Limerence; Draco Malfoy

Chapter Thirty-Three: Denial

I was greeted by an unusually calming atmosphere; the dim, warm lighting was a welcoming contrast to the shadowy, cold corridoors. A sheen of silvery moonlight marked a line across the teachers desk, and my gaze landed on the ginormous man towering behind it: Hermione had pointed him out earlier today. Hagrid, I think his name was.

I kept my eyes (still slightly swollen from my earlier meltdown) firmly fixed on Hagrid's beaming face, rather than letting them take a proper glance around the classroom.

I could already feel the weight of their questioning stares on me...

"Ah, Violet is it? Come on in, come on in! We've been waitin' for you to join the party!"

I flashed him a shy smile, softly closing the door behind me. "Sorry I'm late, sir, I err... I forgot my book in the library. Then I got lost finding my way here."

My head stayed lowered, my hair acting as a defensive shield for the left side of my face. And behind it, the stinging scratch on my cheek acted as a nasty reminder for what'd had just happened...

Yet I forced myself to keep a nuetral expression as Hagrid went on, although I was suddenly very concious of the state my hair was currently in - it was messy. Tangled.

Almost as if someone had, I don't know, grabbed a fistfull of it before slamming my head into the wall.

I could still feel the faintest prickle of blood at the crown of my head - hot and sharp - but I doggedly chose ignore it.
It didn't really happen.

"Sorry? Yer don't 'ave to be sorry Violet! 'Course you're goin' to get lost in yer first week! My, even I loose my bleedin' sense of direction sometimes! And I've been 'ere," Hagrid raised his eyebrows, thinking about it.

"Well, a long time, that's for sure." He huffed a deep laugh.

Another familiar voice called out after him, but I was too nervous to look. Didn't dare even tear my gaze from the floor.

"I knew you'd get lost, Vi!"

Fred Weasley.

"Shut up you!" Hagrid clicked his tongue, looking suddenly overwhelmed as he surveyed the classroom, as though he were facing a room of fifty pupils rather than three. "Right - this err, detention. I'm supposed to 'ave you all sittin' together. In silence. Not messin' about, Fred. That goes for you too, Malfoy."

"I wasn't even talking. He's the one who's been hassling me all this while."

Draco sounded overly pissed off and moody, as per usual - his voice cruel and heavily critical.

The simple act of hearing him talk again was enough to make stomach flip. Enough to make my heart do a couple of frantic cartwheels. I didn't - couldn't - move from the doorway, suddenly feeling frozen to the spot.

"Yeah, well, yer can both cut it out then." Hagrid sighed, then scratched the side of his head as he turned to me.

"Right. We need some order in 'ere now. Fred, Malfoy, Violet, I want all of yer sitting at these three desks on the front row." His tone clipped out, suddenly alot sterner:

"-Next to each other."

I didn't move. Neither did Fred and Draco, judging by the silence that followed.

"Well?" Hagrid chuckled. "What are we waitin' for?"

I gripped the strap of my bag tighter and quickly made my way over to the desk. Catching Fred's eye briefly, he flashed me an amused smile as he began ambling down to the front of the classroom. I returned it with a weak one of my own.