Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; I am not making a profit from this.

Hopefully this won't be stand-alone, but we'll see.

AU: Eloise Midgen and Draco Malfoy.

I hope you enjoy!

A Little Bit of Cuddling.

'…Hi,' I said, coming out of my daze and blushing. 'So was it, uh…'Don't say it!! Don't you dare say it!! '…Good for you?'

Damn, damn, double damn!

Fuck.

'Do you even have to ask?' Draco smirked, watching as my blush grew darker; probably enjoying the effect he had on me. Ugh. Wanker.

…Though! I probably shouldn't call Draco Malfoy a Wanker anymore. He is, but that doesn't mean he isn't also Redeemable.

I am in fact, feeling very charitable towards Draco at the moment. You hear about sex and about how apparently fantastic it is; and you read about it in books; and then you have it, and it's so…I'm finding it hard to believe that I actually did this act with a person.

Especially with Draco Malfoy.

Draco has the look of an Icicle about him most of the time, so it's hard to remember that he's a person too (almost reminiscent of Professor Snarky Snape-who, it must be said, is kind of Creepy in his swooping bat, I'm Too Stiff To Function But I'll Try Anyway kind of way). I never thought I could actually get Draco attracted to me, but then again, a lot can be said for Growing Up. Two years ago, no one would have looked at me twice except to possibly throw a curse at me, but now, I think, I can be classified as pretty. The Gods decided to bless me with big boobs anyway, and I guess that goes a long way in soothing ravaged egos.

Getting back on track, I'm not even hurting at all right now-which I guess is a surprise. I'm not sore. I'm not exhausted. I'm actually pretty awake.

I feel Alive.

All thanks to a Contraceptive Spell!

Or my first orgasm.

Give or take. Either or.

Maybe Draco and I should try again to see if the sex yields new results? I've always been fond of experimentation…

I re-focused my thoughts when Draco rolled off me and onto his feet.

'You're not staying?' I asked, feeling self-conscious and bereft now, hiding here under my covers.

'Nah.' Draco looked up from his search for his trousers on the floor and up at me. 'I have to get back to the manor and shower. The train leaves in a couple of hours, you know.'

I looked at Draco oddly, wondering at what point his Arrogant Highness had become concerned with following other people's schedules. Usually Draco made his own time. 'Yea. I do know.' Surely Draco wasn't growing up! Surely not!

Draco had his trousers snapped and his shirt in place in approximately less time than it took me to rise up on my elbows and decide on the merits of actually getting up myself. Getting out of bed was starting to look more and more like a good idea. Draco obviously wasn't going to come back to bed dressed as he was, was he?

This was not how I had imagined the aftermath of my first time.

…I also didn't expect to lose my virginity at age sixteen, but then, what can a person do? Draco Malfoy was my exception to everything.

I affected an unconcerned look. 'Don't let the window knock your shoulder as you go on out,' I told him. 'Wouldn't want a bruise to form…'

Draco stopped in the act of picking up his wand. 'Elly, I didn't mean to act callous.' He came to me on the bed. It's not really a known fact-in fact, I'm still not quite sure it's completely true myself-but my dragon has a soft underbelly. Don't tell everyone though. It's taken me years to get under this one's skin. 'I had a really good time. Really.' Draco nuzzled my nose with his, succeeding in getting me to smile. 'Didn't you?'

'Oh, it was awful!' I breathed. 'Lousy! Worst lay I've ever had! You'll have to make it up to me.'

'…And how shall I do that?' he asked.

'Well, you can-.'

'-Should I kiss you?' Draco interrupted. 'Here?' Draco moved his lips up higher, to my cheek. 'Here?' His lips moved down to my jaw-line. 'I like kissing you here,' he said, 'your skin is so soft…'

'It didn't used to be,' I whispered stupidly.

'What?'

'…I…used to have acne,' I continued; at a loss for how I could be so tactless. Draco makes me lapse into incoherency like this all the time. 'All over…it's gone!' I added, like he couldn't see for himself; it had become apparent that Draco was nonplussed by my confession, so I started humming a tune to take my mind off it. Hmmm. How the mighty do fall, Eloise. I'd forgotten how unappreciative of flaws my Draco was.

'…I can see that,' Draco replied. '…And…' he paused, appearing to swallow down the remark he really wanted to say. 'It doesn't matter,' he said. 'You're beautiful now.'

