𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐒𝐓

Chapter 7

Mother Knows Best

Chapter Seven

Seven Weeks

Draco was sitting in the cafeteria at lunch, carefully picking the tomato out of his grilled chicken salad. He was surrounded by a ridiculous amount of artfully placed cobwebs, orange and black steamers, and poorly carved pumpkins sitting upon the surface of every table. Draco was no expert when it came to Halloween decorations, but he was pretty sure that pumpkins were supposed to have scary faces carved into them. However, the one Draco was glaring at couldn't be interpreted as a face by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it was a perfect carving of a hand flipping him the bird. Seemed like the first years went a little overboard this Halloween.

"Am I gonna have to separate the two of you?"

Draco turned his glare from the offending pumpkin to the grinning face of the speaker, Potter, who had just sat down across from him. In response, he turned the pumpkin around to face the other boy, making him laugh at what was carved there.

Almost seven weeks had passed since the incident in the kitchens, yet Draco felt as if it'd only been a week or so. Halloween was only a week away now and Hogwarts had enough tacky decoration to prove it. Students were already starting to get excited about it. Not necessarily about Halloween, but about the events that would take place on that night.

Being a boarding school, Hogwarts couldn't exactly allow it's students to go to any parties or haunted houses or, God forbid, go 'trick or treating' in the city of Merlin. So to make up for this fact, Dumbledore arranged for a talent show to be held on that night. He usually went all out for this event, even inviting parents and faculty to watch the performances. Since the students couldn't trust the teachers taste in music, everybody was allowed to vote for the best act. Even the students in the private building couldn't help but get even a little cheerful this time of year.

Even though it was suppose to be something for the students to look forward to, Draco couldn't bring himself to feel any of the excitment that his schoolmates were feeling. It only served to remind him of how soon he would be leaving dorm room number sixty-six.

About seven weeks ago, it couldn't have happened sooner, he'd been looking forward to it, leaving the dormitories and moving back into a private room, but now, he wasn't sure how to feel about it. Something had changed since that first day of school, that night in the kitchens. He just wasn't sure what exactly.

Draco came out of his thoughts when a hand snatched one of the uneaten cherry tomatoes from his plate. He looked up, seeing Potter give him a little grin before popping the ranch-covered fruit into his mouth. Draco knew the raven only did it to get his attention, but he made a disgusted face at the action nevertheless, which only made Potter laugh.

"What? It's not like you were gonna eat it," Potter justified, moving his bag over so Weasley could take the seat beside him.

That was another thing. His roommates had become increasingly comfortable around him, which was surprising to say the least. Most of the time, they even ate their meals together. Potter always took every opportunity to be around him, and Draco couldn't say that he wasn't just a bit happy about that. And since the night he'd lied to Professor McGonnagal about Potters whereabouts, his other roommates seemed like were actually starting to trust him, like him even.

The same could not be said, however, about the students residing in the private building. Everyday he was seen with Potter and his other roommates, he would receive strange, questioning looks from his former 'friends', looks that conveyed their sense of betrayal and wonderment at why Draco Malfoy of all people was slumming. Almost none of them dared to approach him about it, for which he was glad, but it was a little strange to see Crabbe and Goyle following Pansy around now that he'd stepped out of the spotlight.