A Love Purer Than Blood

18. Is now a good time to panic?

One afternoon after a rather unimpressive defence against the dark arts lesson, Lockhart absent again, a single scrap of paper floated to Lily from the Ravenclaws that had huddled in the corner.

I got word from Maundy and Nelson that Crabbe had told him during herbology that Malfoy has something for you.

The note read, without leaving an author. Lily nodded visibly to no one in particular before returning to her book the moment that Filch arrived to escort them to their common rooms. The man's wheezing becoming more of a concern to Lily by the day.

As they walked, Lily at the back of the group, kept her gaze facing forward, the filth covered squib leaving a rather peculiar trace as he walked. It wasn't magic, Lily was sure, but it was as if he had been touched by it only briefly as a child, his younger self having been in possession of the magic even if only temporarily.

Lily turned her attention back to her friends as they arrived outside the steps to the kitchens, Waverly giving a very stretched out goodbye to the red headed Ravenclaw as Penny and Susan gossiped about dinner choices for the evening. Lily smiled at them before nudging them all towards the stairs, taking Waverly by the scruff of her neck as the Ravenclaw girl turned as red as her hair.

Once they were all back in the dorm room, Lily released Waverly with a knowing smirk before dropping onto her bed with a deep sigh. "You have to ask her out soon, Waves."

"I... I can't do that!"

"You can and you will. Or I will ask her for you." The other girls nodded their heads in agreement at Lily's comment.

"You... You can't..." Waverly stammered, her eyes wide. Lily only looked pointedly at the girl, a silent dare that expressed all too clearly the lengths Lily would be willing to go. "You could... I guess."

The girls remained awkwardly silent all though dinner as Waverly continued to stare at the Ravenclaw table. Lily kept her attention on the Slytherins, waiting for Malfoy to make at least a move towards her, but his attention was on the particularly annoying Slytherin girl with a squashed pug-nosed face and hair dryer than a straw bale. Lily snorted and returned to her meal, pretending her attention to be on the book next to her.

That evening Lily waited until everyone was asleep before she apparated to the Slytherin common room to find the blond boy once again in front of the large water windows, his nose in a book and his legs under a blanket as he rested them across the leather sofa.

"You're late."

Lily scoffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And your message was cryptic... whatever this is better be worth it."

"Here." He said holding out a single torn page from a book. "Get this to Granger." He added without turning around. Lily scrunched up her face before timidly taking the sheet and holding it up to the light. Her face eased when she realised the writing on the page to be his, a single word written underneath the page's words.

"There's something in the pipes? The hissing?" Draco shrugged with his back still to her. "Why Granger?"

"She's regrettably smart... smarter than Potter for sure." Lily gaped at the back of the boy's head as realisation hit her.

"Not only did you call Granger, Granger, but you did so without insulting her."

"So?"

"Why are you trying to help them?"

Malfoy scoffed, finally turning to face her, his blanket falling to the floor as he stood. "I'm not." Lily softened her voice and her face features as the boy became unable to meet her eyes. "I owed you."