Cookies and Krums
Draco was too exhausted to go to the great hall for dinner, so he walked up to the seventh-floor corridor, finding a nice little spot on a stone step between the large arched marble pillars, and near the window to sit. Mizuki followed him without saying anything, sitting down on the step next to him. The air was chilly, but the light from the sconces on the walls added a little warmth color-wise, the flames casting shadows that danced across the walls.
Mizuki took out their Arithmancy homework and began working on it. Draco was thankful that she didn't ask any questions and that she was with him. More than she could ever know, and more than he wanted to admit. He took out the homework from his bag and began working on it too. A companionable silence filled the air between them, and before long, Mizuki finished her portion. She worked on her other homework while Draco finished his.
Once he was finished, he handed them to her.
"Give me yours, I'll check them."
They exchanged papers and began checking and correcting each other's homework. Mizuki's didn't need many corrections if at all, and he was surprised. He didn't know why he was surprised; she was sorted into Ravenclaw after all. He looked up, noting how she was furrowing her brow in concentration as she worked out some of his numerical assignments. He felt the corner of his mouth tugging upward, but he repressed it, keeping his mouth drawn downward.
He watched her until she was finished until she looked up and their eyes met. There it was again, that feeling like she was seeing past the defenses that he had tried erecting, never allowing anyone inside to see who he really was underneath all the pomp and poisoned words.
"I made a few corrections," she told him, breaking the silence and moment between them; and not a moment too soon because Draco had started to panic, believing that, with just one glance, she was able to see past everything that he had worked so hard to conceal.
He took his papers back, looking down at them, keeping his eyes on the paper so that she couldn't look at him like that again. He handed hers back, and she looked them over. She smiled at him.
Smiling at me! Draco Malfoy, pompous git pretending to be someone I'm not.
"Are you alright? You look a little pale."
"I'm fine."
No, you're not, you liar. How long will it take her to take one look at the real you and leave you like everyone else would if they knew what you were really like? Weak. Pathetic.
Mizuki ignored him and reached into her backpack to pull out some cookies that she had stored in there, wrapped in a napkin from this morning. She liked to snack when she was studying. She unfolded the napkin and held her hand up to him, offering him some. He glanced sideways at her, taking a cookie from her. He held onto it mutely like it was some triumphant gift from Merlin himself as she ate hers. Her stomach growled loudly, and he saw her cheeks flush with embarrassment.
"I didn't eat lunch," she informed him.
Draco nodded his head. It was way past dinner time now. The only option they had now was to go to the kitchens to get food, but he didn't want to get up. He didn't want whatever moment this was to fade into a mere memory. He was too afraid to end it because what if they never had another one like this again? What if he said or did something else to make her hate him?
It's only a matter of time before you do. You're a failure. Ask your father.
Before he could decide anything, Mizuki went back to work once she finished eating her cookie, as if that was enough to fill her up. Draco ate his, then continued with his homework, enjoying the company as he worked.
It was late when he finally finished his homework, and when he looked over at her, he saw that her eyes were closed, her head resting against the wall. Was she just resting or was she asleep? He glanced at his watch and saw that it was past curfew. If they were caught, they would get detention—and he already had a few with Snape for that stunt he pulled in the hall with Potter.
Saito's brows creased and she whimpered, moving her head slightly, it rolled right onto his shoulder. Draco's body went rigid. Sure, he had been with Pansy last year, they had never officially been a couple as much as she liked to think so, but this feeling that he had with Saito was different. Why? She was just a girl. It's not like she was anyone special.
Isn't she?
Draco paused. She didn't seem to care that he was a Malfoy or that he had just bullied Potter and his friends in the hall—she had come to him to see if he was okay, not Potter. Potter, the one that always got everything—all the recognition, the praise, the fame, people who liked him. It was always about stupid Potter. Draco had even thought that Saito might have been sorted into Gryffindor just for life to spite him further, but she hadn't. She was in Ravenclaw. She wasn't with Potter right now, she was with him, and she was asleep on his shoulder. The very thought was enough to make him feel giddy.
