Little Bird

Chapter Twenty

Eve

            The next day during Care of Magical Creatures, Draco pulled me to the side and asked me to meet him later in the common room.

            We were attempting to feed the fire-breathing salamanders Hagrid had gotten from Mullingar, and I was working with Draco and Crabbe. While Crabbe was chasing after one that had tried to wander off into the ForbiddenForest, Draco turned to me and asked in a low voice, "Will you meet me in the common room tonight once everyone's asleep?"

            Despite myself, despite everything he'd already confessed to me, I still looked at him a bit unsurely. Didn't he know that all I could hear was Zabini's voice asking me that exact same question?

            He sighed when he saw my expression and added quietly, "I just want to talk, relax. I'm not anything like Zabini."

            "I know you're not," I said, and this time I honestly believed it. Crabbe was heading back over to us, so I gave a small smile and told Draco, "Yeah. Okay."

            "It'll be fun," Draco grinned. "We'll hang out."

            I laughed at his expression, rolling my eyes and trying my hardest not to punch his shoulder playfully. When Crabbe finally reached us and set the salamander down, I was still blushing a little.

            I wasn't entirely sure how to act around Draco now, but I had a feeling that he didn't have a clue either. And maybe that would make this a bit easier, since neither of us had any idea what we were doing.

            So that night, I laid in bed until it was well past eleven and Millicent's snores were filling the tiny dormitory as usual. I rolled out of bed with nervous butterflies in my stomach, tossing back the sheets and quietly tugging my sneakers on. It was chilly from the cold winter air, so I pulled a thick sweatshirt over my head before tip-toeing downstairs.

            Draco was already seated in front of the fire when I reached the common room, and he looked over at me as I came down the stairs. He grinned a bit sleepily, and this time, I returned it without a second thought.

            "I almost fell asleep waiting for you," Draco said as I came around the side of the couch and sat beside him. I wasn't sure how close I should sit next to him, so I carefully placed myself about half a foot away.

            Worrying if this was okay, I looked over at him and immediately relaxed when he smiled. "This is weird," he said, leaning back against the cushions. "We've never sat on the same couch before."

            "It's a whole new world," I agreed. "I had to wait for Millicent to start snoring before I could leave."

            Draco laughed out loud at this, exclaiming, "She snores?"

            "Very loudly, actually."

            "I'd like to say I'm surprised," Draco said, "but I'm really not."

            I shook my head and laughed, glancing over at him in the dim lighting of the common room. The green light from the flames in front of us cast a glow on Draco's face as he leaned forward a bit, looking right back at me with a relaxed expression on his face. He turned in the couch to face me better, putting his right elbow up on the back and saying, "So tell me about Beaubaxtons. Is it anything like this place?"

            "Not really," I said, and launched into an explanation about my old school. I told him about how the dormitories were, what the classes had been like, and how it had been playing Quidditch against the neighboring schools.