Rise of the Death Eaters [3]

Chapter 23: A New Normal

When class let out, just as expected I saw Draco waiting for me further down the hall. And this time he was watching the crowd for me. Ella took one look down the corridor and then scoffed and shook her head.

"I feel like such an idiot for not putting two and two together over this," she admitted at last. Sam seemed more pleased at this news then I, as she tugged a strand of Ella's blond hair with a big grin.

"Now we can gossip about how crappy a relationship they have while Ava ditches us," Sam offered making Ella laugh and I to chuckle at myself. But it felt good for a change to have this out in the open.

"You two are so funny," I teased, taking a step back, "Wish me luck."

"I won't," Sam said stubbornly but to my surprise Ella mouthed good luck in what looked to be a sincere gesture before I turned away from them.

When I stopped by Draco, he was quiet which was very odd.

"Not even a teasing comment in hello?" I asked good naturedly. He tsked under his breath as he joined me on a slow walk down the corridor.

"I didn't realize we were talking anymore."

"Well," I admitted, "I didn't know if I wanted to talk to you after what happened." He paused to look back at where we had came. Sam and Ella had since disappeared but he was looking in their direction anyway.

"It seems like your friends are still talking to you. Did they convince you to get rid of me?"

"No actually," I said with a sly smile, making him turn back to me as if to see if I was joking. When he saw, I was not, he grabbed my hand in his and pulled me with him on our walk.

"See, I told you were just over reacting earlier."

"No you didn't," I pointed out truthfully. "You just wanted to cause trouble. I know you, Draco," I said, pulling on his arm to look down at me again. "You're not that selfless."

"What does this have to do with being selfless?"

"Nothing, but still- Your friends don't care that I'm with you except perhaps Pansy but my friends don't like you and for good reason."

"I guess any chance of making friends with your lot is out of the picture-"

"Ha," I retorted through a stubborn glance before pulling him along toward the stairs. "But just so we are clear on one thing," I added as he opened the door for me. "You've got to stop teasing my friends and being mean around them. Otherwise I'm done."

The steel warning in my tone had Draco pause, as if checking my expression to see if I was bluffing. But I looked back at him firmly until he shrugged in resignation.

"The things I do for you, Fountaine. You don't know just how lucky you are." I replaced my warning stare with a cocky grin up at him as I intertwined my hand with his and walked together the rest of the way down to potions.

It turned out that I didn't have long to wait to see my new rules with him come into practice. The silver gang were waiting by the closed doors to the classroom with some of the other students milling around on the opposing wall. Snape must be delayed today in preparing the classroom.

At the sight of our arrivial, Nott came toward us, his gaze on Draco, as if expecting news.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Draco replied in a tone that showed he was playing around. "We're fine as I told you we would be. Umbridge didn't even hesitate when I asked her this morning."

"Brilliant," Nott said with a relaxed grin at the news. Twiddle Dee and Dumb came lumbering over at the news. "I figured you'd be the best out of everyone to ask for permission. Not that she should have said no to us anyway-"