Love Hurts So Good

Snow drifted in soft, sparse flakes around the west tower, better known as The Owlery. Drusilla climbed the second to last spiral staircase with a green apple in hand, her coat collar turned up against the cold. The evening air was sharp and crisp. Nothing like the dingy air at the Malfoy estate, or the Slytherin common room.

Voices carried down from the platform above.

It was to be expected, she supposed. Christmas was only two weeks away. Students would be sending letters back home and getting in touch with friends. She meanwhile just wanted to spend a little peace and quiet with her owl, Ulysses.

He was an excellent listener, but more importantly, she never had to worry about him stabbing her in the back, judging her, or hurting her in any way. Despite his fierce countenance, he was probably the gentlest creature she'd ever encountered.

She slowed, recognizing Harry Potter's awkward cadence, and stopped just out of sight. Of all the rotten luck...

That probably meant Weasley and Granger were there as well, and here Drusilla was all alone, isolated from her housemates. Thankfully the trio tended to be rather dimwitted when they were together, and unobservant of their surroundings.

She crept closer, unable to help herself, and saw that he was alone with the East Asian girl from Ravenclaw. Cho Chang, she thought her name was. Drusilla only knew her because she was the Quidditch team's Seeker, and rather skilled considering she flew a substandard Comet 260.

Potter was circling around the point like a nervous broomstick, asking Cho to the Yule Ball in the most obvious, most painful way possible.

Drusilla's mouth tightened with irritation. Why did it seem their paths always crossed at the worst possible time? Then Cho's polite refusal cut through the frigid air like a hot knife, and a slow, delighted smile spread across her face.

Harry sputtered awkwardly, then after an even more awkward apology, the Ravenclaw girl's footsteps hurried down the stone steps. Drusilla ducked into an alcove, took a bite of apple after she passed, and continued up toward the Owlery.

Harry stood with his back toward her, leaning over the stone railing, shoulders rigid.

"Sum Ting Wong, Potter?" she asked innocently.

He spun so fast it was almost comical. The look on his face was already worth the long trip up here.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" As always, the way he said her name sounded like a curse of some kind.

"Nothing much." She leaned against the opposite side of the archway, lightly tossing the half-eaten apple in the air as if it were a baseball. "I take it the foreigner declined your invitation to the dance? How tragic. Have you thought of another victim yet, or are you planning on sulking up here the entire evening? I was hoping for some privacy."

"None of your business."

"So that's a no..." She tilted her head. "Pity. One of the Durmstrang boys has been making quite the nuisance of himself around me. Quite persistent, I'm afraid. I'll probably have to accept his invitation to The Ball just so I can have some peace and quiet. You could always try your luck with one of them. Slavs aren't too particular, so I've been told."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "You could always ask one of the Beauxbatons girls. They seem... friendly."

Drusilla bit her lower lip, just enough to make it look thoughtful. "They are rather good kissers, aren't they? Unfortunately, Father would have an absolute fit, and the fundamental problem with French women is that they're French."

She drummed her fingers on the apple.

"Of course, if you're truly desperate you could always take Granger. I just assumed the two of you were going together already. Or that perhaps you and Weasley were sharing her. She does seem the... charitable type."

Harry's smile was thin and unpleasant. "Didn't you hear? Hermione's going with Viktor Krum. You might have heard of him. The Seeker who caught the Snitch in the World Cup?"

The words hit even harder than he expected. It was as though Hermione herself had just punched her in the face again. For several moments Drusilla simply stared, mouth hanging open slightly.

"You're lying!"

"Ask them yourself. Or just wait until The Ball." He watched the contempt on her face with growing satisfaction. "I know how much of a fan you are. His biggest, you said, right? Rejection stings, doesn't it? Must sting even more knowing-"

"Shut up, Potter!"

She took a single step forward. Bits of apple ran down her hand from squeezing too tightly.

"We could always go together, Malfoy. But you'd turn me down on account of my looks, and I'd turn you down because of your rotten personality. Seems to be the going theme tonight."

Her hawthorn wand was already in hand, as was Harry's holly. The snow fell gently around them. Neither moved, and neither breathed. Both knew from past experiences that the first one to utter a curse would receive the harsher punishment in detention.

It'd be worth it, they told themselves. Almost...