'I used to be fat, too,' I added.

'Eloise…'

'Humongous!' I declared. 'Gigantor-size! It's why my boobs are so big-only the rest of me lost the weight.'

'…Are you being serious?'

'No.'

'Good,' said Draco. 'You having acne is already a little too much for me to take. I remember it now. I don't know how you expect me to propagate with you.'

I pushed at him. 'What the fuck? That is not post-coital standard talk,' I told him, then grimaced at my wording.

'Please don't say 'post coital' again,' Draco requested, obviously in agreement with my reaction. 'And I was just joking. I don't care what you look like.'

Ha. 'No?'

'No.' Draco didn't smile. Not really. But he did gentle his smirk a bit. 'It's the inner-.'

We both cracked up laughing.

'The 'inner me'? What tripe.'

'Well…actually-.'

'Don't start,' I ordered him. 'That's disgusting!'

'You're disgusting.'

'…And you had sex with someone who disgusts you, so where does that leave you, Einstein?' I finished.

'Stop flattering me, Elly, you'll make me blush!'

'Stop calling me 'Elly,'' I replied. 'It's not my name.'

Draco sighed. 'Fine. Eloise. …I thought you liked it, anyway.' He seemed particularly annoyed that when he had condescended to give me a nickname in the first place, I couldn't even appreciate it.

'Well, I don't have a nickname for you,' I lied, not about to tell Draco that he had several already just sitting in my head. '…So until we can find one, you'll…' I petered off, not being able to come up with anything else that sounded clever.

'You can't even finish that thought, can you?' Draco said. 'You're ridiculous!'

I leaned back from him, affronted. 'I am not!'

Draco snickered. 'Yes. Yes, you are. You, my dear, are ridiculous.'

'That is the worst insult you could ever bestow on a person,' I said. 'I can't believe you'd call me that.'

'You've been watching too much 'Pride and Prejudice,'' he informed me. 'Ridiculous' is in no way the worst insult you could give a person. What happened to 'evil'?'

A spark of memory assaulted me. '…What do you mean?' I asked suspiciously, not liking Draco's crafty look at all.

'What do you think I mean?'

'…Have you heard something?' I demanded. At his continuing silence, I crumbled. 'Who told you?' I said. 'That was classified information, that was! I can't believe that bint, Angela w-. '

'You would make an awful spy!' Draco cut in. 'No one told me. Or at least no one but you. I heard it directly from you. Out of the horse's mouth.' I goggled. 'Yes, Eloise. You.'

'I…would never-.'

'-Yes,' said Draco, nodding his head royally, 'you would.'

I glared at him. 'When?'

'Three months ago.'

I racked my brain for when it could have happened. Truth be known, I had called Draco 'evil' a lot. 'Three months…Draco, that's…when term began. …Draco…'

He had obviously overheard me in The Library that Monday, complaining to my Defense textbook.

'And you thought I didn't know!' he said with a smug smile.

Sigh.

'…You are so annoying!'

'Yea, but you like me like that, don't you.'

I blushed. '…What to say…'

'What?'

Oh Merlin. 'I said that out loud?' How could I? How could I??

Draco chuckled. 'You're gorgeous.'

'Am I?' I wriggled uncomfortably. 'Hmmm…'

'You know you are.'

I changed the subject. '…It's…5:32,' I said, hearing the beep-beep-beep of my muggle alarm clock go off. Draco still loomed over me like a threatening wolf, looking very predatory. I wondered when he would leave so I could start my day of missing him.

'Why is it programmed to 5:32?' he asked me.

'Well, I like odd things,' I replied in way of explanation.

'I've noticed that. Though, 5:32? What-?'

'Listen,' I said, 'the difference is in the two minutes.'

'Obviously.'

I went on. '…If it was at 5:30, I wouldn't feel as refreshed. Those two minutes are worth a lot in the long run.'

'You haven't even been sleeping,' Draco reminded me. Ha! As if I needed reminding!

I smirked impishly. 'Can I keep you?' I asked him.

Draco sighed. 'That was from that moving thing we watched last night, wasn't it? Stop quoting movings,' he said.

'I can't!' I said sorrowfully. 'It just comes out! And they have all the good lines…'

'Why can't you make up your own?'

'I thought my thing about the window was pretty good,' I defended, a little put out. 'But I can see why you wouldn't think so, being such a half-wi-.'

