Rivals | D.M

59. Liars

A/N Hi guys! This one was a bit of a fun one. I'm still trying to find the right balance of plot and smut for you guys - How am I going?

Draco's POV

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

She was ignoring me. He head bowed over her textbook, her dark hair hanging in curtains around her face so I couldn't see her reaction.

"Aster...Flint...Merlin if I knew your middle name I would say it...stop ignoring me." I was livid. She knew baiting Montague was dangerous.

There was a few tense seconds.

"It's Bella" she murmured.

Of course it was.

Beautiful was her middle name.

I ignored the butterflies now swirling in my stomach.

"Don't encourage them to notice you. You don't want them to dig their dirty claws in" I whispered, the anger rolling off my tongue.

She instantly twists her head to face me, her green eyes furious.

"Don't tell me what I want, Malfoy" she spits.

We both glare at each other.

A slap on my shoulder knocks me from my attention.

"Party tonight in the common room Malfoy" Goyle grunted, his eyes flitting back and forth between Aster and I.

"What for?" I grumble back. The last thing I need is a party.

"End of our first week back, we always have one" he smirked, before heading back to his side of the table and sitting back next to Crabbe.

He glanced at me quickly before flicking his eyes towards Aster.

"Bring her" he mouths silently.

I roll my eyes at him.

I specifically told her to not draw attention to herself and what does she do? She goes and baits Montague of all people. We both heard what he said to Bainbridge after. He was talking about how she should have brought Aster with her to the dark lord.

Just the very thought of Aster and him being in the same room made my blood turn to ice.

"We should figure out what days we want to work on the assignment" Aster spoke, her tone was causal. She was still looking at her textbook but her hair had been tuck behind her ear. Her skin looked awfully pale.

"Uh yeah"

"How about Thursday afternoons after classes? Where do you want to meet?"

I was still staring at her. She still didn't look up.

"Library. Where I...took you last time" I whisper, I look down at my own textbook and shuffle in my seat.

This time I feel her stare.

I look up to find her eyes softly looking at my fingers on the textbook.

"Ok" she murmurs before ripping her eyes away and standing up.

"Let's start the first potion and then we can use that as our first point of reference next week" she rattles on.

I sit up straighter and nod.

—-

It's the first Friday night of the term. The Slytherin common room is already full, a loud bass thrumming through the large space from the gramophone in the corner. Someone's stocked the large coffee table with spiked drinks and snacks.