Bookworm

27

Mira had spent the next morning waiting in the Gryffindor common room for Hermione. The air was stiff and cold, as though it knew that an old student was hanging onto life somewhere. Hermione finally came down before anyone else, and was surprised to find Mira waiting for her. The girl had explained everything to Hermione, who had been horrified. She insisted heavily on writing a letter to Ron to check everyone was okay, and Mira followed her up to the owlery miserably.
She was then dragged to the library and sat for hours on end stewing in silence. That is, until a voice distracted them.
"Oi, Moriarty." Draco dropped into the chair opposite her. Hermione's head snapped up and she looked shocked. Draco's glistening eyes didn't even flicker to her in acknowledgement. "We got patrol, did you forget?" Mira furrowed her eyebrows. She couldn't remember having duty assigned to her with Draco but rather Blaise, duty which she had been thoroughly neglecting lately. Umbridge still hadn't picked up on her on it, though. She sighed and glanced at her friend.
"Bye." She muttered. She didn't wait for a reply and speedily left the room. Draco had to jog for a moment to catch up with her, but when he fell into step with her he said nothing.
"I don't have duty with you." She pointed out after a while. Not much had happened, Draco had scared a group of first year Ravenclaws and taken twenty points from Gryffindor but that was all.
"You seem to think you don't have it with Blaise either," Draco shrugged. "It's the least you could do to owe me." Draco had been covering for her. Maybe Mira still had a chance. She raised an eyebrow and chuckled at him.
"Oh, is that so? And how exactly am I repaying you?"
"You can start by telling me what crawled up your arse and died in the time between last night and today." Mira didn't reply. How had he known something was wrong? They hadn't even spoken! He scoffed at the look on her face and rolled his eyes, pushing his hair back from his eyes.
"You've been miserable all morning. You look like someone has died!" Mira winced at the wording and his face fell.
"Oh-I'm so sorry-" Mira shook her head and hugged her arms around herself.
"No-one died. It's just-a, uh, a friend. He was targeted by the Dark Lord, but we think he's gonna survive. St Mungos have him now." His face contorted into something Mira couldn't work out, but his skin was noticeably paler and he put his hands deep into the pockets of his robes. He let out a long breath and raised his eyebrows.
"Survived the Dark Lord? That is some feat."
"Well, it was more his snake." Mira shrugged. Draco stopped walking and stared at her for a long moment, fear swirling in his blue eyes.
"You-you know about the snake? How?"
"And how do you?" He said nothing but she could see his hands trembling through his robes now and he dropped his eyes.
"Nothing-I don't. Forget I said anything." He grumbled. They walked in silence for longer, something Mira was getting sick of. Why did all of her conversations end in silence? She huffed and scowled.
"Tell me about yourself." She demanded. He looked at her for a long moment in surprise.
"What?" She grinned at him and pulled him into an unused classroom. He glanced around uncertain, but sat at a desk as Mira jumped up on the teachers desk and sat swinging her legs about.
"You heard me. Tell me about yourself. What's your favourite colour?"
"Green, I guess."
"Colour of money? Or Slytherin?" Mira teased. He scowled but his usually pale face flushed pink.
"No...no, I like...I used to go on long walks in our forest as a child-"
"Your forest?" Mira tilted her head.
"On our estate. I liked to go out and walk. I like nature." Mira wanted to tease him, but it was clear from his uncomfortable nature that he hadn't ever told anyone that. Instead, she nodded her head thoughtfully and smiled softly.
"That does make sense. Why don't you walk there anymore?" He dropped his eyes and his face set into an emotionless mask once more.
"I've more important things to do." She stared at him, a piercing knowing gaze. It was almost as bad as Dumbledore's, it was like she was looking into his very soul and reading every little thing about him. The worst part of it was her understanding look, like she knew exactly what he was going through and what was going to happen to him. Draco wasn't stupid. He knew too, and he had accepted it long ago. He sighed and stood up from the chair.
"Come on, I wasn't kidding when I said we have to patrol. I told Pansy to drop her shift today."