Fine Line

She

"(Y/N), what reasons did you give for the importance of gillyweed?"

The Hufflepuff laughed and turned to look at Draco, shaking her head. "Draco, Harry just used gillyweed in the last challenge. You use it as a method to breathe underwater."

He shook his head and scoffed, still smiling, however. "You think I pay attention to Potter?"

"The way you always have his name in your mouth, I would assume so."

Laughter erupted from the Slytherin as he wrote down the reason for his herbology essay. "You got me there, (Y/N)."

The two friends were silent as they continued to work. Lucia and Eris were supposed to join them later, but for now, it was them two. It was like that quite often, doing homework together. "Say, Draco, do you have a reason for the importance of bezoar?"

The blonde shook his head, telling her an extra reason for her own paper. "Honestly, do you even pay attention to Snape?"

"I do!" she laughed and wrote down his response. "Sometimes I space out during his lectures, but I'm sure I always get all the important stuff."

Lucia and Eris wandered down and joined them on the lawn, giggling before they gave their greetings. "Hello (Y/N) and Draco."

(Y/N) waved to them. "Hi girls, we're just working on some homework."

"Which is a shame," Eris rolled her eyes as she laughed. "We could be talking about something much more exciting."

"Like what?"

"The Yule Ball!" Lucia excitedly pitched in. That's all she had been talking about in the Hufflepuff common room. Yule ball this and Yule ball that. "C'mon, you've got to at least have a few people you hope will ask you."

(Y/N) did, of course, but she doubted that was going to happen any time soon. "But if we have piles of homework we'll be worrying about that instead of having fun."

Lucia pouted. "That's unfair, (Y/N)."

The others laughed as they started working again.

***

"Why are we here again?"

(Y/N) nudged Draco to shut him up as Professor McGonagall instructed everyone on the waltz. "Because the Yule Ball is at the end of the month, and it's practically a huge dance. No doubt there's going to be slow songs," she explained, voice barely above a whisper. "Waltzing is easy."

"Whatever you say, (Y/N)." the blonde Slytherin shook his head and paid attention again, snickering as the Transfiguration professor dragged Weasley out into the middle of the floor for demonstration. That earned him another elbow to the side, and he finally shut up. Not long after that, McGonagall told everyone to find a partner and practice their waltzes.

Draco paled slightly, tapping the Hufflepuff's shoulder before Pansy could tap his. "Care to dance with me, (Y/N)?"

She smiled and took his hand with a nod. "I'd be quite honored."

He pulled her out onto the dance floor, leaving a frustrated Pansy behind to ask Blaise to be her partner.

"Draco, you know it's a quick-quick-slow pattern." his (H/C) hair friend reminded him.

"I'm still getting a hang of it, (L/N), so be quiet."

He smiled as he watched his feet and she laughed, leading him in the waltz first so he could copy it later in his common room.

***

Dance lessons continued throughout the weeks leading up to the big event, and Draco had been practicing in his room. While he went over the steps thousands of times, his thoughts were elsewhere. He needed the perfect way to ask (Y/N) to the ball. He didn't want to outright ask her, it needed to be something special.

Especially with how he had been feeling as of late, he held himself to a certain standard to ask her.

Blaise hadn't been much help but he had offered a few good ideas. A picnic down by the lake while they did their schoolwork, and then he could ask her in some way then. He had caught the two practicing their waltzes outside of class, and he had suggested that Draco ask her then.

He fiddled with the quill in his hands, staring at a piece of parchment that listed ideas. The Slytherin bit his lip as he crossed out another bad idea, sighing. This could wait. There were still a couple of weeks left, and he hung out with her pretty often. He could come up with something.

She'd just have to wait a little longer.

She lives in daydreams with me

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