Love Never Dies. (Draco Malfoy Fan Fiction) (Watty Awards 2013 Winner)

Chapter 6: Why Did it Feel So Weird?

"How did your meeting with Draco go?" Esme got up from her bed and came and sat on mine. I felt my bed sink on one side and I open my eyes.

"Terrible," I whined, flipping myself over, covering my face with my hands.

"And why was that so?" Esme came closer and placed her hand on my back, consoling me.

"Listen, you can not tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, okay? I trust you," I told her firmly, getting up and sat cross-legged on my bed. Esme nodded in understanding. "There was a moment in the Library when Malfoy stared at me. And when that happened, I sort of felt myself blush..."

"Do you like him, Rachel?" Esme asked me like how Hermione would if she didn't hate me so much.

"I don't know. But even if I did, it felt weird to like him. I didn't know exactly what he was feeling. I couldn't tell if he was angry or if it was something else," I told Esme, propping myself up on my hands and sighed.

"It wouldn't be wrong, I mean, you can like him. But I'd agree with you, it's gonna be weird. Considering the way he treats you and how nasty he was to you?" Esme told me convincingly. She was right. I had every right to like him, he just didn't know.

But I wasn't about to tell him either. Only an idiot would do that. But the way he's been treating me over the past three years made me think again. He was so nasty and I hated him. Was it even possible that I've liked him since I met him but never admitted it to myself?

Draco's POV

"Malfoy," Rachel could have screamed in my ear from the way she said my last name.

"What?" I ask her, trying to sound as annoyed as possible. I look up at her and I see her beautiful brown eyes glowing in the dim light in the library. I looked into them for a while and she did the same. I stared at her, wishing she were mine. I knew it wasn't wrong to love her, but she didn't know. She couldn't know.

"Have you found a- anything?" she asks me nervously breaking eye contact from me and I felt myself getting kinda warm. I tugged at my collar, hoping that I could cool off.

"Nothing," I returnrf to look down at my book and pretendrf to be concentrating when I couldn't with her less than a feet away from me.

"Why so distracted, Malfoy?" Rachel asked me, I didn't know how to answer her. I liked her since the day I set my eyes on her in first year but she made it pretty obvious that she hated me. I wanted so much to tell her it was her who was distracting me. Her whole presence made my mind go blur and my heart palpitate.

"IT'S NOTHING, FARRELL!" I shouted at her, breaking eye contact. I couldn't stand being near her if I couldn't express my feelings for her. Frustrated with myself, I slammed the book close and I shoved it across the table. I get up and storm out of the Library, leaving Rachel behind, shocked beyond her face could ever express.

What did I just do? I lashed out my anger on Rachel, something I should never have done. My father told me to be nice and to get to know Rachel, but it seemed like a pretty dumb way to do that. I ran back to the common room, said the password and entered. The sudden cool air from the common room that hit me made me shiver a little. Seeing that there was a couch that was empty, I made my way to it. I lay down across it and sigh.

Was it that obvious? When Rachel said that I seemed distracted, did I make it so obvious that I liked her? Was I not able to hide my own feelings from the girl I picked on since I first met her? And the way the looked into my eyes just a few minutes ago... I knew that she must have felt something for me. But it can't be. She's Rachel Farrell. She hated me and I knew it. I've gotten under her skin so many times and I was certain I was the only Slytherin in our year she detests.