daughter of wands (d.m)

IX

I hear Draco stop in his tracks as I slip behind a pile of books and grab my wand out of my boot, preparing to fight.

"Who's there?" He calls out angrily. I stay silent, holding my breath hoping he gives up and leaves.

"I know you're there Potter..." He says, his footsteps coming toward me as he makes his way through the maze. He gets closer to my hiding spot before stopping, "Come out now!"

He thinks I'm Harry.

A spell whizzes past my head, the stack of books next to me exploding. I let out a yelp, fear rising up in my throat as my heart beat races.

"Come on Potter!" He tries again.

I slowly stand, hiding my wand in hopes that being unarmed will please him. I meet his fiery blue eyes as he stands firm before me, his tie loosened and the top buttons of his shirt undone.

He looks at me, sweat covering his brow, more confused than anything as he lowers his wand.

"What the hell are you doing here," He says calmly, although the tone behind his voice doesn't put me at ease.

"I was... I..." I stutter, all words seemingly vanishing from my head.

"Spit it out," He snarls.

"I got lost," I say truthfully. "I couldn't remember how to get to the common room and when I saw you I thought I could just follow you."

He cocks his head to the side, "This isn't anything like the entrance. Are you that stupid that you couldn't even remember what it looked like?" He retorts.

"Well I thought it looked different but I didn't know where else you would've been going..." I step a little closer to him and to my surprise he doesn't back away. "What is this place?" I ask, trying my luck.

"It doesn't matter," He says stepping forward, taking my bag out of my hand and tossing it over his shoulder. "Come on, I'll show you to the common room."

I stand back, completely caught if guard by his reaction, my mouth hanging open. Not only did Draco seem to believe me, he was also carrying my books back to the common room.

I catch up to him as we walk through the maze of clutter and back out into the deserted hallway.

We walk in silence, the only noise being our footsteps. I felt too embarrassed to speak and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't even imagine what he was thinking.

The journey is longer than I remember but once I begin to recognize where we are I can't hold in my apology anymore.

"Draco?" I try. He doesn't say anything in return but he also doesn't stop me, so I continue. "I'm sorry."

He lets out a short breath, "No reason to be sorry."

I sigh at the lack of information in his reply, my prior conversation with Athena running through my mind. "Well it just seemed like maybe you were doing something... private."

"I wasn't," He says a little too quickly, his tone sharpening.

"Well, can anyone go into that room?" I question.

He shrugs, "I guess, I seem to be the only one who cares."

We make another left and walk onto a staircase which jolts under our feet, my balance slipping away as Draco puts a clammy hand on my back. He removes it immediately, his gaze avoiding mine as he stares straight ahead.