Little Bird

Chapter Twenty-Seven

            "Just wondering," I replied, rolling my eyes slightly when Christian gave me a smirk. I stood from the table, telling them both, "I'm gonna go find him. See you guys around."

            "Bye Hawkings," Flint said, giving me a raised eyebrow that I ignored as I started for the Great Hall doors.

            I headed across the Entrance Hall for the stairs that led down to the Slytherin common room, suddenly determined to get Draco to leave the castle. Maybe if I could talk him into going down to the lake with me, he'd feel a bit better. Maybe.

            When I shut the portrait door behind me, I saw that the common room was empty except for Draco. He was sitting in front of the low flame of the fireplace, leaned back against the couch cushions as he looked up at the ceiling through tired eyes. As I crossed the room towards him, he turned his head to see who it was. When Draco realized it was me, his lips pulled into a small smile that was so rare these days. I came around the side of the couch, and when he spoke, his voice sounded raspy and quiet from lack of sleep. "Hey, Eve."

            "Morning," I said, even though it was well past eleven. I took his hand in mine as I sat down beside him, the couch cushion sinking under my weight and making my body slide closer to his by accident. Neither of us seemed to notice, however, and I asked him, "Did you sleep okay?"

            I could see it in his eyes as he considered lying, but he must have decided against it. Draco squeezed my hand and admitted, "Not really, no."

            My heart sank, because anyone could tell that he hadn't been sleeping well for weeks now. Draco had dark circles lining the bottom of his eyes, and his skin had been looking almost sickly pale lately. I told him, "You must've had breakfast early. I didn't see you at all this morning."

            "I—I didn't eat," Draco said sheepishly, offering a guilty half-grin at the look I gave him. "What? I wasn't hungry."

            "That's no excuse," I insisted. "Tell me you'll eat lunch with me later, at least."

            "I will, I will," Malfoy said, rolling his eyes slightly. "Damn."

            I huffed at him, trying not to push his shoulder. I didn't understand why he wouldn't just eat when he was supposed to. After a moment I remembered why I'd hurried down here so quickly in the first place, and I sat up on the couch as I said, "The weather's great today, did you know?"

            "Is it?" Draco asked absentmindedly, still looking at the fireplace.

            "Yeah," I told him, "everyone's outside. Wanna go out there with me?"

            He looked over at me then, his eyebrows scrunching together like a little kid's would when they didn't want to do something. "But—I'm really tired. Can't we just stay here?"

            "But it finally stopped raining," I said, standing up and trying to pull him with me. "We can sit by the lake, it'll be nice. The fresh air, you know."

            "I'm really tired," Draco repeated, only sitting up slightly on the couch because I didn't have enough strength to pull him to his feet. "Come on, Eve. I look like shit, I don't want to go anywhere. Let's just stay here."

            "When was the last time you went outside?" I asked, raising my eyebrows as I looked down at him.

            Draco rolled his eyes and said, "It's been raining, you said it yourself. Eve, I barely got an hour of sleep last night. Don't make me leave this common room, please."