New Slytherin Girl

by AnnyBee

Not all Slytherins are evil; then again, they're not always so nice. But isn't that how all humans are? We grow, we learn, we adapt. At times we're hated and others we're loved. Seven eventful years, all seen through a Slytherin's eyes. Sometimes it's good to look at life from a different perspective.

122. Slytherin Prefects

I rubbed my face lazily, feeling a hint warmth against it. Squinting at the light coming from the same direction, I let out a groan. I had forgotten to close the proper curtains last night. With a grumble I turned my back to the window, settling my face back against the pillow. Normally that was enough to send me back to sleep but something didn't seem right. Still a little groggy I blinked a few times, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the sunshine, before throwing my blankets off to the side. I was still half asleep so it took me a second to realize what had been bothering me. Opening my eyes completely, turning to squint at the sun, I noticed what should have been obvious from the moment I woke. It was light out.

Slowly, I sat myself up on the bed. Rubbing my face again, in an attempt to be a little more awake, I frowned. It was late. Normally my father woke me before the sun had a chance to. That meant he was either running late, which in my lifetime had yet to happen, or he had already left without me. Still with a sleepy frown on my face, I threw the blankets completely off my body and edged myself off the bed. Taking careful steps, I opened the door and exited my room, still in my sleeping gown.

Shuffling my feet against the hardwood floors I reached the stairs. Listening carefully for any hint of voices, I made my way to the ground floor. A few stories below I began to hear the sounds of our kitchen staff at work. If they were all working that meant it was at least seven, or seven thirty. And that meant my father had long since left without me. Heading directly towards the sound, I stepped into the kitchen, waving a small hello to anyone who greeted me. Taking a seat on one of the island chairs, I leaned my cheek against my arm. Natalie smiled at me as I let out a yawn, and moved to greet me.

"Good morning, Miss Katerina" she called politely. Too tired to attempt a smile, I nodded at her.

"'Morning" I called back lazily. "What time is it?"

"A little past eight, miss" she answered, gesturing to where I assumed they had moved the clock. Not too bad a guess on my part.

"My father left already" I guessed, to which she nodded. Figured as much.

"I wasn't one of the staff who dealt with his breakfast but, from what I hear, he said not disturb you this morning" she concluded. That was strange; he usually had no reservations on disturbing me. I frowned a little as Natalie turned her attention to her side. "However, your mother should still be in the dining room. I believe she was just about finished with her meal."

"I see" I sighed. So she hadn't even bothered waiting for me before eating. Well, that was more familiar territory at least. "Thank you, Natalie."

Respectfully she nodded before turning back into the kitchen with the others. A sleepy look still on my face, I slid off the island chair and headed into the dining room. My mother was pretty easy to spot, as she always was. That woman just knew how to draw attention to herself. Trying to shake the last bits of sleep off my face, I rubbed my eyes one more time. When I looked back up, my mother was frowning at me.

"Oh, don't do that" she frowned, swatting lightly at my hands still near my face. Taking a step closer, she ran her fingertips lightly at the edges of my eyes. "You'll give yourself wrinkles if you continue to pull at your skin like that."

"Good morning to you too, mother" I greeted sarcastically. But my mother had already found something else she thought deserved more attention.

"And, dear, what is with this hair?" she whined, moving her hands from my face to my head, trying to fix the various strays on my head.

"I just woke up" I defended, leaning away from her reach. "I'm fine—stop. Now, do you know why Papa left me here today? Do I have to spend the day with you now?"

"You could try to sound less disappointed, you know" she pouted, giving me a look. Giving my hair one more sigh, she quickly waved away the comment. "No, I have plans already. I'm going to be very busy and I can't have you following me around all day."

"But I was so looking forward to it" I replied, letting myself give out a yawn halfway through the sentence. At that, my mother made an attempt to roll her eyes.

"I'm sure you were, dear. Maybe next time, but," she paused to hand me an envelope, with a particular smile on her face, "you did receive a letter today."

"A letter?" I mumbled, not seeing why I should be half as excited as she was.

"It's from your school" she answered before I could ask. Obviously she had already opened it. I would have thought it a violation of my privacy had I not been so surprised she had cared enough about my life to open it in the first place. "The new booklist has arrived."

"Oh?" I said, realizing that was something to care about. Although, she was still being surprisingly pleasant about it, considering she never cared much for things relating to Hogwarts. I pulled out the usual two pieces of parchment, curious as to what new books I would need this time around.

"Yes, now hurry and order yourself some breakfast" she clapped excitedly. "After you eat, and make yourself presentable, we'll send off a letter to the Malfoys'."

"Oh" I said again, this time in a much different tone.

That made sense, why she had been so excited. It had become a sort of unspoken tradition that Draco and I do our book shopping together, ever since I ran into him and his father in Diagon Alley, just before our second year. Normally I loved being able to go together but… things were a little different now. I didn't want to go, nor did I want to explain why to my mother, who still looked to be waiting for a reply from me. Turning back down to the booklist, I decided to change the subject.

"A new list means they found a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher" I noticed, per the requested copy of Defensive Magical Theory. "Do you happen to know who that will be?"

"Your father mentioned something about that, actually" my mother pondered, successfully distracted. "He said it would be some woman who works in the Ministry."

"Someone from the Ministry?" I asked, assuming I had heard wrong. My mother gave me a slight nod.

"Yes, I thought it odd as well. Well, seeing as not many wanted to take the position, Cornelius decided to appoint someone himself" my mother stated, but pursed her lips slightly. "He gave the position to a secretary of all things. I believe your father said her name was… Dariella? No, no, Dolores. Dolores something."

"He appointed a secretary to—Wait, Dolores?" I asked, snapping my eyes back to my mother. I let put a frown. "You don't mean, Dolores Umbridge, do you? Dolores, the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic?"

"Yes, that one" she gave a firm nod. "Such a long title to give a secretary, I couldn't be bothered to remember the whole thing."

"Secretary and Undersecretary are two very different positions" I corrected, but my mother shrugged it off. "Even still, what qualifies Umbridge of all people to teach us?"

"Oh, so you know her?" Mother asked, taking that as important out of all the things I said.

"In passing" I sighed, moving to sit on one of the dining room chairs. "She's daft and boring. I don't want to deal with her an entire year."

"Well, with the record your school has with its professors, perhaps she will have some sort of major accident that will force her to leave" my mother caressed my head, in an attempt to cheer me up.

"That would be nice" I gave her a smile.

"Well, your father did offer to transfer you to Durmstrang, but then you went and assaulted one of the students. Oh don't sit like that" she complained, swatting lightly at my back as I began to slump against my seat. "A lady should have proper posture, sit up, dear."

"Allegedly assaulted," I corrected, ignoring the posture comment, "there's no solid proof I was involved. What time were you supposed to leave, anyway? It's already half past eight."

"Oh it is" she gasped, glancing at the grandfather clock near the hallway. "I'll be going now. Have fun with Draco today, dear. Say hello to him for me."

I gave her a wave as she cooed her goodbyes, hurrying out the door. As she disappeared from view I looked back at the booklist in hand. Just two books; The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5, by Miranda Goshawk, and Magical Defensive Theory, by Wilbert Slinkhard. It was being described as magical theory… Did that mean we weren't going to be learning practical uses for it?

"Have you decided on what you'd like for breakfast, miss?" one of the staff asked as I continued to frown down at the parchment. After another second, I let out a sigh.

"I'll just have the usual" I answered, looking up from my list. "And some black tea for today."

"Very well" he nodded and extended a hand. Not looking over, I gave him the list. "And should I contact Young Malfoy; let him know your plans for the day?"

"Actually," I replied after a moment of thought, "I'm not feeling well today. If anyone from the Malfoy household asks, tell them that. And send someone to go pick up the new text for me, along with some Jequirity beans. I'm running low on those."

"Jeriquity…" he mumbled, whether because he didn't hear or because he wasn't familiar with the name. Standing from my seat, I gave a small sigh.

"Jequirity. I should have an order for them already placed with our Knockturn Alley Herbalist. If you want something to reference them, they look like red beads, or ladybugs" I explained before turning away. "I'll be taking my breakfast up in my room as well. Please let me know when it's ready."

He nodded in understanding before making his way to the kitchen. Lazily, I made my way back up the stairs. I didn't want to meet Draco, not until I had to. And soon I would have to. But until then I was going to take some time to myself. With a groan, I went up to my room, where I stayed for the remainder of the day.

. . .

The next morning started off with just as much of a bother. I hated this part of Hogwarts, getting all the dumb stuff on the dumb train. I set Lev down gently on the train floor, trying to get a better grip on my things. I had managed to get everything into the cart but it seemed one of the corners had gotten stuck. I let out a small groan as I pulled again. It didn't feel this heavy when I was packing it. My mother must have added some last minute changes again.

Lev let out a low growl as someone passed by. With a silent gesture, I motioned Lev to stay. He circled near me before stopping to glare behind me, nose down and posture alert. I looked down curious before hearing a chuckle from behind me. Turning to glare at whoever was still there my expression suddenly froze, noting who it was.

"Looks like you're feeling better" Draco called, looking down at me.

"I am, thanks" I answered, turning back to my luggage. I fidgeted with it a bit more but to no avail. I heard a sigh come from behind me.

"Need a hand?" he asked, but reached a hand for the handle without waiting for a response. I pulled the luggage back looking timidly at him.

"That's alright, I don't need a hand" I insisted but Draco rolled his eyes. Without permission he pulled it from my grip, tugging at it only twice before he set it free. Draco raised a look as if that proved some point then handed the bag back to me. "I could have done that myself."

