Chamber of Love

Chapter 27

Pomfrey, still smiling, was about to turn her attention back to Neville before she finally noticed Draco's presence.

"Mr. Malfoy, what are you doing here?" She asked with a surprised tone.

Draco, itching to follow Juliette, shrugged. "Nothing. I was just visiting." He answered casually and hurriedly left their side without waiting to receive another question. He grabbed his bag from the bed he was previously leaning against and followed Juliette, who was done with cleaning, out of the hospital.

"You could at least wait for me." He grumbled when he caught up with her while hanging his leather bag on his shoulder.

"I was waiting for you. See, I'm walking slowly." She answered with a not-so-serious smile.

Draco settled with staying silent and giving her just an annoyed eye roll. His hands were in his pockets, which Juliette noticed he was doing frequently. His school robe was following him around as he walked and he kept puffing out to keep his hair out of his eyes. Juliette wondered why he'd stop wearing hair gel if it bothered him so much. Not that she was paying attention to how he styled his hair.

"What did you want to talk about?" She asked even though she had a very good guess. She was aware that she's left him rather confused after their catastrophic lunch at the Slytherin table, and she knew he wouldn't just leave it at that.

"Nothing much." He said with a shrug. "I was wondering if you'd like to eat lunch with me."

Juliette's relaxed expression quickly got taken over by a completely baffled frown. She thought he was only joking at first, but he didn't laugh as she'd expected. Surely he wasn't inviting her to sit at that cursed table again, was he? Not after what happened?

"Are you serious? Don't you remember what happened yesterday? You can't be really suggesting that I–"

"Will you calm down for a second?" Draco interrupted her heated words. "I wasn't trying to invite you to the Slytherin table. I meant to ask if you'd want to eat lunch with me. I mean, just me."

Juliette almost lost her balance and collapsed to the cold ground. Almost.

"Uh..." Trying to look indifferent while searching for words, she didn't forget to cough for a few times just to gain some more time. Not to mention that those coughs sounded suspiciously fake to Draco, though he said nothing. "Yeah, sure. Sure. Why not?" It took everything in her not to utter one more breathless 'sure'.

"Great." A faint smile was visible on his lips. "You see, I may have felt bad for forcing you to do something you were uncomfortable with. So I stole some food from the kitchens." He confessed, not mentioning how he almost got into a fight with one of the house elves before threatening to turn him into a cat toy so Mrs. Norris could play with it. It wasn't his best moment.

Even though Juliette tried to look like she disapproved his actions, she couldn't help but let out a short laugh. After all, she was no saint since she sneaked into the kitchens with Cedric whenever they were bored.

"And?" She looked at him expectantly.

"And I was hoping you'd have a location in mind. You and I both know that I will not sit with those Hufflepuff friends of yours."

Juliette, not mentioning her lack of friends within her own house, paused to think. The outside spots such as the Courtyard didn't occupy her mind longer than two seconds since it was cold outside regardless of the shining sun. Her thoughts slyly rushed through the corridors and stopped at the seventh floor, right before the classroom door only she's been using for years.