Barely Acquaintances

•nine•

*****
"Remember to keep warm this winter, my sweetheart"
*****

"How much longer?" I was biting at my nails and tapping my foot anxiously, Draco looked up from his hands, which he was nervously fiddling with in his lap.

"Not long now y/n"

I only nodded in response, not having the energy to form another sentence. Draco and I were currently sat in a private compartment on the train, on our way to meet Narcissa at the station so she could take us to Malfoy Manor. It was early in the morning, not like I'd slept at all anyway. I laid awake all night after leaving Draco's dormitory, tossing and turning just thinking about my father.

The cruciatus curse, also known as the torturing curse was among the three unforgivable curses. We hadn't yet been taught about them at school, but I remember mother and father speaking about them in front of me when I was younger.

I couldn't even begin to imagine how my poor father had felt.

I was surprised, to say the least, that Draco was being so supportive towards me regarding the situation. Maybe with the Merlotts being a long term, generational family friend of the Malfoys, he felt as though he had to comfort me in this trying time, not that he had ever let that get in the way of him being his snarky self in previous years. Of course I wasn't complaining, if anything I was glad he actually had a caring side, I was beginning to doubt the boy even possessed a heart.

I looked up finally from my broken fingernails, instantly regretting my actions. Draco was sat opposite me, our knees occasionally grazing each others as the old, scarlet, steam train went over bumps in the tracks. He had his head rested against the glass window, gazing out, he looked almost at peace. Condensation appeared and evaporated on the window where his hot breath escaped his slightly parted, pale pink lips.

It wasn't often I really got the chance to appreciate his looks. We were usually too busy bickering to actually take each other in. This time last year he'd wear his platinum hair, inherited from his father, slicked back with so much gel it was a wonder how his hair hadn't been permanently stuck like that. Thankfully, he now let it loose, allowing it to hang over his forehead and occasionally into his eyes. He looked better like this. More grown up, I thought.

While my eyes were busy wandering across his features my mind look me back to a day shortly before our second year had started. It was summer and Draco and I had been brought to Diagon Ally to have our new robes fitted in time for the new year at Hogwarts. Of course, Narcissa and my own mother had loved the idea of once again forcing their two children to spend time together, despite their bitterness towards one another.

~~~

"Potter was lucky to escape the Dark Lord if you ask me, Father says he won't be as lucky this year." Malfoy looked at him self in the mirror, his face full of smug pride as he gently grazed his fingers over the rich material of his new Slytherin robes.

"You said that about first year, Malfoy, And so did your father." I glanced over to the boy, making his grin drop. Madam Malkin, of 'Madam Malkins Robes for all Occasions' on Diagon Ally, looked between us both as she took some final measurements for my own robes.

"Sorry Merlott, I didn't mean to speak ill of your little boyfriend" The blonde boy practically spat his words over at me. And it was his words, that made my stomach do a sickening twist.