Harry gave a short, humorless laugh, turned, and walked around her down the stairs. He kept an eye on her and his wand raised, but he wasn't afraid of her, and there was a skip to his step for the first time in several days. He might've been even more pleased with himself now than if Cho had accepted his invitation.

Drusilla stood frozen for several minutes, grinding her teeth. Then she drew her arm back and hurled the apple as far as she could. A sharp flick of her wand followed, and it exploded in a brilliant, vicious burst of light above the grounds.

She raised her coat collar and screamed into it, disturbing the wintry peace around her, then ran up the stairs toward Ulysses' nest. Taking the steps two at a time. Jaw tight, lips quivering, and eyes burning.

Christmas Day, two weeks later, The Great Hall had been transformed into the most wondrous scene anyone had ever witnessed. Floating candles, Christmas trees, soft music, and soft murmuring filled the entire room.

Snow fell from the enchanted sky, giving everything a light wintry dusting without making even the slightest mess.

It was absolutely perfect. Or at least it should have been.

Drusilla was wearing a Slytherin green dress with a platinum snake coiling around her, matching her long blond hair. She had never been more beautiful in all her life, or felt quite so ugly.

She danced with Adrian Pucey in perfect, passionless form. He was tall, competent, and entirely uninteresting. But he was the Quidditch team's co-captain, and also a pure-blood like herself, albeit of lesser stock. He was quite the catch, which only made it all the more curious when he asked her to the dance instead of his girlfriend.

Her suspicions were validated when her father sent an owl the following morning, saying he had spoken to Adrian's father and they had both approved the match themselves.

It was both mortifying and humiliating.

Thankfully, as unfortunate as it might be, Drusilla was accustomed to her father's meddling, and was rather adept at school politics as well. She navigated the situation as best she could, and Adrian said his girlfriend was content dancing with a mutual friend for the evening. Drusilla only hoped she didn't change her mind, and that it didn't cause a rift in their relationship.

Rarely did their gazes ever meet. She and Adrian were hardly hostile to each other. They knew each other well from being on the same team together for two and a half years, and they had always been quite cordial with each other, but they were hardly friends. Merely allies that shared similar goals.

Potter was easy to find. He moved stiffly with Parvati Patil, looking as though he would rather be anywhere else in the world. That was fairly normal for him though. She looked positively thrilled to be dancing with The Boy Who Lived, but there was an undercurrent of awkwardness that could be sensed even from the other end of the castle.

Every time Drusilla and Harry's eyes met there was the usual animosity between them that left one guessing whether wands would be pulled, but it also inspired them to dance that much better with their respective partners.

She absolutely refused to even glance anywhere near where Viktor Krum was dancing with Granger. The knowledge still sat in her chest like a deep bruise. Potter, she noticed with distant satisfaction, seemed equally determined not to look at Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory.

The music shifted. Partners began to rotate in a formal pattern. One moment she was turning under Adrian's hand, and the next she was face to face with none other than Potter himself.

His expression mirrored her own. She only hesitated for a moment before clasping his right hand in hers and placing his left on her hip while hers rested on his shoulder. She was an old-blood, and mortal enemy or not, it would be tacky to cause a scene at the Yule Ball. She also had no intention of getting trampled by other dancers.

"If your hand so much as moves from my hip," she said under her breath, "I will slap you in front of God and everyone. Understand?"

"I'd rather touch a Horntail," he said mildly.

They wordlessly made a truce as well as an effort not to look at each other. Harry concentrated hard on his footwork and remembering the dance sequence while she concentrated on ignoring his hand on her hip.

She wasn't used to being touched and didn't particularly like it. His hand rested exactly where the steps required and nowhere else, and truthfully was barely touching her, and yet every point of contact burned beneath her silk dress.

Besides a quick shoulder clasp from her parents or teammates after a Quidditch game, the Beauxbatons girls had been her first real experience with physical affection. It was like going from an ordinary broomstick to riding her Nimbus 2001 for the first time. Incredible. Exhilarating. And terrifying all at once.

This was like stepping onto a Firebolt.

They settled into a rigid routine that caught more than a few stares. Their rivalry was the stuff of school legend, but their peers didn't even know the half of it. Harry was already anticipating tomorrow's teases about his breath stinking or hands being sweaty. And Drusilla, teases from her housemates about where her loyalties lay, and whether Potter was a good snogger.

