The Carnival ⌁ Draco Malfoy [1/4] ✔

38

A week had passed of Emma purposely avoiding Draco. It wasn't hard; Draco was always busy with his Inquisitorial Squad business with Filch and a few of the other Slytherins, including Pansy, and Emma was always hiding in the library or blending in with the crowds when passing through the courtyard to get to one of her classes.

Since Fred and George's farewell, a lot of commotion had happened, and, to everyone's satisfaction, a lot of hell had been going on for Umbridge as Peeves the poltergeist made himself more known. Peeves had never done anything to upset Emma or pulled any of his so-called pranks on her, so she had nothing against him, and less than nothing against him as she watched Umbridge struggle.

Emma wasn't really worked up about accidentally kissing someone, deep down she knew he knew it was a mistake as well, that she hadn't meant to. That her excitement had overtaken her in the moment and it was a surprise for the both of them. Luckily enough, Sabrina had not uttered a word about it to anyone and hadn't brought it up to Emma at all.

"Want to come with me to the hospital wing?" asked Sabrina one evening after dinner on the way back to the dungeons. Emma, shocked, looked at her quickly and knew she looked quite horrified. "No, no, not for me. I'm not sick. It's Pansy."

"Pansy?" said Emma, bewildered. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's sprouted a pair of antlers."

Amused, Emma jerked her head back and threw Sabrina a look that clearly said 'yeah right.' There was no way Sabrina could have said that so casually without breaking out into a smirk, so she was clearly making it up or being sarcastic.

"It's true!" she claimed, her hands flying up. "It's weird. And Warrington's got something wrong with his skin. It looks like someone barfed their breakfast all over his face."

"OK, now, that image has been scarred into my mind and it cannot be undone," grimaced Emma, not able to get rid of someone with vomit all over their face mixed with cereal out of her head. "Oh god, it can't be unseen..."

"Well, I know you guys aren't on good terms, so I'll take that as a no," Sabrina said slowly, retracing her steps and backing away from the dungeons. She saluted Emma just as Peeves had saluted Fred. "I'll see you in a bit."

Emma nodded and continued her short journey toward the Slytherin common room.

The next day, Emma realised Sabrina had been telling the truth about Pansy's antlers. She hadn't seen her, but Pansy hadn't shown up to classes all day and the Slytherins were all whispering about her antlers and Emma couldn't help but laugh into her fist at the thought of Pansy growing a pair of antlers.

Throughout all her classes that day and a week prior to Pansy's antler problem, Emma had made sure to hide behind some of the bigger students to make it harder for Draco to glance over his shoulder at her, as he had tried to do so a couple times and catch her eye. But she was determined to avoid him for the rest of her life to keep things from escalating into something far more awkward, though Emma couldn't think of a thing more awkward than Draco seeing her everyday after her having kissed him, and, she felt bad. Draco liked her and she kissed him which therefore had given him high hopes. But Emma still hadn't figured out how she saw Draco...what she felt he was to her...

She really did like having someone like her the way he did, it was so obvious he had eyes for nobody but her, and it made her heart thump. But she could not lead him on like that forever. Eventually, she'd have to make up her mind.