stuck with me - draco malfoy

「 six 」

I hauled the bag over to Draco, who reluctantly agreed to carry it (not without a round of arguing and complaining first, of course). The last shop on our list wasn't open for another hour, and the two of us had already walked up and down the village twice. The little sun that brightened the morning was being eaten by the flurry of growing clouds, and I felt my teeth begin to chatter as I used my now empty arms to cradle my body, trying to keep myself warm. I thought about mentioning it to Malfoy, but I figured he would say something along the lines of 'well, I thought even a dimwit like you would remember to bring a jacket,' in that snarky tone of his. But to my surprise, I felt a wad of fabric being shoved in my detection.

I timidly took the coat from Malfoy.

"What's that face for," he asked coldly in comparison to the heartfelt gesture.

"it's just- won't you be cold?" I draped the coat on, which nearly touched the ground on me, calling attention to our height difference.

"I just didn't want to hear your whining about it," he looked forward as he spoke, and it could've been the cold weather, but his pale cheeks tinted a faint pink.

"I didn't even say anything," I grouched, but my lips contorted back into a smile. I carefully folded up the sleeves in a way I hoped wouldn't crease, and I couldn't help but notice how the collar smelt of mint and some-sort of expensive cologne. I tied to repress the memory of his lips on mine, as my brain threatened to bring it up at the intoxicating smell.

Draco groaned. "Come on, then," He said, acting more annoyed than usual. I figured it was in attempted to balance out the kind act, but I kept my mouth shut and followed him down the cobblestone until we came across a rather large stone fence near the edge of the town. Malfoy climbed up it with ease and I hesitantly followed without quite as much grace. I sat beside him at a healthy distance, somehow worried that the closer proximity I was to him the more insults would be hurled my way, and watched my feet dangle.

Malfoys grey eyes were focused on the town in front of him, and I watched his feet swing back and forth too. It was almost cute, watching the way he acted when he thought no one was looking. He looked much calmer, younger. But the moments never lasted long.

"Did you finish it?" He spoke without context, and it took me a minute to figure out what he was referring to.

"Oh," I said as I realized and I rummaged through my bag. "Yeah, um, here."

He took the parchment out of my hands, reading my second draft of the assignment he had ever-so rudely edited the days before. As I watched his eyes trail down the end of the paper I nearly physically flinched, ready to hear the complaints that were sure to spew out of his mouth any second now.

"hmm," Malfoy hummed in a surprised tone, "this isn't half bad."

I let out a breath of relief.

"It must've taken you a while to find something actually of use in that brain of yours," He added as if it was nothing. A compliment, even.

I launched myself off of the stone wall back on the ground. "God," I mumbled, "for once I thought you were going to be nice."

I didn't leave him long enough to rebuttal as I grabbed his arm and tugged him to the ground with me in one swift motion, catching him off guard. He managed to land on his feet, and my mind wandered for a second, wondering what would happen if he hadn't. I tried to not let the disappointment show on my face.

"Hey," He shouted, glaring at me. "get your filthy hands off of me."

He tugged his arm from my grasp, but I had no intention of holding on anyway.

"Let's get going, it should be open now," I tried to make my face look as emotionless as possible, as If I wasn't secretly enjoying myself. The warmth from Draco's coat and the way his cocky smirk had been wiped off his face for even just a second was enough to fuel my good mood. "I'd hate for us to be late."

Somehow our even fuller bag of supplies had made it back into my arms as we climbed the hill back to Hogwarts.

(A/N very short one today guys, but ill make up for it. I'm going back to school this week so I'll probably update less frequently but I'll try and make the chapters longer. thank you guys for everything so far this has been very fun to do!)