DRACO'S P.O.V:

I cradled my throbbing head in my hands, wishing to be anywhere but in a noisy, insanely bright classroom. I didn't even know how I ended up there. Going to class was not in my plans for today. Those plans included sleeping, puking, and secluding myself from all other living things.

But somehow, I got here. Honestly, I was still a little drunk from the night before. My best guess was that Blaise or Theo began talking to me and I ended up subconsciously following them to this bloody hellhole. However, Theo seemed to be in the same situation as me. Behind me sat Pansy and Theo, who both looked a little rough. Though it was obvious that the boy was suffering a lot more. He too held his head in his hands, as beside him Blaise and Pansy laughed about the events of the previous night. A conversation I was not a part of, since it seemed Pansy had took it upon herself to completely ignore my existence.

In my eyes, this was a blessing.

"Theo, man, you were fucking insane! You got slapped, what? Five times?" Blaise and Pansy laughed, patting the boy's bony shoulder.

He managed a moan and pulled his hood over his head.

"You're absolutely pathetic when it comes to women. If it wasn't so funny, I might try to help you," Pansy's voice was a bit too flirty. Even though I couldn't see her, I knew she was looking straight at me.

I knew exactly what she was doing. And she knew she was succeeding.

I hated that her little stab to make me jealous worked. Of course, we were nothing more than friends with benefits. But after sleeping with someone for months on end, you'd have to have a heart made of stone not to develop even the smallest underlying feelings for the person.

And hell, did she love playing with them.

Fucking and fighting. The two things Pansy Parkinson did best. Give her the slightest bit of either one and she'd run with it. I swear, the girl was fucking bipolar.

As for last night, it proved as the perfect excuse to do one or the other, and, being the thoughtful bitch she was, she left that choice to me.

Let's see. Fuck or fight when some bitch interrupted my one moment of thoughtlessness. What a tough choice that was.

How could I even be expected to get right back into it with that giant mood crusher? Some chick walks in and pukes, and I'm expected to want to bang again after that? With a puddle of someone else's stomach contents on my floor? No fucking way. Not even I'm that desperate.

Speaking of the idiot, she was sitting in this very room. I now remembered exactly who she was. She was the girl Blaise had been hitting on for the past week, and of course, the girl he had made an effort to invite. Instead of sitting in her usual spot in front of us, she had hidden herself in the back corner of the room, hiding her face behind a veil of hair.

I couldn't help but crack a smile. She looked absolutely trashed. Her eyelids hung heavy over her sickly looking eyes, her hair seemed to resemble Granger's unruly main, and her skin was a disgusting pasty pale, which lead me to believe she was ready to vomit any second. Again.

Her obvious humiliation of what had happened last night did make me feel slightly better. I had to admit, I would have been pretty disappointed if she was too drunk to recall what she had done. Something about knowing she felt terrible about what happened was extremely satisfying. If I wasn't feeling so terrible myself, I would have helped her out with that self-loathing.

Maybe another time.

I was sure that with Blaise's new obsession, I'd be seeing more of her around, whether I wanted to or not.

I laid my head back down on the desk, hoping to maybe die before class started. My brain seemed to be trying to break out of my head through my eye sockets. I finally managed to doze off for a moment, when the high-pitched shriek of our professor's voice rung out through the room.

"Good morning class!" his shrill voice drilled right into my head. If I could stand up without wanting to puke, I might have left then and there.

"I fucking hate you Blaise." I groaned, truly meaning it in that moment.

All I got back was a laugh.

CLARA'S P.O.V:

I barely even noticed Professor Flitwick enter the classroom. I didn't look to see the tiny man stride through, only heard the sound of the doors close behind him, followed by the pattering of his footsteps to the front of the room. I was much too preoccupied with the pounding of my head, the persistent nausea that swirled through my stomach, and the lingering exhaustion that was causing my eyelids to grow heavy.

I felt bloody awful.

I had never experienced a hangover before- but I could now honestly say that it was a feeling that I never wanted to feel again.

