Miss O'Riley

LIBRARY

We had won the match against Hufflepuff, I scored five times and Harry caught the snitch forty-five minutes in. It had been a good game, but Harry was already panicking about the game next week against Slytherin. We had two practices scheduled for this week and I think with all the strategizing and intense planning, Harry had officially lost the plot.

He was always coming up to us and giving us tips and strategies. Honestly, he's as bad as Oliver Wood was to him when he first started playing. We all just played along in hopes that we wouldn't have to schedule even more practices.

It was Saturday morning and Juliet and I had planned on going to the library to work on Umbridge's stupid assignment. We had to write 2000 words on the theory of conflict, all of our information would just be summarized from the textbook.

Once we arrived after eating breakfast in the Great Hall, it was relatively packed, so we found an empty table in the corner of the room and got to work. Writing about conflict avoidance and the act of fleeing soon got terribly boring, I started fidgeting and playing around with my quills. I reached down and grabbed my black quill and balanced it on my nose with much precision and care. Turning slowly to Juliet who had looked up and was silently giggling.

"Tada!"

"Come on you goof", and with that, she blew my quill off of my nose and it fell to the floor. I gave her a dumbfounded look and reached down to pick up my quill. As my gaze rose from the floor, I met eyes with a staring blonde from behind tables and certain bookshelves. I gave him a puzzled look and he turned away, I really wanted to find out what was going on.

Juliet and I were nearing the end of our papers and every few minutes I would glance up and make sure Malfoy was still there. Once Juliet and I had finished, I told her to go back upstairs without me since I had to get a book, or maybe just interrogate.

I waited for Malfoy to make his way over to a bookshelf and that's when I took my chance. He was browsing books, I stalked up to the shelf on the opposite side and slowly watched him through the bookshelf when he pulled out one called "One thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi".

"So what gives?", I startled him so bad that he almost dropped the book. He looked at me through the bookshelf lost for words.

"Christ O'Riley, what's wrong with you?"

"I don't know, I guess I could ask you the same thing?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, you think you could explain why you are always staring?"

He looked at me perplexed, choosing his words wisely.

"I'm not staring"

"Uh, yeah you are"

"Ok, and what would I be staring at you for?"

"Well, let's see. For one, maybe you fancy me, no you're too arrogant to fancy someone like me. Or maybe you have something you need to get off your chest?", I looked at him with a questioning grin.

"I don't fancy you, I'm just confused by you"

"Well, why might that be?"

"You're different"

"You mean I'm not like Pansy Parkinson. I thought that was obvious"

"I don't know you're just so peculiar"

"You know what Malfoy, I'm going to take that as a compliment"

He looked at me as if wondering if I had anything else to say.

"Well if I'm being honest, I've noticed you staring a few times"

"Oh you liar"

"It's true, what are you hiding O'Riley?"

"Well if you want me to say that you're cute, you won't need any of that veritaserum."

"Wow, you're upfront"

"Hey, I'm not saying that I love you. Get that up in your big head"

"Well I don't think your friends would be so happy if they saw you hanging out with me"

"I'm not hanging out with you Malfoy, this is an interrogation." I spun around to meet him on his side of the bookshelf.

"Let me guess, you got exactly what you were looking for"

I started walking to the door, swinging my backpack onto my shoulder and spun around casually.

"Precisely"

***

I couldn't get Malfoy out of my mind for the rest of the week, whenever I saw him my stomach did a flip. This was especially weird since I have never felt this way for anyone, even Ben. I'm not saying that I fancy Malfoy but maybe, just maybe he's not the same person that I've always thought he was.

In Potions, he acted especially nice. He actually asked about my day and cut all the gross ingredients for me. Juliet noticed this and was bombarding me with questions after every time I saw him.

I didn't know what to say, no one would like that he and I were on speaking terms but part of me just didn't care. I smiled every time I saw him in the halls and all our classes. All these nice gestures were cool and all but were going to have to be forgotten for this weekend. I had completely forgotten that we were playing Slytherin, they were dirty and mean on the pitch and I just hated how many penalties we got for retaliating.

It was Friday afternoon, we were all in the Gryffindor common room and Harry was giving us the team pep talk. He went on about how much this game means to us and how hard we were going to work to win.

After dinner, Harry ordered us all to bed early and made sure we had enough to eat. I was really ready for tomorrow, besides all of the anxious nerves spiralling in and out of my body. We just had to win this game, it means so much to Gryffindor.  

***

The whole Dumbledore's Army thing, a name which Ginny had proudly come up with, was going well. We met quite regularly nad were progressing awesomely. Even some of the people in the group who lacked so much confidence were doing great.

It felt good to be apart of something like that, to be the one helping Harry demonstrate spells, or to be the one walking around the room adjusting students. It felt good.

Meanwhile, with all this stuff going on, including Dumbledore's Army, along with Quidditch, and school, I still seem to have one thing glued to my brain, Malfoy.

I cursed myself for it every time his face popped into my mind, but I couldn't help myself, he seemed like some sort of drug. It was horrible really, to be thinking about someone so toxic, in such a good way.

Obviously, the idea of me seeing him as popped into my head a couple of times here and there, but that's just silly. I'm not even sure I like the guy. Besides, he's a total assole, and just not my type.

Or was he?