A Long Way Down| Draco X Reader

Chapter 24: Hogsmeade (Year 3)

Harry was kept in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend. I was able to visit him only a couple of times with Ron and Hermione as it was getting harder to come up with excuses to leave my Slytherin friends. Although one of the times Hermione and Ron were unable to visit with me which is when Harry told me about the Grim. 

"WHAT- " I shouted

"Keep your voice down. No one else knows about this." He scolded, as he covered my mouth with his hand.

"Not even Ron or Hermione?" I mumbled against his hand. 

"No, not even them Y/N." He grimaced. He told me how it had already appeared to him twice this year. I just stood there in absolute shock for a while before he nudged me in the side. "Don't freak out on me. That's not what I need right now." 

"You're right." I said looking at the now grim faced boy. "There must be a reasonable explanation. Right?"

"I dunno." He sighed. "Both times I saw it I almost died right after. So I can't imagine it's just all in my head." We looked at each other not knowing what to make of the situation. 

"I'll go to the Library. Surely there's something about the Grim there." I said with a new sense of hope for the boy. He nodded at me before I turned to leave. 

As I was making my way to the library I ran into the other boy that has been consuming my thoughts. Draco. 

"Where have you been?" He greeted me with a smile plastered on his face. "Come on, the others are waiting." He grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the Library and towards the Slytherin common room. As we walked into the room the chattering of our friends had stopped. I looked at them with a confused expression growing on my face. 

"What is it?" I asked, but they all just stared at Draco and I. I followed their gaze down to my hand in Draco's.

"Off snogging again I presume?" Blaise added with a snicker. I let go of Draco's hand swiftly as my face slowly reddened. I walked over to the group and plopped down in a chair next to Pansy who looked at me with a mischievous smile on her face. I shot her a glare making her smile slowly turn into her natural frown. 

Apparently they were all chatting about what to do and who to hang out with during the next Hogsmeade visit. My attention was somewhere else though, how was I going to sneak off to the library alone? I quickly had an idea on how to get away from the conversation. 

"Draco, you want to hang out at Hogsmeade together? I'll buy you something from Honeydukes if you say yes." I smirked at the boy whose cheeks were now tinged with red. But this was just a part of my plan.  He quickly agreed after Blaise elbowed him in the side. I chuckled before saying my goodbyes to the group after telling them I had some business to attend to at the Library.

What a sorry excuse to get out of that. Sometimes I really questioned how much brains my friends had or maybe they just didn't care enough to question me. I headed back to the Library where I found Ron and Hermione bickering quietly. I assumed it was about Ron's rat Scabbers and how Hermione's cat Crookshanks had been looking at Scabbers funny. With them arguing I was able to sneak past them to look on the shelves for anything helpful for Harry's Grim issue. I began scouring shelves looking for anything related to the Grim. I thought I wouldn't find anything but then I remembered Professor Trelawney most likely had either a book about stuff like this or at least some answers about the Grim itself. I would have to wait until tomorrow to get any information since it was in fact a Sunday and classes didn't start up again until Monday.

I went back to the Slytherin Common room only to be met with an empty room besides the one boy of whom I was infatuated with at this point. Admitting it to myself was very weird but I mean there was no more denying it. I had fell for my best friend Draco Malfoy. Anyways, he was sitting there reading a book that I didn't recognize. As I drew closer to the boy he looked up and quickly shoved the book under the chair he was sitting by.