Just Ellie ⌁ Draco Malfoy (ON HOLD)

9

It couldn't be too hard to let him in on what he was missing out on.

"Nikolai! Hey!" she called after him the next day. He turned around by the great oak doors by the Great Hall with raised eyebrows, apparently shocked that she sought him out instead of the other way around. "How are you?"

"Super," he said slowly. "How are you?"

"Good. Where is everyone? Your . . . friends . . . I haven't seen Silas anyway either."

"Ah. You think my friends are holding Silas hostage and you won't see him again until after we're married."

Ellie paled and her tongue caught in her throat. Nikolai raised a delicate brow.

"That was my attempt at a joke," he added. "He's probably in the library studying or in his dormitory. Like mine - they're all in the Slytherin common room getting a move on with their OWL studies. Draco and Pansy have been working on their Prefect duties . . . I still think I should've been a Prefect, Draco's a terrible Prefect."

"I don't doubt you," said Ellie, rolling her eyes. "You would've made a wonderful Prefect. You might even make Head Boy!"

Nikolai smiled and held his arm out for her to take. "Let's walk."

"Where? And I hope you know that we'll be in trouble if one of our teachers spots us not using our free time wisely."

"I'm already excelling, they're doubtlessly aware of that. Now that we're alone without an audience, tell me something," he said politely, Ellie took his arm and they began to walk.

"Tell you something?" she blinked.

"Yes. About you. I don't want to hear about any of that Muggle career nonsense either."

"Er - ok," she said, suddenly frightened that she might not be able to open his eyes just as Silas had opened hers. Her parents were not very fond of Muggles, Muggle-borns and Squibs, but Silas made sure to knock that out of her, what if she couldn't do the same for Nikolai? "I like to draw. And paint."

"Draw and paint? Like what?"

"Like - anything. Flowers, trees, the sky, buildings, people, portraits. I've attempted drawing this castle but it looked more like the shrieking shack . . ."

"Are you any good?" he asked her. "You should look at me when I talk to you. It's rude to stare at the ground while I'm talking. I thought your parents taught you manners."

Ellie froze for a second and fought the urge to argue with him, instead deciding to clear her throat and mind, and turn to look Nikolai dead in his brown eyes.

"Yes," she said, in a strong, somber voice. "I am good."

He only smiled, which irked her slightly. She held her stare. "Good. You should draw me. Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"To my common room."

The way Nikolai said my suggested that in his mind he thought he owned the entirety of Slytherin.

"Er - how am I meant to draw you if we're headed to your common room? I haven't got my drawing kit. Nikolai - stop dragging me! This is wrong, I can't go into Slytherin, it isn't right."

"Oh, come on. We'll go to your common room, you can grab your things, then we'll head back down to my common room and we can sit in my dormitory. I'll make sure no one comes in to disturb us," he smiled, pulling her into another direction. Ellie cried out from the force of his grasp, but she wasn't sure he heard or noticed it from how excited he seemed. "You don't need to worry about coming into Slytherin. Your whole family were Slytherins, you're meant to be in Slytherin. Besides, no one will care that you're in there if you're with me."

"Nikolai . . . I don't want to go in there," she told him as he pulled her up the marble stairs. "And going to Gryffindor then back down to Slytherin? That's an awful lot of walking. We can just . . . sit in the library."

"No way, Elyssa. You're going to see the House you're meant to be in."

"Yeah - but - I don't want to. I'm in Gryffindor, I don't care for Slytherin," she argued.

"And I don't care that you don't want to; you need to," he argued back. There was something about the look he'd given her; it wasn't in his face, but when she saw the slight crease in his delicate eyebrows, it masked the entire politeness on his face and made him look . . . angry.

Ellie fought against a groan and looked at the bright side; while she drew him in Slytherin, she could take her time and hopefully talk sense into him. She was starting to feel as though she could tolerate Pansy more than Nikolai, and that was terrible. Pansy was terrible. And if Pansy was terrible, what was Nikolai?