It would not be quite right to say Draco had forgotten about Pansy and the others.
But not wanting them to see Fleur, that really was what he was thinking at the moment.
As for why, perhaps even Draco himself had never really thought it through.
Only, before he could act on that instinctive thought, Pansy and the others came out of Honeydukes at exactly the wrong time.
And even more unfortunately, the moment they stepped out, they saw Fleur Delacour standing beside Draco, along with Draco clearly preparing to leave the scene.
That was why they had called out to stop him...
...
Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop.
It was not quite at the level of firing a few Killing Curses the moment they met, but it definitely counted as a storm waiting to break.
In any case, while accompanying Hermione here to choose the quills she wanted to buy, Draco could clearly feel the thick smell of gunpowder in the air.
Anyone with a sharp enough sense had deliberately kept their distance from Draco's group...
Especially Hermione.
Every so often she would lift her little chin and let out a cold snort, as though her vocal cords had been reduced to serving that one purpose alone. The entire way here, she had shown absolutely no intention of speaking to Draco.
If she had not still been leaning close against him, people might genuinely have thought she did not know him at all.
Pansy, who was also staying close to Draco, wore an aggrieved expression, staring up at him like a little dog about to be abandoned by its owner. But in the very next moment, she crossed her arms and glared at Fleur Delacour with cold displeasure.
That astonishing ability to change expressions made the corner of Draco's mouth twitch.
As for Astoria, who was acting as though none of this had anything to do with her, while she looked as though she were enjoying Draco's predicament, the truth was that on the way to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, her little mouth had not stopped moving once.
Usually, she was the one who spoke the least, but now she sounded like a chirping little sparrow...
"So, Draco, you'd already made plans with Miss Delacour. Why didn't you tell us earlier? Look how worried Pansy and the others were about you."
"..."
"And if you'd told us sooner, we wouldn't have interrupted your date."
"..."
Draco silently cast a sideways glance at Astoria, who was smiling at him with pursed lips.
That pointed, sarcastic tone left Draco tugging helplessly at the corner of his mouth, unable to come up with a single word in reply.
Was this really still the Miss Greengrass he knew?
Perhaps she had seen through it.
Or perhaps she had simply given up and decided to smash the pot now that it was cracked.
After sulking for a while, Pansy finally could not hold it in any longer and quietly reached out to tug on Draco's robe.
"Did something happen?"
Pansy might be hopeless in love, but she was not stupid.
Even though the heavy snow had already covered over a lot of the traces of the fight, Pansy still picked up on several unnatural details.
Blurred but chaotic footprints. A wand that had only just recently been in someone's hand. A sharp, dangerous aura that had not fully faded yet.
All of those were suspicious clues that made Pansy feel something was off.
If Draco had not looked like he was about to leave them behind, she might have asked him about it immediately instead of waiting until now.
Of course, the biggest point of suspicion was still Fleur Delacour suddenly appearing here...
Hermione shot Pansy a look from the side, a trace of exasperation in her eyes, probably because she thought Pansy had forgiven that philandering Draco far too easily.
Even so, Hermione could not help voicing a little concern for him too.
"Did something happen over there, and that's why Miss Delacour was sent to find you?"
"Was it something serious?"
"Did something go wrong?"
Even though they were talking about her, Fleur realized that not one of the women in front of her had any intention of even glancing her way.
The corner of Fleur's eye twitched.
Were they ignoring her?
Still, no matter how much Pansy and the others guessed, there was no way they could imagine that while they had been inside Honeydukes, Draco had already fought a duel with someone, and had even run into other wizards from the Order of the Phoenix.
Nor could they know that Harry Potter had used Snape's exclusive signature spell...
Draco, however, had no intention of hiding any of this. If anything, he was eager to use the topic to divert the girls' attention.
"It was nothing. Potter and I just had a wizarding duel."
"So it was Pot... Huh?!"
"You said who?"
"A wizarding duel?"
Pansy and the others' first reaction was not to check whether Draco had been injured somewhere, but to wonder whether they had heard that name correctly.
How could it possibly have been Harry Potter?
After everything that had happened, the savior should have learned his lesson by now.
Was Draco really someone he could beat?
Who exactly had given him the courage to challenge Draco to a duel?
Seeing Pansy and the others staring with widened eyes, Draco added something else, clearly amused.
"And not just that. Potter even used dark magic against me, something he learned from who knows where."
"...You said dark magic?"
"He learned dark magic?"
"What kind of dark magic? It wasn't one of the three Unforgivable Curses, was it?"
At that, Pansy and the others began to get tense.
If Draco had not been smiling in a way that clearly was not forced, and if he had not genuinely looked uninjured, the girls might already have stepped forward to inspect him from head to toe.
As for Fleur, who had not been there from the very start, she too showed considerable curiosity.
From the sound of it, the dark magic Harry Potter had used had to be something very unusual in the wizarding world.
Otherwise, Draco would not have specifically brought it up.
And the answer that came from Draco's mouth really did leave them all stunned for a moment...
"Sectumsempra."
"You mean that powerful dark magic where the wound won't heal unless the counter-curse is used?"
"But isn't that..."
"How is that possible? Given the relationship between those two, Potter should have had no way of learning it."
As for Draco's signature spell, Pansy and the others, who had spent so much time at his side, naturally knew it very well. They even knew perfectly well where the spell had come from.
But they had never imagined that this spell would end up in the hands of the one wizard who should have been least likely to have it.
After all, even Pansy and the others, the people closest to Draco, had never had the chance to learn it.
Let alone Harry Potter...