He watched her sleep, his head tilted to see her better, the corner of his mouth tugging upward so slightly that it was almost not there. He was lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't been prepared for her to wake up. She moved and looked right at him, forgetting where she was and sat up so quickly that her forehead smashed into his jaw.
"Ouch!" they both cried, holding their smarting head and jaw. They looked at each other and laughed.
"I'm sorry. I was just startled," she said, her cheeks flushed. She looked at her watch, noticing how late it was, and began packing up her things. Draco reluctantly packed his own things into his bag, standing up and dusting himself off just as she did. They walked down the corridor quietly, Draco listening for Filch and Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris. They made it to the marble staircase where they had to part ways. He needed to head down to the dungeons and she to the Ravenclaw tower. They couldn't possibly be further apart than that.
Why couldn't she be a Slytherin? Then we could be headed there together. We could spend more time in the common room.
Draco, you git. She's too good for you. She's too precious, too kind. She is the embodiment of a lady, and you are nothing but a helpless and useless boy.
"Good night," Mizuki said, giving him a small smile. Draco returned the smile—though small, his heart thudding in his chest for some reason unbeknownst to him.
"Yeah. Good night," he replied. He hesitated on the steps, looking at her. Finally, he turned and walked down the stairs without glancing back to see if she was still there, but he wanted to believe that she was.
Mizuki watched him until she couldn't see him anymore. She turned and headed to the Ravenclaw tower, smiling the entire way there, and she didn't even know why.
Mizuki had gone to the seventh floor after dinner the night after she studied with Draco, but he wasn't there. Mizuki had been tempted to ask him if he had gotten detention, but she didn't have many chances to speak with him without his friends around when she saw him in the halls, so she went to the library to study instead, surprised to find Viktor Krum there. A group of girls was hovering around him, but hiding behind a bookcase, giggling. Mizuki rolled her eyes. They were causing too much noise to the consternation of Hermione, who was trying to study at a table in the corner nearby. Mizuki thought that she had seen Krum peeking at Hermione from behind his book.
The rest of the week passed uneventfully save for the random bursts of applause as students entered their names into the Goblet of Fire. Mizuki felt like she was settling into life at Hogwarts a little bit. She found that she adored her Transfiguration class as well as the teacher. McGonagall was strict but proficient in her teaching, and it didn't take long for Mizuki to get the spell to work. Unfortunately, because the O.W.L.s were coming up next year, McGonagall assigned them a lot of homework all due by the end of the week, which she had completed on the same day it was given because she didn't have any friends, so it wasn't hard for her to throw herself into her studies. Plus, the amount of homework wasn't nearly the same as she had in Japan, so it didn't take long for her to finish all her homework on the same day that it was given. Most of the time she went to the library to study after dinner, taking out books and carrying them up to the common room where she studied at the desk in the corner that was nearest to the large arched window, lit by the flickering light of the sconces on the walls.
Mizuki also enjoyed Charms, though she noticed that the majority of the spells they were going to be learning that year were ones that she already knew, or that were easy for her. She hadn't said anything because she didn't feel comfortable approaching Professor Flitwick about it, so she went about the lessons without complaint. She was thankful that Anthony had been kind to her, and Padma Patil and her friends were, too, but she didn't feel like she fit in with them—they already had their own friends, and they were more of just acquaintances. For the most part, Mizuki was always alone.
Care of Magical Creatures was another thing entirely. She wasn't sure if it was the curriculum at Hogwarts specifically or the teacher, but they were working with Blast-Ended Skrewts that, in Mizuki's opinion, were not only dangerous but also ugly—and she normally loved Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, was pleasant and kind, so she didn't have any issues with him. Mizuki was careful the entire class and managed to only singe the cuff of her robes once—on Tuesday, the first day she had the class; however, some of the other students weren't so lucky and had soot on their faces, singed eyebrows and hair, or worse, some burns which they had to get treated at the hospital wing. By Thursday's class, the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs were too intimidated by the Skrewts to try and handle them properly, even with Hagrid's encouragement. It seemed that not even Hagrid knew that much about them himself and they were all learning together.
