Epiphany |Scorpius Malfoy|

Chapter Seven

After Scorpius had left the Hufflepuff common room that night, he had expected that he would speak to Isabelle the next day during breakfast. However, the blonde was around her friends all the time in breakfast.

When that did not work, he thought that perhaps he would be able to see her during classes, but he came out to be really unfortunate as for the next two days, they did not have Potions, and in Herbology, she sat with Albus as they had initially planned. He had been unable to be alone with her after Herbology either, as she had taken to staying near Albus, the two of them talking about something Scorpius had no interest in.

In other words, she was always with someone, and she had made it seemingly her goal to avoid him. For two whole days, she had refused to look anywhere near his way, and when he took part in a conversation or when he replied to something she said, he was only met with silence. But Scorpius was determined to make her talk to him in one way or another, and he would use the fact that they were sitting together in Potions.

When Scorpius entered the Potions classroom, he found Isabelle already in her seat, placing her books on the desk. Barely suppressing a smirk as he realised he would actually manage to make her talk to him again, Scorpius took his seat next to her. The Hufflepuff immediately stiffened as he sat down, and the blond found himself frowning at her reaction.

Hurt, he remained still in his seat for some time as he thought of something he could do to make his friend feel more relaxed. He spied her moves from the corner of his eyes, noting that she seemed nervous, something she had never been around him before.

A heavy sigh escaped his lips. Isabelle briefly glanced at him, seemingly out of pure habit but she soon caught herself and turned back to her book. But Scorpius had seen her anyway. With some hope swelling in his chest, he scooted his chair slightly closer to hers without her noticing.

"Hey," he spoke up, and Isabelle actually seemed startled at the sound of his voice. She looked up abruptly, her eyes wide, and Scorpius was tempted to frown. These beautiful blue eyes of hers held fear, and for a moment, he actually froze, not remembering what he had wished to say. "I-I.." he paused, and tried to gather his thoughts. "I was thinking that it would be best if we shared your textbook, you know, like we do since last year? So we do not occupy much space."

For a moment, Isabelle remained unresponsive, before she seemed to shake herself out of whatever trance she had been in. "Oh," she mumbled, her eyes darting away from his as she pushed the textbook in the middle of the desk.

"Thank you."

The Hufflepuff nodded, still avoiding his gaze. Scorpius continued looking at her, until their professor got in the class and he was forced to actually pay attention to the lesson. He and Isabelle worked together to make the assigned potion, but their work was done quietly and a tense silence hung in the air. By the end of the lesson, the Slytherin was even more determined to make things right between them again, as he simply could not stand the thought of having a quiet and unresponsive Isabelle next to him all the time. He actually wanted his friend back.

When the class got dismissed, the students gathered their textbooks immediately. Albus got to his friends's table, a smile on his lips.

"What do you think should we do? Go to the library perhaps? It would be wise if we did some homework."

Isabelle smiled at him. "That would be wonderful, Albus-"

"I am afraid we can't do that, Albus," Scorpius cut in, "Isabelle and I have some things to discuss."

The Hufflepuff stiffened immediately, but Albus did not seem to notice as he nodded, a small frown on his lips.

"I see. Well, that's alright, I have some History of Magic homework to do, anyway, and you can't help me with that, so I reckon I should do that now," he shrugged as he slowly started walking towards the door. "I guess I'll see you later."