PLAYING A FACADE | D.M fanfic

six.

DRACO

I waited for Emerald in the common room, sitting on the velvet green sofa and looking at the clock, telling me that it's eleven. There were still a few people down here, including Zabini.

"You waited," She pointed as walked down the stairs in casual clothing, an oversized white t-shirt and black trackpants, along with her quill and Astronomy notes with her, "Hey Zabini."

"Edwards," Zabini looked over to me, "Oh, so this is who you're going with. Be careful around the windows, he might push you over."

"Shut up, Zabini, or I'll push you off the tower." I replied as I stood up, "Shall we?"

"Yes we shall," She replied with a small laugh, "Draco Malfoy in a hoodie and joggers? Never thought I'd see that. See you, Zabini."

"Don't stand near the windows, Edwards."

I shook my head as I opened the huge door for us. The walk to the Astronomy Tower was quiet, a comfortable type of quietness accompanied by the echoes of our footsteps. Professor Sinistra gave me the spare keys to the classroom, knowing that I go to the tower quite often. We went to our usual spot and took out the black telescopes. Emerald and I worked in silence, spying on the three moons of Jupiter and the constellations. I wrote down more notes even though I had more than enough for the essay. I looked over to Em, who kept going back and forth between her notes and the telescope. It took her quite a while before she finally caught me staring.

"What, Malfoy?" She asked.

"You're doing it wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"You're telescope," I pointed out.

"I'm pretty sure I'm doing it right."

I took a step, minimising the distance between us, "Are you? Look into the telescope."

And she did. I squatted down to her height, and took her hand, placing it on the telescope and adjusted the settings of the lens, allowing her to see the galaxy closer.

"Wow." She said, amazed by what she was seeing.

"Yeah."

Emerald looked away from the telescope and into my eyes, making our faces just inches apart. Time stood still as we looked into each other's eyes, with quick glances at her lips. Before any of us did something embarrassing or awkward, I cleared my throat and took a step back.

"Where did you learn that?" Emerald asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Oh, I just read the telescope's manual." I replied nonchalantly.

She stared at me with disbelief, "You, read the telescope's manual?"

I nodded in response.

"Wow, never expected that. Thank you though."

"Don't stress about it. You could see the surfaces of Europa, Ganymedes and Callisto's surfaces better, boosts your marks. Not a lot of students know this, not even Granger."

"Oh, wow. Did not expect that either."

"I told you, Em, I'm not dumb."

"I never said you were, Draco." And she went back on looking onto her adjusted telescope, taking down more notes.

"I'm actually second in our year, if you're wondering."

Emerald stopped writing and looked up, "No way."

I had a smirk plastered on my face, knowing that she did not expect that.

"He's actually being serious." She said to herself and I nodded, "Lend me your notes?"