Pawns | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Gold and Silver

"You've got to try a different approach," I advised Harry during breakfast, referring to his attempts at getting Slughorn to reveal the true memory.

"Yea yea," he grumbled. "Difficult to do that now that he's ignoring me."

"Well do what you always do," I said, swallowing the last bit of my pancake breakfast while grabbing my books. "Use that Prince book that I hate to whip up some impressive potion and woo him."

"I'll try," he said sadly.

I felt bad for him. He always had so much pressure on him - everything always rested on his shoulders. I mean, he has help - from his friends and I- but when it comes down to it, it's always him at the heart of everything. It had to be a heavy burden to bear.

I dropped him off at his class for a change and I kissed him gently on the cheek. "I'll see you after school, okay?"

"Okay," he said.

*

He picked me up from Ancient Runes in a better mood. It was Friday and we both had much to look forward to. Neither of us had any homework that needed to get done immediately thanks to the approaching weekend. He was excited to play Quiddich again tomorrow, while I, unbeknownst to him, would see Draco tonight.

The spare time allowed us to go for a late afternoon stroll before dinner. It was obviously still cold out, but it was a milder day and we were already dressed warmly because Peeves had spend the whole day extinguishing all the fires. It forced most students to go and fetch their outdoor gear or face getting frost bite while in Charms.

The two of us stopped by Hagrid's hut to say hi and he packed us some blueberry muffins. They were hard as a rock but we ate as much as we could while we headed back to the castle. The brisk wind found its way down my cloak and tingled my scar.

"How's classes?" I asked him.

"Not bad," he said, making a so-so motion.

"How's Snape at teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

"Well, it's harder for him to pick on me because I'm alright at that subject," he reasoned.

"More than alright," I said, lightly punching his arm.

"Yea I'm pretty boss actually, not gonna lie," he said laughing and I joined in.

"Yea and it helps that you have some personality disorder where you're compelled to sacrifice yourself for every little thing," I joked, thinking about his hero-complex.

I recalled how had tried to save everybody involved in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. He'd earned himself a month's worth of harassment from Fred and George over his exceptional 'moral fiber.'

"You didn't mind this morning when I sacrificed my pancake for you," he said, scandalized.

"Yea that's true. Keep sacrificing yourself I guess ".

He laughed at that. "Wait a second," he said, going back to our former subject, "you have Snape too, how's he for you?" he asked.

"Creepy," I said shuddering. "He keeps the room completely dark, it's almost impossible to read anything. And I swear he keeps eyeing me. Like all the time. And obviously that's super weird, so I have to look away everytime I catch him staring at me, but that's stupider because that seems like some sorta weird thing people do when they have a crush. So then I decide to keep looking at him but that's ridiculous too. So then I'm forced to keep this intense eye contact while he looks at me like he's concerned. Ugh."

"That was a lot," he said, while looking out towards the mountains. "You trying to tell me that Snape has a crush on you?" he joked. I didn't even register the humour in his voice because of how appalled I instantly became.