Disclaimer: Not mine, dang it.
A/N: I really glad people like this story. I was scared it wasn't going to work out. Thanks for all your reviews and such. You guys are great.
I lay in the hospital wing, my arm in a sling, and Pansy fretting all over me. Why was her voice so annoying?
Thankfully, the bell rang and Pansy looked towards the doors, a pout on her face as she turned back to me.
"Go to class, Pansy," I told her, feigning bravery. "It's painful, but . . . I'll be fine. Go on."
"All right," she said. "But I'm coming back at dinner, all right?"
"All right."
Kissing her hand and then pressing it to my lips she hurried out the door. I sighed, happy to finally have some alone time. Pansy was a nice girl, if not a bit clingy.
"Wow, four weeks into the school year and you've already found yourself into the hospital wing."
"Oh no, not you," I said, a smirk coming to my face.
"Yes me." Cree sat down next to his bed, taking the chair Pansy had occupied. I still continued help but feel overwhelmed by her presence whenever she came around. Her eyes were soft as she looked at him.
"Don't you have class?" I asked, still smirking at her.
"It's free period for the first years," she said. She looked down at her arm. "I guess I was wrong."
"Wrong about what?"
"Wrong about your intellectual capacity. I'm a first year and even I know better than to mess with a wild hippogriff."
I frowned turning my face away from her. She sighed. "Oh come on, Draco, you know I'm just messing with you. So tell me, what on earth possessed you to aggravate a hippogriff?"
I looked back at her. She was leaning against my bed, her elbows on the covers, her hands holding up her head. My eyes locked with hers for one agonizing moment before I was able to tear myself away. She was an eleven year old for Merlin's sake! "I wasn't about to be outdone by that scar-head," I said.
She rolled her eyes. "So you're saying you got jealous?"
I opened my mouth to protest but there was no point. In only four weeks, Cree seemed to know well enough when I was lying or not. "Did you come in here to torment me?"
"Of course. But also to see if you were okay. I mean, getting attacked by a hippogriff isn't a very fun thing to deal with. Good thing, though, Pansy has class while I have break, or otherwise I wouldn't have ever gotten in here. She doesn't seem to like me very much."
"Only because you said she looked like a dog."
"She called me the 'runt of the litter' and said that I 'wasn't welcome.' Did you really just expect me to stand by and let her talk about me?"
I smirked. "No, I suppose not."
Cree looked thoughtful, her head tilting slightly to the side. "You don't seem to like her very much."
"What makes you say that?"
"Oh, please. I see the way you cringe when she holds onto your arm and I know boys just adore it when girls swoon all over them, but she doesn't swoon, Draco, she whines." Cree cleared her throat, giving me a puppy-dog look almost similar to Pansy's. " 'Oh, Draco, you're oh so clever . . . Oh Draco, you're oh so handsome . . . Oh Draco, Oh Draco'."
I couldn't help but laugh at her antics. She fluttered her eyes at me once before her face turned back to the one I liked, her normal face. "And that smile," she said, her lip curling up slightly.
"What's wrong with her smile?"
"Nothing I suppose, if not for the fact that it's just so . . . sickly sweet, like spoiled sugar."
"Well, maybe if you smiled more you wouldn't complain about other people's smiles."
She smiled then, a bright, breathtaking smile. "I smile, but only for certain people."
"Me included?" I asked, her smile slightly contagious.
"You mostly." The bell rang, signaling dinner. Cree got to her feet. "I better go before Pansy comes back and tries to hex me. Notice I said try."
She leaned forward and kissed me gently on the cheek. "Feel better, faker."
She hurried out of the hospital wing, leaving me with a crazy smile on my face. The place where she kissed me got hot.
Unconsciously, my hand reached up and touched my kiss where she'd kiss me years ago. I recalled how close we had been that soon after those four weeks and how she didn't even want to be in the same room with me anymore.
Surprising to me, that hurt.
I sat up in bed, incredibly upset for unknown reasons. A slight smile came to my face again as I recalled that first kiss. Cree has never been one for mushy, touchy, feely stuff, but when she was . . . . though we never got past kissing, those moments when we did kiss were worth my entire fortune.
Angrily, I threw myself back on my bed. She was a traitor. I hated her.
At least, I was supposed to hate her.
But at least, just once, I wanted her to smile again. She had told me herself, she only smiled for me. And to be able to see such a rare smile and to be the cause of that was a privilege. It lit up the room, that smile. . . .
Merlin I was going insane.