"I'm sure you could have" he replied, not giving me much in terms of an expression. I shifted the weight my bag against me, making him look down at it. "It feels heavier than normal. Did you bring some extra books or did your mother sneak some clothes in again?"

"Probably both" I mumbled, looking off to the side. At that I heard Draco sigh again.

I heard his footsteps as he walked to a nearby window. Not wanting to force the conversation anymore he leaned against it, watching the last of the students making their way in. I let out a sigh too. This whole thing was stupid; stupid and awkward. I hated it. The worst if it all was that he knew. Draco knew that this whole time I had been avoiding him and instead of fighting me on it, he had chosen to endure it.

I turned my gaze to the corridor. I could just go. I could walk away now and simply see him later. But instead I looked back at him. I couldn't go. My look shifted down at Lev who was still obediently waiting for my lead. With a groan I carelessly tossed my bag on the ground and moved the rest of the way toward the window to stand by him. Draco turned to me a moment but turned back without a word. He might have been mad at me for going so long without talking to him, not that I blamed him. I wanted to say something but what could be said. Lev curled up closer to me and pawed at my ankle, providing his own support. I smiled, bending down to reach for him. I gave Lev a kiss as he nuzzled against my face. When I turned back I found Draco was still fixated on the window. But this time, looking a little more closely, I noticed something else.

"So they went with you and Pansy for prefects this year" I mentioned, looking at the badge pinned to his robes.

"Pansy showed me her badge when we met on the train earlier" he answered, but still not looking at me. "I was going to tell you yesterday but, you know, you weren't feeling well."

"You're angry with me" I figured as much would happen. He turned slightly, giving me a monotone look.

"What could I possibly be angry about?"

"That wasn't a no" I mumbled.

"Well, then, you tell me" Draco called, his expression now annoyed. "What could I possibly be angry about?"

"Can't you ever answer a question directly?"

"Because you always do so yourself" he called back sarcastically. I gave Draco a frown.

"Look I know that—"

Lev interrupted me with a bark. I frowned down at him too; he didn't normally interrupt like that. My puppy kept growling, pointing his snout outside the window. I followed his expression and saw he was directing his yelping at George, who had just come into view. He and Fred were walking towards the rest of their family. Looking away from them, I turned back. But this time I turned my confusion at someone else.

"Why have you been watching them?"

"Seems suspicious, doesn't it?" Draco mumbled, still not looking away as they got their things ready.

"What does?" I asked, not following his reasoning.

"Father told me he saw you, outside the courtrooms" he stated, shifting his eyes to look at me only a second. "I'm sure by now you've dug up the details of what happened. And, if you noticed, they're all paranoid. Their group is bigger than the absurde size it normally is."

"They're a family" I defended. "One that actually spends time together."

"Even the werewolf?" he argued. I turned my attention back to them, not having seen that before. He was right. Remus Lupin was with them and, though I had nothing against him personally, it did strike me as odd.

"It's not just their 'family'" Draco went on, raising his hand to point at each one. "They came in groups. There's the werewolf, they brought Mad-Eye, some old hag… and since when does Potter have a ragged old watchdog?"

"Of course that's no puppy, but that doesn't mean it's a watchdog" I argued, what little I could. "It could be a pet of one of theirs."

"Fine let's pretend, since you actually talk to them, that's possible" Draco allowed before giving me a questioning look. "When have any of them ever mentioned owning a dog?"

"Never" I sighed, choosing to answer honestly. I knew Hermione had Crookshanks, Potter had an owl, Ron had a gerbil or an owl… or both? But that's all I'd ever heard relating to pets. None had ever mentioned a dog. Regardless, setting that aside, I shook my head. We had more important things to talk about. "Draco?"

"What?" he mumbled, eyes still fixed on the view from that window.

"Draco" I called more seriously, but he didn't listen. With a frown, I repeated myself once more. "Draco, I'm trying to talk to you."

"Oh, so now you actually want to talk?" Draco laughed without humor. He turned to look at me, but only slightly, and only enough to shoot me a glare. "What about when I wanted to talk? How about when I sent you letters you ignored, or I went to visit and found you were 'sick'. Or maybe you were just too busy for me, with St. Mungo's, or your father's work, or, better yet, your mother's gala preparations."

"I was helping her" I called back defensively, knowing why he had saved that one for last.

"From home" he snapped back. "And all you did was help with the floral arrangements!"

"That is actually a lot harder than it sounds!" I defended, but his attention was aimed at the window again. I began to argue again but the train's warning whistle interrupted me. I was about to try once more but Draco had raised a hand, apparently having heard the first time. I would've slapped it out if the air but his expression stopped me. Following his gaze, I turned to look out of the window with him.

Harry's "watchdog" had gotten up on his hind legs. Reaching with his front paws, he placed one on either of Potter's shoulders. It was a strangely human gesture, but it didn't last long. George's mother pushed the big dog's paws off him and crouched down next to it. She began to scold it as Draco finally pulled his attention from the window.

"How many dogs do you know that can do that?" Draco asked, stepping towards the middle of the corridor. He glanced down a moment more before turning to me. "Because I can only think of one."

I frowned a moment, not understanding what he meant by that. But before I could say anything, some third years interrupted us. The whistle had reminded everyone it was almost time to leave. Without a thought Draco began to walk along with them. He paused, noting I wasn't following, and turned back. Waiting a moment to see if I would say anything he remained silent but, when I didn't, he gave a small sigh.

"Are you coming?"

"I'll meet you there" I nodded, looking down at Lev in my arms.

Either not wanting to argue or simply not caring, Draco gave me a nod and wandered off. Not wanting to lose Lev in the crowd, I placed him securely in one arm, while the other took hold of my bag. I could've asked Draco for help, but…

I pouted, keeping my eyes forward. I already hated this. For most of the summer since we had gotten back I had avoided him. I knew I would have to see him eventually. Having a forced interaction, one where we had to be in close distance of each other, it seemed like a good thing at the time. Grumbling to myself the majority of the way, I finally found a place to sit. Shifting the weight of the bag and my puppy against me, I took a breath and stepped inside.

"This compartment is full."

"Oh, I am so sorry," I called sarcastically, having expected some form of criticism from her the moment I stepped in. Without hesitation, I stepped the rest of the way into the compartment. "I saw six seats, yet only four people so I thought—No, wait it's not full. But you said... My, we only had a few months of holiday. Was that really enough for you to forget how to count?"

Finishing with our usual pleasantries, I gave Pansy a shrug and, not wanting to bother sorting my things, I threw my luggage onto the seat next to hers. I smiled innocently at Pansy, taking the other empty seat near the door, next to Blaise. She decided to respond by throwing my bag from the seat to the floor, right near my feet. Personally I didn't mind enough to complain. I had nothing breakable in there; just books, clothes, and miscellaneous toiletries. Seeing that didn't bother me nearly as much as she would have liked, Pansy slid closer to the edge of her seat with a frown, ready to start again. Draco reached over and put an arm around her. Feeling satisfied with that she leaned closer to his grasp, nuzzling up against him. I decided to ignore that.

"You're all early this year" I noted, watching Blaise kick my bag into one of the empty corners of the room.

"Some of us were a little eager to start the year" Blaise gave me a smirk as I frowned at him.

"Well, I can certainly see that" I mumbled, glancing over at Pansy, who was also sporting her shiny new prefect badge. Noticing me looking, she made a face at me. Ignoring her again, I turned over to look at Daphne, who was already cooing for Lev's attention. "I saw the other three on my way here, but no Theodore. Do you know if he's made it into the train yet?"

"Last I saw him" Blaise intervened, leaning in between me and Daphne, "he was having quite a chat with some dame from Ravenclaw."

"Just a chat" Daphne argued next to him, reaching over to take Lev from me. Blaise rolled his eyes at her.

"Call it what you want but one thing is for sure; our little boy is growing up" Blaise broke his voice, trying to sound overly caring. Daphne gave him a look, which he promptly ignored. "Being late because he's chatting up some girl... And here I thought Volkov would be the last one to go. You know, with the whole being dense as Ironwood."

"I'm not—" I began to snap but paused. It took everything in me to resist the urge to look over at Draco, who would most likely be looking at me. Because they were right, I was dense. Letting out a sigh, I turned to look out into the corridor. "Fine, so then no one knows where Theo is? He agreed to let me borrow a book and I wanted to get my hands on it before the opening ceremony."

"What is it with you two and reading?" Blaise frowned, having no clue as to why one would enjoy such a thing.

"Have you ever even tried reading a book?" I asked, half joking but half curious. Blaise let out a sarcastic laugh before making a face at me.

"Well, this was fun and all, but" Pansy announced, standing and extending a hand to Draco, "if you'll excuse us, we have a perfect meeting to go to."

"Now, now, Parkinson. Why do you have to go and rub all that excitement in our faces?" Blaise chuckled, not able to get his joke out with a serious face.

Pansy gave him a look before turning towards the door. She paused a moment, waiting for Draco to join her. Not looking nearly as thrill to go as she was, Draco pushed himself off his seat and moved toward her. Deciding I needed a bit of alone time before having zero privacy for the next several months I reached over, past Blaise, to rub Lev's head gently. And not bothering to say goodbye to either of the other two I stood up and exited the compartment myself.

As the compartment door shut behind me, Draco turned to see what had caused the noise. Noting he had stopped walking beside her, Pansy stopped in her tracks too. For a moment she looked at me, then to the compartment, then back to me. After what seemed like a very long time to piece some very simple information together, Pansy scowled at me.

"Where do you think you're going?" she snapped, walking back towards me.

"I'm bored. I'm going to go take a walk" I answered simply and turned away from them. Behind me I heard her give an exaggerated groan and, not long after, a few footsteps followed.

