The Stars Aligned

Chapter 11

For a moment, a shadow passed over Theo's face, but he blinked and it was nowhere to be seen. But his eyes were slightly duller and his voice was distant when he said, "My mum used to make them when I was a kid. She made them the Muggle way. Said it was more rewarding to take that first bite after spending so much time making them."

"Okay, but we can't go right now," Pansy informed, staring up at the wrought iron clock above the mantle.

Blaise traced Pansy's line of sight and asked, "Why not?"

Her head turned to him, and her expression was a familiar one. It was the are you serious? face that I have used with Ron and Harry countless times. "The house elves don't finish up until 8," she explained, looking for a moment of realization in Blaise's face.

The right corner of Blaise's lip twitched in what I had learned to be amusement. "How do you know that? Keeping tabs on the elves?"

"How else do you think I get so many snacks for us?" Pansy snapped, gesturing to the coffee table wildly. Indeed, everytime I came here the table had been piled with a multitude of fruits and chocolates.

Theo's hand, which held a ball of chocolate on a path to his lips, stopped in front of his lips. His eyes bulged at Pansy and he exclaimed, "You get these?"

"Yes! I even got strawberries for Draco! I told you guys this!" Pansy scolded, her mouth open and rolling her eyes in disbelief.

Strawberries for Draco. For when he skipped dinner.

Theo popped the chocolate into his mouth and chewed for a moment, then replied with brown teeth, "Forgive me if I don't listen to every word you say."

"Shut up, you two. We will just go at 8:30." Blaise said smoothly, and Pansy and Theo immediately closed their mouths. I grinned. They were like two children always bickering, and Blaise was their impromptu parental figure that had to keep them in order. Blaise turned to me, face as composed as ever, and asked, "You in, Granger?"

I don't know why, but Ron's voice began to echo through my mind, and my grin faded off my face promptly. How many times has he called you Mudblood? How many times has he tormented us, him and his possey of arses? I shifted in my seat, placing my homework to the side. "Oh, um..."

A small spark. I didn't have to look down to know it was Draco's hand. Just a finger again, resting beside mine, only touching infinitesimally. So warm, exactly how I remembered. Burning.

"What's wrong?" he implored softly, with surprising gentleness.

I took my eyes away from Blaise and found Draco's grey irises, clear and delicate. "What do you mean?"

"You look like your puppy died," Pansy's voice cut in, and I turned to her.

"Oh no. Do you have a puppy at home? Did it actually die?" I could hear the clear despair in Theo's words, and his shoulders sagged. He looked absolutely heartbroken.

"Idiot," Pansy muttered.

"No. No, I'm fine, guys," I assured them, pasting on a small fake smile I have mastered over time.

"You're clearly not," Draco countered lowly, and that deep voice sent a spark running up our tiny point of contact and up my spine. So, so warm. Flaming.

"You can tell us what's going on," Theo added, albeit hesitantly after pausing for a moment. "Who am I gonna tell? The only blokes I talk to are these three, and I don't even like them," he added as an afterthought, and that earned an actual smile from me.

Pansy snorted, "Shut the hell up for once, Theo—"

"No you shut up," Theo shot back, and he turned back to me, his expression apologetic. "Granger, you have the floor."