On Wednesday, she had her first Herbology lesson with the Slytherins, and when she was standing in the greenhouse between Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil, she saw Draco enter with his friends behind him, including Pansy Parkinson. She couldn't help but watch him as he found a spot just in front of her.
"Good morning class!" Professor Sprout greeted warmly, a short and stout woman with a friendly face and a mass of curly grey hair under her witch's hat. "Now, who can tell me what plants these are?" she asked them, gesturing to the weird black blobs that were growing vertically out of the ground and appeared to be undulating. Mizuki had noticed them when she first arrived at the greenhouse. They had little bumps all over them, and Mizuki's hand shot up in the air.
"Bubotubers, Professor."
"Excellent! What's your name, love?" she asked.
"Mizuki Saito, Professor," Mizuki replied, cheeks pink.
"Bubotubers, Professor," Pansy mimicked in a high-pitch voice that was so far from Mizuki's own voice, but her friends squealed with laughter behind their hands.
"Five points to Ravenclaw, then!" Sprout nodded her head as she carried on with the lesson. "Today, we're going to be collecting the pus that's contained within the swellings. The important thing about today is to make sure you're wearing your dragon-hide gloves—undiluted Bubotuber pus can do strange things when it makes contact with the skin, and we wouldn't want any accidents! You've all got your buckets at the ready, get into groups of two, and happy collecting!"
Mizuki eyed the black plant dubiously as she pulled on her dragon-hide gloves.
"Hey, Mizuki, we've got an uneven number, but you can join us," Anthony told her. Mizuki nodded her head, smiling at him.
She reached forward and carefully began squeezing the plant where the swelling was, a yellowish-green liquid squirted out and began dripping into the bucket that Anthony was holding.
Skrewts and now pus collecting, Mizuki thought with some disgust. She wasn't sure what was worse the risk of getting burned or popping the swellings of this plant that released a petrol-like scent when it was popped.
"Yuck!" Draco said. "I can't believe we have to collect this stuff! Wait until my father hears about this. This is servant's work!" he huffed. He was so disgusted that he refused to do any further work and made Goyle do all of the popping and collection himself. Anthony and Mizuki looked at each other and grinned.
"He's always going off about his father like that," Anthony told her as he moved closer to her so that only she could hear. The class was too occupied with the disgusting sounds of the thick liquid dripping into the buckets and the squelching sounds that were emitted when the swellings were popped.
For the next two nights, Mizuki checked the seventh-floor corridor after dinner, but there was no sign of Draco. She had the chance to speak to him in their Arithmancy class just before dinner on Wednesday, but she had been too shy to talk to him after remembering that she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Her cheeks blushed and she buried herself in their numerical assignments instead.
She had seen him at the Great Hall only briefly because she had been so busy with homework in the library or the common room that by the time she arrived, he was already leaving. Even on Friday evening, when she went to the seventh floor after dinner wasn't there. Could he have gotten detention for that many days? She felt a little stab of disappointment as she made her way down the stairs and headed to the library yet again where she found the same scene: Krum glancing at Hermione while his fans were giggling behind bookshelves and books, Hermione looking like she wanted to tell them off.
Mizuki sighed. She was feeling rather tired, disappointed, and annoyed to deal with the girls, so she decided the best way to get rid of them—and make them shut up, would be to approach Krum herself. Mizuki raised her chin and made her way over to his table, sitting down without even asking him for permission. He looked up at her, surprised.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I can't study when your little fan club makes so much noise." The group of girls was gawking at them. They huffed and wandered off to another part of the library.
"Vat are you doing?" he asked her, his eyes narrowed at her. Hadn't she just explained that to him? Mizuki finally looked at him. He was handsome with his dark shaved head and eyes brought out by the red of his robes. He was muscular and athletic, completely different from Draco who was lean and—wait, what? What am I even thinking?! Mizuki's cheeks flushed.
