Butterflies || Draco Malfoy

|9| THE LOVE POTION

Boxing Day was obviously dead quiet. After the long night that most of the school had endured during the ball, with many staying up well past midnight, most people were still in bed, including Clara's roommates. Even Clara'd had a long night, namely all that time she spent randomly dancing with Draco Malfoy in the corridor.

Clara woke up slowly, feeling that well-rested sensation in her limbs that she felt whenever she'd slept in fully. The other girls were fast asleep, and someone on the other end of the room was snoring away loudly too. Then she lazily propped her weight up on her elbows and turned her head to check the time on the clock on her bedside table.

She gasped. "Shoot."

Honestly, Clara had never leapt out of bed quite that quickly in her entire life. Even her cat yelped and tumbled backwards off her bed from the amount of force she used to climb to her feet and scramble around the room in a desperate attempt to get ready.

Malfoy had been expecting her at 9 o'clock to continue working on their project, but it was past 10 o'clock now. She just hoped he wouldn't be too angry at her for turning up so late.

With her clothes messily thrown on, her hair quickly brushed, and Lilia settled back on her bed, Clara picked up her book and a random quill and sprinted out of the room, closing the door behind her in a disorganised flurry.

Just as she reached the door, she heard Justin's voice behind her. "You're going out without shoes then?" he questioned. "If you get a splinter, don't come crying to me."

Clara instantly spun on her heel and placed her stuff down on a table by the door so that she could bolt back up the stairs, quietly grab a pair of shoes, and dash back down again. Now that she wasn't going to leave barefoot, she scooped up her book and quill once more and finally left the Hufflepuff basement, making her way up the stairs towards the library.

By the time she actually reached the library, she was completely out of breath. Stopping at the door to regulate her breathing, she straightened out her hair with one hand and started towards the table in the Alchemy Section of the library.

Of course, Malfoy was already there, and from the looks of things he'd gotten a lot done in the time she'd been asleep. His eyes were quickly glancing between books and parchments as he wrote on one long scroll in front of him.

He glanced up at her momentarily before looking back at his desk and sighing. "You should really invest in a clock, Davies."

Blushing slightly, Clara placed her things down beside his and pulled out her usual chair, settling down comfortably.

"Where were you by the way?" he asked. "I checked the Great Hall and all around the library but I couldn't see you."

Without looking up at him, she replied, "Sleeping."

"I suppose my incredible dancing abilities tired you out," he joked.

She'd almost forgotten about the previous night, but she wasn't entirely sure how. The entire memory in her head, though it felt vivid, it also felt surreal, like a dream maybe. It was as if time itself froze for that short amount of time he spent dancing with her.

He dipped his quill in his ink pot and continued copying out a few quotes from a book he was reading. "Still don't talk much, do you?"

She shook her head shyly.

"Why don't you?" he asked her.

She paused for a moment, debating her answer. "I don't like to talk-"

"Yeah, I know that," he interrupted amusedly, "but why? It's one thing to dislike talking, but to refuse to talk whatsoever? That's a bit weird if you ask me."