It didn't help that on top of feeling horrid, my mind was plagued by flashbacks and horrible memories of the previous night.

You would think that considering how drunk I was- I would remember less of what had happened. Unfortunately, though, I remembered everything. It seemed as though forgetting the most embarrassing night of my life was too good to be true.

I felt my face grow hot as I replayed the image of what had happened in my head.

I was completely mortified.

I could only hope that Malfoy and Pansy's memories were too blurred to really remember what happened, or that, at the very least, they wouldn't identify me as the culprit.

Culprit? Really? You are being too hard on yourself.

Perhaps I was slightly over-dramatizing the situation, but it couldn't be denied that what had happened was one big, embarrassing disaster.

If there was one thing that I was sure of, it was that I was going to stay the hell away from Malfoy.

Sure, I completely humiliated myself in front of him- but it wasn't like I ever had to deal with him again. It wasn't like we were anywhere close to being friends- we weren't even acquaintances. We had never had a conversation before, or really even looked each other's way, in all the years we had been at Hogwarts.

I was pretty sure he didn't even know my name, or know that I was in the same class as him, for that matter. However, this knowledge did not stop me from choosing to sit on the opposite side of the classroom from him this morning, or creating a curtain of hair over my face to shield my identity.

You're pathetic, I told myself angrily.

And, yes, perhaps I was, but it was easier to avoid him than have to face him.

"You might want to push your hair out of your face. You look weird," Nina mumbled from the seat beside me.

"Shhhh," I hissed at her.

"Good morning class!" Professor Flitwick announced cheerfully.

I forced myself to look up, cringing as sudden pain pierced through my head with the movement.

"I don't think I've ever seen you so miserable to be in class," Nina whispered with a slight grin.

"Be quiet," I muttered groggily, rubbing my heavy eyelids.

"Grumpy," she snickered.

"I have a new assignment for you, today!" Flitwick went on, moving to his desk and shuffling through his papers as he spoke. "I will be expecting each of you to select three charms of your choice- preferably ones that you have particular interests in- and produce a six paged research paper to me by the start of next week. I also expect that you are able to properly present these charms to me, yourself! Now, for this project, I will be requiring that you work with a partner. You and your partner will decide how to split up your project, as well as select three charms that you can agree on. How does that sound?" he clasped his hands together and beamed delightfully.

Nina and I looked over at each other and nodded. It was our wordless way of confirming that we would, of course, be partners.

"Oh! And I shall be selecting the partners," Flitwick added, still grinning.

"Damn it," Nina sighed.

Flitwick then proceeded to point to each student, randomly selecting partners. I sighed as I waited for him to call out my name, leaning my elbows against my desk. I softly closed my eyes and rubbed my temples with my fingers, trying to rid of my migraine.

"Ah, Clara!"

My eyes snapped open as Flitwick called out my name.

"Your partner shall be…. Ah, let's see here…" Flitwick scanned the room with squinted eyes, then broke out into a sudden grin, "Mr. Malfoy! You will be Miss Paisley's partner!"

"What?" I snapped. A strike of panic ran through me.

Did he really just say Malfoy?

Was I imagining?

Flitwick frowned, his brows furrowing, "What was that Miss Paisley? Is there an issue?"

I opened my mouth, ready to spew out a fountain of protests, then shut it.

Yes, yes there is a bloody problem. There is a huge, gigantic problem.

I gritted my teeth together and shook my head at Flitwick, fighting down the urge to curse profusely.

"Good!" Flitwick beamed, continuing to pair off more students.

"So much for your plan to avoid him…." Nina trailed off, frowning.

I glared at her and put my hands to my temples again, letting out a long sigh, "Remind me to kill Flitwick."

"I don't think you'd be his favorite student anymore if you did that."

Out of all the things that could go wrong, this had to happen?

After last night, this was probably the worst thing that could happen.

Never in my life have I ever had to spend a minute with Malfoy, yet now, when I actually need to avoid him, I'm forced to spend a week studying alone with him? How bloody ironic.

