Smile
Draco had been watching Potter since the beginning of term.
He noticed how the boy had gone from defeated to positively depressed. His lackeys were treating him surprisingly coldly, and he had withdrawn into himself. He now sat with Longbottom when paired up at Potions, and as a result, went to the hospital far more often than any Dark Lord could ever hope to send him there.
Draco pitied him. Perhaps last year he would not have, but ever since the Dark Lord had taken residence in his home, he felt a sort of sympathy with Potter. They both tried to avoid everyone who wanted to speak with them, they were both being tortured by a Dark Lord, and they both were living a lie. Potter was pretending to still be the same person he was before Diggory died. Draco was still pretending like he thought he would survive the year.
So when Potter walked in to a Potions class in late October hand in hand with Granger, Draco felt happy for him. He would have deserved to have a friend if his life was as bad as Draco's, and Draco knew Potter's life was probably twice as worse as his own.
Watching Potter laugh, his eyes crinkling for the first time since last year, well, that made Draco happy too.
He smiled.
Lavender Brown fell off her chair in shock. Severus took off twenty points from Gryffindor for imbecile-like conduct. Although Draco did notice Severus didn't take any points off for Potter laughing in class. Perhaps he felt that Potter deserved a little bit of laughter, Draco mused. Perhaps they all did.
As Draco walked out of class, he heard the Brown bint emphatically telling one of the Patil twins that Draco Malfoy was a Veela and he had just smiled at her, therefore she was now his mate. Draco tilted back his head and practically howled. Perhaps everyone did deserve a bit of laughter after all.
oOo
Harry glanced back at the sound of rich, deep laughter. He gulped. Malfoy had a nice, smooth, white throat that was shown off nicely when he laughed. A very nice throat. Very nice indeed.
Hermione pinched his arm and looked mischievously at him. Harry shook his head, and determinedly walked faster. He didn't look back again, even though the echoes of Malfoy's amusement still bounced off the walls.
oOo
A/N: High time for a Draco POV! Sorry if the Veela thing offended any diehard Draco!Veela fans. I honestly love Veelas, I do.
If you want a really great Veela story (but not Draco, sorry), go check out Swan Song: A Veela Love Story by excentrykemuse. 'Tis quite loverly. :]