It's just a friendship, I swear.

The most stressful evening ever.

Sarah was sat in one of the castles corridors cradling one of her hands in the other, watching as blood dripped down her wrist and onto the cold floor below. The crimson liquid was gradually seeping into the cracks and staining the floor, though Sarah had no doubt that Filtch would just bleach it out. The thought made her sob and laugh at the same time as she rubbed her hand with a piece of tissue she had gathered from the bathroom and used as a temporary solution for her bleeding hand. Sarah really did not feel like going to the infirmary right now, it was late and she was tired enough as it was. The fact she was tired was not helping to ease the pain or the small tears that rolled down her face as she mothered her hand.

Umbridge had forced her to write lines. Apparently they had been noticing her sneaking out of her dorm at night and walking through the hallways, which was why she had to write out the words ‘Rules are there for a reason’ several times until her hand was etched with blood. However it wasn’t the physical pain that bothered Sarah as much as knowing that the scars would rise in due time and she would have to live with it, as well as knowing she had lost to the pink dwarf twice now. A scowl formed on her face as she glared down at her hand with blurred eyes. Her pride ached like mad. This officially was going down in history as the worst year at Hogwarts ever.

Just as Sarah began to sort herself out when she heard the sound of somebody walking down the corridor. Immediately she stood up and jetted off down the hallway at lightning speed, the idea of getting caught twice in one night really did not appeal to her right now. It seemed as if they were heading towards the Slytherin common room too. Running back to her common room she flung the door open and quickly shut it again and plonked herself down on the sofa and acted asleep, pulling her cloak close to her so it would look as if she had simply fallen asleep on the couch in front of the fire.

There was the soft patter of footsteps and the door swung open and closed. Sarah could just about hear the approaching footsteps as somebody stood above her and chuckled softly. Whoever it was, it was a guy, and no girl would have laughed like that. The tall guy sat down beside her and his gaze was focused on her face. She could feel piercing eyes staring at her ‘sleeping’ face, and it was taking all of Sarah’s effort not to break her calm and neutral face and blush. She felt his weight shift till he was leaning down close to her ear, his hair tickling her cheek. Sarah was frozen in shock as whoever it was leaned closer so his lips touched the shell of her ear. The heat in her cheeks rose as she tried to stop from panicking.

“Sorry, Sarah.” Those were the only words that she heard before surprisingly soft lips touched her cheek. It was only for a split second before the warmth was removed and a hand tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Night.” It said again before the presence was gone.

Sarah sat there for a good few minutes. She was waiting until she was absolutely certain that the guy had gone, when she was sure of that her hand sprang up to her cheek and she sat up, flicking her eyes open. Her heart was racing in her chest, pounding against her rib-cage with a force that could shatter that bones. Whoever it had been they spoke with such tentative care that the girl wasn’t sure what to do with herself. The idea of going to bed was gone from her mind, and besides she would wake up all of the other girls in her dorm, so what was the point?

With her decision made she settled herself back down onto the sofa and closed her eyes again, but her hand remained with her cheek, fingertips delicately trailing across the kissed skin before she fell into a dreamless sleep.

When the young female awoke in the morning she found it was only 5am. The room was still dark but at least she could go have a shower and get dressed now without particularly disturbing her room mates, who would probably be a little annoyed that Sarah had decided to go on a small night outing. This thought sticking out in her mind lead her to need little encouragement to go to get a shower first in the prefects shower room rather than her own room. Honestly it was not that difficult to get into the private bathroom that reserved for only prefects, after all she was still a Slytherin.

Popping down the stairs and into the prefect’s bathroom she took a long and extensive bath, after all she had enough time to do so, besides Sarah really wanted to wash last night from her memory, it had been too much for her to handle. After about ¾ of an hour the girl thought she had gotten rid of all of the memories (besides it was a satisfying feeling to be so clean). The prefects would be down at about six and she still needed to make it look like she had not been there. With a small intake of breath the witch performed a quick cleaning spell, the room looking just as it had done when Sarah had arrived. Happy with her work the girl hurried back to her dorm room, going up and changing her clothing.

This all done Sarah now had enough time to spare to finish off her essay for Snape, no doubt he would be angry if it was two inches shorter than it was supposed to be when she handed it in. Taking her bag in hand she went back down to the common room, ignoring the previous night’s events, she could think about that later. Focusing fully on her potions essay was at the top of her priority list right now, and it would not be good for her record if Umbridge, AKA Demon Headmistress, heard of her falling short in her subjects. Sitting down Sarah continued from where she had left off, finding her head much clearer than it had been the previous day and successfully writing the final piece of her work in a record 30 minutes. Now she was not as distracted with thoughts of the blonde she could focus. It was a miracle.

Or not…

A few moments later a blonde trotted down the stairs and into the common room with his little group of buddies, presumably to go and get breakfast. Sarah looked up briefly but quickly began packing her things away and kept her head down. Draco would not be in a good mood with her, that and the fact that Sarah could feel the slight burn of her fingers as the cracked scabs from last night had now started bleeding again, and it really would not be ideal to get blood all over her potions essay.

Jumping up Sarah pulled her bag over her shoulder and began to move to the door, but found it blocked by Blaise, the tall male made it clear that she really was not getting by anytime soon. That and the fact that she could sense the two brutes either side of her. However it was not that which scared her, it was the piercing blue eyes that she would feel burning into the back of her head. Not now, please Draco, She thought to herself, Anytime but now.

Turning her head Sarah faced the blonde with a slightly wry smile. “How nice to see you this fine morning, Mr. Malfoy.” Sarah replied in the fake polite voice she reserved especially for Malfoy. There was no need to be nice, she just wanted to get her hand fixed up.

“Skip the crap. I don’t have time for you this morning, Matthews.” His cold voice was back again as he spoke to Sarah, not like the one he had used last night. Shaking her head at the thoughts Sarah braced herself for the incoming jab, no doubt there would be one. “We need to talk. Now.” He demanded.

“What? Now? But I need to…” Sarah trailed off and wordlessly held up her hand in defeat. She really did need to wrap up her cracking hand, she didn’t want to get bloody tetanus for god’s sake.

“Fine, then second period, I know you have a free. We meet at the classroom.” He flicked his wrist, and like some princess and guards they walked out of the door, pushing past Sarah. Leaving her to scowl as she straightened out her uniform with a small growl escaping her lips. Though there wasn’t really much she could do about it now, so she resorted to rolling her eyes and strolling off to the infirmary. There was no point in saying which classroom, Sarah knew exactly where he meant.

A/N: Thank you so much for all the support, even though I am super busy with college I still get support and I've written a fairly long chapter. I am going to be aiming for approximately 25 chapters so I think there is about 10 more to go! However the plan is to write another 2, or so I think. Anyway the point is I would like to thank GlitterMist for the messages of encouragement! <3 It really helped me to get this chapter written.