"Are you alright!?"
Talia, from her seat at the Slytherin table, cringed as Hermione Granger's voice cut through the Great Hall. She could feel a wave of eyes land on her, and she inwardly cursed. She'd been doing so well this morning; she'd kept her head down and shielded her face away from prying eyes with a curtain of hair—people had left her alone, they'd forgotten about "the incident", as she called it, but now that the attention was back on her shoulders… she felt like an exposed nerve.
"I'll deal with her," Talia heard Draco mumble, but she quickly grabbed his hand underneath the table and squeezed it, preventing him from rising from his seat.
"Don't," she said softly, giving him a small smile, "I've got this."
Hermione skidded to a stop at the Slytherin table, a pile of books in her arms, and thoroughly out of breath. Talia slowly turned around and gave her friend a small, friendly smile, and noticed that Hermione looked frazzled this morning. She caught sight of one of the titles of the books her friend was carrying, and was surprised to see that it was a book about house elves.
What was Hermione getting into now?
"I'm okay," Talia said softly, "no need to worry."
"I heard what happened," said Hermione, genuinely upset, "I can't believe that Professor Moody would do something like that—he's a teacher!"
"I would rather forget about it," said Talia pointedly, the smile on her face turning forced and fake.
Hermione sighed, but nodded, giving her friend a sympathetic smile. "Well, I just came along to see if you were alright. Class starts in a bit, so I better get going. I'll see you in potions, yeah?"
"Yeah—I'll talk to you later," said Talia.
"See you," smiled Hermione, before disappearing into the sea of students that were making their way out of the Great Hall.
"I don't know how you put up with… that," spat Draco as he glared at the bushy head of hair that made its way through the morning lot of students.
"I don't know how you put up with that," said Talia with a crinkle of her nose, looking suggestively to the right.
Pansy was pushing her way through a small crowd of Hufflepuffs, and getting closer. She had a 4th year Charms textbook tucked underneath one arm, and there was no doubt in Talia's mind that Pansy was going to make Draco walk with her to their first class. She smirked at that; good luck Pansy.
"Touché," said Draco with a soft chuckle, squeezing Talia's hand. "C'mon, let's get going before the bell rings. You've got Transfiguration first, right?"
"Yeah."
It was only then that they finally let go of each other's hand.
By the time Pansy reached the Slytherin table, Draco and Talia were already standing. Draco had his rucksack thrown over one shoulder, while in his hands he held on to Talia's messenger bag, messing with the strap so that he could set it on his other shoulder comfortably. Meanwhile, Talia was quickly spreading a hearty dollop of cream cheese onto two bagels.
"Good morning, Draco," greeted Pansy, ignoring Talia all together.
"Pansy," said Draco, offering her a courteous smile.
"We've got Charms with the Ravenclaws this morning," Pansy went on, "I thought maybe we should start heading over there, so that we can get good seats."
"You head out without me," said Draco, "I'm walking Talia to her first class."
"Oh," said Pansy stiffly, a fake grin plastered on her lips, "You're… walking her to class."
"Yup," answered Talia for Draco, a very large (teasing) grin on her lips, "sweet of him, innit?"
Pansy said nothing, merely nodded stiffly.
"Here you go," said Talia, offering one of the bagels to Draco, "now let's go. I don't want to be late."
"Later, Pansy," said Draco indifferently, before he took a bite out of his bagel and walked off with Talia, their arms locked together.
Pansy stood still, her eyes narrowed into slits. That little… incident the other day, with Professor Moody, had brought Talia and Draco closer together. She needed to do something about that, but she did not know what.
The 9AM bell rang, and Pansy quickly scurried out of the Great Hall. She'd get Talia away from Draco if it was the last thing she ever did!
AN: I honestly don't know where I'm going with this Pansy/Talia rivalry.
I'm pretty sure it'll explode when we hit the Yule Ball.