"You can't do that" Pansy complained, taking some longer steps in an attempt to get ahead. She stood in front of me and crossed her arms defiantly. I let out a sigh.

"And why not?"

Pansy glared at me, making a very unattractive face. Seeing that had no effect on me she fidgeted in her place, turning over to look at Draco, who was finding something very interesting to look at in the complete opposite direction of her. He had been doing a good job of staying out of it so far. Unfortunately for him, Pansy cleared her throat, making his previous attempts null. With a very small sigh, he turned to face us.

"She means you're not supposed to be roaming the halls" he clarified begrudgingly. When I gave him a look he gave me a shrug. "We're not supposed to just let you do that now."

"That's right. He's right" Pansy nodded, a smug look now on her face. "We're prefects now, you know."

"Look" I took a step closer to her, "I'm not in the mood to play games with you. I'm tired and stressed and you know what happens when you get on my nerves."

"We're—"

"Prefects now. Yeah, I heard" I frowned at her. "But you forget, I don't care. I want to take a walk. You can follow me, or you can go to your little meeting, but either way I'm going to be pretending you're not here. So if you'll excuse me."

Pansy didn't say anything, just glared. After another second of irritated silence, she huffed and turned to Draco, giving him a look, as if he should do something about this. But without waiting for him to actually take action, she turned back and headed to their meeting alone. I rolled my eyes at her little tantrum, and began to walk away. Before I could even take my second step, however, Draco cleared his throat. With a sigh, I turned myself around, watching as he easily closed the distance between us.

"You couldn't wait more than five minutes, could you?" he asked rhetorically, giving me a look.

"She started it" I pouted to the side. Draco rolled his eyes at me.

With a serious expression on his face, he began to walk closer to me. I glared back, already prepared for an argument, but my look missed him. Draco had his attention focused behind me, into the empty corridor. Turning to look in the opposite direction, he looked behind him now. Frowning slightly, I turned to look behind me, where he had been looking before. But before I could piece together what he had been doing, Draco grabbed me by the waist and dragged me up towards him. I began to scream at him but no sound came out. Having expected that, he had placed one hand over my mouth while the other kept its grip on my waist. With an annoyed groan, I kept an angry look on Draco as he dragged me further ahead. He finally stopped when we reached a nearby changing room, which thankfully had no one inside.

"I have told you not to lift me like that" I growled, swatting at him as he stepped away from me. Quietly he closed the door behind us, double checking that no one had suddenly apparated into the corridor. Still ignoring the fact I was glaring at him, Draco looked down at me sternly.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" he demanded in return. At the comment I shrunk back, looking away from him.

"Is it so wrong that I just don't want to spend all of my free time with you?"

"Why do you keep treating me like an idiot?" Draco scowled, using the same tone as before. "Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying" I defended quickly. His frown deepened, but I didn't give him an opportunity to lecture. "I do have a busy schedule, you know. I had the internship at St. Mungo's, almost every day after we returned from Bulgaria. Once that finally ended, I had to help my father at the Ministry every morning. And every moment I wasn't doing that, my mother wanted to have me participate with her gala. So excuse me, for wanting some sleep every now and then, for not wanting to spend every waking moment with you after our weeks long—"

"Katerina" Draco interrupted quietly.

"What?" I frowned, already defensive. Draco's face betrayed him, and he let out a smile.

"Your face is getting red" he said after a moment. Realizing he was probably right, I turned away from him and crossed my arms.

"Is not" I argued respectively. Draco didn't protest, he just kept looking at me. Slowly he walked towards me, even as I backed away, until we were pressed against the changing room wall. I avoided eye contact as much as possible, but at a certain point, it was inevitable. Draco took a moment but reached out to me. I shrunk back as he grabbed my hood and raised it over my head. He gave me an amused smile as I gave him a sigh. Pulling the hood further up and closer to my face, I finally looked at him. "Why are you forcing this?"

"You've been avoiding me" he answered simply.

"I'm—"

"Avoiding me" he repeated, with no patience for my attempt at a lie. "You have been avoiding me since we got back from Bulgaria. Did you think I wouldn't want to talk about this?"

"We already did talk about it" I grumbled, but he shook his head.

"No, we have not" he frowned down at me. "It didn't count as talking about it when we met by the entrance earlier today. It didn't count when I told you we needed to get this in the open and you told me it could wait. You ignored me when I brought it up in Bulgaria, you avoided me when I tried to meet with you back home, but now, I'm not letting you make excuses."

"They weren't excuses, there's just nothing to talk about" I insisted, knowing I was wrong. I was just delaying the inevitable. He knew that. But still too stubborn to admit that, I decided to change the subject. "You have a girlfriend."

"I told you I had feelings for you, not that I wanted to dedicate my whole life to you" Draco scoffed, giving me a smirk. "Really, how conceited are you?"

"Draco" I spoke in a quiet tone, "this is more than you saying you had feelings for me. You said you loved me. You know I love you too but… not… this whole thing… It's weird, alright? I'm sorry but I can't—"

"It's weird because you're making it weird" he argued. Lowering his voice, he leaned in a little closer to me. "Things have been like this for years. Everything was fine before, but now you're making things difficult. You dragged this out of me, now you have to deal with it. If you want to ignore it, that's fine, go back to not knowing, I don't care. But don't just avoid me like—"

His lecture stopped as we heard some noise from the corridor. We both paused, listening to the voices and footsteps as they passed. They were quick, as if they were probably running late to find a seat. It took a moment but soon the noise faded as they cleared the changing room area. Draco looked down between us and let out a sigh.

"Look, I have to go" Draco mumbled, taking one step away from me. "I'm probably already running late for the stupid prefect meeting. Pansy is probably going to come looking for me soon, and I don't want her to find us like this."

"Jeez, I wonder why" I replied sarcastically.

"But we are going to talk about this" he continued, ignoring my comment. "Do you understand me?"

"You're relentless."

"For you I am. You should know that by now" Draco smiled a little at that.

He leaned in and kissed my forehead gently. Leaving that as his goodbye, Draco walked away from me, adding a small wave as he disappeared into the hallway. I grumbled quietly as I tossed my hood off my head. He always thought he knew everything. But what did he know? It wasn't my fault he was bad at keeping secrets. Grumbling again, I shuffled out of the changing room, back out into the corridor. Now finally alone again, I went back to my original plan of roaming the halls.

Thankfully, none of the students in their compartments paid me any mind as I walked. Most, if not all, of the prefects were in that meeting, so they wouldn't be a bother. Students usually didn't wander the halls so quickly into the trip anyway, I was just a special case. Carefully looking out of the Hogwarts Express, I began crossing carts. The train had started moving. With everything going on, I hadn't noticed. We were far past the station, now only surrounded by mountainous greens and tracks. I crossed the rest of the way into the cart, letting out a sigh.

Part of me was angry at Draco, but this wasn't on him. He was just trying to keep us together, and he was right; this whole thing was my fault. I had forced him to tell me his feelings, I had insisted on learning his secret, and then I began to ignore him. This was my fault. But it's not as if I could do as he said, and ignore what he had told me. Our entire relationship, this entire time, I had seen him only one way. As a friend, as family, but now… I couldn't so suddenly think of him differently. I suppose the same could be said about what he thinks of this whole thing. I shook my head, crossing into another train cart.

It's not as if I didn't find Draco to be attractive. Quite the opposite, I told him quite a few times growing up that I thought he was cute. He always acted so arrogant after I told him that I usually countered it by telling him he looked like a girl, but still. Shaking my head again, I placed my face in my hands. After a groan, I looked back up again. I didn't want to spend my time thinking about this now. I was getting a headache.

Walking not much further, still distracted with unnecessary thoughts, I felt a tug behind me. Something grabbed onto my robes, pulling me back along with them as I tried to continue on my way. It didn't budge, instead I was pulled along, making me stutter a few steps back. I frowned down at my robes, and glared in the direction of where the edge of my robes had gone. George was smiling out of a compartment, a hand on the tail of my cloak. I pulled on my robes again, giving him a look for good measure. George simply tugged back. With a sigh, I walked closer to him.

"Morning" George smiled at me. His cheerful look didn't change as he watched me yank my robes out of his grip.

"Hello" I gave him a weak smile back. Taking a moment to fix my robes, I dusted off the bottoms where he had pulled.

"Want to join us?" George asked, resting his face against the door of his compartment, watching me.

"Us?" I asked, looking behind him. Sitting there was, as always, Lee and Fred. Lee didn't look very pleased to see me, like he hoped George hadn't caught my robes in time. Fred just waved happily beside him. "As fun as that sounds, I was clearing my head and roaming the halls a bit."

"You can do that all train ride. Come on" he mentioned and reached for my cloak again. I swatted his hand away. George pouted as I pulled my robes away from him. As I glared, he gave me an innocent smile. With a sigh I took a step closer. Not waiting too long before I had crossed the threshold into their compartment, George pulled me closer and into the vacant seat next to him. He gave me a smile and leaned a little closer to me. "You look annoyed."

"Well that might happen when someone's method of getting your attention is pulling at clothes" I grumbled, but he looked unphased.

"In his defense, that would certainly get my attention" Fred called from the other side of the compartment. I gave him a small smile as George took my hand.

"No, no, like before now" George corrected, looking a tad curious. "When you were walking, you looked annoyed with something."

I gave an internal groan. This was not the conversation I wanted to have with him. I had made it a point to tell him he was reading too much into my relationship with Draco. But, thinking about it now, George had been pretty spot on in his exaggeration. Of course I couldn't tell him that. If he knew it, would only complicate things more, and I already wasn't sure how the situation would turn out or what I was going to do about it. Looking up at George I saw him looking back at me, patiently. I decided it was best not to open up that whole mess.

