𝒯𝒽ℯ 𝒫𝓇ℴ𝓂𝒾𝓈ℯ𝒹 𝒪𝓃ℯ | 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲 |

#22 Star Collisions

Studying for my exams kept me busy for the next days. I spent them in the library again, mostly to help Blaise with Potion and Maribel helping me in Herbology.

She seemed happier, more relax. That's probably caused by her secret meetups with Cedric. This time they were more patient, more secure than earlier this year.

If our parents found out they started to associate again, it wouldn't end up in a simple conversation in father's study. It would have consequences. More serious this time.

I helped her sneaking out after curfew since I was the one sneaking to the astronomy tower for years in the night. And sometimes I waited on the tower until she came back to return to the dungeons.

It were those nights in which I just spent my hours looking at the sky, learning about the planets while I watched them through the spectator glasses. I always was a night owl, it's like my mind worked better when the sun went down.

A week after the second task my legs were completely fine again. They were just plastered with marks of the Grindylows' tentacles, but they were soon gone. On Maribels' too.

Mother sent me a letter afterDumbledore informed my parents about what happened. They were angry, andworried. But Maribel and I wrote an answer to say we're fine - it seemed toplease them enough.

Draco and I didn't talk, at all. He seemed to vanish when I came in the room, to take the corridors he knew I wouldn't cross on that time of the day. And worst of all, he didn't tell me what I did wrong. I hated that I thought about it in any free second. I hated that I was too proud to stop him after lesson and ask him.

It was for a cold evening in the last February week when I climbed the stairs to the tower after Maribel left towards the Greenhouse where she met Cedric for an evening stroll, that I saw him.

If he was still trying to avoid me, he's a foul. It was Wednesday. On Wednesday I came here every week for the past year to watch the movements.

Professor Sinistra assured us to do this on the same time to compare and recognize slightly differences in their orbits.

"What do you want", I said calmly as I approached the floor, not caring to stand still as Draco turned around and watched me carefully. I laid down my books and notes near the spectator glasses, letting my gaze wander over the grounds for a second.

"Do you wanted your sweater back?", I asked. I tried to keep my voice steady, normal, even though my heart hammered in excitement to be alone with him the first time since he left my dorm.

His eyes lingered on me, burning into my skin like he branded me. But I wouldn't crumble, I wouldn't give in. It still something I wouldn't do.

"There's no quidditch match until next year anyway", the boy then said, breathing out as if he was relieved to finally say something.

"What is it then?", I asked again.

Dracos' figure shifted. He leant against the railing with his elbow on the edge when he looked at me for the first time in days. I mean longer than a quick blink to see where I'm coming from to head in the other direction.

"I'm not good in this", he simply said as if this was the excuse for everything. I raised my eyebrow and looked at him while he bit down on his bottom lip, wiping in his feet.

"What do you mean?", I questioned and directed my eyes through the glass, pretending as if I actually spectated instead of simply trying to avoid his grey eyes on me.

„This", he moved his hand between us. „I'm not used to care. Or worry. Or to an honest, true friendship, not just connections because of my family's name. And if I'm not used to something, I'm bad at it."