"You should go talk to her, she's really nice."
Krum glanced at Hermione.
"I can't."
"Why not? She's alone right now, isn't she? Usually, she's around Harry and Ron. What better chance than now?"
Krum looked as though he would rather take his chances with the Blast-Ended Skrewts. Mizuki smiled at him, unaware that at that very moment, Draco had walked in to return a book for Professor Snape. When he saw them, when he saw her smiling at Krum, he felt that familiar feeling of getting hit in the gut by a rogue bludger. He paused, staring. The feeling of being inadequate, of being nobody again, just like he had the day Potter refused his friendship resurfaced and he felt his hands shaking. Just like everyone else, she had abandoned him.
"She von't like me, I think. Look at her." Krum looked at Hermione again.
"Just try to talk to her," Mizuki encouraged. Why she suddenly felt the need to play matchmaker was beyond her. She didn't even have a love life.
"I think…you talk vith Malfoy," he said, nodding towards Draco who was still staring at them. Mizuki turned and saw the expression on his face like he had just been caught looking at something he shouldn't have. He glanced around the library, tossed the book at the librarian, Madam Pince, and ran out.
"I think you're right." Mizuki looked back at Krum apologetically, then got up and ran out of the library, and down the corridor.
All sense of propriety left her as she chased him, turning down the corridor as students stared in confusion. Was there another troll in the school or something?
"Stop!" she shouted. He was quick at running, she thought as she saw him rushing down the marble staircase. "Stop! Please!" But he kept running. She chased him all the way down into the dungeon until he paused at the door to the Slytherin common room.
"This is ridiculous," she huffed. "Why are you running away from me?" she demanded, trying to catch her breath as she placed a hand on her chest, her heart feeling like it was about to beat right out of it. He scoffed.
"Isn't it obvious?" he said with his back to her. "You and Krum. I should have known."
"Me and Krum what?" she demanded, not knowing what he was talking about.
"Never mind." He mumbled, his head down.
What on earth is the matter with him?
"Were you in detention? I-I've been going to the seventh floor looking for you." Mizuki was just as surprised as he was when the words left her mouth. He turned, looking at her.
"You-You were looking for me?" His voice sounded too hopeful even to his own ears, and he internally cringed.
Mizuki opened her mouth to explain what it was he saw when the door to the common room opened, and Pansy stood in the doorway. She beamed at Draco, her smile fading as she glared at Mizuki.
"What are you doing down here, Saito? This isn't your common room. Ugh, look at you," she said with disdain as she folded her arms across her chest, walking out to stand next to Draco. "Traipsing after Draco like some dog in heat." She turned to Draco and her voice softened significantly. "Come, Draco. We've been waiting for you." She placed her hand on his arm.
Mizuki felt her cheeks flush at the insult, and she dug her nails into her palms.
If anyone is traipsing, it's you, she thought, looking at Pansy with as much innocence as she could muster.
"I was just leaving." Mizuki looked at Draco who was too busy gawking at her from her earlier admission to say anything. She sighed, shaking her head slightly, and turned around, walking back up the stairs to the Ravenclaw tower.
After Draco was inside the common room with Pansy, who had her arm linked around his, he shrugged her off.
"Get off me, Pansy," he hissed. "Don't you know better than to butt into other people's conversations?"
Pansy looked at him, hurt evident all over her face as well as confusion.
"But why were you talking to her?" she demanded incredulously.
"Because I can bloody well talk to whomever I like, Pansy," he spat, not caring that he was hurting her feelings even more; he was angry that she had chased Saito away like that. She had been looking for him, and now he missed his chance to talk to her after their study session earlier that week.
Draco was glaring at Pansy. He didn't give her a chance to say anything because he turned and stormed off toward his dorm, slamming the door behind him and startling Crabbe and Goyle who were relaxing in bed. Draco sat on his bed and stared out the window, arms folded across his chest as he sulked.