Draco entered the great hall, after a talk with Proffessor McGonagal, which was interesting, even though he'd heard it from Hermione about 15 times. God, Granger just never shut up. He took his place at the Slytherin table. Looking around him, he couldn't believe that he was friends with these idiots. He gazed along the Ravenclaw table, looking for Mhera. He had only just spotted her, when McGonagal started the welcoming speech. He was barely listening, and only caught snippets of what she said.
"Welcome, new and old…unfortunate insident…Defence against the dark arts teacher is Proffessor Tonks…also new Gryffindor House teacher, Proffessor Tonks…" she droned out. Draco had found that lately he couldn't concentrate. He had barely even noticed that Potter had returned to school, despite the rumours about him going to battle Voldemort, or the ones where Voldemort had already killed him. All Draco could think about was Mhera, he could spend his last days just staring at her, and die happy…
When the food appeared on the table, Mhera almost forgot about Draco. Almost. It seemed that she could never get him out of her head, only push him to the back. It really must be obvious, she thought to herself as she helped herself to the glorious food on the table. Chancing a quick glance to the Slytherin table, she noticed that Draco seemed about as distracted as she was. She quickly looked away. If she wasn't careful, Caity might realise that it wasn't just a minor crush. Caity was very observant, quick to pick up on things, making her one of the most reliable people to count on for gossip. She was 99 percent of the time right, and only exaggerated a little. Mhera hated keeping things from her friend, but this was inportant to her. No one will know until I decide to tell them, she thought to herself.
The food dissapeared in what seemed like only seconds after it had appeared. Mhera went to see the Ravenclaw house teacher, and received the password to the common room. She then shepherded the other Ravenclaws to their common room. Once inside, she went straight up to the girls dorm, not really tired, and checked her things, before letting her silver Abbysinian cat, Starlight out. Starlight gave a quick purr, before settling on the bed.
Draco headed out of the Great Hall, the other Slytherins following him. Though proud, the Slytherins respected Malfoy, making his job far easier. He told them the password, and they all filed in. Draco waited til the last one to go in, before turning around, and walking around the dungeons. He soon reached the place where he had always gone when he had something on his mind. The dungeons where so familier that he couldn't have gotten lost in there, even if he'd wanted to. He sat down, leaning his back to the wall, staring at a puddle of water on the ground. He'd wasted a whole year already. Everytime he'd gotten a chance to ask Mhera out, he had panicked. If it had been anyone else, he would have asked her out immediately, not panicked like some love-strick fool. Why couldn't he get it over with. "because she matters," said a little voice in his head, "If she turned you down, you'd be heart-broken, she matters to you." This is absurd, he thought, and got to his feet, and started walking back to the Slytherin common room.