Yet nevermind how I felt about this. He couldn't be too pleased either. I mean, I did make a drunken mess of myself, literally, all over his bedroom. And I interrupted him in the middle of his... intimate moment with Pansy.

I hesitantly brushed my hair out of my face and dared to look across the room. There Malfoy sat, the same miserable and bored expression lying on his pale face as it usually did. Except today, he looked especially miserable, if that were even possible, Probably extremely hungover, no doubt. Suddenly, his pale eyes flickered over to me, his lips turning into a deep scowl.

I quickly turned my head back around a cursed under my breath.

I just need this class to end.

Class seemed to drag on incredibly slow, and when it finally came to its end, I stood up much to quickly- causing my head to pound once again. I grabbed my book and held it to my chest, then let my gaze travel across the classroom. Malfoy, along with Blaise, Pansy, and Theo, were exiting the classroom.

"Nina," I suddenly said, "You go on. I'll catch up with you in a bit. There's something I need to do."

Before I could hear her response, I quickly walked off, swerving my way through the bustle of students. Once in the corridor outside the classroom, I hastily stood on my tiptoes and searched across the crowd. Finally, I found what I was looking for. A shock of white hair.

"Excuse me," I mumbled, shoving through a group of people.

I could see his full form now. He seemed to have left his friends and was now walking by himself, moving briskly down the hall.

You'll need to deal with him sooner or later. Just do it.

I let out a sigh of dread and ran to catch up with him.

"Malfoy!" I called out, finally reaching him. I reached to poke his arm, only to quickly draw back my arm when he suddenly spun around.

Up close, he looked even worse.

His skin was white as a sheet, and bags that showed no sign of sleep lay beneath his eyes. Though he was tall, with broad shoulders and a nice slender physique- there was a slight frailness in the way he carried himself beneath his dark suit, as if he had recently lost some weight. His grey eyes took in the sight of me and instantly hardened into a cold glare as they seemed to register who I was.

"What do you want?" he scowled, voice laced with disgust.

"I- well, I just- um…" I stuttered. I felt a flurry of nerves twist in my already-upset stomach.

Really, now you've lost the ability to speak? Don't be a fool. He's just a boy. A stupid, angsty boy.

I let out a sigh and held my book tight to my chest, "Look, Malfoy," I spoke firmly, surprising myself with the strength in my tone. "I know that I'm probably the last person you want to be talking to right now- and believe me, I'd rather be doing anything else. But seeing as we are, unfortunately, being forced to cooperate with one another, it looks like you're just going to have to get over it and wipe that horrid scowl off your face- because, frankly, if we are going to be working together for the next week, I do not have the patience within me to keep looking at it. So, with that being said, I'd like you to please kindly put aside whatever grudge you hold against me until we have completed our work together. You can carry on with your pouting once we're through- but until then you need to pretend like you actually care and work with me on this project- because I care about doing well in school," I had to catch my breathe after the long speech I had just delivered. I raised my chin and looked at him expectantly, only to get a sneer in response.

"And why the hell would I listen to anything you have to say?" he replied hotly.

"Because you were assigned a project and you need to do the work," I stated simply, staring at him in disbelief.

"Do I really look like I care?" he scoffed.

I opened my mouth, then closed it, feeling at a loss for words. I narrowed my eyes in frustration, "No, you don't," I snapped, "and it's not a flattering look," I added. "But you're going to start caring now, and you're going to meet me tomorrow night at six o'clock in the library to start working on this bloody project, whether you like it or not. It's one week, Malfoy. I think you can manage."

At that, his eyes hardened and his jaw clenched irritably. "You-"

"See you then," I cut him off.

And with that, I turned on my heel and left him, not bothering to turn and look back at him. Despite the headache that still lingered and the annoyance that I felt from the dialogue, I couldn't help but feel satisfied leaving him standing there, alone.

A/N: Hey guys! Just a short one today, but the next one will be up very soon! :) We hope that you liked it. Let us know what you think!

Xoxo,

Anna & Lola