Title: Faked Smiles
Rating: PG
Summary: So when Draco saw that the great Potter was not actually smiling, he felt as if the world had flipped over. The sensation was rather like the night of his sixteenth birthday, when he had gotten so pissed he'd held onto the grass to keep from falling off the earth. Companion to No One Sees Eyes.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author(ess): Syhala
Word Count: 307
Draco Malfoy, not long after he noticed that the Harry Potter he hated was not the Harry Potter walking around school, realized something else about him. It happened one day as he sat outside, alone for once, doing his homework. He had happened to look up and right across the grounds sat one Harry Potter with his friends. Draco heard him laugh and scowled, determined to return to his homework when something caught his eye.
Harry Potter was faking a smile.
Draco had learned early on that smiles could be faked, and not everyone who smiled was happy. His mother, for instance, was always smiling at her dinner parties, but it never looked right. There was always something wrong with it. So when Draco saw that the great Potter was not actually smiling, he felt as if the world had flipped over. The sensation was rather like the night of his sixteenth birthday, when he had gotten so pissed he'd held onto the grass to keep from falling off the earth.
Draco peered closer at Potter. His lips were turned up, his teeth were showing, but the smile didn't even reach his dimples, much less his eyes. It was forced and unnatural and grotesque. Draco wished he hadn't ever seen it, hadn't ever seen the difference in Potter's eyes or mouth because bit by bit his idea of the Golden Boy was being chipped away, sinking like a flan in a cupboard. It made him question other things in his life he was overlooking, was so confident in he couldn't see changes.
Draco scowled again and returned his attention to his essay on opaleye dragons.
It was later, when Draco's life was tumbling around like someone had stuck it in a dryer, that Draco was glad he had noticed Potter's changes. It ended up saving his life.