the lucky one

pants on fire

Miranda waits under the tree for Draco. She's been seeing him less and less since they made up, especially since D.A. takes so much of her time. She feels badly about it, of course. But she expects he's been busy too, even if he's not consistently in detention or secretly learning defense or trying to uncover generational secrets, he still has mountains of homework.

    "Look who's on time for once," Draco swings around the trunk of the tree and hops down to join her, shaking his blond hair out of his face.

    "Nice to see you too," she says, flicking the side of his head. Then, Miranda notices a shiny pin on his robes.  She peers at it closer. It's new, something she doesn't recognize. It doesn't look like a prefect's badge. She's seen Hermione's and Ron's long enough to know. "What is that?"

    "Oh— nothing," Draco panics, trying to cover it with his hand, but Miranda is too quick. She reaches out to grab the lapels of his robes. "G, don't—"

    Her face falls when she reads what is engraved on it, "The Inquisitorial Squad? D, are you serious?" She folds her arms, "That woman is a troll."

    "You can't blame her just for giving Potter detention all the time," Draco defends haughtily. "He loses his temper; he deserves it."

    "She provokes him!"

    "He doesn't have to—"

    Miranda tears off her glove in one swift motion, shoving her right hand under his nose. "He's not the only one getting detention, Draco," she retorts hotly. "Do you see this? This is from her. She tortures us. Happily."

    Draco looks at his feet, mumbling out a string of pitiful excuses, "Well, my father he— and I— er... she makes a good case— and Pansy she—Crabbe and Goyle— erm..."

    "Crabbe and Goyle? Your father?" Miranda cries out in utter disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me, Draco. That's your defense?"

    "You don't get to judge me," Draco says very loudly, temper rising. "Things have been really hard at home, but you wouldn't know that because you aren't here anymore!"

    At this, Miranda falters. He— well, there he has a point. Miranda, chastened, checks her watch."Actually, I have to—"

    "Go right?" Draco scoffs bitterly. "Of course you do, can you even tell me where you're going?"

    "I—I—um..." she chews in the inner corner of her cheek guiltitiily.

    "I figured," he turns away from her and starts to leave.

    "D," Miranda sighs heavily, "I want to tell you, but I just...can't."

    "If you really wanted to tell me you would." Draco snaps, "You're supposed to be my best friend, Miranda. Friends don't keep secrets. I bet you don't keep secrets from  Potter." And with that he leaves Miranda under the tree alone.

Miranda can't deal with this right now, she needs to get to the Room of Requirement. Covertly, she sneaks through the halls of Hogwarts, avoiding Filch and any members of Umbridge's group. When she arrives, early like she prefers, only Harry is in there, setting up. She likes arriving early so she can get warmed up before the lesson. Okay and maybe she likes getting a few minutes alone with those green eyes.

    Besides, things between them have been weird lately. A good kind of weird though. A sweet weird. The kind of weird where sometimes he dozes off on her shoulder during a study session in the common room and stammers when she gets really close to him. The kind of weird that when she had chocolate on her upper lip he wiped off with the soft swipe of his own thumb. Weird that was confusing, since he'd made it pretty clear he wasn't interested.