A/N: Written for Hogwarts Assignment 10 - Demonology: task 4 - Write about someone being tempted.
Word count: 478
Daphne glanced up from her essay before forcing herself to look back at her parchment. Having Susan across from her made it impossible to focus on anything, and it infuriated Daphne to no end. She hadn't asked Flitwick to pair them together, but it was as if Flitwick had known about the weakness Daphne had for the other girl—a Hufflepuff!—and had taken it upon himself to make Daphne miserable. It was probably something against Slytherins.
Her one saving grace was that Susan appeared utterly unaware of the effect she had on her. She was chewing on her lip as she scratched away at her own parchment, and Daphne couldn't resist glancing at her again, just for a second.
Possible conversation starters ran through Daphne's mind, none of which had anything to do with the cleaning charms they were meant to be studying. For years, Susan had been distracting Daphne from afar, and Daphne had learned how to rein herself in and not reveal anything. That was so much harder when she had her up close. It was so tempting to just speak with her. It would be so easy to say what Daphne had long wanted to but knew that she couldn't.
Whereas before Daphne had only found Susan distracting during the lessons they had together, she was starting to find herself thinking of the Hufflepuff at all times. It was never ending.
Movement from the corner of her eye pulled Daphne away from her parchment again—not that she'd been writing anything. Susan brushed a strand of hair away from her face and behind her ear. Daphne pressed her lips together and looked back down at the parchment. But this time she wasn't as lucky. Susan looked up and caught her, one eyebrow rising.
"What's wrong?" she asked with a slight frown. She laid her quill down as if preparing for a long chat.
Blood rushed through Daphne's ears as she gripped her own quill tighter, threatening to snap it in half. It was more tempting than ever to ask a personal question and learn more about the girl in front of her. Or even ask her to Hogsmeade, just to see what would happen. The words were on the tip of her tongue. It would be so easy, whatever drama came next be damned.
"Nothing," she snapped instead. "Just hard to focus when the topic is so boring."
Susan smiled, and Daphne's heart skipped a beat.
"It is, isn't it?" she said. "There's only so long you can write about cleaning charms before you need a break. Maybe we can just talk for a bit instead?"
Daphne held her breath. She shouldn't. She really shouldn't. Nothing good would come from getting friendly with a Hufflepuff, especially not a Hufflepuff that she'd begun dreaming about at night.
"Okay," she said instead, finally giving into temptation.