'Hey now,' Draco said, poking me in the ribs. I squeaked. 'I'll have you know I'm top of my class in Potions and Arithmancy. If it wasn't for Granger-.'

'I also liked my Einstein comment,' I added, ignoring him; referring to the Pseudo Muggle Science Genius akin to Merlin everyone in the Wizarding World knew of. 'Pretty fresh, that one was.'

'But you're fresh out now?'

I glared at him. 'I think so.' Remembering why my brain was such a Jumble, I grinned cattily. '…I just had some very nice sex, so I'm not all there. …Not quite up to snuff yet, you see.'

'I'm going to take credit for that.'

I nodded. 'As you should.'

'You talk altogether too much like a grown-up,' Draco informed me.

Uh, and you don't, sir? Feeling that this was a reprimand of some sort, I blushed anyway. 'I read a lot,' I admitted.

'…Eloise…'

I stared at him.

'…I had a…really good night,' finished Draco slowly, like it was hard for him.

'Are we doing it again now?' I asked with curiosity.

An odd look crossed Draco's face. Something between a pained grimace and excited surprise. 'Not now,' he said finally. 'I have to get back to the manor now.' Draco pushed off of me, using the bed as leverage.

'Right,' I said. '…Not like a little cuddling would have been nice,' I mumbled, knowing he could hear me.

'Oh come on!' Draco's voice exploded. All the more surprising, because Draco usually kept his emotions in check as a closely guarded secret. He turned around in a furious whirl looking extremely agitated and attractive. I goggled at him. 'I cuddled you!'

'You never once spooned me!' I accused, getting into it. I pointed my finger at him. 'My first time, and no spooning was involved! What do you say to that?'

I crossed my arms, feeling a little like a pout was in order. We had come to the key point now, aha!

'I am on a time constraint,' Draco explained in what was probably his patient-voice. He moved to my window and opened it up. 'Your mum, for some reason known only to herself and Morgana, hasn't come stalking towards me once this night with a kitchen knife, and I plan on taking advantage of that fact by getting the hell out of here as soon as I can.' I frowned. He was hitting a bit below the belt, wasn't he? My mum hadn't really meant to scrape off that bit of skin the last time he had been here. She had just been surprised, is all. 'Now, I'm sorry you didn't get to be spooned, darling, but there will be other times.'

'Then go!' I said. 'I don't want you around here anymore!'

'My little liar!' Draco gazed at me somewhat fondly from his perch on the window ledge. 'How I love you.'

My chest suffered a mini-heart attack. 'What?'

'…Was I joking?' Draco asked the room slowly, like he couldn't quite decide if he had been serious or not. He seemed to be choking on a bit of saliva too.

'I have no idea,' I said. 'Who were you talking to?'

'Am I supposed to be in love with you this early?' he asked in confusion. 'I'm not sure…'

'This early in the morning?' I wanted clarified, trying in vain to figure out if Draco was insane or not. Too much time spent on his broom had apparently whipped proper thought right out of his pointy head. 'Why, it's up to you-.'

'-I'm trying to be serious, here, Elly.'

Ah. Well.

'…What are you talking about?' I said finally. 'I can't understand gibberish you know. You'll have to stop babbling some time and get on with the making of the sense.' A thought popped into my head.'Are you high?' I demanded. 'Is that why you slept with me? Because you've been snuffing sorghum from Snape's private stores?'

Draco rolled his eyes. 'I haven't lit up in three days, you stupid girl.'

'Uh!'

Draco then did something that to this day, Against My Own Volition, still brings a Smile to my face. Despite how cheesy it is, despite how cliché, I still find it Unbelievably Romantic no matter how much I try to tell myself that it's not; because Draco Did It. He started singing. 'I think I love you,' he began in answer, calling to mind the muggle song we had heard last night during our trip into London. Something about Castles…David Castlely, was I think the name of the bloke who sang it.

'Shut the fuck up!' Still, at the time, Draco's mockery enraged me. I threw off my insistent covers, prematurely jumping out and tangling my feet in the process. 'Ack!' I fell down, but then came up for more, ready to beat his scrawny arse into the ground for turning such a blissful night into this Comedy Of Errors. Where was my wand? Where?? 'Come back here now!' I growled, seeing Draco start to bend out the window without paying any mind to my crotchery. 'I am not done with you, you plonky bastard!'

'…So what am I so afraid of?'

