empty when I come in after class... he thinks to himself. Well, I'll just do my homework and go Back to the Dorms.
Mrs Pince isn't here, there's a letter hovering above her desk saying she'll be back soon, but it's been hours, and she hasn't turned up yet.
The Slytherin’s on the table in front of him are noisy, I can't be bothered with them. I don't care about them anyway, I'll just ignore them, he thinks to himself.
His bag falls off his table onto the floor, all the sheets in it fly off, flying to the snakes' table. Malfoy is the first to bend down and pick them up. "Ah- I'm so sorry" says Neville as he jumps up to picks them up too. He flinches when he realizes that Malfoy is picking up sheets with green ink, green ink like he uses for the book he wanted to write... shit.
Parkinson was the first to start laughing at him.
"I'll protect you," she mimicked between bouts of laughter as she read. Goyle had to laugh too, he covered his mouth and almost started crying. Crabbe read through the words without being able to hold back his stupid grin, "This is so dumb."
"Did you write this?" said Malfoy, who didn't actually laugh but seemed to just... read it.
"Don't you three have detention?" The blonde asked his friends, who suddenly stopped laughing or smiling. The girl pulls a face.
"Don't remind me," she exhales loudly. Malfoy and Parkinson look at each other for a short while, but she seems to give in first.
"Okay boys, let's go." she rolls her eyes as she gathers her stuff and gives Malfoy a kiss on the top of his head.
"Have fun, Mr Future Book Author." She says in Neville's direction as she can't stop herself from laughing and walks out of the library.
Crabbe and Goyle walk behind her taunting him, one on her left and one on her right, as they usually do with Malfoy.
Neville tries to calm down and takes a deep breath, in and out. He should be alone in the library now.
Although no, he isn't.
He turns around again and finds Malfoy sitting in front of him. He has his elbows on the table and his head propped up on his hands, engrossed in his notes.
No, in his notes, on the page, is the story he started writing out of boredom. Malfoy kicks the chair opposite him away from the table where Crabbe or Goyle was sitting, in Longbottom's direction.
"Sit down." He orders without even looking up.
Neville feels the sweat rolling down his forehead as he sits opposite him, too afraid of Malfoy not to.
The blond boy in front of him says nothing for a while as he reads through it. He can't help but smile as he looks up at to the taller boy. Malfoy's smile shows his sharp incisors like a lion that has just found a gazelle.
And then it starts. Malfoy begins to read passages aloud while his hunting grin stays with him; it's like he's tearing his pages in half, or so it feels to Neville.
"So basically, Heinrich, is your self-insert?" Malfoy asks as he leans forward.
"N-No, that not-" Neville begins, but Malfoy doesn't even let him finish.
"You projected yourself as an unlucky goblin who meets a beautiful Veela, and they slowly began to understand each other during the German Peasants' War..." he almost sing-sang.
"I-Im telling you that's not it!" His voice breaks off in the middle of the sentence, and he waves his arms around frantically as if Malfoy would understand him better.
"Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to laugh at your story. But both Heinrich and you are really pitiful."
Neville bites his lips desperately; he can't get along with Malfoy's honest and ruthless manner.
Longbottom wipes the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
"I don't mean to nitpick about your book, but can you tell me something?" He can see Malfoy trying to stifle his laughter.
The blonde clears his throat mockingly. He holds his head high and reads out in a high-pitched voice with a French accent, "The battlefield is the only place where I can truly be myself. I have long abandoned my life as a woman!" Malfoy clears his throat again, but he has now switched his voice to a neutral one.
"She hides her wand again, after using it once, a perfect non vocal hex leaving it. Without thinking twice, she slides her wand back into her mount on her arm."
He switched voices again, a deeper one. “That’s nonsense. You’re Beautiful. Heinrich said while using his scared hand to move a strand of hair away from her face.” Malfoy no longer could hide his giggle as he was mocking his writing.
“Im not laughing.” He said while chuckling, "Heinrich, is your self-insert after all, but something is out of place, don’t you think?”
“Wh-what is?…” Neville said, not understanding. He really didn't want to be here anymore.
“All right!” Malfoy said, while standing up, his smile not leaving his face once. “Let's try something out!”
“Try what out?” He said, not loud enough for his liking, he stood up as well, crouching like he always does, making himself as small as possible.
Malfoy threw the books in the air that the Slytherin’s studied with and used his wand to fling them back to their rightful place across the library. The lighter blonde stood with his back to Longbottom and slid his wand back to his mount on his left arm. And used the voice he first used to read his story out loud.
“The Battlefield is the only place where I can truly be myself! I have long abandoned my life as a woman!”
Neville could feel his face heating up; he was so confused.
Oh, right, the story!
He balled his hand in determination, even if he could feel his jaw tremble, trying to use his also trembling hand to flick a strand of platinum blonde hair. He moved Malfoy’s hair away for maybe a centimetre before all of his Bravery escaped his body, and he withdrawn his hand so fast back it almost hit his own face.
“See!” He said, laughing while turning around, pointing a well manicured finger at the taller one.
“That’s what I mean. This is what should have happened! Only hot boys can do it, not you; you can't do it! Not in your wildest dreams!” Malfoy said, Way too enthusiastic, smirking brightly. He too now had a blush spreading on his cheeks. “This guy is like you!” He was holding up a page of his story.
“A Virgin! His looks and action don’t match up!”
Longbottom’s jaw drops so low that spit almost drips down from it. He could feel his face heating up in a bright red and more sweat falling down from his forehead in embarrassment.
He couldn’t stand to look at Malfoy. The smaller boy was circling him while Longbottom tried his best not to look at him; Malfoy always had a way to get under his skin, but normally never this humiliating...
“Why are you trying to avoid looking at me? Look people in the eyes when they are trying to talk to you, understood?”
Malfoy had that smile again, that Hunter smile that exposed way to sharp teeth,
His mean demeanour exposing grin.
But he looks so good during it.
Longbottom tried looking away as best as possible. He felt like he would be eaten alive at any possible moment. The sweat was dripping down from his forehead into his eyes.
“You’re sightly.. No." Malfoy came closer. As Longbottom tried stepping back, he was just backing closer into a corner, not being able to escape any more as his back was pressing into a book shelf. “You’re Really…” Malfoy moved his left hand next to Neville’s face on the shelf, coming closer as Longbottom felt tears forming in his eyes from a mixture of feeling humilliated and exposed.
“You are really disgusting,” the blonde said, his smile not fading once.
“Are you crying?” The lighter blonde said in a weird tone that Longbottom couldn’t decipher. Longbottom used his hands to wipe away the tears that wouldn't stop falling. “N-no I-”
Before he could finish, not that he could. Malfoy pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. A gray piece of texture with hand stitched flowers and what he assumes to be the Malfoy Crest.
The blonde wiped Neville’s tears, before handing it to him. “Here, you can have it.” Malfoy slowly stepped away, his smile never faltering as he looked up at the other boy.
“Sorry for the teasing.”
Huh? He doesn’t think he ever heard Malfoy say sorry before.
He packed his things, leaving. “See ya” while winking once.
And he just left.
Longbottom almost crushed the handkerchief in his hand.