Limerence; Draco Malfoy

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Liars

...20 minutes later...

I stared at myself in the mirror of Draco Malfoy's private bedroom. Or, more importantly, at what I was wearing:

A green jumper - his quidditch one, to be exact - with only my black lace bra underneath it. The jumper was tucked into a black skirt, of which belonged to Pansy Parkinson, much to my dismay.

But when Draco had chucked the warm, dry clothes at me, I didn't refuse them.

Still, I couldn't help but wonder why he had Pansy's mini skirt in his drawer. It really didn't take much of my imagination to figure that one out...

Why was I in Draco's bedroom, you ask?

Why was I wearing his jumper? Pansy's skirt? Instead of going and getting clothes from my own dorm?

It's a bitter tale, really. Of course, if I'd had the choice, I would have gone straight back to my dorm the moment we arrived back at the Slytherin common room. But things proved to be more difficult than I'd hoped for. Shocker.

After Timothee's Tesla had blown to pieces, Fred had sobered up pretty quickly:

"Right. We need to find Hagrid first. Tell him that we're all okay. I'm surprised there's not a search party out there looking for us." Fred had scoffed. "We mustn't be that important."

"And the car?" I had asked. "Do you think anybody heard us crash? They must have!"

"Yes. Which is exactly why we're going straight back to the common rooms. Now." Draco had snapped, sharply tugging the sleeve of my robes. "Before anybody comes out here and sees us. Merlin help me if I land myself in another detention with you two."

Fred had pulled me in for a surprising yet warm hug, leaving Draco standing awkwardly to one side, glowering.

I hugged him back - tightly -smiling into his jumper, feeling overwhelmed with relief that nothing bad had happened to him. Once he'd pulled away, he raised the bottle of fire-whiskey up to me as if to say "cheers" before ambling off in search of Hagrid.

Draco and I had entered the school through one of the side doors immediately after. Not saying a word.

Of course we stayed silent:

There was nothing to say that could've sliced through the thick wall of tension between us.

He walked slightly ahead, his strides long and impatient whilst I had to resort to speed-walking to keep up.

It reminded me of that time he'd apparated us both to the storage cupboard a couple of nights ago. He had stormed off. I had followed him - rambling, because of how nervous he was making me.

My feelings towards him hadn't changed tonight - except that now I wasn't rambling.

Now, I suddenly couldn't think of a single thing to say. My mind had gone blank. With shock, perhaps.

Draco seemed to be ignoring my presence entirely though. And that shouldn't have caused a pang to hit my chest, but it did. After all what had happened in the woods, and after everything which had happened this morning, I excepted some sort of exchange. Even just a sly comment or insult.

But no...

Nothing.

I was practically invisible.

We reached the entrance to the common room after a short walk down one corridor, and down the staircase which led into the dungeons. He muttered the password out, seeming impatient and irritable. Again, nothing new there.