"I saw your advert on the Daily Prophet" I decided to change the subject. George's face frowned only slightly, noting the change. Luckily, he wasn't the only one in the compartment.

"Yeah, knowing someone, who knows someone, who knows one of the editors proved useful" Fred smirked over at me.

"I'm glad I could help" I smiled, happy he was helping me with the distraction. George gave me a curious look, still not happy with the change of topic. I ignored that. "She owed me my mother a favor anyway. So, any news on the business?"

"Pretty good start so far" he answered me with a nod. "We were actually just discussing business before we saw you."

"Are you sure you're okay?" George asked, leaning in.

"Yes, like I said, I'm just a little annoyed."

"About?" George insisted. I looked down to sigh a moment before turning back to him.

"Nothing really, just school stuff, things I did over the summer; the usual. I'm always a little annoyed at something. I'm just unreasonable that way" I mumbled, not really sounding convincing.

"I can attest to that" Lee nodded in agreement. I gestured a hand to him, acknowledging his example, but George still didn't buy it.

Still with a doubtful look, George scrunched his face in thought. Silently, he turned from me to his brother. The two shared a look before Fred gave him a nod, then turned to Lee. Not feeling as cooperative to whatever the two were thinking, Lee returned to him a look. Both stared stubbornly at him a moment before Lee gave in, rolling his eyes at them. If this is what they thought was being subtle, I wasn't sure how they had avoided being caught for everything they'd done. As Lee took a stand, I made a note to avoid asking them for help on tasks requiring some tact.

"We're going to go get a peek at the good stuff from the trolley lady," Fred announced, going to meet Lee by the door, "before she makes her rounds."

"That sounds like a great idea" George said approvingly, putting an arm around me.

"Yeah, and it almost even seems to be your own" I commented to Fred, who simply smiled back at me.

"We'll wait for you guys here" George continued, ignoring my comment. He patted my head slightly and, as I turned to give him a glare, Fred snuck out the compartment door. Lee shook his head and followed slowly after, not nearly as concerned with being inconspicuous. And with that, George and I were left alone.

Almost as soon as they were out of sight, George leaned in closer to me. Moving his arm from my shoulders down to my waist, he pulled me closer to him and into a kiss. I was expecting he would want to have a talk with them gone, not this. Not that I was against it. This time I didn't mind his affectionate nature as much as usual. We weren't necessarily in private, like I would have preferred, but we were alone. And it was better to have him kissing me than asking hundreds of questions I didn't have answers to. But ironically, and in a completely out of character gesture, George pulled away from me.

"Alright, really, what's wrong?" he asked, holding himself just far enough from me to talk clearly. I gave him a small frown. Of course, the one time he took a break from his overbearing nature, it was to talk about this.

"Nothing is wrong," I insisted, "really."

"No, there's definitely something wrong" George said with a small frown, giving himself a nod. "Normally by now you'd be yelling at me about being in public, and how it's inappropriate, and squirming in that cute way you do."

"I don't squirm" I objected, but George waved a hand at my argument.

"Of course you do" he went on, as if I hadn't said anything of value. "Its wonderfully done, really. Which is why when you stop it's a bit… disconcerting."

"I'm fine, really" I rolled my eyes at him, trying to make the fact he was right seem ridiculous. "I just have a good few things to think about. Some are annoying me more than others. That's all."

"Anything you want to share?" he leaned in with a sympathetic smile. After a moment I gave him a sigh.

Well, where could I start?

Maybe with the fact that my best friend of nine years recently told me he was in love with me. A fact he only revealed after being tricked into thinking I already knew. Or perhaps say that, since that revelation, we haven't spoken more than small talk to one another. Because now any conversation we have seems forced and awkward. I can't tell my boyfriend, who is also a close friend, about this because he'll insist on terminating the friendship. If I mention this to one half of my friends they'll agree with that decision, while the other half will suggest I break up my current relationship and choose Draco instead. Not to mention that all that is a trivial child's problems compared to the fact the Dark Lord is returning. And I keep being reminded how my current relationships, both romantic and otherwise, will create what path I'll be taking in regards to that…

"I don't particularly want to talk about it, no" I leaned back, shaking my head at the thought. George let out a sigh. He pulled me lightly with the arm already at my waist and gave me a smile.

"Well, alright. If you don't want to talk about it I'm not going to make you" he called softly. That was one of the many ways in which we were different. I pushed for information when he was willing to let things go. If I were more willing to let things go like that, we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. "But, if you ever do want to talk about it, let me know. I'm all ears."

"Thank you" I nodded, resting a hand lightly on his cheek.

"But, you know, we probably wouldn't have this problem if you had written more" he mumbled, taking my hand from his face, and taking advantage of the opening. I raised an eyebrow at him in return.

"You didn't have much open availability yourself" I reminded him. George gave a small nod, realizing that too. I gave him a sigh. "It's fine, you had your reasons, just like I had mine. I was just really busy this summer."

"No, I know" he mumbled, running his thumb gently against the back of my hand. He intertwined our fingers before looking back up to me. "How did your internship turnout, by the way?"

"It went really well" I smiled at him, glad for the distraction. "I got on the good side of some of the more tenured staff, which can only help my cause. One offered me a recommendation, in case I wanted to try again next year. If all goes well, I should be in the position I desire in just a couple of years out of Hogwarts."

"That's good. That's really good…" he drifted off, his tone changing towards the end. And, from that, I knew what was next. "And… how was Bulgaria?"

"It was good" I nodded. George frowned a little, having caught something in my tone. I immediately diverted the conversation again. "It was exhausting, really. Vik was sweet; he took us to as many places as he could. His mother made us dinner every night, regardless of how many times we offered our help. Not that we could have done much, but I do wish she had at least let us try."

"You know, it's not that uncommon for someone to make dinner every night" he gave me a small smile.

"I know that" I frowned at him. "But, even still, she did so alone. Every once in awhile Viktor would help but she mostly insisted on working on our entire meal on her own."

"Again, not that uncommon" he smirked, leaning down to kiss my cheek.

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not as well versed as some people on the happenings of the world" I called sarcastically.

"It's alright, I forgive you. But only because you're cute" George smirked at me. I gave him a look to which he responded by leaning down to kiss me. After a quick kiss I pulled away from him. Pulling at my waist George brought me back, leaning into me again.

"George" I smiled, turning away from him.

"See, this is what I meant by having you squirm" George's smile got bigger. He pulled me in once more as I tried to pry away. He caught me in time and pulled me close enough to kiss my cheek. "It makes things more fun."

"Stop" I giggled, reaching over to hit his arm.

George wrapped his arms around around both of mine, trapping me in them. I continued to giggle as I tried to get out of his grip. Not phased by my movement at all, he continued. George leaned down to kiss my neck as the door opened. I pushed harder against his arms as Lee and Fred stumbled back in. George tried to reach for me again but I sat up, swatting him away. He grumbled to himself, turning to frown at the two.

"That was quick" he complained, still trying to hold onto me. Lee looked over disapprovingly but otherwise didn't comment. Fred didn't seem to notice, frowning into the corridor instead.

"Some stupid prefect was running late, so we had to round back" Fred grumbled, turning to sink back into his spot.

"Seriously?" George asked, ignoring me as I continued to push against him. "Usually they like being on time to those little meetings of theirs."

"You know, I think I finally understand your hatred of prefects" I acknowledged, finally getting out of George's grap. He grumbled next to me, but let me straighten myself out. "One day and already Pansy thinks she can tell me what to do."

"Another tradition to the start of the year" Fred crossed his arms, nodding at that.

"More prefects thinking they can tell you what to do" George completed, settling for putting an arm around me.

"With her, though, they might have a point" Lee mumbled, nodding in my direction. Fred gave a chuckle, while George reached over to kick him.

"Honestly though, I thought you might be getting prefect for your year" Fred went on, ignoring Lee next to him, who was trying to reach back at George.

"I think my detention ruined that chance" I shrugged in return.

"Detention?" Lee frowned, but was still facing George.

"Last year I argued with a professor and, to avoid angering him much more, I just settled on detention. That was much more manageable than what could have happened if I had to sit through the entirety of his lecture" I made a face at the thought.

"I would have thought it was your attempt in murder, what with poisoning your roommate and all" Lee said slowly, probably assuming I was lying.

"If I wanted her dead, she would be" I frowned at him. Lee gave me a frown in return but George just laughed. Having thought of something himself, Fred snapped his fingers and sat up.

"Or what about that Bulgarian kid you threw into the lake" he reminded me.

"Allegedly threw into the lake" I corrected, to which Fred shrugged. "Besides, he was fine in the end. The Giant Squid is friendly enough, and he didn't drown or anything."

"Besides, the prick deserved it" George waved the comment away, sitting a little closer to me in the process.

"And, considering those allegations," I began, watching as Lee rolled his eyes at me, "Pansy was the one chosen. She's clean, at least on paper. Mediocre grades, no negative professor reports, or reported misconduct with other students. She's completely bland, average, but willing to play the part. One of her favorite things to do is to tell people what to do, so really this is her dream job, I would say. While I, on the other hand, have been noted as 'insubordinate'."

"I wonder why" Lee called sarcastically.

"I happen to like that about you" George smiled, resting his head against mine.

"I'm sure you do" I mentioned, giving him a pat on the head. With a smirk, he leaned in to kiss my cheek.

"Our dear Ronald was made prefect for Gryffindor" Fred mentioned, not looking too pleased by it.

"That's surprising" I admitted.

"Yeah, him and Hermione."

