Kyra rolled her eyes dramatically, a giggle escaping her lips. Eli had been swirling his wand above the desk, creating a small 3d paper drawing of the professor. It was mimicking the professor's movements perfectly and Kyra stifled a laugh. In the past week, it had become increasingly clear to her that Eli was never serious. He was consistently cracking jokes or messing with other students. She watched intently as he flicked his wand once more and the drawing began to tear itself apart. Glancing up briefly, she noticed Malfoy watching out of the corner of his eye, a hint of amusement playing on his lips.
The professor dismissed the class and Eli gave one final twirl of his wand, the bits of shredded paper sweeping themselves up, landing in the nearby trash can. Kyra shook her head, breathing a laugh as she gathered her things and followed him out the door. Classes had been going better than she'd expected. Malfoy primarily avoided her and she was getting better acquainted with the rest of the group quickly. There was very rarely a time when at least one of the boys wasn't in their dorm. Without a curfew, they would stay until nearly two in the morning, playing cards or watching movies. Even Malfoy spent a decent amount of time in the dorm with them. He was, of course, incredibly different here than he was at Hogwarts. While still being arrogant, he was also incredibly funny and had proven to be relatively helpful to the other girls. They would be civil toward each other; however, there was still an uncomfortable air between them. She didn't suspect it was noticeable to anyone outside of the two of them, but if no one was around, he avoided her like the plague.
As she approached the potions classroom, Kyra was hit with a pungent odor. The rich irony scent of dragon's blood mixed with earthy lavender filled the room, spilling out into the hallway. It was immediately clear that they would be concocting memory potions. They hadn't brewed any potions yet this year, of which Kyra was glad. She knew as soon as they started brewing, her grade would slip. As she gravitated toward her seat, she noticed a cauldron placed on each table. This definitely did not bode well for her grade.
Malfoy slid into his seat beside her, casually eyeing the cauldron and fixing his eyes at the front of the room, per usual. The professor came to the front of the classroom, clearing her throat. She instructed everyone to work in pairs with the other classmate at their table. Kyra groaned internally, realizing she would need to communicate with him today. Glancing over at him, his expression was carefully blank. The professor waved her wand at the board, the page number of the instructions appearing in messy, white chalk.
Letting out a quiet breath, Kyra grabbed her textbook, flipping it open to the page, and setting it between them. She barely caught the brief sound of a sigh escaping his lips as he resigned himself to finally looking at her. Her eyes grazed over his face, avoiding eye contact, as she was fully aware how unnerving it could be to look him in the eyes. The tension between them was unbearable, "I uh…I'm not too great at potions so you should probably take the lead on this." Kyra's voice was shaky and she laughed nervously, attempting to break the ice.
"Well we should start by being on the correct page," Glancing down, she realized he was right. She huffed, pursing her lips, and hanging her head in defeat. He had a look of amusement on his face, "Why don't I go get the ingredients? You stay here and try not to break anything." He was breathing a laugh and Kyra faked an offended look.
"No promises." He smirked as he strode off toward the cabinet. She picked at the table, distracting her from her minor anxiety. Within a minute, he was placing the ingredients on the tabletop. Kyra studied them carefully, glancing back at the textbook to try to identify each one. She held up an arrow shaped object. It was golden, freckled, and smooth to the touch. She ran her finger up and down it.
"It's a barb from a dragon's tail." Malfoy was rolling his eyes at her. Kyra nodded, her face hard, "Okay, can you light the cauldron; I'm going to start pressing the lavender." After digging around under the table, he grabbed a knife and a piece of lavender. She tightened her grip on her wand, carefully lighting the fire under the ancient black cauldron. Glancing over, Kyra noticed him pressing the lavender between his thumb and the knife over the top, the essence dripping into the pot. She watched carefully, looking back to see how bored he looked. His eyes flicked down, catching hers as she looked away quickly, focusing on the book, "If you're done staring at me, you can chop the dragon tail." Kyra felt the heat rush to her face and carefully slid her hand onto the table to take the tail back. She fished out a second knife from under the table and began slicing the tail diagonally. About to make her third slice, Kyra felt his cold hand grab hers suddenly. She jumped, swiveling, the knife still in her hand, now pointed at him. He threw his hands up, a flicker of fear passing through his icy blue eyes, "Put the knife down, psycho." A smirk had made its way onto his face now, realizing Kyra wasn't going to hurt him. She lowered the knife slowly, letting out a quiet chuckle, "You're cutting it wrong, watch." He reached his hand out, brushing it against hers as he took the knife, his eyes meeting hers and falling back down to the tail. Kyra watched in awe as he swiftly cut into the tail, efficiently dicing it into a hundred pieces. He used the knife to scrape the pieces into his hand and poured them into the cauldron, "Think you can do that to the scales?"
The rest of the potion went fairly smoothly, Malfoy doing the majority of the work, stopping every five minutes to critique Kyra and smirk stupidly at her. They were nearly done when they got down to the Jobberknoll feather. Reaching for it at the same time, Kyra drew her hand back, "I'd better do it. It can be complicated," He lightly poked her with the feather, "And we both know you can't handle complicated." Kyra shot him a look of faux-anger and he chuckled. Leaning over the cauldron, he slowly swirled the feather into the mixture, "Three time clockwise," He swirled it as he said, "Four times counterclockwise," He continued, "Hold it half way in for five seconds and then slowly lower it the rest of the way in. It should turn silvery if we did it correctly." Kyra held her breath as he held it up, whispering, "5…4…3…2…1," Then he slowly sunk the feather all the way in. They both sat in silence for several seconds, watching the mixture intently. Its color began to shift, the purple mixture fading, the tint of silver slowly rising to the surface. He threw his hands up, excitedly, "We did it!" Quickly adjusting his demeanor, he sat back down, glancing back and forth between her and the potion, "I mean, mostly I did it. But you were a great observer." His stupid smirk returned to his face.
"Oh, I was awesome and you know it," Kyra teased, "You couldn't have done it without me!" His eyebrows narrowed, doubtfully, scoffing. She spotted a pair of students across the classroom jumping backwards as a green slime climbed out of their cauldron, "Without me, you probably would have ended up like them." He rolled his eyes.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid." Malfoy uttered. Kyra beamed, grinning up at him from her seat. He shook his head, a genuine smile on his face. She noticed a small chip in one of his teeth; it was the only flaw in his near perfect smile. It took all her self control to look away from him. He really was attractive; his tousled white-blonde hair not slicked back like it was at Hogwarts. Kyra took in a sharp breath, mentally reprimanding herself for letting her thoughts wander.
Class ended shortly after, and Kyra gathered her things quickly, rushing out the door, not wanting to walk out with him. He couldn't joke around with her once and flash a cute smile to make her forget that he had threatened her. Kyra's heart was pounding in her chest as she practically jogged to her next class. She could feel her body getting warm, the tugging in her chest causing her to stop in an empty hallway. She bent over, taking deep breaths, the stale air of the school not aiding her. Kyra's eyes closed and she calmed herself down. Recognizing the fact that he was attractive wasn't a crime. And she was allowed to joke around, he was in her friend group, they needed to be comfortable with each other. Kyra kept repeating those thoughts to herself, the nagging in the pit of her stomach trying to convince her otherwise. She could hear the blood pounding in her ears as she inhaled deeply. Kyra allowed her body to slump briefly before pulling herself upright. Class was about to start and she'd be damned if she let Draco Malfoy interfere with her life. She had more control than this. She was going to go to class and do what she had to in order to forget about Draco Malfoy.