Meant To Be?

22. Conspiracy of Quirrell

(Y/N POV)

I wake up sweaty and quivering. Another nightmare. I've never had nightmares before until just the other night... I have no idea what's going on, but I'm not exactly a huge fan of whatever it is... I roll over to look at the clock and see a letter on my nightstand. I look at it, and it's addressed to me with no mention of who it's from. At least not on the outside. I open it and give it a read.

Y/N,

I'm sorry to have left you alone. Were there not rules I wouldn't have. I felt so terrible leaving you in such a state, but I had no choice. I'd like to talk further with you. Meet me at the astronomy tower, say, midnight sharp?

D. M.

Oh. Draco wants me to meet him in the astronomy tower? At midnight? That's breaking so many rules... Screw it. I decide I won't owl him back, I'll just show up there when it's time and hope he remembers to as well. I go upstairs to the Great Hall for breakfast, and as soon as I walk in, everyone goes quiet and just stares at me. They start...whispering... Draco, Crabbe and Goyle all quickly run up to me and walk me back to the table by them. I keep my head down as we walk to the table.

"Why are you guys helping me?" I ask, genuinely curious. "Everyone hates me, you might as well too."

Crabbe looks at me and smiles. "You stood up for our best friend, to one of your closest friends. In front of the entire Slytherin house, along with some Gryffindors. Why would we hate you?"

Draco looks at me and smiles, softly and slowly grabs my hand under the table, holding it. "Thank you, Y/N. You have no idea how much we appreciated that." I look at him and smile, nodding lightly.

(Draco POV)

I really hope she decides to meet with me tonight. There's so much I want to say, but so little I'll end up actually saying. I know we aren't dating, or at least... not yet, but I just love holding her hand. There's something so calming and relaxing about it. The way her hand fits perfectly in mine... I snap out of it and realize the other three have been having an entire conversation while I was spacing off and they're all staring at me now.

"Draco?"

"Hm?"

"Are you good, mate?" Crabbe asks me. I nod.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

(Y/N POV)

Why is he constantly getting distracted? I mean, I'm not complaining, I sort of find it cute. We all finish breakfast and head to class. I typically sit alone if I can find an empty table. In every class we've had so far today though, it always seemed that Draco would sit down right next to me, with Crabbe and Goyle right behind us. Which is exactly what he's doing now, in Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Professor Quirrell. As Quirrell is facing away from us, I can't help but keep staring at the back of his head. There's something...off. It keeps twitching? There's something off about Quirrell in general, though. I can't quite place it..

Just then, the bell rings, and classes are over for the day. I grab my textbooks and walk out of class, with the other three straying behind me. We all head to the common room and sit down on the couch. "Okay," I begin. "Did anyone else notice the back of Quirrell's turban? Or was it just me?"

"No, I noticed that, too," said Crabbe.

"Yeah it was like, twitching or something, wasn't it?" Goyle asked. I nod.

Draco shrugs. "I didn't notice anything."

I roll my eyes. "Of course you didn't, Malfoy. You were probably too busy staring at me." His face goes red.

"Ooooo, she called you by your last name! Now you're really in trouble!"

I shoot a death glare towards Goyle. "Hush, Gregory." Now his face is redder than Draco's. "Anyways, I think something's up with that. It's like he's hiding something under there. Plus, he's been disappearing a lot to the third floor corridor and coming back injured, almost."

"Wait, Y/N. Do you think it has anything to do with what you told me before Christmas break? What you talked about with Harry and Hermione?"

I look at him. My eyes widen. "The Sorcerer's Stone! He's the one trying to steal it! Not Snape! Snape's trying to defend it!"

(Draco POV)

"The night of the troll attack, after Dumbledore dismissed us all outside, I saw Snape take off out some back door in the Great Hall," I said.

"And when he came into the bathroom after we killed it, Harry said he noticed his leg was cut and bleeding," Y/N added.

We chatted a little while later about some possible theories, when finally it was 9:00pm.

"Okay well uhm, you guys have fun. I'm going back to my dorm for a bit," Y/N says. As she's standing up, she quickly winks at me, then she walks to her room. Goyle and Crabbe leave to the boys' dormitory, and I stay on the couch for a bit longer.