Victor let out a quiet sigh and glanced toward the courtyard.
"Can you tell me what you wanted? I can already feel half the castle looking in this direction."
"I've got enough rumors following me around Hogwarts. I'd rather not give everyone another one to add to the list."
Fleur blinked, a hint of amusement appearing on her face. "Oh?" She tilted her head slightly. "And what sort of rumors are zose?"
Victor's eye twitched. "...Seriously?" He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Can't we just discuss whatever you wanted to discuss and be done with it?"
"Humour me. I am curious."
Victor looked at her for a long moment. Was she always this stubborn? I don't remember this from the books.
Seeing that Fleur clearly wasn't going to let it go, he gave up. "Fine." He began counting on his fingers.
"There's one saying I'm a sadistic Dark wizard who spends his free time performing horrifying experiments beneath Malfoy Manor."
Fleur stared at him.
"Another claims I smile because I enjoy watching people suffer." A third finger.
"One insists I have some kind of facial disease, and that's why my expression always looks so unpleasant." He shrugged.
"And apparently younger students disappear if they annoy me."
Fleur was silent for several seconds before a laugh escaped her despite herself. "You cannot be serious."
"I wish I wasn't."
She studied him for a moment, still smiling. "You know... after speaking with you, I find zose rumours rather difficult to believe."
Victor gave her a flat look. "That's because you've only known me for about twelve hours."
The corner of Fleur's mouth lifted. "Even so... I zink Hogwarts students 'ave very vivid imaginations."
"We are teenagers," Victor said. "Give them half a story and by dinner they've invented the other half."
The Slytherins Fleur had met since arriving at Hogwarts had done little to improve the House's reputation.
Most carried themselves with obvious superiority and made no effort to hide their disdain for other schools.
Victor was different. Blunt to the point of rudeness, perpetually unimpressed, utterly indifferent to what people thought of him.
Yet nothing about him resembled the sinister image Hogwarts students had invented.
Fleur looked at him for a moment before asking casually, "So... do you already 'ave a partner for ze Yule Ball?"
Victor blinked once. So that's what this was about.
"Unfortunately for you, yes. I already have a partner."
For the first time since the conversation began, Fleur looked genuinely surprised. "You do?"
"I asked someone a few days ago."
Fleur studied him for another moment, blue eyes fixed on his completely expressionless face. "...No. I do not think so."
Victor frowned slightly. "What?"
"Zat you already 'ave a partner."
"You think I'm lying?"
Fleur gave a graceful shrug. "Your face never changes. You say everything with ze same expression. How am I supposed to know when you are telling ze truth?"
For the first time in a long while, Victor found himself genuinely at a loss. His deadpan expression had always worked in his favor. He hadn't expected it to work against him.
He opened his mouth. "Then—"
"So..." Fleur interrupted smoothly, a faint smile on her lips, "you will accompany me to ze Yule Ball."
"...What?"
"I do not believe a gentleman would refuse an invitation from a lady."
Victor instinctively wanted to reply that he wasn't much of a gentleman and fully intended to refuse. Before he could say a single word, Fleur turned on her heel.
"I shall see you at ze Ball, Monsieur Malfoy."
She walked away with elegant, confident steps and disappeared around the corner without waiting for a response.
Victor remained standing where he was.
A few seconds passed. He looked down one end of the corridor. Then the other.
"...Where the heck did she go?"
For the first time that day, the perpetually deadpan Slytherin found himself completely outmaneuvered.
***
Victor turned and walked in the direction Fleur had disappeared, only to stop abruptly when someone stepped into his path.
Hermione.
She stood in the middle of the corridor with her arms folded, expression calm, though the look in her eyes was anything but.
"...Where are you going, Victor?"
He blinked. "Hermione?" He looked at her for a moment. "When did you get here?"
"I was here while you were talking to Fleur." A pause, her eyes narrowing slightly. "I also happened to notice that she was smiling."
Victor's eyelid twitched. "...That is a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?"
"Yes." He nodded with complete seriousness. "I'm fairly certain she misunderstood something I said."
Hermione stared at him for several seconds. "And what exactly did she misunderstand?"
Victor sighed. "I honestly have no idea."
Hermione looked unconvinced. "So she asks you to speak with her alone, spends several minutes talking to you, walks away smiling..." She took a step closer.
"...and you're telling me you don't know what happened?"
"Correct."
Hermione searched his face for any sign that he was joking.
There wasn't one. With Victor's perpetually deadpan expression, it was genuinely impossible to tell whether he was confused or simply pretending to be.
She let out a quiet huff. "...Sometimes talking to you is incredibly frustrating."
*****
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