Blackbird (draco malfoy)

14. Clandestine Meetings and Stolen Affairs

"In.... aanndd out" I speak inbetween breaths to myself in the mirror of the fourth year dorms, everyone else having already left for breakfast which I was skipping today to focus on something that was bothering me.

I don't know why I did it but I can't have meant it surely. I was just disorientated, the note took me by surprise that's all. How was I to know Draco would be sat there or that Fred would be watching me so intently as I did so. It was all a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding I am going to move past from today while I also move past something else. Or should I say someone else.

I pull my satchel onto my shoulder and take one last glance back at the dorm before I leave for Potions. I can't help but look back to one place in particular: my bedside table, upon which the bird pin sat ever since yesterday evening. 

I don't need it- it doesn't mean anything- and yet not wearing it for the first time made me feel rather uneasy, making me pause further before closing the door and making my way down the stairs.

***

I blend into the morning rush crowds that fill the corridors of the castle, worming my way through hoping to arrive at potions earlier than the others. These past few months had been filled with far too much lateness and with exams so close now I can't let that continue. But more importantly than that, I wanted today to be a total new start, a day where I didn't let my mind wander onto impossible thoughts about him.

It's not a far walk from the dorms to the classroom as they're both in the dungeons but the first years who still can't seem to find their way around make it feel like I'll never reach class in time as I'm pushed and pulled through the crowd. Suddenly I'm pushed and pulled tighter as I am grabbed by one hand in particular as I'm dragged away from the crowded space but I don't have a chance to tell who by as I'm much more concerned with fighting back.

As I'm pulled into what I thought was a broom cupboard I push myself away from my attacker so that I can see his identity.

But when I do I can't help but be both shocked by an infuriating yet familiar face. 

It was him.

Again.

"Draco Malfoy would you like to explain why I'm in a broom cupboard please?" I huff, annoyed as my hopes for a mind clear of him to be destroyed once again - for two people who apparently want nothing to do with each other we sure do seem to keep on involving ourselves with the other constantly. 

"It's about your little boyfriend-" he sneers but I cut him off before he can continue.

"Little? Him standing next to you is just like Hagrid standing next to Flitwick, humble yourself" I laugh in disbelief that he still holds himself so highly but he just rolls his eyes at me . "What has he done wrong now then? Or-" I pause before taking a step closer to him, deciding I wasn't done teasing him "are you just jealous of him again?"

"I thought I told you before Seraphina- I wasn't jealous then so I'm certainly not jealous now" He scoffs with such arrogance it actually took me back from the stark difference between Fred's soft nature (under all the jokes that is ).

"And I  thought I told you to call me Phi" I don't know why being called by my full name was so infuriating for me, it wasn't till I came here that I had even considered it for a nickname but then again everything changed when I came here so I guess that's why. I wanted a fresh slate much like how I wanted one this morning and look how that turned out - I didn't even last an hour without becoming enclosed in him and all the theatrics that follow him.

"Quite frankly I couldn't care less what your name is" 

My chest almost stings when he says this and I know that's exactly what he wants from me, he "couldn't care less" how I felt unless