Fragile Delay

Chapter 2 - Chapter Two

One of the girls, Cecelia remembered from the train, was named Faye. She didn't respond to Estella's question besides a vague flick of her fingers, not bothering to look up from the book she wasn't reading.

The other girl glanced up, tilting her head slightly at the sight of Cecelia. "Can't say I do. Nice to meet you, though. I'm Irys." She offers a shy smile at the end of her introduction.

Cecelia offers another nod in response, and after a while of silence, looks toward Estella and taps her wrist twice. Understanding her signal, Estella motions for everyone to get up to start heading back toward their respective common rooms.

The walk out of the library was awkward. The silence was deafening. Estella tried to get them to all talk by starting some weak conversations, but after getting one worded responses, eventually gave up.

After a couple more minutes, the girls finally arrived at a junction in the halls of the school. "Well, this is where we part ways," Estella speaks up, breaking the silence once more, to which Cecelia gives a nod and parted ways with the Ravenclaws.

Cecelia makes her way down the winding path to get to the Slytherin common room. She spoke the password and stepped inside the common room, taking a seat near the fireplace. After her impromptu nap in the library, sleep evaded her the rest of the night.

She'd just settled down with a good book in her lap when an annoying voice sounded from the common room entrance.

"Finally, a competent professor at this school," a whiny voice said from her left. Cecilia's eye twitched in annoyance, but she otherwise didn't react. "All the previous ones were much too flippant about our education. Glad to see someone finally taking it seriously."

There was a vague grunt of agreement which probably came from either Crabbe or Goyle. Even after five years, Cecelia still couldn't tell the two apart.

"We'll be off," one of them said, before both of them headed upstairs to the boys dormitories. That was probably the longest sentence she'd ever heard either of them say.

Draco surveyed the now near empty common room, before his eyes landed on Cecelia. She kept her eyes steadfastly glued to her book to avoid making awkward eye contact, but he approached her regardless.

"Nadir! You agree with me, don't you?" He asked petulantly, hoping to gain someone else's sympathy.

"Yeah, sure, Malfoy," she agreed snarkily, eyes glued to her book, though he didn't seem to pick up on her sarcasm. "Whatever you say."

"Glad someone here has some common sense," he said amiably, the corners of his lips turning up in a victorious grin. To Cecelia's utter annoyance, Draco took her mockish agreement as an invitation and took a seat directly beside her. "Some of those other, lesser houses just don't seem to get it. But I knew a fellow Slytherin would understand."

Cecelia sighed and set down her book, figuring she wouldn't get much more reading done tonight with Draco's sudden talkative mood. She turned her head to face him partially, her expression one of slight indifference.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" She asks boredly, shifting her position to have her head resting on her hand. "I was reading, if you couldn't tell."

"I just wanted to hear your thoughts," he said, hands gesturing around, "It gets a bit tiring hanging around with idiotic brutes like Crabbe and Goyle all day."

"And who's to say I'm not some idiotic brute as well?" Cecelia asks easily, "Seems to be a common Slytherin trait."

Draco huffed in irritation, turning his nose up at her. "Slytherins are often very intelligent, you know. I don't get the best marks in potions solely on Snape's bias."