Little Bird

Chapter Eleven

            Blaise was seated in front of the stone fireplace, and he looked over the back of the couch and gave me a grin. "Hey, I was starting to think you bailed."

            "No way," I told him, coming around the side of the couch and seating myself beside him. "I would've come down sooner if I knew you were back already."

            "No big deal," Blaise said, spreading his arms wide across the back of the couch. "Practice ended early anyway. Were you sleeping?"

            I shook my head, hoping my eyes didn't betray how tired I was. "I was doing work. Did you get that load of Divination homework?"

            Blaise shrugged and gave an arrogant smile. "Yeah, but I'm not doing it. Divination is barely even a class, so who cares?"

            I laughed at that, and then there was a long moment where I watched the green flames and felt Blaise's eyes on me. I finally turned to look at him and smiled, "What did you want to talk about?"

            He shrugged and told me, "I dunno."

            It was only then that I looked down and realized he was suddenly just a couple inches from me. I could feel my cheeks growing hot for the second time this evening, wishing I was better at disguising it.

            "But I've been wanting to say," Blaise said with a small smirk, "I'm really glad you're in Slytherin, Eve."

            "Oh," I said, giving him a small smile in return. I didn't want to say anything else, because I still wasn't sure if I would ever be glad to be in Slytherin.

            The green fire was casting dark shadows on Blaise's face, making his pale eyes stand out even in the darkness of the common room. The only sound in the room was our breathing, and I realized Blaise was looking down at my lips.

            And then I realized his hand was on my thigh.

            I was leaning away slightly before I even knew it, and Blaise was telling me, "It's okay."

            But I suddenly wasn't sure if any of this was okay anymore.

~*~

Draco

            I was changing in the locker room right after practice ended when I realized I hadn't seen Zabini in a while.

           As I tossed my muddy shirt into the locker and tugged out my jacket, I leaned back and called to Flint, "Hey, where's Zabini? Did he skip out again, I told him not to—"

            "No, he left early," Flint said, pulled his shirt over his head.

            I shrugged my jacket on and paused, asking carefully, "Why? I would've left early too if I knew you'd let me."

            "Nice," Flint said dryly as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I let him off this one time. Said he had to talk to someone."

            Despite myself, I tensed up and hesitated in pulling my bag out of the gym locker. "What the hell? Did he say who?"

            "Dunno, some girl," Flint replied, not even bothering to look at me. He smirked then, adding cheekily, "I think we both know what he's up to. Better take our time getting back to the common room—"

            "Are you kidding?" I asked darkly, my bag completely forgotten halfway out of the locker. Flint glanced up at the tone of my voice, looking across the bench at me.