'You come back here, right now!' I called to his departing figure. 'You're afraid of me, that's what! …Draco!'

Draco ducked his head under the ledge…then pushed his entire body through the open space.

'Draco!!'

'…I'm afraid that I'm not sure of a love there is no cure for!'

'Don't you dare come back into this room!' I told him, finally reaching the window and looking out to make sure he hadn't fallen. Though how that could be possible if he was still singing and laughing up at me boggled my mind. 'You are uninvited for all time!'

'…I think I love you…' continued Draco, 'isn't that what life is made of? Though it worries me to say I've never felt this way…'

'Y-you are a p-pestilence upon society!' I yelled down to him, breathing heavily. 'N-no girl in her r-right mind would ever fall for this shite! I can't b-believe you thought I would fall for it!'

'…Do you want me to answer that?' he called up, grinning at me like a cocksure Oxford boy.

'I hate you!' I said. '…Why do you have to be so adorable?'

'Where's my love song?' he wanted to know.

'You got my Virginity!' I told him. 'Better than anything you'll ever give me.'

'Ah,' he said musingly. 'Well, I'll wear it well.' Draco winked, eyeing my breasts for a moment-they were literally bouncing over the ledge of my window like two large flesh-colored water balloons. I 'eeked' and then went to cover them with my hands. '…See you on the train, then!' Draco grabbed up his broom and lifted off, flying through the branches of a large oak tree and onward to his home in Harrogate.

'…Bye.'

I walked back to my bed…

Sighing The Girliest Possible Sigh it was possible to sigh in the History Of The Known World.

Do not do it, I thought. Do not do it!

But my voice had a will of its own.

'If there's a prize for rotten judgment…' I threw up my hands, defeated. 'I guess I've already wonnn that.' Having muggle friends did have its advantages and one of them was learning about Disney. I tapped my foot, trying to remember the better part of the song. '…Who'd'ya you're kiddin', he's the earth and heaven…blah, blah…' I grinned. I had it now! 'No chance, no way…I won't say it, no, no! You swoon. You sigh, why deny it? Uh-oh-uh-oh…it's too cliché! I won't say I'm in luh-uh-eh-ove!'

Remembering that my window was open, and Draco Might Possibly still be in the vicinity, even as high in the air as he was, I lowered my voice.

'…La, la, la, la, la…I thought my heart had learned its leh-uh-sson…It feels so good when you star-uht out.' I loved this next part. 'My head is screaming get a grip, girl! Unless you're dying to cry.your.heart.out…Oh-uh-ohhhh!…' I spun around on my bedroom floor, arms akimbo, thinking lovely thoughts now of my Greek Comedy with Draco as the star…

'You keep on denying who you are and how your feeling. Baby-.'

'Ahhhh!! …Jesus!' I screamed, coming to a stop. Entering my room was my nosy parker mum, adding her own bright voice to the mix of my musical. Thank Noble Galahad, I had put up a silencing charm three hours ago, otherwise, she would have heard Draco and I doing Unmentionable Things.

'-We're not buying. Hun, we saw you hit the ceiling!

'Mum, what are you doing?' I whispered agitatedly, braving a glare at her. This was Unacceptable.'How do you know that song?'

My mum set down the pile of clothes she had brought with her on my canopy bed.

Paranoid, I tried to look with new eyes at my rumpled sheets. Could she tell?? Was there a rabid stain somewhere? Oh please God, don't let there be a blood stain!

That was all I needed. For my mum to call out the Malfoys and demand Satisfaction-maybe even possibly a Betrothal.

…Actually…

What happened to knocking?'I asked her.

'You shouldn't keep your door closed, anyway,' she said, ignoring my question about the Disney song and walking over to give me a buss on the cheek. 'And why would you need your door closed? Do you have something to hide?'

'It's called, 'human right to privacy-.'

'Oh, don't give me that!' My mum's hand flapped like she was swatting a fly at me. 'You don't even have a boyfriend.'

'I…don't?'

Her eyes narrowed. '…Do you?'

'Do I?'

My mum placed her hands on her hips, daring me to crumble under the pressure like I had with Draco earlier. Ah, ah, ah, you should know mother, that Draco Malfoy is much more persuasive than you. 'Do you?'

'…I…have no recollection of such a person,' I replied finally. I debated if I should find something to cover myself now, wondering if my rapid dressing would look too suspicious. Did my mum realize I had never slept in the nude before?