"That is not at all surprising" I finished, having expected as much. George nodded beside me, resting his head on my shoulder. "Hermione seemed like the obvious choice. But, Ron?"

"Mom was certainly elated" he grumbled, making me smile a little.

"That's everyone in the family" Fred cooed, sounding eerily close to his mother in tone. After that his face scrunched up as he continued his complaint. "She even said she'd get him a new broom. He's not even on the Quidditch team. Why does he get a new broom? She didn't get us a new broom when we made the team."

"Well, it's only natural she'd want to reward him for it" I noted. "'Prefect' is a highly sought after position. I'm sure she's just proud. Besides, you can just buy a new broom. You got the money for it now."

"How do you know they have the money for it?" Lee asked with a frown, turning to George. "You told her about the investment?"

"She's cute" George shrugged, not bothering to correct him. In reality I had walked in on their little meeting with Potter. But I didn't feel like explaining all that to him either.

"Regardless," I continued, "I am surprised Ron was chosen. I was expecting it to be Harry."

"We thought so too" George nodded at me, still on my shoulder.

"Although, I suppose it would have to do with when the prefect were chosen. His trial might have affected the situation."

"You told her that too?" Lee complained, sounding personally offended.

"She's really cute" George chuckled as I rolled my eyes at them. Once was fine, but I didn't want to be accused of something i didn't do for a second time.

"He didn't tell me. I saw this all first hand… kind of" I mumbled the last bit. Not necessarily first hand, but it was witnessed. "And I heard about the trial from the Ministry. My father works there, remember? Oh, also, I ran into Percy the other day."

"I don't know who you're talking about but that sounds like the name of a real prick" George frowned at my comment.

"Really? Because it sounds more like the name of a brown noser to me" Fred suggested. George nodded to his brother in approval.

"So, still not talking, huh" I surmised as the two scowled about.

"Oh, no, no, we talk all the time" George waved a hand in the air at the comment.

"Why just yesterday we all went out for tea and had ourselves a shopping day" Fred clapped excitedly at me. I gave him a smile.

"Alright, I get it. It was just a question."

"So what did he want with you,anyways?" George asked curiously. "Why's he talking to you?"

"He actually asked for my hand in marriage. Spoke to my father and everything. Said we could be a real 'power couple'" I gave him a nod. Fred chuckled but George didn't look amused. I rolled my eyes at him. "Well, actually, I'm the one who sought him out. Assistant to the Prime Minister is an impressive title—"

"Stop" George frowned. I smiled a little but compiled.

"I needed something from him so I had to talk him into getting it for me."

"Getting what for you?" George asked carefully, probably thinking I was still joking.

"A copy of Potter's trial notes."

"Why would you want that?" Lee frowned, not understanding.

"And how could he help?" George insisted, still only focused on one thing.

"He is the Minister's assistant; he deals directly with any meeting or such the Minister may have. Percy wrote the trial notes himself so, naturally, he'd have a copy to gift. And I can name several reasons as to why I would want it. The short answer is, I had questions that those notes could answer" I shrugged simply. Lifting himself from my shoulder, George frowned at me.

"You could've just asked me."

"Could I? I'm sure the results you would have told me, but I wanted details. And it's not exactly a secret that you've been keeping quite a few things from me. Both of you" I added, shifting my look from George to Fred. When both looked away guilty I gave them a sigh. "Because of that, I had to look for alternative forms of information. So I got my hands on the trial notes, and any recorded detail of what happened in those chambers."

"So now you know everything that happened then?" George asked.

"You sound surprised" I noted. It's not as if I hadn't done something similar before.

"Well no, not surprised, it's just—"

"Theo" I interrupted, looking out of the compartment. Theodore was wandering through. Standing from my seat, I reached the compartment door. Either noticing the movement, or having heard my voice earlier, he faced the door as I swung it open. "Hey."

"Hello. What are you…" he began to ask before noting who else was in the compartment. "Ah, I see. Well, considering you're here you may not know, but I'll ask regardless. Are the rest already in a compartment?"

"Yes, it's a couple of carts over, further down there" I informed, pointing the way. "Vincent, Millicent, and Gregory are in a separate compartment than the rest, but they're all in the same cart. Except possibly Draco and Pansy, I think they're still in their prefect meeting."

"I suspected that was the case" Theo gave a small nod. Looking down he lingered on his bag before reaching into it. "Well, before I forget…"

Done searching through his things, Theo handed me the book I had asked him for. With a smile I took it from him. Placing it on my side I noticed I didn't have my bag on me, or anything else really. It hadn't been a concern of mine when I left the compartment. This was supposed to have been a short walk to clear my head, not a change in compartments. Realizing that I had been tricked into staying, I let out a sigh.

"Thank you, but I left the notes you asked for back in the compartment with the others. I'll go get them for you" I began to walk with him but paused. My robes had been caught again. Turning to look at the obvious culprit I found him staring out the window, as if he hadn't been pulling on my clothing again. I turned back and, again, my robes were pulled from behind. I gave him a sigh. "George."

"I'm not doing anything" he defended as I turned to him. But, realizing I hadn't openly accused him of anything yet, he backtracked. "Not that I should be doing something. I'm not, and I just wanted to make that clear."

"George, it's not like this is the last time I'll ever see you."

"See, now you've gone and tempted the fates" George tisked, shaking his head at me. "Probably best you just stay here then."

"George—"

"It's alright" Theodore interrupted, probably expecting this would take a while. "I'm not in any particular hurry. I can wait until we are in Hogwarts. You enjoy your time here."

"Are you sure?"

"He's sure" George answered for him.

"I wasn't asking you" I frowned down at him. George pouted, but I turned back to Theo before he started to fully complain.

"I'm sure" Theodore answered before I could ask again. He took a second to look into the compartment full of Gryffindors before giving me a nod. "It was not my intention to intrude. And as we already discussed, what would happen with the perfect, we also both know what changes that will bring."

"What changes?" George asked as I swatted a hand at him.

"By the way, Daphne's taking care of Lev for me, and I wasn't expecting to be here nearly this long... Can you please have Draco buy him some snacks, lest he get annoyed. I don't want to have to clean up the aftermath of that" I made a face at the thought. Theo looked behind me a moment, then nodded again.

"Don't worry about it, I'll buy him something on the way there."

"No, you really don't have to" I argued but he raised a hand to object.

"It's no bother" he shook his head slightly. "Lest I'm mistaken, prefects normally take a while with their beginning of the year meetings, so he wouldn't be there when the trolley lady stops by anyway. If you'd like you can repay me some time later, but I would feel more assured of my safety if I just did it. I'm doing this more for my benefit than I am for yours."

"If you're sure, then alright" I nodded and gave him a smile.

"I assume you'll be staying here so, if I don't see you in the compartment, I will see you at the opening ceremony. Please excuse me" Theo gave a nod at the boys behind me.

I gave him a wave goodbye. Theodore gave me a wave in return and exited the compartment. Having to stretch a bit to reach the opening, I closed the compartment door as his footsteps trailed away. Turning back to the boys beside me, two looked confused. Fred made a curious face, while Lee let out a small sound.

"Is it me or did he seem not entirely unpleasant?" Lee asked quietly.

"Jeez, it's like Slytherin is made up of a variety of people, not just a default house for obnoxious ones" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well, given the ones we usually meet, can you blame him?" Fred intervened, and I let out a sigh.

"No, no I can't."

Daphne was generally vapid, Draco did nothing but argue and complain, Pansy whined about anything she remotely disagreed with, and Blaise was… Blaise. Any others they met were likely from the Slytherin team and they were all their own form of special. But out of most Slytherins, Theodore certainly was the most polite and well behaved of the bunch. That included some upperclassmen we knew, and some I was sure they had stumbled upon.

"So," George pulled me into a hug beside him, resting his head on my shoulder to look down, "what did he give you?"

"It's a text on advanced defensive spells."

"Why do you need that?"

"Because I have a feeling of how part of this year is going to play out" I mumbled, thinking about that a bit. Umbridge only assigned one text, one focuses just on theory, which most likely meant it wouldn't teach us anything we hadn't already been taught. If that were the case, then I would just have to learn it all for myself.

"You're so cute" George leaned down and kissed my cheek. I couldn't help but smile at him.

I spent a bit of time there, not finding it necessary to go back. Theodore was right, I would see them all at the Opening Ceremonies anyway. George was more than happy to have me there at least. When the trolley lady passed he paid, as I had left my bag in the Slytherin compartment, of which he also seemed thrilled about. I bit into my chocolate frog as I browsed a few pages of my new text, careful not to get any residue on it. But eventually, George interrupted me.

"What do you think?" he asked, scooting closer to me. I blinked a couple of times before answering.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't listening" I finally spoke. "What are we talking about?"

"We're trying to figure out how to get more detailed notes on the Skiving Snackbox. We only have ourselves to test on. Unless, Lee…" Fred idled, scratching a shadow of an itch. Lee looked away quickly at the suggestion.

"Side note, do you have a sort of, cure-all potion, stashed somewhere?"

"Potion, not poison" Lee added, and I gave him a look.

"I was thinking we could just call on you if we needed; be treated" George leaned against me with a smile. I rolled my eyes, but that did remind me.

"I've been meaning to ask, why are you testing on yourselves?"

"What do you mean?" Fred frowned a little in my direction.

"Don't you do that?" George asked curious too.

"Of course not," I frowned in return. "What if I missed a step, or added too much of something by accident? I could seriously hurt myself, or have irreparable damage done to me. I get someone else to do it."

"Wait, who?"

