𝐀 𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐋𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍 ↬ 𝔡.𝔪𝔞𝔩𝔣𝔬𝔶

08 | h o g s m e a d e

"Keep it down lovebirds!" Blaise snickered, clasping his hands together and fluttering his eyelashes, "Oh, Potter, you're always adorable. Let me admire your shoulders!" Another group of students looked almost ready to laugh until Draco's glare shut them up.

"Shut up, you git!" Draco yelled, his ears ringing red.

"Where are we going first?" I asked Pansy and she pointed to the Three Broomsticks. 

I could feel Draco looking intensely at my hand, and I looked up at him teasingly. "Does wittle Dwaco want to hold my hand?"

His face burned as I laughed. Teasing him was too easy. "Just in case Cawthrone's here," he answered quickly.

"Of course." I obliged with a smirk. As our fingers intertwined my heart started beating a little too fast. Odd.

After a while, my hands began to feel sweaty. "Switch?" I asked.

Draco moved to my other side and we held hands again. 

"AWW!" Blaise yelled, clutching his heart. "I can't with you two anymore! What happened to our slightly sociopathic Potter? What happened to our Daddy's boy Malfoy?"

This time it was Pansy who hit Blaise's head. "Did Malfoy's hits make you lose all your brain cells? Shut up and read the vibe."

I could feel my cheeks heating up, "Let's get butterbeer."

Has anyone ever mentioned how annoying it is to sit in a dress? Like that shit climbs up fifty feet and you're left feeling self-conscious. 

I pulled at the hem of my dress, but since it was an off the shoulder dress, it then pulled my neckline down. The struggles of looking cute.

Draco threw me his jacket, and I noticed that his ears were red. 

Pansy snickered, "See? I told you that jacket would come in handy."

After spending some time talking, we decided to split up for a while and meet back at the Three Broomsticks in two hours. 

Draco and I decided to visit the prank shop and then the book store and then head back to meet the rest of the gang to go to Honeydukes. 

"Wow, that's a lot of people," he said, opening the front door of Zonko's. 

As I walked in, my hand reached out instinctively for the stink bomb whizzing for his face. Immediately after I caught it, I threw it back to the direction it came from. Thank Merlin for Qudditch. 

"You okay?" I asked as the store started to smell like the worst corner of the locker room. "Ew." I laughed, blocking my nose.

Draco scrunched his nose, "Way to stink up the whole store, Potter." He gave me a playful nudge with his elbow. 

"I just saved your arse," I said, pulling him to the aisle with the sugar quills. Grabbing a bunch to last me until the next trip, I turned to Draco and shrugged. "And to be fair, I got rid of the crowd."

"Ah yes. Thank you and your reflexes." He said, watching the rush of people leaving the store in the corner of his eye. 

"Anything you want to see?" I asked, ready to check out.

"Only you." he winked.

I pushed him away, "Come back with a less cheesy pick-up line."

"Cheesy?" he protested dramatically with a hand over his heart. "I'd like you to know I have a fan club." 

I shot him a sweet smile, "Well, Draco, so do I." The sad truth was that I wasn't lying. Not at school like Draco's was obviously. "Except mine's the entire wizarding world," I said cheekily over my shoulder as I made my way to the counter.

"You and your ego!" Draco laughed, putting his hands in his pockets as he followed me.

"Like yours is any better!" I giggled, "We are very egotistical people."

He opened his mouth to argue but couldn't make any arguments. "Yes, Potter. I guess we are." he agreed at last with one of his rare genuine smiles. His eyes crinkled, and it was like the room was suddenly brighter.

I stared at him for too long until his eyebrows creased and the corners of his mouth were drawn down. "Is something wrong, Potter?"

"Huh?" I blinked out of my trance. "No, you're just really cute when you smile."

Draco's face flushed immediately as he raised an arm to his face. "I'll-I'll wait outside."

My eyes widened as I watched him rush out of the store. My palms were drenched in sweat, and every time I looked at Draco, it was like my brain was suddenly coated in sugar. I swallowed nervously as I listened to my quickened heart rate. 

Ah shit. I like Draco.