𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 || 𝘛𝘰𝘮 𝘙𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 (ʀᴇᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ)

| 5 |

Nyx had noticed Abigail Feathers taking small steps at a time to befriend her—unlike Malfoy who was doing everything in his power to do so, it almost looked desperate.

It's been a few weeks since her encounter with Feathers, however, the scene of the blonde-haired girl bouncing towards her and making conversation kept replaying in her mind. Part of her wanted to just assume she was doing a kind gesture, but another was paranoid.

"What's on your mind?"

She was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts by Caelum inquiring her with a puzzled look. It seemed as if she was spacing out earlier.

The two of them were sitting in the common room in silence, that was until Caelum spoke up, of course.

She remained silent for a moment before responding, "Hypothetically, if someone acts all friendly towards you when they've never acknowledged you in the past five years, what would you do?" She asked, watching as Caelum's eyes turn from confusion to being deep in thought.

"Hypothetically? You mean like it's not happening to you?" He sent her a quizzical look whilst setting the book he was reading earlier down on the coffee table. "Is everything alright?" He added the last part in a concerned tone, his eyes growing wider.

"What-? Of course everything is fine. Why wouldn't it? Just a hypothetical question for a- uhm- a friend," she didn't know why she was lying to her best friend. Hadn't he proved himself to be trustworthy by sticking to her all these years? Never once abandoning her or judging her.

"Nyx, we both know you only have one friend—which is me," he gave her an amused grin, enjoying her flustered state by not coming up with a good enough cover up.

She finally managed to spew out a few words. "Well that was rude," she said, earning a chuckle from the other, causing Nyx's frown to turn slightly upwards and into a soft smile.

"But seriously, what's got you out of sorts?" He questioned, once he was done chuckling, his tone growing serious again. Nyx sighed, knowing she couldn't avoid the question any longer. Telling herself she needn't worry about trust between Caelum, she gave in.

"It's just—first Malfoy wants to be my 'friend', then Feathers starts making talk with me—even though we're roommates she never does that, and now, I'm worried if there's something going on which includes me in their schemes," she finished, looking into Caelum's eyes to search for judgement. However, she found none.

"I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding—I mean, we're only sixteen, it's not like they're going to be plotting world domination," he joked, letting out a nervous chuckle. From the looks of it, Nyx could guess he didn't even believe himself.

Her true heritage flashed through her mind, causing her to contemplate on it. Her friend still doesn't know about her father being Death. If she told him about it, would his perspective on her change? Would it cause him to realise the situation she was in to be not-so safe? Would he understand her?

She wanted to spew every single thing about her out but she knew better than to do so. After all, she had made a promise to herself to never share such information. It could be the death of her. Even if he was her best friend, she didn't trust him enough to tell him just yet.

She nodded her head slowly, still deep in thought. Caelum sighed at her response, getting up from his place and walking over to hers, embracing her tightly, earning a surprise yelp from her in return, but she quickly returned the gesture without question.

"Nyx, please don't go stressing yourself about this. If it helps—we're on the school grounds, nothing bad is going to get past Dumbledore. You're safe," reluctantly, he pulled himself away and offered her a reassuring smile, earning a weak one in return.

"Thanks," she mumbled, but audible enough for him to decipher.

"Anyways, class is about to start. We should get going now," Caelum stood up, offering a hand to pull her up which she didn't hesitate to take. As Caelum picked up his school bag from the ground and Nyx collected a few scattered schoolbooks of hers, the duo left the common room and made their way to Potions class, in which their head of house was the professor.

~*~

The duo reached the classroom just in time before class started, quickly taking a seat at the far back of the classroom.

Professor Slughorn—their Potions' teacher, had yet to arrived, giving the students a bit more time to chat with one another in loud voices, something Caelum didn't hesitate to do right away. "Not to alarm you further, but Malfoy is staring right at you," she raised a brow at his words, following his gaze to the pale boy at the front whose chair was positioned sideways, allowing him to turn his head around freely to look at her who was sitting in the far back.

Once their eyes met, Malfoy gave her a smirk before winking at her, causing her to quickly turn away and shut her eyes, earning a short laugh from her best friend sitting beside her who saw everything go down.

"I think he may want to be more than friends," the black-haired boy teased, laughing even harder by her response.

"Shut up," she said, but not in a harsh way, more like a groan. But fortunately, she was saved by Professor Slughorn walking into the classroom a few minutes late, not wasting a minute to start class.