A Cure For Leo | hp

Two

OCTOBER 31ST is arguably the best day of the year. Free candy, cool costumes, and the big feast. What more could a kid ask for? Tina would love to say she didn't understand the excitement over Halloween, but she did. In fact, she loved it.

But she didn't have time for childish things like that anymore.

Has she been overworking herself? Maybe a little bit. But she couldn't help it. She wasn't getting anywhere with her research, and there hasn't been a lick of improvement to her potion since August. But she was tired. So tired. Nobody wanted to deal with a tired Tina. She knew that, she's been told that. But she also didn't care.

"What's wrong with you?" Draco asked Tina, who stuffed herself and a book in a corner of the corridor. He was on his way to the feast, but he couldn't help but notice the dark energy she was emitting.

"What?" She narrowed her eyes at him. Draco smirked; he knew she just needed her glasses.

"What's wrong with you?" He emphasized. "It's Halloween and the scariest thing I've seen all day was you."

"Nothing...nothing."

Draco stared at her for a while. He knew something was wrong, but he also knew they weren't close enough for her to open up to him.

Tina saw the conflict in Draco's eyes as he looked around. Part of her wondered what he was thinking, the other part wanted him to go away. Indecisiveness, another effect of her being tired. She watched as he looked around, then sat on the floor beside her. He didn't say anything, only looked at the book and began to read with her.

"Can you turn the page?" He asked every once in a while.

She did.

✯✯✯

DRACO DIDN'T STAY for long, only about twenty minutes, but he promised to bring Tina something from the feast. She had spent a considerable amount of time trying to convince him not to, ("If I wanted something, I'd go in and get it myself.") but he was a stubborn boy ("Well, now you have no need to go in."). It had been an hour since he'd left her when she heard voices down the hall.

"Harry, wait!" Tina had heard from a girl, then three sets of feet running further from her. "Not so fast!"

Potter, I presume, Tina had thought. At least this time he had the decency to not run into me.

Only about a minute later did Tina hear more footsteps, though this time in a much bigger group. As the sight of black cloaks came into her peripheral vision, Tina forced herself further into the corner. She was sure the large wave of students weren't paying her any attention, too excited about the treats they had gotten from the feast, or Hogsmeade, or wherever they had been that day. Tina waited for the hall to clear again before going back to her book. Curfew was soon, but she thought she'd be considerate and wait for Draco to return.

"Ravenclaws, follow me!"

Tina furrowed her eyebrows at the voice of one of her house's prefects coming in her direction once again, her housemates following behind. As they passed and she heard their whispers, her brain was instantly filled with questions.

Since when did Draco start using words such as mudblood?

Why did Harry Potter kill Filch's cat?

And what the bloody hell was the Chamber of Secrets?

By the next afternoon, Tina stopped caring about the events of the previous day, especially after Draco had filled her in.

"...And the heir is going to rid the school of mudbloods!" He had explained excitedly, earning a pluck to the forehead.

"Stop using that word."

So, once again, Tina had set herself up in the library, scanning page after page for anything relevant to her studies. As she took new note and scratched out old ones, she could feel the eyes of someone on her back.

"I need a new notebook," She had mumbled to herself, ignoring the looks as she flipped through her schoolbag for a clean page. Whoever it was staring would come to her, or not. It didn't matter, she'd ignore them regardless.

Meanwhile, across the library Harry, Ron, and Hermione were conversating by the window.

"I've never seen a more complicated potion," Hermione furrowed her eyebrows as she read through the process of brewing Polyjuice Potion.

"How long will it take to make," Harry had heard Ron ask, but his attention was elsewhere.

Tina LeBlu stood around the same table he'd noticed her at for the past two months. She didn't seem to like chairs, opting to stand and move around her table. Perhaps, Harry wondered, She'd be willing to help.

Hermione, however, seemed to read his mind.

"No, Harry."

The boy snapped his head back towards his friends quickly, and Hermione sighed.

"I've been all school year, but..." She paused to look at Tina, and the boys welcomed themselves to look as well. "She's just not the cooperative type."

Harry didn't doubt it.