'Good!' my mum nodded. 'You're too young anyway. And, while we're on the subject of boys, I don't like the idea of you spending so much time with that one Slytherin…what's his name again?'

I was surprised she didn't know. I started edging towards the clothes on my bed. 'Draco?' I suggested unthinkingly, like the truly stupid girl I was.

My mum shook her head. 'No, that's not it…wait-.'

'-You're right!' I cut in. 'Draco's not really even my friend! You're thinking of Adrian Pucey!'

'Which one is Draco?' my mum asked, a hard edge to her voice that did not bode well for me at all. 'Is he that Malfoy? Is he the one-?'

'You know, he's not all bad!' I interrupted loudly, struggling to clip on a bra and maintain vigilance at the same time without really looking into her eyes; my mum was an Old Person and Friend Of Dumbledore and possibly knew how to perform Legilimency-something that could not happen. But I was in a conundrum, because I also had to keep my mum's movements on watch in case she reached for my wand…I didn't see hers anywhere at all. 'It was all a misunderstanding!'

'-That boy had his tongue down your throat!'

'A little oral check-up-!'

'-Eloise!'

I cringed at her volume. Sometimes, my mum could shriek with the best of them.

'That boy is bad news!' she said. 'His father is a Death Eater!' When I refused to acknowledge this, my mum snapped her fingers. 'Look at me!'I complied uneasily. 'Are you dating him?' she asked me.

I deliberated. 'Um…what should my answer be?' I said.

My mum gasped. 'You are!'

In that one gasp, I saw my whole childhood dribble down by the wayside, never to be seen again. In my mum's eyes, I was now an unruly teenager. Oh well.

'I didn't mean it!' I promised, finding that my courage as well had followed the path of my childhood. 'I swear! It was pure weakness! It's not right, the way his silver eyes look at a person-.'

'You're too young!' she yelled, like it hadn't been drilled into me time and time again. 'Six-teen!' she said. 'Sixteen! You cannot be dating boys at sixteen! Especially ones with fathers involved with Crime!'

'…Is there no Precedent?' I meekly asked, wanting to know. Surely, Wizard Crime-Lords had married off their children before? Surely? Quickly, remembering that my arse was still bare, I dug through the pile of clothes on my bed and found some knickers to slip into.

'Oh, I'm sure there's a Precedent!' replied my mum. 'But not in this house! Not with my daughter!'

I pointed at my mum excitedly, forgetting about my underwear for the moment.

'What?' she demanded.

'You're going to give me the line, aren't you?'I said, prancing from foot to foot in expectation of this Holiest Of Rites Of Passage. Sarah James from 7th year had just been told the same thing by her mum only a week prior and she was so puffed up about it, that for days, she walked around Hogwarts with her nose tilted to the sky. Sarah was seventeen. At sixteen, I was one year younger. At least in this, I could beat somebody.

Ha. Ha, bloody ha, ha. Choke on that you great fat grumpy slag.

'What line?'

'The line!' I yelled. 'The line! That cliché line all mothers use! You know the one!'

'What are you talking about?'

'Give me the line!' I roared.

My mum breathed in a shocked breath. '…You,' she said imperiously, like a Queen Making An Edict, 'cannot date him!'

I nodded eagerly. 'Yes…' There was more…

'If you do,' my mum continued, and then paused.'I'm sorry, darling, but I've lost it. Let me start over…'

'It's alright,' I told her, 'you're doing well!'

My mum cleared her throat. 'Ahem!' She crossed her arms. 'As long as you're under my roof, young lady…'I nodded, cheering her on. '…You will abide by my rules!'

I jumped, ecstatic and proud. This had to be An Event for my mum as well. 'Yes! Awesome!' I said. 'Thank you, mum! That was fabulous!'

'Was it?' she asked, with some concern. 'There wasn't more, was there?'

'Oh, you did great! You had me cowering and everything!'

She sneered. 'Good!'

'And you said basically all you needed…and…and you were joking, right?' I asked, clearing my throat now, Absolutely Needing To Know. 'I am allowed to have a boyfriend aren't I?'

'How old is he?' my mum demanded. 'Isn't he Head Boy? I think I've seen him prancing around the school with a badge as big as his head-.'

'Draco doesn't prance.'

'How old is he?' my mum asked me again.

I waved my hand. '…Age is unimportant in school.'

