Professor Malfoy

10 | common room talks

Chapter 10
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I'm awakened by soft and gentle strokes of someone's thumb over my cheek. My eyes open slowly, waiting to adapt to the morning light but all I can see is darkness. I'm covered with a sheet that doesn't smell like mine and I feel warmth next to me.

When my eyes get used to the dark room, I start seeing shapes of the furniture, a window and most importantly, I realize the warmth is coming from a person laying by my side.

I'm confused, this is definitely not my room.
I quickly flinch and look at the person, trying to figure out who it is, but as soon as I see the messy wavy hair, I don't need to. It's Theo, this is his room.

"Hi," I whisper and roll my body to face his.

"Shh," he says and strokes my cheek one more
time, "sleep,"

"Why don't you sleep?" I examine his sleepy eyes and can't help but stare at them until he slightly opens his mouth to speak.

"I can't," he says and pauses for a while, "I can't stop thinking about how you screamed-"

"I told you, it was nothing...I probably had some firewhisky in me from Saturday," I try to sound as believable as possible, but it's not hard to do so. People always somehow believe me.

"Are you sure?"

I sigh tell him I'm fine.

I think he needed exactly this kind of assurement to sleep peacefully. I get it, I wouldn't be able to close my eyes if my date started screaming during sex. He must've been terrified. But I was way more. Way, way more.

I watch Theo fall asleep and stand up from his bed. I glance at Pansy and Blaise, both tangled around each other as they sleep. Zion is missing, it was probably too awkward for him to sleep with us all. Especially when he's never had anyone.

There are three sections of the Slytherin dungeons - the common room, the girls section and the boys section, divided by the huge fireplace. I walk down the stairs as quiet as possible and go through the empty common room, headed to my dorm.

I stop for a while to admire the quiet, safe place. The huge water tanks behind the windows are enlightened with green-blue lights, making the fish swimming in them surreal, fantastic. There used to be a shark until it started banging on the glass everyday in the night, waking us all up.

I think of all the people, generations, famous people who once went through this common room, sat on these velvet couches in front of fire, looking at the fish just like I do. This castle has so much history, my mind can't take it all together, it seems unreal. The people change, Hogwarts doesn't.

All of sudden, a glimpse in the corner of my eye moves. I immediately look that direction - to a couch in front of the fireplace. There's someone sitting there, I can't tell who from the distance.

"Hello?" I ask quietly, wondering who could it possibly be. Most of the Slytherins are usually sleeping at this time of night. Especially on Sundays.

The person doesn't say anything back. I can't fight the urge, I have to know who it is, because I won't sleep peacefully.

Slowly, I make a few steps toward the couch. I hear the fire cracking from the fireplace, its flames are enchanted to be green. It's not just our thing, I think all of the houses have this kind of colored fire.

"I used to be like you. Always wandering around the castle," the person asks me and I immediately know who's sitting there. I recognize the professor's deep voice with a slight touch of amusement.