"Depends on what it is. If it's something that won't have any physical damages, I can usually talk Daphne into it. If not, I'll sneak it into Pansy's food" I shrugged, before looking back down to my book. "But if I need willing assistants, then I have one of the first or second years do it. That, or I have Crabbe or Goyle—"

"Wait, hang on, back up a second" Fred interrupted, rolling his finger in the air as if to physically rewind time. "You ask first years to test your brews?"

"Or second years, yes" I nodded, still focused on my book. "I don't always do it because, to a certain extent, they can be a liability. But they are generally useful guinea pigs. They're incorrigible, easy to persuade, and often you can find you have something that they want, whether that be knowledge, money, or influence."

"That's right," George nodded slowly, "didn't you have a second year help you out last year?"

"Yeah, with that whole Filch thing" Fred remembered too, throwing his head back a bit. "What was that kid… David?"

"I thought it was Daniel" George contemplated before giving out a shrug. "Whatever his name, that kid was an idiot to agree to all that."

"Although..." Fred said slowly, a smile creeping on his face, "that does give me an idea."

With that thought in mind, the three began to discuss some new ideas as I went back to my text. Every once in awhile George would pause to read over my shoulder, but most of the time they discussed business with each other. They were really getting into a plan. That was good. I leaned myself against George as I read for a majority of the trip letting them do their thing. I knew George liked to have me involved, and though Fred didn't mind, this was between them. But once we began to near Hogwarts I decided it might be a good idea to start heading back. Of course, George didn't let me go easily but, eventually, I managed to get out of his grasp. Waving goodbye to them, I made my way back to where my things were; I would see them later.

My steps were slow heading back. It wasn't that I wanted to be there, but that I had to. Lev would certainly be missing me by now, and I didn't want to assume the others would take care of my things without me asking. As I passed a few of the corridors the train began to slow, and I heard the shuffling of those still in their compartments. Taking a stutter, the train finally stopped as I reached my destination. The compartment door waited open as those inside shuffled out, their bags in hand.

"You took your sweet time with that walk" Blaise commented, holding my things between his. I responded with a smile.

"Hi" I quickly cooed, turning over to Lev, still in Daphne's grasp. He looked fine enough but became a little excited having heard my voice. Blaise frowned at me as I walked past him and towards my puppy, realizing I wasn't going to grab my bags from him. He took a second to grumble something unpleasant under his breath before moving away.

"Damn, you lazy—Goyle, you take this" Blaise commanded, struggling to move my bag in his direction. Goyle took it from him with much more ease, not complaining one bit.

"Thank you, Gregory" I smiled at him before following the others towards the train's exit.

The crispness of the September air was felt immediately as we stepped outside. As usual the general bustle of students was heard, all trying to talk at once. Shivering a little already I grabbed Lev and wrapped him inside my robes with me. He nuzzled himself against my chest as the rest of us focused on trying to find a carriage. The sooner we distanced ourselves from the crowd, the better.

"Draco is with Pansy, and some other prefect. Apparently they have to supervise or something" Daphne mentioned, shuffling forward to catch up to me. She ran both hands against her arms briskly, taking a second to try to adjust to the cold. Once done with that she reached over to pet Lev's head, slightly hidden under my robes, cooing at him before looking back at me. "Just in case you were wondering where he was."

"Thanks" I mumbled and kept forward. Daphne pouted, not approving of my blunt response.

"Did you two get into a fight? You can tell me if you got into a fight" she mentioned, sure to make that last part clear. I'm sure she was partly concerned, but mostly just curious.

"We didn't get into a fight."

"You look like you got into a fight."

"Well, we didn't, Daphne" I repeated, with a sharp look to her. Quickly, she raised her hands in defense.

"Okay, alright, I understand… It's just, you look like—"

"Have either of you found a carriage?" Theo interrupted, before I got a chance to. "I'm starting to get tired from carrying your things. How is your bag so much heavier than mine? Daph, we have uniforms, what else did you bring with you?"

"You can't ask a lady a question like that!"

"He's not asking a lady, he's asking you" Blaise interrupted, probably not even having heard the first half of that conversation. She swatted a hand at him in protest, which he easily ignored.

"Whatever the case, we need a carriage" I mentioned, wanting to get us back to the matter at hand.

"Well today is your lucky day" Draco called out from behind us. I turned to find him making his way through the sea of students, Pansy following close behind him. "I just found us one."

"There's already students waiting to board that" Theo noted, looking at the carriage Draco was pointing to. A few second years looked to be almost ready to go. Draco gave him a shrug.

"All I said was I found us one" he gave Theo a smirk in response. Guessing what he meant by that, I turned my gaze back into the crowd.

"I'm going to go look for an empty one" I mentioned, letting anyone who agreed come join me. Draco and I exchanged a look for a second before he turned away.

"Crabbe, Goyle, start loading our things" Draco instructed loudly, walking away from the group.

"You definitely got into a fight."

"Daphne, I am this close to throwing you into that Thestral" I warned, holding the tips of my fingers a small width apart.

"Into the what?" she asked, a blank expression on her face.

"Please don't do that" Theo gave me a small frown. "If there's an incident they'll take away one of the few interesting things from this school. Besides, we'll probably have to clean up the mess if something does happen to her."

"Wait, what's going to happen to me?"

"Here's an empty one" Blaise piped up, standing next to a thankfully empty carriage. We quickly began to board as Daphne stamped her foot.

"Why is no one answering my questions?"

"Because you're annoying. Now are you getting on, or are you walking?" Blaise asked and extended a hand to her, already knowing the answer. With a huff Daphne took it and pulled herself, onto the carriage with us.

Having gotten everyone on board, the Thestral started to trot forward, on the road to the castle. The carriage rattled on, passing by a others along the way up. Chatter from far off conversations rang, with a few pieces coherent enough to be overheard. Mostly it sounded like the trivial beginning of the year chatter; summer plans, family trips, the usual. The Thestral slowed its space until we reached the castle entrance, allowing us time to gather our things before wandering back, probably to pick up any students still without a ride. With my things still held by Goyle, I walked a little slower, giving the others time to sort theirs. And, once all set, we headed into the dining hall, giving the two chatterboxes time for their favorite beginning of the year tradition.

"So, according to Abigail, from Hufflepuff, it looks like they gave Gryffindor prefect to Weasley" Daphne began the exchange as we found our seats at the Slytherin table.

"That can't be right" Blaise shook his head but Daphne insisted.

"Apparently it's some kind of family tradition?" Daphne continued, though sounding confused herself. "They've had, like, all of their kids be prefect so far. Well, all except…"

"Well, no, Fred and George aren't exactly the prefect type, are they" I answer before she had a chance to ask. "I don't think I would like them as much if they were."

"Ooh, so Volkov isn't interested in prefects, interesting" Blaise intervened, giving Daphne a particular smirk. She rolled her eyes at him but let out a small smile herself. Having guessed what the two were thinking, I was glad when Theo changed the subject.

"Potter seemed like the obvious choice for that role. I wonder if the recent charges against him had anything to do with it" he mumbled, settling further into his seat. "Even if it were a family tradition, Potter was clearly more qualified for the position."

"I don't think that's it," I argued, not sure why I was joining the conversation, "not entirely at least. Dumbledore stepped into trial in his defense, so they must still be in good terms. Besides, he got the charges for casting a patronus; not exactly something someone gets sent to Azkaban for. If anything, the Wizengamot seemed impressed."

"Really, a patrons?" Theo asked, sounding slightly impressed himself.

"How do you know all that?" Blaise asked leaning against his fist, looking only half interested in my answer.

"I have my ways."

"What are we talking about?" Draco asked, having finally caught up with us. Either their Thestral had been a little tired, or they had become distracted with more prefect duties, but they had somehow gotten behind us. Pansy, of course, sat close beside him.

"Potter's trial" Theo answered briefly before turning back to me. "So how did you find out about Potter's trial?"

"She was at the Ministry the day of the trial" Draco answered for me. I turned to him a moment but didn't catch his eye. He was avoiding my gaze. Pansy pulled on his robes, looking for his attention too, but he already knew what she wanted to ask. "I wasn't there but my father told me. They ran into each other that day. But, speaking of the Ministry, it looks like Umbridge found the place alright."

"Ugh, I was hoping my father had been wrong about that" I grumbled, following his gaze to the back of the room. There, sitting in her usual vomit inducing fluffy-pink ensemble, Umbridge sat along with the other professors.

"Is that the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic?" Theo looked surprised to see her there, having just noticed her arrival.

"I thought the Minister had that one Weasley as his secretary" Blaise leaning further against arm, this early in and already bored. When Theo gave him a nod he frowned. "Who's the big woman then?"

"Dolores Umbridge" I sighed.

"Merlin, what is that woman wearing?" Daphne asked, with a tone that suggested she was taking personal offense to the choice in wardrobe.

"Don't say it like that, she's not so bad" Draco smirked up at the staff table.

"You only like her because she babies you" i grumbled, ignoring the glare he shot me. "That woman is obnoxious and condescending. I hope she gets lost in the Forbidden Forest."

"So you are having a fight" Daphne leaned in to say. I gave her another look. She gave me a silent smile and leaned back against her seat.

Conversations began to hush as Professor McGonagall came into view, bringing with her the new first years to be sorted. As usual she held the Sorting Hat, withered and old but still of invaluable use. Once the last of the students realized what was happening the hall grew quiet, allowing for the tradition to commence. As usual the Sorting Hat began to sing its welcoming song. However, not as it usually went, it diverted from its usual description of the houses. It spoke of the history of the school, the relationship of the founders, finally ending on a warning:

Oh, know the perils, read the signs,

The warning history shows,

For our Hogwarts is in danger,

From external, deadly foes

And we must unite inside her

Or we'll crumble from within.

