I hope our story has a happier ending

if you love me don't let go

Since she's realized she has feelings for Draco, things have been—well, she avoids being alone with him, mostly.

She'd been a bit worried at first that he would take it personally, or that he would confront her and she would have to force out a lie that would choke her to speak, but it seems he's attributing her more frequent absences to the insanity of her schedule (which has only gotten even more unbearable as term has gone on).

Blaise is around fairly regularly now, though, so it's easier to play off most days; his friendship is an unexpected joy—he's very bold and audacious, very nearly fitting the profile she had once assumed of Draco, minus the blood supremacy. And he's positively infatuated with Ginny—it's the only time of day any soft side shows through, when he begs Hermione to recount anything and everything in Ginny's life that hasn't been penned across his skin.

In seeing Draco less, she's been relying on Romeo more—he hasn't prodded to find out why she's suddenly so present in his life, but then, he seems equally grateful for her more regular correspondence.

They've been talking about their friends much more lately, namelessly of course, neither of them having much spare time for keeping up with their usual voracious literature habits; but it's nice, hearing about the people most important to him—and having him know about those close to her.

She feels conflicted, whenever she tells him about Draco; as though she's betraying Romeo by describing the bloke her heart is growing fond of in lieu of him—

(but it's not really in lieu of him, it's in addition to him, which is almost worse.)

All in all, she's getting her bearings as best she can, taking on the chaos of the term relatively well.

(Naturally, it doesn't last.)

/

She'd been worried when Hagrid was appointed Care of Magical Creatures professor—she loves the man more than life, but he's not exactly the most responsible adult, or the best judge of age appropriate content. He's thus far illegally procured a three-headed monster dog, dealt with Voldemort himself for an unregistered dragon egg, raised monstrous spiders into an animal empire—and those are the things she knows about. She doesn't even want to think about what's in the Forbidden Forest that takes up so much of his time

But his first few lessons were more theoretical, safety tenets to be keeping in mind throughout the term (which she's fairly certain Dumbledore made mandatory, but it's not like she's complaining).

So she lets her guard down—lets herself relax and stop bracing for the worst every day as she, Harry, and Ron make their way down to the cottage.

(She should know better.)

It's their first practical lesson, and it's hippogriffs of course, because Hagrid's incapable of doing anything halfway.

She makes eye contact with Draco, grateful for his presence even as they both remain expressionless, because she can see her own terror reflected in his eyes—would it kill Hagrid to do something sensible like flobberworms, rather than unleashing a potentially deadly creature around unexperienced 13 year olds? It's genuinely irresponsible! She'd like to think there's no way this has been run past Dumbledore, but in all honesty she wouldn't put it past the maniac to allow something so foolhardy on his campus.

She's already bracing herself for the rant Draco's going to go on later this evening about how reckless Dumbledore's administration continues to be—dreads it precisely because she knows he's right, because even as she'll argue on Hagrid's behalf they'll both know her heart's not in it.