liar [d. malfoy]

three

"Hey."

Noah turned his head to look up at the person standing beside him. It was Draco. How he had found him, Noah will never know, but he was glad he was here, nonetheless.

"Hey," Noah tried a grin. He was sitting on the Quidditch stands trying to do his potions homework, while not so subtly watching Jackson practice. "What's up?"

Things had been weird between him and Draco ever since the whole Amortentia disaster, but he had tried to pretend like nothing had ever happened.

"Okay, so," Draco said rapidly, sitting down next to Noah in a rush. "I'm going to say this now before I lose the nerve and things get weird again, okay?"

Noah nodded, a little unsure as to what was going on.

"I don't care if you have a thing for me," Draco blurted out. "Okay, I care because you're obviously going through a phase or something. I just don't want things to be weird between us while you figure stuff out go back to normal. You're my best friend and-"

"Draco, I'm going to stop you right there before you show too much emotion and cringe at yourself later," Noah said, a small smirk making its way onto his lips, despite how far his heart had plummeted at the other boy's words. His stomach had lurched unpleasantly at the words 'normal' and 'phase', and now he felt like vomiting the entire contents of his breakfast onto Draco's shoes. "I don't have a 'thing' for you." Noah felt weird lying to Draco, because he had never done so before, but he said it nonetheless, just to save their friendship. He'd rather be friend zoned and suffer silently than not have him at all.

"Okay good," Draco sighed in relief, letting out a chuckle. "I had a whole speech planned out."

Noah smiled. They sat like that for a long time, staring at each other. The sun shone into Draco's grey eyes, making them seem almost blueish. His light blonde hair hung over his forehead, and Noah noticed that it seemed a bit more disheveled than normal, like he'd just rolled out of bed, despite it being almost midday. Noah decided he liked it better this way. Draco was wearing jeans and a dark green Slytherin sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"Hey Costner!" Called a voice to his left. Noah glanced over and saw Jackson grinning at him from where he was hovering on his broom a few feet away. "You watching me practice?"

He and Jackson had become somewhat friends over the past week. Their friendship mostly consisted of bitching about who annoyed them that day, crying over schoolwork and comfortable silence. Noah had grown to like the boy, but he had the most awful timing. Like now.

"You wish, Adler!" Noah called back, feeling Draco's gaze piercing into the side of his head. "Get back to practice, and make sure the Snitch doesn't pass right under your nose this time!"

"It was one time!" Jackson grumbled under his breath. Last time Noah had watched his practice, Jackson got distracted and started smiling at something on the other side of the stands, while the Snitch fluttered right under his nose. Noah was confused as to what he could have possibly been staring at, because there was only a small group of Hufflepuff boys there.

"Who's that?" Draco asked as soon Jackson had flown off. His voice didn't have the same light and concerned quality it had when he had first sat down next to him, Noah noticed. It had turned cool and reserved, and it was the same one he used when he talked to the rest of their friends.

"Just some guy." Noah replied, not quite wanting to tell him that him and Jackson were friends. It was selfish, but he wasn't quite ready to share him with anyone yet.

"Is he your Quidditch boy?" Noah almost choked on literally nothing at the bluntness of the question.

He turned to look at Draco and found that his face was the expressionless mask that Noah had gotten so used to seeing when they were in public. His eyes were slightly narrowed and his top lip was a bit curled, but other than that he was unreadable.