She wondered if using the Cruciatus curse would be considered appropriate or not. Professor Snape might agree, but she didn't want to risk being transfigured into a ferret by Mad-Eye Moody again.

Harry twirled her around with surprising skill, and Drusilla nearly blushed. Just when exactly had he gotten so tall? Wasn't it only a year ago she'd still been taller than him?

With a start she realized that Harry Potter had turned into a young man, and herself a young woman without even realizing it. They weren't stupid kids anymore...

'No,' she thought mildly. 'Now we're stupid teenagers.'

The set ended and they released each other at the exact same instant, which was a few seconds after everyone else had released their partners. They stepped apart as though they'd been caught doing something scandalous, and both had to be coerced by their next dance partners so as not to fall behind.

Neither looked back immediately, but they both did look back, albeit never at the same time.

They never found each other's company again for the rest of the evening. Once the main dance ended, the Yule Ball proper, Adrian offered his arm, and he led Drusilla off the floor and they went their separate ways. He found his girlfriend sitting at a table, radiating happiness when he approached, and the two spent the rest of the night together, smiling and making each other laugh. Drusilla wondered if they were laughing at her specifically.

The girl's name was Hannah Abbott. She might've been a sixth year Hufflepuff. Drusilla couldn't remember, and didn't care. Slytherins tended to mix with Hufflepuff even worse than Gryffindor, making her relationship with a pure-blood like Adrian all the more peculiar.

Her purple and gold dress might have been the most beautiful at the entire ball, but certainly the most expensive. Her gold jewelry matched her hair and shined brilliant in the light, and would no doubt be passed on to her grandchildren's grandchildren. Drusilla had seen to it.

The two girls caught eyes. Hannah couldn't have looked more ambivalent if she tried, but she finally settled on a lovely smile and single nod, before turning to her boyfriend who looked to be the happiest man on Earth. And she the happiest woman.

Drusilla quickly looked away, and found Harry sitting in the back with Ron and their dates for the evening. They all wore identical expressions of quiet misery while Hermione, Viktor, Cho, and Cedric all had the time of their lives dancing to a live performance by The Weird Sisters. Drusilla's favorite band, though she'd never say it aloud.

For once, she didn't revel in other people's misery. She had enough of her own to go around.

It was late enough that she could leave The Ball without making a scene or there being gossip behind her back, so she did exactly that. She made her return to the Slytherin common room, doing her absolute best to avoid all the couples snogging in the halls.

She had to take quite the circuitous route, but eventually she arrived at the dungeons and took several deep breaths. She thought she was going to be sick.

As expected, the evening had been a complete and total waste. And yet, she couldn't quite find the energy to be angry. It hadn't been a waste. Not entirely, anyway.

As it turned out, Harry Potter had very soft and gentle hands...

(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. If you did enjoy and would like to read more Harry/Drusilla, you might also enjoy my other one-shots "Love Pure As Hate", "Snake Out of Water", "Scars In the Snow", and "Soaring On Clipped Wings".

I decided to alter canon just a little bit in regards to Harry already knowing that Hermione is going to the dance with Viktor Krum. I think it fits in a scenario where Harry/Drusilla is either the endgame or main romantic plot, and it's no longer a surprise to the reader. Both Harry and Drusilla coming to the dance and leaving broken hearted is just very fitting in my opinion, and it is canon that Draco is a big fan of Viktor's. It was also important to me for Drusilla to be a stereotypical "mean girl", but also for Harry to get the last laugh and also hurt her worse than she hurt him. Harry was hurt, but Drusilla was absolutely devastated. I really enjoy Drusilla as a character, but it's also important to me for her meanness to pay for itself. Whatever she sows, she's going to reap tenfold.

I also enjoyed the little wrinkle between Drusilla and Adrian, and Drusilla navigating high school politics. She didn't pay for Hannah's dress or jewelry out of the goodness of her heart. She was buying her silence and trying to smooth over an awkward situation. I like the idea of Drusilla being very good at school politics rather than just threatening people with her family's influence all the time. It makes her feel more like an actual character in my opinion rather than just a stereotypical bully to Harry. Speaking of, I like the idea of THIS being the moment Harry and Drusilla officially become aware of their own crushes for the other. Drusilla has had hers for longer, but she's been denying it and avoiding the subject. They're officially on the road to "enemies to lovers" from this point forward.

All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who has blessed me with the story and all of you wonderful readers. Thank you, and God bless)