NUMB | D. MALFOY {EDITING}

ii. hogwarts

"Rosier, nice to see you again." He stretched out his hand, in hope of her taking it like they always did. But she didn't. To kill the uncomfortable silence between the pair, Draco cleared his throat. "You look good." He pointed, gaining a raised eyebrow from her.

"Thanks but we both know you're just being polite, Malfoy." She quickly mumbled and made her way out of the table. "But indeed, it was nice to see you again." The brunette said before opening the door and walking out of the compartment.

Anastasia felt the lump in her throat increasing at the sight of Harry Potter and his friends, her mind instantly urged her to carry on with the task to befriend the Gryffindor. But her legs seemed to be frozen, and her heart was beating so loudly that she swore some students thought she was losing her mind.

          The funny thing was that she certainly lost her mind, and no one was there to help her.

"Anastasia," Was the first thing Harry said when they bumped into each other when she was trying to walk back to the compartment.

"Harry." She choked with her own words as soon as their eyes met. "I'm sorry, about your godfather." It was the only thing her mind could let her say, but Harry just nodded.

"It's okay." And she took that as a cue to keep walking and act like that minimal exchange of words wasn't hurting her heart.

           After all, she had the task to befriend and betray the Chosen One, kill his closest family members and act like it wasn't nothing.

          "Wait," She stopped in her tracks at the sound of his voice urging her to go back. "We've missed you, hanging with us." He said, causing Anastasia to smile a little.

"I've missed you guys too, especially Hermione. I don't have anyone to share my knowledge with." At this, Harry laughed quietly.

"You can still hang with us; you know that, right?" He asked and she simply nodded.

"I'll see you around." She waved and stepped inside the compartment.

Draco watched her as she carefully took a seat alone, in the back of the compartment. He really wished he could stand up and sit with her like when they were in second year, but he couldn't. He saw her talking with Potter, and he knew she was with the good ones, he knew since the time he caught her in the Room of Requirement. She was good and he was bad, it's was too dangerous.

It wasn't like the old times.

The boy still remembered how the small girl entered the book shop along with her family, he watched from the second floor how she completely ignored Gilderoy Lockhart and practically jumped over all the shelves of books around her. That's the first time Draco started to notice Anastasia Rosier, more than a housemate.

Him scared of asking her to go with the Yule Ball had always been one of the biggest regrets in his life and a very sour memory; with a broken heart, he remembered how sad he was when she accepted to go with a fellow Slytherin that wasn't as good enough for her like he hope he was.

         Even if he was happy with the idea of the friendship he had with the girl in the past, Draco wasn't a big fan of taking a trip on memory lane. Mostly because most of the times he doubted to act in fear of what his father would say or think, which he absolutely hated.
He hated the idea of looking after a man who only ordered him to do awful things, and the reason the life was being drained from him.

          But right then, looking directly at the girl, he knew that he didn't care what his parents thought about Anastasia Rosier, because she was the missing piece of the impossible puzzle that he was.