Just Friends

saint potter

It had been almost two weeks since Draco and Astoria had gotten together. Astoria sat next to him in the Great Hall, cozying up to him, and I couldn't do anything because he wasn't mine anymore. He never reacted to anything she did or said, but she was constantly happy about being tied to Draco for the rest of her life. She would grab his face and kiss his cheek multiple times, then look at me, smiling and knowing she had power over me.

We were all safe when she was with him. My family stayed safe from Azkaban, Draco stayed safe from getting in trouble with his family, and Astoria was happy, which didn't matter to me but it mattered to everyone else. I wished I could have done something, but every possibility was beyond my control.

I was staring down at my plate, pushing around pieces of fruit as Astoria continued to drool over Draco and Blaise sat in front of me, drooling over Luna who was showing him her collection of crystals. Pansy was at the Gryffindor table, drooling over Fred, and I was the only one in our friend group who wasn't drooling or being drooled over.

I got up to leave which caught Draco's attention. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, try to stand up and come after me, but he was pulled down by Astoria. I left, and not a single person came after me, or at least I thought.

"Hey, Y/n wait up!" I turned around and saw him running after me, his hand waving in the air and his robes flowing behind him. He caught up to me and tried to catch his breath a little. "You busy right now? I was going to the library and thought you might like to come along."

"Sure Harry, that actually sounds really fun." I smiled at him and he smiled back, leading the way to the library.

"So...what have you been up to?" he started, unsure of how I would take it.

"Nothing really, reading, homework, going to classes, just the usual." He hesitated before speaking again, looking at me, nervous.

"And... you and Malfoy?" I was thrown off by Draco's and I's names being said in the same sentence.

"Oh. Well we um...we're-"

"Not together?" I looked down. "I just, I noticed you two weren't all over each other you know? And that he had been awfully close to Astoria lately. I just, I didn't know."

"Things don't always last, Harry, that's just how life works."

"But didn't you two love each other?"

"It was out of our control. Would you mind if we changed the subject, maybe?" I ran my hand down the back of my neck, feeling uncomfortable with how this conversation was going.

"Yeah of course, well, the library's here so, let's go." He went in front of me and pulled the doors open, signaling for me to go inside. We sat down a few tables away from the door and Harry pulled out a beat-up purple covered book.

"What is that?" I asked, leaning over the table slightly to get a better look at it.

"Oh, this is how I've been getting through potions this year." He held the book in his hand as though it were a child. I held my hand out for it. "Can I see it?" I asked. He hesitated before sliding the book into my hand. I opened it and saw writing all over the pages. The instructions for each potion were completely tampered with. Instead of cutting the beans used for the draught of living death, it said to crush it. And instead of 12, it was 13 beans. A few more pages of corrected recipes and I flipped to the back of the book where "this book is property of the half-blood prince" was written in cursive.

"Who's the half-blood prince?" I asked, looking up from the book and at his green eyes.

"Not you too," he whined. I gave him a confused look, unsure of his statement.