Chapter 3
Three days later I was in a potions lesson, although of course because of my being a gryfindor snape despised me but due to my attachment to Draco he had a certain amount of respect for me and occasionally even awarded me house points, although he refused to say "ten points for gryfindor" so instead he would say "ten points for Miss James" which although slightly embarrassing was also quite good for my ego. It was the only lesson in which i actually sat with draco and it was the only lesson in which Harry, Hermione and Ron would not complain for me doing so. Although they hated Draco with a passion they did like the idea that he could be used to our advantage. It was this lesson which tipped the scale slightly with Draco. Ron and I had had a long and slightly awkward conversation about our little incident and had decided that it was best if neither of us spoke about it ever again, since neither of us had told anyone yet so we agreed to keep it that way. Although as any difficult situation tends to it made having a normal conversation with Ron difficult and we had become separated and rarely talked, it seemed that the healing time would be a couple of weeks, which meant that if Harry and Hermione weren't around i would generally be in the company of Draco Malfoy. Over the time that I had become a lesser acquaintance of Ron I had become very close to Draco and over the past few days we had spent most of our free time together which made me feel a little bad for Crabbe and Goyle who seemed to just wonder around aimlessly without Malfoy to lead them. They reminded me of those little robots that you get in the muggle world which can walk around but as soon as they get to a wall they just keep crashing into it and need you to pick them up and put them in the right direction to make them work. When i told this to Draco, we were sat in a tree that overlooked the lake and he needed an explanation as to "what is a robot?" but once i had explained it he laughed so hard i thought he was going to fall out of the tree. We had only been back for 3 days and yet we had managed to; have 2 picnics by the lake, fly a broom onto the roof of the castle and throw stones into the womping willow at one point we also used the room of requirement as a cinema, which Draco didn't really understand but he liked it all the same. During Potions on Thursday we were working together to make a wit-sharpening potion which seemed to be already sharpening our wit's just by the smell, I could even feel how far behind me the next person walking past was before i heard them, I was also feeling curiously light and worry-less "what is this potion supposed to do exactly?" I asked draco who was adding the armadillo bile to finish off the potion in a flurry of purple smoke. "Its supposed to calm nerves and give confidence to the drinker" he said then looked at me and smiled. "Mr Malfoy, Miss James I see you are the first to finish, ten points to the both of you" I could have sworn that i saw him smile but that may have been my imagination, Draco was standing looking directly at snape and i was surprised to find that so was I, my usual nervousness around him seemed to fade with this potion nearby, Snape leaned down stirred the potion with his wand, sniffed it and this time he grinned, snape never smiled but around Draco he allowed a grin, "as you two have finished you may clear up and leave early." he then turned to Harry and Ron who were working behind me and had only just managed to turn their potion from red to blue "Potter! Weasly! due to your measly efforts you will put away all of your AND Mr Malfoy and Miss James' ingredients and equipment once they have cleaned them. I felt quite sorry for them since the cleaning was the easy part as all we had to do was pour the potion into the sink and use a simple vanish spell to clean off any dregs. It took us pretty much exactly 3 minutes and then collecting our books we stepped into the dungeon corridor.
Draco was smiling with more confidence than usual which was hard for him considering that he was always pretty confident. With my new found confidence i was finding it hard not to stare at him "so what do you want to do?" I said coming out more flirty than i usually would, Draco stood for a moment and looked out of the window then an idea seemed to strike him and he said "come with me." and took my hand. Although we had been friends for a long time he had never held my hand and it made me jump a little as he wrapped his fingers in between mine and power walked down the corridors and out the back entrance to the school where the passage came out near the lake and next to a patch of trees which we had eaten chocolate covered strawberries and marshmallow butterflies a few days before. He then let go of my hand and jumped into the first tree he climbed up 3 branches then lent against the one next to it and reached down his hand, I looked at him and grinned, I took his hand and he lifted me as i took each step up the tree making it feel more like floating than pulling up my body weight, i hadn't realised quite how strong he had become. "I used to sit up here when i was in first year, its great because you can see everyone below you and they never know that you are there." I had the picture of a little Draco climbing this tree and couldn't help but smile a little. Up until that point I had been looking at Draco, I was so close that i could see every fleck of blue and gold in his eyes, and every lose hair on his forehead. Then he turned and looked out of the tree and i did the same, the view was beautiful and I couldn't help but catch my breath which caused me to wobble backwards a little, at which point Draco wrapped his arm around my waist. "Yeah the view isn't bad is it." he said, and i looked at him, he was already looking at me and he looked completely calm. His arm was still around my waist and we were so close now that all i would have to do it lean forward and we would be kissing, but i didn't because as always i was too scared, instead he did. He lent forward and kissed me.
