| HIDDEN IN SECRETS |

chapter twenty-eight

TEA LEAVES

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It was a bright morning compared to the rainy day last. Verena had woken up late. She skipped breakfast, staying in the library until it was time for her first class. Earlier, Padma had left her timetable at her bedside. Verena's first class that morning would be a new one, Divination.

A few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring, Draco had caught Verena exiting the library. He had been up all night thinking about what happened to her and if she really did faint. Daphne had told him about how she was picking at her thumbs again, only making him worry more.

"Did you really faint?" he asked her.

Verena said nothing and kept walking. She didn't understand why he'd make fun of Potter so much. It was a waste of time. She didn't like that he only stopped once she told him she had fainted. Draco shouldn't have even made fun of him in the first place. She hoped he'd start listening to her as he got older and more mature, but he didn't.

"Verena, will you answer me?" he said, annoyed. "Hey, I'm talking to you. Are you really that mad at me?"

"Not mad, disappointed," Verena thought.

"Salvador!" Draco said loudly this time, grabbing her hands tightly. "Will you talk to me, please?!"

"I can't talk to you!" she said just as loud. "You make fun of Potter fainting so how can I tell you things without thinking you'd laugh."

"I laughed at Potter fainting because it was a ridiculous story Longbottom told. But this, Verena, this isn't something I'd laugh about," he said calmly, gesturing at her damaged thumbs. "You're hurting yourself. It's not only me who's worried. So is Daphne and your brother. I know you two don't talk as much anymore, but the way I see it, to him, smoking is a cure... You're both hurting, Rena. I've always been the person you confided in – second to Daph."

"I heard something terrible," Verena confessed, her eyes starting to water.

Verena tried fighting the tears. She hadn't cried in a long time and she didn't want to cry then, not in front of Draco.

"I still hear it," Verena said.

"Hear what?" he asked.

"Screaming," she said. "Hundreds of people screaming bloody murder."

Draco thought she was crazy. Hearing things? It was almost absurd, but he knew the effects of a Dementor. His parents had frightened him with stories when he was little so he'd never do something to be sent there. He looked at her in a way he had never looked at anyone before – sad, almost pitiful.

"Verena, I – Forgive me, will you?" he said, pulling her into a hug.

Verena was caught off guard. Never had he hugged her like such before. Never had he comforted her with a hug. He rarely showed this kind of affection.

The bell rang throughout the halls, interrupting their moment. They pulled away from each other, small smiles on both their faces. Together, the two climbed the staircases to their first class. All had been forgiven.

After many stairs, they finally reached the Divination classroom. Draco had forgotten how many stairs Verena had to walk to get to her common room on the seventh floor. It was torture. He disliked the class even more once he found there were more steps – a ladder leading through a trapdoor.

Just as the two got to the top, the late bell had rung. They entered the small, circular classroom which didn't really look like one at all. Instead, it looked more like an attic for storage. Circular tables were crammed on one side, chairs surrounding them. It was dimly lit in the classroom, the windows all closed, and the room was rather warm from the fire behind the professor's desk. On shelves, there were candles, decks of cards, crystal balls, and an array of teacups.