Just in case || Draco Malfoy

Ten - Secrets

"We are just kids. We aren't supposed to be the heroes. Or even the villains"

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

I hadn't spoken to Draco in days. He was never in the common room. Every time I knocked on his dorm, he wouldn't be there. Or he ignored me. It was one of the two but I preferred the first option.

He hardly attended his lessons. On the rare occasion  that he did, he would sit in the corner and wouldn't speak to a soul. I had tried multiple times to speak to him after class, but he always left the room in such a hurry that I couldn't catch him. He seemed to disappear into the halls.

The only time apart from classes that I saw him was when he would rush through the common room as fast as he could, ignoring anyone who spoke to him and rush up to his dorm and lock himself in there until the early hours of the morning when he could leave the common room without anyone stopping him.

He looked worse than ever. I seemed to be the only one who noticed.

"He'll just be with Crabbe and Goyle" or "he's always moody" and "he'll just be stressed over exams" were the responses I usually got when I expressed my concern for him to my friends.

I knew that it was more than exam stress. In fact, school seemed to be the last thing he cared about. He would never speak in class and only wrote anything down when he was being looked at by a professor, scribbling random lines down to make it seem like he was paying attention.

He avoided me even more so since the incident at hogsmeade. If he was in the same room as me, he would leave it and if he couldn't, he would make sure to stay as far away from me as possible.

Although our so called friendship was only a few weeks old, I hated how he shut me out. I couldn't explain why I longed so much for a bond with him. It seemed like something within me was willing me on to try and kindle a friendship that was hardly there in the first place. When he had finally stopped being cruel to me and I thought we could finally be civil, he ignores me. And that hurt more than the insults.

I missed speaking to him. I don't know why, all we ever usually discussed was schoolwork and the books we were reading, but still. When he put aside whatever it was that was on his mind, he became effortlessly charming and polite.

I still don't understand how he took a liking it me all of a sudden. Well, I couldn't understand why I myself took a liking to him. Well maybe I could. Maybe I knew why. But I wasn't willing to accept that reason.

...

Slughorns party was soon. I had a few dresses in my wardrobe that I had packed for things such as this. There were usually several secret parties held in the different house common rooms. There hadn't been any this year however. People didn't seem to be in the mood to celebrate recently. 

The stories in the papers had become increasingly frightening, always talking about the danger that came with you-know-who's return. They had to be, I suppose. There is no point sugarcoating it.

Slughorn, however, still thought that it was fit for him to resume his traditional annual Christmas parties. I couldn't complain, it was something to do with my time.

I had completed my end of term exams a few days prior to the party. I was yet to receive my results but my studying had payed off and I was certain I had gotten a decent grade.

I had forced Eddie to study with me several times. I didn't want him to fail too miserably and besides, studying with Draco again was clearly out of the picture.

Draco didn't sit the exam. I can't say I'm surprised - his skipping of classes had become increasingly frequent. I expect he will be tracked down by McGonagall and forced to sit them. I wouldn't be surprised if he simply ignored her too.