Heliophilia; d.m

XXXII

VIOLET

"And why am I not surprised to find you here in the library?" I started slightly, almost imperceptibly, at the suddenness of the voice, and looked up from the thick, heavy book that lay in my lap. "You're a bookworm, huh?" Seth stood in the doorway of the library, leaning his shoulder against the door frame, and with a grin, he walked over to the chair opposite me, sitting down with a heavy sigh.

His dark eyes swept the room, settling on the book I was holding.

"What are you reading? Fairy tales about little princesses?" One of his eyebrows arched in a mocking question, and as he met my gaze, he made a face of insight, "Actually no, it's more in the style of Adele, I guess. You probably read something about cold weapons, dark magic, or how to kill people without suspicion, right?" He almost croaked the last words in a whisper and chuckled softly again, running a hand through his shock of brown hair.

I felt uncomfortable when he was near me — a feeling that always coiled inside me like a snake, squeezing my insides, making it impossible to think about anything other than the huge red danger sign that said "get away from him, otherwise he will destroy you!".

"Why were you looking for me?" I forced the words out, frowning at his relaxed face and equally relaxed, even lazy, posture.

"I wasn't looking for you."

"Then what are you doing here?" I asked, and was surprised to find that my voice sounded impatient.

"I'm here for reading, of course, it's a library, isn't it?" He raised his eyebrows and reached for the nearest shelf, picking up the first book he touched without even looking at it, "But don't worry, if you just sit there still and silent, like a good girl, you won't bother me."

He buried his face in the book, pretending to be engrossed in reading, but I could see that his eyes were moving too fast, from top to bottom and diagonally, not from left to right.

"And after all, it's you who's reading fairy tales." I said after a few moments, pointing with my eyes at his book, which had "tales of the dark forest"written on the cover.

He frowned as he closed the book, then rolled his eyes and tossed it onto the small desk.

There was something wrong with him that day, I noticed right away. Usually, he either completely ignored my presence or was rude to me, pushing me with his shoulder when he passed by — and that day, he was... different. And it was suspicious.
In the back of my mind, I had all sorts of bad thoughts about what evil he was planning for me.

Seth opened his mouth to say something, but was immediately interrupted by the door slamming shut, followed by Draco's furious voice,

"I told you to stay away from her," He closed the distance between them with rapid strides, his jaw clenching as Seth rose from his chair and raised both hands in defeat, "What are you doing here?" His voice was low now, almost threatening.

"You and your girlfriend always ask such stupid questions?" Seth met Draco's gaze boldly, looking up at him, his face unreadable, "Don't worry, I won't touch your little diamond." He grinned then, and walked around Draco and out of the library, giving me one last look, filled with a kind of conspiracy, as if to say with his own eyes, "See what happens next." And something told me that these were not empty words.

"What did he want?" Draco asked with a sigh, sitting down on the chair where Seth had been sitting a few seconds ago, his pale hand running over his face. He looked tired, exhausted even, and it hurt that he had to worry about me as well.

"I don't know," I said, getting up from my seat and sitting on the arm of his chair, my hand resting on his shoulder, "Don't worry about him." I ran my hand gently over the fabric of his jacket, stopping at his neck, feeling his hair tickle the tips of my fingers. His tense shoulders relaxed a little and he turned to face me, wrapping his arms around my waist.