Salazar's Angel

III

Dahlia feels her heart drop to her feet. This makes it a little more challenging than she anticipated as she begins to take steps backwards, away from Harry freaking Potter himself.

"Wait, wait! I'm sorry I didn't see you when I rounded the corner! It was an accident!" Harry calls after her as Dahlia continues backing up. 

She can't find it in her power to tear her eyes from him. She knows her mouth is slightly agape but she can't seem to find the will to close it. Then, all at once, her sense of self comes rushing back into her body. 

She stops reversing and forces her eyes to meet his. "Fuck off." She turns on her heel and strides back to the compartment from which she came, not bothering to wait for his response.

Slamming the door closed behind her, Dahlia throws herself back into her seat and works her hands back up into her hair. She has no idea how long she was pacing in the corridor.

Draco casually looks up from his book, eyebrows raised. 

"DON'T say ANYTHING." Dahlia glares at him, eyes narrowed into the fiercest slits she can manage as she tries to regulate her breathing in an effort to keep her chest from heaving.

He slams his book closed, meeting her gaze with an equally nasty one. "You cannot speak to me like that."

In a flash Dahlia snags her wand out of her purse and points it at his throat. "I just did. And what about it? Say something now! Huh? HUH?"

Draco pauses, then makes that sound again...the one in between a snort and a soft laugh in the back of his throat. He stands up, and walks close enough to Dahlia that the tip of her wand prods into his sternum.

He looks down at her. "You don't even have a clue how to use that thing, do you? You blithering-"

A blast of white sparks shoot out of the end of Dahlia's wand and Draco flings backwards into the seat from which he stood. This is particularly surprising to her on two accords: the first being that Dahlia didn't utter a single word and the second being that she has never before cast a spell of any kind, let alone one of that power.

Draco's head snaps up and his eyes track onto Dahlia with a fervent intensity. Dahlia shoves her emotions down and calmly tucks her wand back into her purse, snapping it closed and sliding it over her arm as she stands up.

"We're here," Dahlia says down to Draco as she walks past him and out of the compartment, the castle looming over them from outside the window.