𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐲 | 𝐝.𝐦.

forty two

"He's staring our way again," Luna whispers, muffled.

Betty shimmies in her chair uneasily, tilts her head sideways towards the near end of the library where Draco is sitting, legs crossed above the slanted desk and ambushed by his entourage of Slytherins.

They are - as best as they can - quietly studying and preparing their homework at the corner table. Although Betty thinks they are more likely drawing and vandalising the library's desk by the sound of incessant scrawling of wood coming from their way.

Madam Pince looks as wary and annoyed as the rest of the students scattered around the library, but she does not march out of her lounging chair to do anything about it.

Draco wears his quidditch jumper today, considering the quidditch match that looms over them in a matter of hours - and she is briefly brought back to when she had worn it too, those few nights lying by the fireplace in his dorm.

Betty is thoroughly surprised that he is not hurrying to his team, practicing, but she supposes the annual quidditch matches do not matter much now when the school is in a stark disarray on its own.

Their eyes meet as if it is a thieving, illicit exchange, and he holds her gaze longer than she expects, his tongue jutting out at his cheek.

She is the first to look away, unable to withstand the red that warms her face.

"Bit creepy for someone you've broken up with," Luna mutters under her breath as she swivels in her own seat, glancing at the blonde boy.

Betty suppresses an exasperated groan. "He might've been looking someplace else, Lunns."

"I highly doubt so," the other girl disagrees, dipping her quill into the cube vial of ink. "His eyes are quite clearly on you."

"Could've just been blanking out," Betty defends quickly, trying to push away Luna's intrusive persuasion. "I do it all the time."

"Oh, don't act all clueless," she says with a tinge of laughter. "Is there something going on between you two that you haven't been telling me?"

Reproachfully, Betty pauses to think about it. "No. Nothing."

A slow smirk paints over Luna's pink lips. "Oh, I know I've been talking about how I didn't want to intrude - but as your best friend, if something's been going on, I feel the need to push a little to know," she says steadily, dropping her quill into its bottle.

Betty eyes her narrowly in a joking manner.

"What if Malfoy's up to something?" she questions humorously. "Now, I don't have much prejudice against him, but - "

"Luna, you're overthinking this," Betty quickly cuts her off, "It's nothing."

Luna cocks her head slowly. "So he's got a bit of problem with his eyes, then?"

"I wouldn't know, I'm not his ophthalmologist," she jokes, returning her own gaze back to the book on the table.

She has not read a single word stated on the page, neither has she flipped it.

The blonde girl sitting on the opposite end of the table does the same tentatively. Still feeling slightly amused by Betty's sarcasm as she flips her piece of homework parchment on the other page.

Betty tries to keep her attention fixed on the words on her book, but to no avail, as she feels her mind drifting off elsewhere, feels her eyes flickering to her side against her control.

Beneath the strands of hair that fall over her face, she sees Draco with his back now facing to her, shoulders slouched as he busies himself with what appears to be a dispute with Blaise - from the tension engraved on Blaise's features.