Draco looked so magisterial sitting there with his arms and legs crossed. His blond hair fell gently on his forehead and his gray eyes glinted in the bright lights of the room. He was, in a word, beautiful.
-No! Stop it Mia. He is not beautiful or magisterial or handsome or…. or…
-Yeah that's right, he is. Even YOU can't deny it.
I felt uncomfortable as I realized that my sensible side that ignored Draco on principle had just given in to my realistic side that recognized how attractive the boy sitting across from me was.
I shifted in my seat and cleared my throat, although to what purpose I'm not sure. After all, Draco's eyes were already focused on mine.
"So… um… what can we talk about?" I began. Draco's eyes rolled as he uncrossed his arms and legs and leaned forward, resting his forearms on his legs.
"Look, honestly, I don't really want to talk to you for two hours, alright?" My eyes narrowed.
"Were you even listening to him? We don't have a choice! If we don't talk, he'll probably just make us come back for more detentions." The idea obviously didn't appeal to Draco; I saw him flinch.
"Sluggie only said that his spell will tell him if we are silent for five minutes at a time. So, we can do this: Go four minutes without talking, say one thing, then go back to four minutes of silence. You see? That way we don't have to talk hardly at all," Draco sat back again looking mighty pleased with himself.
"Oh puh-leez Malfoy! I'm sure that Professor Slughorn will have thought things through. No way will that work."
"Worth a shot isn't it? Look, neither of us want to be here doing this right now. This is our best chance of not having to. Just shut it for four minutes will ya?" Draco smirked as I promptly glared and shut my mouth.
Tick tock, tick tock…. Professor Slughorn's clock served as our way to know how long four minutes was. When the four minutes passed Draco's face turned towards mine again.
"My mother is Narcissa Malfoy and my father is Lucius Malfoy. Yours?"
"Um, my mother is Nicole Rust and my father is David Rust." I opened my mouth; only to close it again when Draco smiled and put a finger to his lips. His face again turned towards the clock, keeping close track on the minutes. Four minutes passed. Draco again turned to me, this time smirking.
"See? I told you it would work." That was apparently all that was going to be said because he again turned towards the clock.
On the outside, I was sitting calmly, uncaring. On the inside, I was fuming. Perhaps I didn't want to talk to Draco for two hours, but his attitude towards me was worse. I kept my cool however and planned to sit out a very long, boring evening. But only another two minutes had passed when I heard something. A footstep, and another, and another… the door Slughorn had previously exited opened again. I heard the Professor sigh before stepping in.
"You two are supposed to be bright students. Did you not understand the instructions I gave you?" Draco gaped at him.
"But… it hasn't been five minutes since we talked last!" he cried indignantly. Professor Slughorn grinned widely.
"Oh! Do you mean to tell me that I forgot to mention that I am not only aware after five minutes of silence at one time, but of a repeated pattern of elongated silences? Oh-ho-ho! That is surely my mistake. " I could hear the sarcasm dripping off his tongue… "I suppose I did not make it quite clear that the spell I have cast on this room is a luminaurius spell. That means that a certain object in this room is my eyes and ears and therefore has some level of intelligence. It is not easily fooled. But now that you are aware of it, I am sure you will not take this detention so lightly eh? Now: converse!" And for the second time, Professor Slughorn turned on his heel and left the room. As soon as I heard the door shut I turned to Draco and smirked.
"So, shall we try this again Malfoy? What can we talk about?" Draco grumbled something entirely incomprehensible. I was still smirking.
"Alright I suppose I can start. Hmmmm… alright. What's your favorite class this term?"
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," was the response.
"Because of Snape, or do you actually enjoy the subject?" I questioned.
"The subject. Snape is…. irritating to say the least," I saw Draco stiffen as he mentioned Snape's name. I was so confused. Weren't Snape and Draco buddy-buddy? Oh well, I guess things changed between them somehow….
"Ok then, next question-" I started.
"Hey wait! You didn't say what your favorite class is," he pointed out.
"My favorite class is probably Defense Against the Dark Arts also." His eyebrows went up.
"Really?" he questioned in disbelief, "I would've figured you more for a Charms fan or something of that sort. Why do you like that class?"
"I find it really interesting. I hope to be an auror someday and the stuff they teach us, even if it is Snape teaching, is incredibly useful and fun even. Not to mention, it's the only class I have with Anna."
Draco snorted and started chuckling to himself and I heard him murmur, "Girls…"
"What? Just because I have an actual friend in this world whereas you don't is no reason to be an ass!" I snapped. Draco immediately sobered up and if I hadn't known better, I would've said he looked hurt. I sat back against the cushion with a huff. I wanted to apologize but my pride wouldn't allow it.
"Anyways, next topic. Tell me about your family," I said tentatively.
"My father's in Azkaban and my mother is a nervous wreck. Anything else you'd like to know?" he practically shouted.
I flinched at the harsh tones in his voice and muttered,
"No, that's fine…"
When he didn't talk again after a few seconds I decided to talk myself.
"So, well, my parents are both graduates of Hogwarts. My dad was a Gryffindor and my mom was a Ravenclaw. They're great people; they mean the world to me. My parents are always there to look out for me, especially my dad. He really gets me," I smiled and laughed as memories came flooding to me.
"I even remember this one time, when I went for a ride on my mum's broomstick around the yard and I got tangled up in a bush. I scratched myself up really bad, but I didn't want to tell them for fear of a lecture. I snuck into the house and went into a bathroom to try and patch it up by myself, but my dad saw me. He took care of it and promised not to tell my mum. It was our secret. And I can always talk to him when I'm feeling down or something…" my voice drifted off as I realized I was rambling nervously, to Draco Malfoy. I tried to calm my nerves and continued.
"But anyway, I don't have any siblings, but I wish I did. Fred and George were sort of like older brothers to me, but they're not here anymore so I'm all by myself," I gave a slight smile at the thought of my adopted brothers.
"Fred and George Weasley? That's such a loser family. Blood traitors, the lot of them. You'd be better off staying away from them. Although I don't know why I'm surprised, after all, your best friend is a mudblood." Draco's voice was filled with scorn and it infuriated me almost as much as the way he referred to my friends.
"You listen here, Malfoy. The entire Weasley family is brilliant! They are all much better people and wizards than you and your contemptible family will ever be. And anyway, pure blood, half blood, mudblood, what the hell is the difference huh? We all have magic, we all practice it. We're all bloody humans! Tell me Malfoy, what's so horrible about mudbloods? What is it that condemns them?" I shouted at first but my voice became quieter and controlled by the end of my little tirade. Draco's eyes flashed and his nostrils flared.
"They are born from MUGGLES. They consort with MUGGLES. Muggles are scum. Therefore, it's pretty easy to understand I think, MUDBLOODS ARE SCUM!" Draco shouted right back.
"Is that so Mr. High and Mighty? Who the hell made YOU the King of God's green earth, huh? What makes muggles scum?"
"They have no magic therefore they are worth less than we are."
"Bullshit! You're stupid Malfoy. You shouldn't swallow everything you're told. You're just repeating everything that Daddy told you, aren't you? Tell me, from your own perspective, why you honestly think mudbloods are bad." Draco was getting worked up, I could tell.