I have told you, I have warned you….

Let the Sorting now begin.

"First Volkov, now the hat?" Blaise frowned. "Does everyone want us to make nice with the Gryffindorks?"

"They certainly don't, and neither do I" Draco gave a particular smirk in the direction of their table. "Still, since when does the hat give advice?"

"It's an enchanted hat, not an all-knowing being. I wonder what could have caused it to sense danger that required such advice. Perhaps, someone managed to jinx it" Theo muttered, thinking aloud.

But before he could continue with his speculations McGonagall began to give that glare we all knew to mean silence. As the hall quieted down once more, she gave one last long frown to through the whole room and began to read off the names of the new first years. One by one they all took their turns being placed into their Houses. Clearing through those, and applauding at the appropriate times, the Sorting passed quickly. After Dumbledore's very short speech, the food aparated before us and began the feast.

Between bites students speculated once again what could have caused the hat to stray so far from its usual speech. Draco began to provide his own theories to the others while I tried to avoid being part of the conversation. If I could barely manage a normal conversation when we were alone, I didn't want to risk a slip up within the group. The feast went as usual past that, everyone eating their fill until Dumbledore began a new, more lengthy, beginning of the year speech. But, hearing it for the fifth time now, it was beginning to feel redundant. Listening to the same, forbidden forest is forbidden warning felt dull. Dumbledore continued but I began to tune it out, just as the others seemed to.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me—"

"So, since you're prefects now," Blaise spoke over our headmaster to the table, "can I bribe you for special treatment, have a few rules be bent in my favor?"

"We are not—"

"Depends on what the special treatment is and what it'll cost you" Draco interrupted Pansy, before she could ruin the opportunity for him. She pouted to the side but didn't say anything to him. Blaise smirk widened.

"One day in office and already speaking like a true man of the people" Theo spoke sarcastically, finishing the last of his drink.

"What about lengthening the curfew?" Blaise suggested, focused on the price.

"Well, what's it worth to you?" Draco began the bargain but was overshadowed by the applause that filled the hall. Dumbledore seemed to have gotten to a midpoint in his speech. A bit reluctant, they all began to listen.

"Tryouts for the House Quidditch will take place in the—" Dumbledore stopped with an abrupt pause. He turned to the side through the sudden silence. With no sound filling the hall now a dainty yet obnoxious sound broke through.

"Hem, hem."

"Who is this woman?" Blaise chuckled through a smirk. This isn't how it usually went. There had yet to be a professor who interrupted the Headmaster, especially within the beginning of the year speech. The rest of the professors looked surprised.

"Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome. Hem, hem," she cleared her throats once more, her usual obnoxious way of demanding attention. "Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking back at me! I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"

"So you weren't kidding when you said she babied him" Theo nodded, turning away from her.

"I don't like her. How can you like her?" Daphne frowned over to Draco.

I let her voice lull into the background, not bothering to listen. I knew what she was doing. Her tone was polite, very well disguised, but she talked down to everyone. Normally I wouldn't have minded, but she made it too obvious. Continuing to ignore her, I played with what was left of my food, waiting.

Draco looked over a me, a look of obvious disapproval on his face. I rolled my eyes at him. He frowned and nodded his head to the front, directing me on where to pay attention. I gave him a look in return. It took a moment, but this went on until Pansy took notice. She leaned in closer to Draco, distracting him from our silent conversation. Followed by a singular clap of approval, Dumbledore clapped as Umbridge finished her speech. The rest of the staff and a few of the students reluctantly complied, as Dumbledore stood.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating. Now—as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held…"

"Illuminating is right" Theo sighed, looking over at me.

I wasn't sure if the others could see but I knew Theodore would. She had a way about her, one that would allow her ulterior motives to be missed by the unaware, under that simple disgustingly sweet disguise. She veiled her controlling personality with that tone and overly happy exterior. Inside was a rotten person, even by our table's standards.

"I can see why you dislike her."

"You mean aside from that outfit?" Daphne scowled up as she walked away.

"Well, if you'll excuse us" Pansy proudly announced, ignoring Daphne as the rest of us would, "we must accompany the new first years into the dungeon."

"Must be terrible for those first years, getting stuck with you two as leads."

"Who is it that asked you?" Pansy snapped at Blaise, but he had already gotten up from the table.

Pansy frowned as he walked away, not bothering with a goodbye. Theodore silently got up and followed him out. Enjoying the pattern of fully ignoring Pansy I walked away as well. With some shuffling and grumbling soon Daphne scurried up next to me. I glanced back to see Pansy complaining about us to Draco, as both waited for the first years to horde around them.

"So why are you mad at him?" Daphne whispered to me.

"I swear to Merlin, Daphne" I hissed back at her.

We made our way down the stairs to the Slytherin dungeon. Theo and Blaise lingered in the common room, as Daphne and I headed to our rooms. Lev was waiting for us, tail wagging and yelping happily, sitting and waiting on my bed. I smiled and leaned down to pick it up. Giving him a kiss, I greeted him warmly as Daphne joined us.

"You know, I'm surprised you didn't make a bigger fuss at Pansy."

"Why would I?" I asked, moving to sit on my bed.

"Because she's a prefect instead of you" Daphne continued, sitting next to me, as if I had invited her. She flipped her hair to the side before continuing. "This seems like just the kind of thing you'd bicker about. Instead, you went about it with Draco all day."

"Daphne, I have told you three separate times already. Do you want to try for a fourth?"

"No," she mumbled, shifting in her seat. Lev snuggled himself gently against my arm. Daphne looked down and reached an arm towards him, to scratch his head. "I would just care to know, is all."

"How disappointed you must've been," Pansy started, strutting forward. Millicent followed silently after. "Sure you'd get prefect, weren't you? I guess I was the better candidate."

"I suppose so" I answered, after a breath. Pansy was not satisfied with that.

"Oh, do you suppose?" she asked, sounding like her own special blend of arrogant and sarcastic.

"I do" I answered. She stared at me a moment before letting out a frown.

"You do?" Pansy repeated. She paused a moment to look at me. Her eyes squinted, frowning at me. "What are you getting at?"

"I'm not getting at anything" I rolled my eyes at her. "I agree, you got the prefect position, and it must be for a reason."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand where you're getting at either" Daphne intervene, looking just as confused, though less annoyed than Pansy.

"I'm not… forget it" I groaned at them. Lev nuzzled closer to me, and I heard a sigh.

"Whatever, anyway, Draco said he wanted you" Pansy called with distaste.

"He wanted me?" I asked, a little startled. She gave a confused look at my tone, causing me to turn down. What I was thinking wasn't what she meant. "What does he want?"

"How should I know? He just asked to tell you that. Go, don't go, I don't care. I did my part" Pansy grumbled, moving to her own seat. Millicent followed suit. Next to me, I felt some shifting.

"So… are you not going?" Daphne asked quietly to me.

I squinted at her. Raising her hands defensively, Daphne got up from my bed. Turning away from her, I turned back down to Lev. He wanted to talk and I couldn't put it off much longer. I knew Draco, when he wanted something, the more time that went by, the more persistent he would become. And the more obnoxious. With that thought in mind, I stood up.

"Watch Lev for me" I mumbled, handing him to Daphne. She took him happily into her arms. "I shouldn't be gone too long."

Daphne cooed down at my puppy as I made my way to the door. Keeping my hand on the railing I walked slowly down the steps, not sure what exactly Draco wanted me for. Others passed me going up to their rooms, tired from the long trip and ready for a long rest. I would be doing the same, but apparently I had other plans. My gaze drifted to my feet, watching as I took each step. This whole situation was bothersome. I never used to look at the ground, and now that's all I seemed able to do.

"Hey" a voice spooked me from behind. I jumped a little and turned with a scowl.

"Don't sneak up on me like that" I scolded walking the last couple of steps down the stairwell. He rolled his eyes at me in return.

"I stood right here for a good while, it's not my fault you didn't notice" Draco frowned over at me. He turned to look behind me at something before turning back. "So Pansy talked to you?"

"If you can call it talking" I mumbled, stepping past him. "She said you wanted me for something. So, what do you want?"

"To talk."

"About?"

"Don't start. You know exactly what I want to talk about. But not here" he called quietly. Draco nodded his head to the entrance. I turned towards the hallway before looking back at him.

"First day as Prefect and already you're breaking the rules you're meant to enforce."

"Are you coming or not?" Draco asked in a short tone.

Looking away for a moment, I paused and inspected the room around us. Most of it was empty, we were, for the most part, alone. The few students that were in the common room were mumbling to themselves, most likely catching up. This early into the year everyone usually felt the need to sleep off the long trip. With a sigh I turned back to Draco. Knowing I couldn't use the excuse that we could get caught, I gave him a nod. Not saying a word, he stepped away from the girl's staircase and I followed.

We walked forward until we met at the entrance. Lingering a moment until we were sure there were no eyes on us, I made my way out of the common room first. Crossing the corridor, past the stairs, and to the little hidden corner on the side. Reaching the door to our hidden room, I spoke the enchantment and entered. I took a few steps forward as the door sealed itself behind me.

The candles lit up immediately illuminating the room. Situations like this made me glad I had added those. Draco shouldn't take too long, there was no point in sitting down just yet, so I took a moment to look around the room. There was a light layer of dust scattered atop the furniture and bookshelves. That was my fault, I supposed. Before holiday, I had told the House-elves to come scarcely. With few people still lingering around the school, requiring very few clean ups, having House-elves constantly stopping by would eventually catch someone's attention. I ran my finger over the edge of the bookshelf, feeling the dust it brought up with it. I had to clean this place up soon.

