Closer to Love | Draco Malfoy [4]

Chapter 8 ~ Impressing Slughorn

The next morning, I didn't even attempt to wake up. Even though classes started today, I wanted to stay in bed. I was too busy dreaming about Draco to do anything else. It was blissful, it was perfect, it was--

THUD!

My body on the floor.

I groaned as I got up from the cold floor and got ready for the day. I got dressed in my robes and went into the bathroom, brushing my teeth and fixing my hair. When I went downstairs, I already saw Ron. He looked tired as well from the yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Tired, too?" I asked, standing beside him.

He nodded, "Harry woke me up. He pushed me off the bed and just left me there!"

Hermione soon came down as well and the four of us headed off for breakfast in the Great Hall.

Harry sat beside me and the other two sat across from us. I spotted Draco going to the Slytherin table and sitting between Blaise and Pansy. He had dark, baggy circles under his eyes and his face was more tired and pale than ever before. Our eyes locked and I gave him a worried look. I was hoping to run into him later today, just to see what was wrong with him.

"What are you staring at, Max?" Harry questioned. "You're not looking over at Malfoy, are you?"

"He's my friend, Harry," I replied, looking at my brother. "We went over this last night. Just look at him. He doesn't look right, bro. He's pale and tired and he's also got dark circles under his eyes. Something is wrong with him."

Harry sighed and started talking to Ron and Hermione.

As I began to eat the piece of toast that I grabbed from the big platter in front of me, I thought about what could be wrong with Draco. It wasn't me, was it? Maybe he was worried that I would find out what he was up to last night. To be honest, I wanted to know what he was doing. If he continued to look like this, I was planning to help him.

Professor McGonagall came by with our schedules for the new year. Harry, Ron, and I had a free period, which meant more time to figure out what the hell I was going to do about Draco. I needed to stop going back to thinking about him. I was a Gryffindor, he was a Slytherin. It would never work.

But I wanted it to work.

Ugh, I was desperate at this point.

"We have boring classes again!" Ron complained.

"Ron, we have boring classes every year," I pointed out.

"True," he added.

"Well, while you three have fun with your free period, I'm going to my first class." Hermione stood up from her seat and strutted out of the Great Hall.

We took the rest of our time just talking and eating the remainder of our breakfast. After that, the three of us went out into the hallway and watched as students walked by us and McGonagall was yelling at students, telling them where the classes were at. She spotted us laughing and called Harry over. Ron and I watched the two talk before Ron went back to laughing at other students as they went past us. When Harry came back over to us, he was disappointed.

"Who wants to take Potions again?" he asked.

"What?!" Ron and I said at the same time.

"How the hell did you get Potions?" I questioned my brother, raising my eyebrows.

"Don't even get me started, sis," he replied, walking past me and Ron.

We followed him and caught up so we were right beside him.