DISCLAIMER: Nothing related to J.K. Rowling here is mine.
After the crowd bifurcated, it divided further into streams of houses. Alli followed the curled head of Lavender Brown through the portrait hole at the ushering of Professor McGonagall. The students were herded into the common room and Alli glanced around at her peers. Flouncing in the direction of Parvati, she prepared to let herself be pulled into the gossip mill. While preferring to avoid it, in such situations as this, it was very convenient. She could easily pop in and absquatulate by the excuse of having homework.
"You hear what happened?" Alli sweetly inquired.
"I heard that Katie was cursed," Parvati confirmed. "But not like the fights in the halls. Something really dark."
"Harry Potter thinks it was Malfoy," a girl a year behind said. Alli felt a distinct inkling that this girl was named Miranda but didn't refer to her by name for the sake of avoiding being wrong.
"Harry Potter has also had a problem with him since the first day of first year," Alli stated calmly. "That's really a huge accusation to make without exorbitant proof."
Parvati smirked; taking it as her cue to leave, Alli added that she had to do an assignment and jouked into the girls' dormitories. Retrieving her school bag, she dumped her unneeded books onto the bed and left only some quills and parchment. Quietly exiting, she managed to evade attention. As she passed into the hall, she saw that the castle hadn't yet settled. The masses of people were still pushing in all directions, all but ignoring Filch's exaggerated arm movements. The only empty stairwell seemed to lead to a corridor that Peeves was defacing.
Choosing the lesser of both evils, she ascended into the crowd, pushing through her peers. Cassie and Gianna were still trapped in a circle of Ravenclaws on the escalier above. The fleeting wish of wanting them to be close enough to attract their attention passed into a game plan for escaping the crowd.
"Prefect!" a voice shouted. "Out of my way! Slytherins, that way!" Draco was pulling the Slytherins from the massive crowd and toward the stairwell leading to the lowest parts of the school.
Alli was pulled in that direction by the current, the crowd ejecting her into a painting of Gertrella the Giver. Nearly knocking Draco over as righted herself, she apologized profusely.
"Honestly," he said. "I'm fine."
"Are you su--?"
"Yeah," he straightened himself. "Care to walk with me?"
"Alright," she shifted, one step a lurching movement from a push by a tall Hufflepuff. Silently, she praised all that is holy for not allowing Draco to have been facing her to see it. Alli's steps moved quickly to reach him, her pace leveling as she regained her steadiness completely.
"Bit of a pity that we couldn't stay at the Three Broomsticks longer," he started.
"It is," Alli said, starting to say something witty. She was cut off.
"Zabini and Goyle saw us together." His face was hard. Alli knew what was coming. Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry usually left members of the two houses divided. Too much competition ingrained in the attitudes of the houses for centuries. It was Hogwarts culture.
"Oh?" she tried keeping her tone casual while they strolled down the shockingly vacant hallway.
"Yeah," he said. "Granted, I hexed the pair of them. I don't need their approval to go out with someone. It complicates it, albeit."
"I get it."
"I wasn't going to say that we shouldn't see each other, actually. We'd only need to keep it on the down low."
Alli felt prudent, stopping in her tracks. He halted a few feet from her. "You're sure you want to continue this little…" she struggled for the right word. "…liaison?"
When in doubt, go with the sketchiest word possible. Nice job, Allison, she thought.
"If you're willing, I see no reason not to."
"Yes, then. But when…?"
"Late, obviously, or in a place like Hogshead. That place is basically dead because Rosemerta's is so popular."
"Where's that?"
"On the far end of Hogsmeade," Draco answered. "Where no one ever seems to be walking."
Alli nodded. "So the weekend after next, then?"
"Why not the upcoming?"
"I need to go to Apparating and then I have to work for a bit," Alli frowned. "By then, I'm liable to just sleep for a year."
Draco chuckled. "I understand the feeling."
"I guess I'll see you?" Alli meekly continued. "I was going to the library but…"
"It's fine," Draco said. They stood soundlessly for a moment. As if afraid to offend her, Draco reluctantly moved toward Alli and gave her a brief kiss on the lips. She was again thankful to be partly hidden. The corridor was dimmed as they had nearly reached the end of it; Alli's face had flushed vibrantly red.
Still in close proximity to one another, they jumped apart upon being started by the sounds of cooing and whispers. A large painting on the farther wall was watching them, the three women were peeking at them from behind a relatively small tea tray. The first may have been a man but a quite foppish one. He or she was staring intently. The second woman was tittering and waving her fan at the pair while the third woman chastised the both of them.
"They are not an event to have spectators! Why don't you just vend some peanuts while you're at it?"
"Oh, sure, it was fine when Filch was down here doing—"
"SHHH! Don't let them hear that, look how innoce—"
"Honey, we lived four hundred years ago and we weren't even that innocent."
"We weren't. If you didn't make people vomit in their mouths every time they saw your face, maybe you wouldn't have been so…"
"I DATED MORE THAN YOU DID! And mummy liked me better!"
"Mummy liked the cat better than you!"
Their nattering grew only worse and the moment lost all other potential.
"I think it'd be a good time to leave," Draco said. "After you…" he held his arm out in a sweeping gesture, a caricature of the behavior of Beauxbatons' attendants. Everyone had mocked their mannerisms, even two years after their visit. As Alli thanked him, she stepped by him and moved along to the dormitories, forgetting her need to write letters in the library.