"Will I have to stand by the door," Draco called, entering into the room with me, "or do you promise not to try to run away?"

"You say that like I've done it before" I mumbled, turning to look at him.

"Haven't you?" Draco asked. I didn't answer, instead turned to look back at the bookcase. He took a few steps towards me. "You do realize this is all your fault."

"My fault?" I spun around to face him directly, but paused. He was closer than I thought he would be. I tried not to stutter as I went on. "How is any of this my fault? You are the one that said you were in love with me."

"And you're the one that forced it out of me" Draco frowned in return. "I thought you already knew, otherwise I wouldn't have said anything. It was surprising it took you this long, how was I supposed to know you were bluffing?"

"I thought you knew me well enough to know that I was. I guess we don't know each other that well after all" I mumbled turning away.

"Stop it" Draco snapped, and placed an arm on either side of me. With a pause, he leaned into the bookcase and closer to me. Draco leaned forward, not once losing eye contact. "Stop acting like we're strangers. Frankly, it's pissing me off. So you overlooked one thing, one small piece of information that I purposely tried to hide from you. It happened, you know about it, so what's keeping you from moving on?"

"Draco, it's not like this is some tiny detail anyone can overlook. You're in love with me. How did I not see that? How could you not tell me?" I said, exasperated, looking away for a moment. I took a second to take a breath before continuing. "According to you, it's not so difficult to tell. Apparently everyone aside from me could see it. So how is it that I'm not supposed to feel, to some degree, responsible? You're my best friend, you're one of the few people I actually care about, and you go and fall in love with me…"

"Alright, forget about the fact that I'm in love with you for a moment" Draco began, and I had to give him a look. He shook his head after a second, having heard how absurd that sounded too. "What I mean is, forget about the subject itself, and think about this. I've been keeping this from you for about… Eight years now?"

"Only eight years?"

"If I kept it from you for so long, that means it has existed for so long" he explained slowly, ignoring my sarcasm. I thought about what he said for a moment. Draco took that pause as an opening and continued. "This isn't something new. Yes, you just recently knew about it. Everything that has happened until now happened when I already felt this way. I know how I feel, I also know how you feel, and I've accepted it. I've moved on. I have a girlfriend, I've accepted you have a boyfriend. I've moved on."

"If you're so accepting of it, how come you said it twice?" I spoke softly. "And how can you act like this has all passed when you say I am in love with you, rather than I was."

That caught him. Between us there was a pause. Draco looked down as he remained in silence. He let out a slow sigh. With a huff, Draco pushed himself against the bookshelf, letting his arms fall to the side. With the new distance between us I allowed myself a breath, one that I didn't know I needed. Draco let out a groan and took a step back.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?"

"Why do you have to be in love with me?"

"Honestly I don't know, anymore" Draco shook his head at me.

Stepping further from me, Draco walked into the open area of the room. Without him directly by my side to stop me, I turned to look behind me at the dusty bookshelf. It was covered with dust, all except where Draco's fingers had been gripping the hardwood. I ran a finger across the shelf, striking a line across the crevasses he had created. Closing my eyes, I took a breath before forcing myself to turn around.

"I wouldn't care…" I began but my voice faded. Draco turned up from wherever he had been staring off at the sound of my voice. With his attention once again on me, I swallowed before trying again. "I wouldn't care if it were anyone else. If it were anyone else I would just let them know how stupid this decision was. I'm selfish, self absorbed, bordering on sociopathic… I could go on. But you... you already know all those things, yet you still fell for me."

"You think this was a decision?" he gave me a dry smile. "Yes, because choosing this has made my life so much easier."

"Then why do you do this to yourself, to us?" I insisted, ignoring his attempt at a joke. "I don't want to hurt you, Draco, not more than I know I already have."

"What am I, a child?" he replied, clearly upset again. "I'm not some delicate little wallflower you need to protect. I can take care of myself. If I didn't want to see you, then I would just stop."

"It's not so easy when our rooms are mere steps from each other" I shook my head at him.

"Trust me, that information is not lost on me" Draco mumbled to the side. I took a step back from him.

"You see, that, right there" I stammered, feeling my face grow warm. "How am I supposed to be okay with this when you go and say something like that!"

"What did I make you blush?" Draco called back sarcastically. I glared at him until he let out a sigh. "What do you want me to say? That this will all just go away? You know it won't. That this is all a joke? Well, it isn't one."

"Then why are you treating it like it is?"

"Because you are treating it like I told you I'm being shipped off to Azkaban" he gave me a scowl. I turned away from him, not knowing what to say. Draco stepped forward, grabbing my face and turning it back to him. "Stop that. You have never, not once in the time I've known you, decided to stand down in anything. It's one of your more annoying qualities. Yet, now, you won't even look at me. So, either you're not as strong as I thought you were, or…"

"Or?" I asked, as his voice trailed off. He let go of my face, and turned away himself. Draco ran a hand through his hair, like he always did when something was frustrating him.

"Or…" he began but trailed off again. Stopping his fidgeting, Draco turned back to look at me. "Or this isn't something you're willing to stand for. Is that what this is?"

"What are you asking me?" I gave him a frown. Draco sighed and stepped closer to me.

"Are you giving up on us?" Draco glowered down at me. "What else could I possibly mean. I don't care what this, this thing between us, is as long as there is something. I told you I was fine with staying friends, pretending that these feelings I have for you don't exist. But if you're not willing to do the same, you need to tell me, right now."

"Are you not going to give me any time to think about this?"

"What is there to think about?" Draco frowned. "It's not a difficult question."

"It is an incredibly difficult question" I finally snapped at him. "I understand you're frustrated, but you have had years with this information, I have only just learned of it. It's not as simple as you're making it seem."

"Why not?"

"Because it's you!" I raised my voice to match his. "I can't just pretend that there is nothing wrong with ignoring the truth. I can't be selfish when it's you we're talking about. The best thing here would be… if I stopped seeing you?"

"What?" Draco glared down at me. I turned away from him.

"If I'm not near you, if we aren't in constant contact with each other, maybe those feelings will go away" I explained, not having to look at him to know how he would feel about my reasoning. "If they do, we both know it would be for the best."

"I don't want that."

"Now" I argued. "You don't want that now. But what if it worked? What if being apart helps you get over this? We could both—"

"I don't want that" Draco repeated, slower and louder this time so I could hear. I looked up to see an angry face looking back at me. "You think you're being selfless, when really you're being more selfish than ever. Did you ever ask yourself what I would want? I want to be able to see you every day. I want to be able to come into this room and know that you're going to be staring at you're stupid books, waiting for me. I want to be able to talk to you like I'm not a fucking child!"

Draco's last words rang for a moment before the room grew quiet again. He had gotten close to me again, like he always did when he was angry. His breathing was sharp, hair ruffled from running his hand through it in frustration. Normally I would ruffle his hair a bit more and tease him until he calmed down, or focused his anger on something else. But now didn't seem like an appropriate time for that.

"Do you love me?"

"Draco…" was all I could manage to say, being taken off guard by the question.

"I'm not asking if you're in love with me," he shook his head, trying to clarify. "I'm asking if you love me."

"Yes" I nodded, deciding to answer honestly. Draco took a step forward, closer than he already was.

"If that's true then please, for the love of Merlin, stop making this more difficult than it already is" Draco called with a heavy breath. "I don't want your help any more than I need your pity. I know it won't be easy but I'm asking you to try."

"I'll try" I agreed, realising how defeated he looked. As much as it was bothering me, this must have been weighing on him a lot more.

With a deep sigh, Draco stepped a few paces closer to me, resting his head on my shoulder. Looking at him a little more closely, it looked like it had been troubling him in more than one way. He had probably already guessed how I would want to solve this and didn't want me to keep that distance. Already I had avoided him a few weeks, not that the time had helped me any. But even if it wasn't what he wanted, I still believed that was the best thing for us. Not that he would let me. If I gave him even a hint that it was what I wanted to do, he would track me down and lecture me on it. I let out a sigh too. Reaching a hand over to him, I gently ran my fingers through his hair. I felt him let out a breath.

"Well, now that all of that is dealt with" Draco called, his head still on my shoulder, "you think you could clean this place up? I think I about swallowed enough dust as is allowed in a lifetime."

"The underbelly of having a secret hideout" I smiled a bit at his joke. "I do need to do a bit of maintenance on the place, I'll admit. You should go get some rest, before you get anymore dust in you."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Draco asked, raising his head from my shoulder, not offering much in the way of a fight.

"I'm sure you're needed elsewhere" I gave him a small smile back. "A prefect's job is never done."

Draco didn't say anything in return, just leaned in and kisses my forehead. He quietly mumbled a goodnight before making his way out of the room. I took a moment and listened to his footsteps as he made his way back into the common room; they were muffled, and the last sound in the corridor. It wasn't until I was sure he had made it back to the common room that I let out a long breath. Taking a stroll to the armchair, I slumped down against it. Grumbling to myself I let out a groan, resting my head back on the fabric.

I stared up at the ceiling a moment. I was tired. It was late in the evening, so it made sense, but I didn't think that was entirely the case today. Shuffling around on the chair, I raised my legs onto the arm of the chair. Turning back down, I turned to stare at the table. It was grey with dust. Reaching a hand lazily to it, I wiped some of the dust off the edge of the desk. Enough was visibly removed that I made a face at it. That was unpleasant. I clapped my hands to wipe off the dust and turned up.

"My whole life is already a mess, why should this room be any different?" I grumbled to no one but myself. Turning from my desk back to the armchair, I buried my face in the leather. With a now muffled tone, I let out a groan. "I'll clean it in the morning."