Draco Malfoy Oneshots

Love language

A/N: This one had been requested. However I'm no expert in the perception of deaf people or sign language, so if you notice that I screwed this up at some point please feel free to tell me, so I can adapt the story.

The sun was shining bright today. You squinted your eyes and raised your head, facing the light. The warm days were drawing to a close and you wanted to cherish every single ray of sunshine on your skin. If it wouldn't be for the cool breeze blowing through the courtyard, you would have never guessed, that fall was close.

You let out a small sigh as you returned your attention to the essay lying on your lap. If you would keep on getting distracted by things as simple as the beauty of that day, you would never be able to finish all of your assignments. But then again, wasn't that what made life so amazing? Finding the beauty in even the smallest things? Not if you wouldn't pass your exams at the end of the year because you couldn't keep your attention on the parchment in front of you.
But just as you had finally managed to get back to work, a movement in the corner of your eye made you look back up again. You saw one of your friends approaching you, grinning at you as a greeting. You mirrored her smile. But instead of sitting down next to you, she stopped in front of you looking down at you.
"Are you coming?"
You raised an eyebrow as your gaze shifted from the movements of her hands to her eyes.
You raised your right index finger, shaking it slightly.
"Where?"
Your friend rolled her eyes.
"Class obviously."
You took a look at your watch and cursed yourself. Over the assignment, you had totally forgotten the afternoon class. But by now, you still had some time.
"I just need to finish the paragraph real quick. You can go ahead."
Your friend shrugged her shoulders.
"If you say so. But don't be too late."
You laughed.
"Don't worry. I won't be."
"If you say so."
Your friend threw you a distrustful glance before she made her way to the class.

Not even ten minutes later, you followed her. Even though you needed to walk a bit faster than usual, you were still good in time.
At least you were until you rushed around a corner and bumped into someone.
"Sorry.", you mumbled.
But your counterpart didn't seem to care about your excuse. Draco Malfoy was staring down at you with cold eyes. You could see his mouth moving quickly and from what you could read from his face, he didn't seem to be exactly pleased by the situation.
Once the string of words coming from his mouth ended, he crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking at you expectantly. But since you hadn't heard a word coming from his mouth, you just looked at him with widened eyes.
"What, don't want to answer me?", he sneered, as you could read from his lips.
"Forgot I'm deaf?", you answered, while bringing your index finger from your ear to your mouth.
You could literally see the rattling inside Draco's brain until the penny dropped. Completely lost in his rage, he had actually forgotten that you couldn't hear a single word coming from his lips. He opened his mouth, wanting to respond, before closing it again, with an irritated look on his face. You blamed it on the fact that his tirades were worthless towards you. You were for sure able to read the lips of other people, but only if they spoke slowly and clearly. And even though you had to admit that you wouldn't have minded staring at Draco's -how you had to admit- very beautiful lips for a bit longer, you knew that a conversation wouldn't be exactly productive like that. But this was nothing you could fix.
With a swish of your wand, you conjured the bodyless hands, that had helped you out so many times before. Because when it came to communicating with people who weren't able to understand sign language, as a wizard, you had a leading edge over the muggles. While the person who wanted to talk to you, just could ramble on however they pleased, you were able to conjure said hands, who would take over the signing for the person. You on the other hand could just use sign language, while your counterpart would hear your voice speaking. It wasn't like you were completely unable to speak yourself, but since you had been deaf since you had been born, your pronunciation sometimes still made it hard for others to understand you when you had a longer conversation. And while your family and friends were all capable of signing, many people, including your Professors, weren't able to do so, at least not to the extent when you were able to have a normal conversation with them or follow the classes. That's why this complex spell was a brilliant way to make communication with others much easier, for you as well as others. Just like it did now.
Draco still looked slightly irritated and was searching for the right words.
"Honestly, we shared classes for years now. How could you forget?", you signed, while you knew that Draco was able to hear the words as if you would be speaking to him directly.
"Sorry, I...", Draco hesitated. One of the hands you had conjured, clenched into a fist and drew some circles in front of his chest before it froze in its position.
You couldn't help the small smile that crept on your lips as you saw Draco's ears turning slightly pink.
Draco and you had attended Hogwarts together ever since you turned eleven. But since you were in different houses, the two of you barely ever had any contact with each other. You highly doubted you had ever had an actual conversation, most likely due to the fact that Draco generally avoided talking to anyone who wasn't a Slytherin, except if he wanted to bully them. But luckily, you had never been the victim of his attacks. So you were quite sure that you would remember if you would have ever interacted with the one and only Draco Malfoy, besides some group work in the classes you shared. But not only his reputation was the reason that Draco had by now definitely caught your eye more than a few times. Because overall, the tall Slytherin boy was -when he wasn't bullying some first years at the moment- quite attractive. You often caught yourself staring at him during the classes or the meals, which was to you maybe even more unfavourable than others, since when your attention shifted to the blond boy in the classes, lazily resting his head on the palm of his hand, or playing with his rings, for some reason, you totally forgot looking at the hands dancing around the Professor's body, with the only purpose, that you would look at them and understand what they were teaching at the moment. But who would be able to concentrate on them when you could pay attention to things that were so much more interesting?
But the fact that Draco sometimes made your heart beat faster, even if you barely knew the boy, didn't mean that you weren't able to tease him in a situation like this. But as his stutter only got worse, you finally took pity on the boy and threw him a sweet smile.
"Nevermind. It's alright."
Draco seemed to be relieved by the fact that you weren't actually upset with him. But how could you be, when his pale cheeks had taken an as adorable looking shade of pink as they did now?
"I was just in a hurry and I... just didn't realize it was you. Sorry again."
You couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, pleasantly surprised that Draco actually properly apologized to you. From what you had heard about him, this happened very rarely.
"No. It's fine. Really."
Draco threw you a small smile, making your pulse speed up. You could have gotten lost in the way he looked at you. But then again, you knew that this was childish. You weren't eleven anymore, not as easy to impress as you had been when you had first met Draco. You were by now grown up and totally able to get a grip on yourself again.
"You said you were in a hurry. Don't want to hold you back then, I guess."
Once again, Draco smiled at you.
"Don't we have the same way?"
You frowned.
"Why did you walk in the other direction then?"
The Slytherin chuckled.
"You know there are many ways to reach one's destination in this castle, don't you, love?"
You blushed involuntarily as the nickname left his lips. Your gaze shifted from his fists crossed in front of his chest to his eyes, which held an amused sparkle within.
"What are we waiting for then?", you asked and passed Draco without shooting him a second glance.
You could feel the vibration of his steps on the stone floor as he caught up to you. And when his arms slightly brushed yours and you looked up and saw the boy grinning down at you, you were quite certain that Draco was worth it to form your own impression about the boy and not listen to whatever anyone else was saying. In the end, it fell on deaf ears anyway.