'Au contraire, mon petit fleur, age is only important in school. When you're both out, that's when it doesn't matter.'

'He doesn't mind!' I assured her, like that was my mum's biggest issue, that Draco Malfoy would mind if he was seducing me. 'Draco doesn't mind. He likes me young.' At my mum's protracted silence, I realized belatedly that this may not have been the best thing to say…

'…What?'

'Did I say that wrong?' I asked nervously. 'Oh dear.'

'I think you di-.'

'-I meant to say that he's not prejudiced!' I said. 'Or, ageist, if you will.'

'Ageist,'my mum repeated, like it was a foul word. 'Ageist.'

I nodded.'That's right! Draco's not, trust me. Not at all! And he's not pervy, either, if you're worried about that.'

'I am.'

'Just so you know,' I said, falsely believing that I was easing her mind, 'he's actually very sweet! He doesn't look it, but he is! And he's the best kind of boyfriend, because you'll never see him! How great is that?'

'Is that so?' my mum asked silkily.

I laughed nervously, focusing my eyes on my mum's mottled forehead. 'That is so, mum. Unless y-.'

'-I want to meet him!' my mum declared, then paused, her thoughts clear to me: 'Now!'

I looked around my room, actually kind of paranoid that her Evil Shrew-ish Magic had conjured Draco up. 'He's, uh, not in this room,' I answered her.

'So he's in some room?

'Some room in his house,' I clarified quickly. 'Some room in his house. In Yorksire,' I added, just in case my mum got it into her head that the Malfoys might have condescended to own a house in our own tiny village. 'He won't be around…'

'Well, bring him to dinner tomorrow,' my mum said, making it an Order Not To Be Denied. 'All the students should be back by then. I'd do it tonight, except I'm conducting tai chi practice after The Feast.' In her spare time, my mum was a Disciple under Professor Dumbledore. Some nights, when Dumbledore was busy being a Headmaster, she actually took over for him and taught the class herself. 'In fact, why don't you go with me?' she invited. 'It will be a bonding thing. A nice mother-daughter experience for the both of us. We haven't done something like it since we took that camping trip to Cumbria.'

'Ugh…' That trip was awful.

'You're going!' my mum decided. 'It'll keep you out of the house, for one thing.'

'I thought you liked that I stayed home when everyone else went out!' I whined. I did not want to go! No siree! I, in fact, wanted to stay right here and have more sex with Draco.

'That was before you got yourself a boyfriend,' my mum replied. 'Now I'm going to have to see if I can switch my classes at Hogwarts so I'll be home when you get out of school. Can't have you alone in the house with that boy, can I?'

My mum and I lived in Hogsmeade. She was the Defense Against The Dark Arts professor up at school, and I basically couldn't escape her. Overprotective as she was, I wasn't actually allowed to live inside or eat at the castle. Such a wet blanket, my mum! 'You're not serious,' I said horrified.

My mum uncrossed an arm and reached over to pat me on the cheek. 'Your cheek is cold!' she informed me. 'I guess the shock is setting in. Hmmm, and, yes! Anything to put the fear into your young heart, my dear, I'll do it. Anything!'

'You're scary!' I told her. I rubbed my arms, feeling dread crawl in. 'Brrr! Giving me the shivers…'

'Well, let me hug you-.'

I jumped away. 'No! Stand back! Do not touch me!'

My mum sighed. 'I am not going to slip a tracer on you,' she said in a monotone, having read my face like any vigilant mother would have. 'I've run out of trials from the Auror Department anyway. I just want a hug!'

'Well you can't have one!' I said snobbishly, raising my chin.

'Well.'

'Yes. That's right.'

'I see where I'm not wanted-.'

'-Oh! You caught that vibe, did you?' I gestured with my head. 'There's the door, lady. Get.'

'-Distressing your poor mother…' She sniffed. 'I'll just go then!'

'I love you!' I called theatrically, seeing her retreat out the door; of course, leaving it open. 'Draco cannot replace you in my heart! His affections will always be second-rate to those of my mother's. His ray of light will always be dimmed next to your sun. He-.'

'Get dressed!' my mum ordered from down the hallway. 'You have to go up to Hogwarts early to help Professor McGonagall set up. Remember, you promised! She won't thank me if you're late for it!'

'And I am looking forward to it!' I told her.

Looking forward to seeing Draco, was more like it.