Potter's Shadow (Draco Malfoy)

Chapter 24

Harry had seemed to have thought of everything by the time I had sat next to him at breakfast. Spotting his shaggy black hair slumped at Gryffindor table on his own, should have been the first sign that something was wrong but I pushed through oblivious. 

"What are we doing today?" I asked gaining Harry's attention from where he stirred his porridge. 
"We," he emphasised, "aren't doing anything. I'm going down to the lake." 
I slammed my cutlery back onto the table and stared at him before lowering my voice, "Sirius said that we had to stick together. He doesn't want you on your own."
"Yes, well Sirius isn't here. Also I won't be on my my own." I raised my eyebrow in disbelief. "Neville's coming aren't you Neville." Harry turned to the other Gryffindor boy a little further down the table, who was looking around lost having been jolted out of his book by his name, "huh?" 
"You'll come to the lake with me. Won't you," Harry didn't ask and more like ordered him. 
Before Neville had a chance to respond, I pushed myself up from the table, "If you really don't want to spend time with me you could have just said." 

Letting my anger get the better of me, I stormed out of the Great Hall, drawing a fair few odd looks. I stopped myself when I was out of view of the doorway as my stomach rumbled and gurgled. I could just go back for food? My stomach rumbled again, so much it hurt slightly. No. I refused. If Harry wanted to be on his own, fine, no matter what either of our god-fathers said. I'd just wait it out till Lunch, which was... 4 hours away. I'm going to die of starvation. 

I made my way towards the library to finish off the shrinking solution essay before Snape killed me before starvation took me. Luckily, I spotted Luna sat alone at one of the nearby tables, "Mind if I join you?"
"Of course," She spoke looking at something on the shelf through her glasses as if she could see something nobody else did. Her eyes finally landed on me, "It would almost be as if I had a friend." 
"I would like to be your friend Luna." I answered pulling out my parchment, quill and ink.
"I've never had a friend before. I have a nickname though," She smiled at me as I placed my bag on the floor.
"I have one too. They call me Rosie," I led off for her to tell me her nickname. 
"They call me Loony Lovegood. I think it's rather endearing to be the only one in my year in Ravenclaw with a nickname."
"Oh Luna!" I was shocked at the harshness of the Ravenclaws and other students, "That's not a nickname! That's bullying and it's very mean."
"What do you mean?" She pushed her glasses on to the top of her head so she could focus in on me.
"They're calling you crazy and being cruel. How about I think of a nice nickname for you? I can't promise it'll be any good, I've never made a nickname before."
"That's sounds great," She smiled before drifting off again to look at something else. Her eyes darted over to a bookshelf before she stood up and disappeared between the shelves. 

I puzzled away over the essay before deciding I needed help. I made my way over to the potions section, quickly backtracking when I noticed the aisle only had one person. A certain Blond Slytherin. I peeked round the corner again to see him pulling out and looking at different books before putting them back. Reasonably all I had to do was walk down the aisle, grab the book before racing out of there. I didn't have to talk to him or make eye contact. 

"What are we hiding from?" A familiar voice chirped in as they stopped right in front of me. 
"Err... hi Blaise. I'm not hiding, who said I'm hiding?"
"You're stood on the end of an aisle and the only books around are..." he paused as he turned and pulled a book out of the only shelf I could see the spines of the book, "The contraceptive potion? Got something you want to tell me?" He raised his eyebrow repeatedly in a suggestive way.
I easily grabbed the book from his grasp and hit him in the chest with it, "Would you not?" I raised my voice, flattening myself to the shelves, "You're going to get Madam Pince on us!" I glanced back around the bookshelf to see Draco had moved on to another book. Blaise copied my actions leaning round to see what I was looking at, "You're hiding from Draco!"
"No, I'm not," I denied. 
"Then you won't mind saying hi with me," Blaise stated pushing me into the aisle. 
"Blaise!" I cried gaining Draco's attention as he looked up from the book to Blaise and I.
"What are you two up to?" Draco questioned. 
"I found this one lurking at the end of the aisle and thought she should say hi."