Light in the Darkness

Chapter 30

Adelaide stormed into the Slytherin Common Room, still furious from her encounter with her brother. She saw Draco sitting on the couch by himself, staring into the fire with an angry scowl.

"Draco.." Adelaide made her way to him, putting their weird tension aside. "Are you alright?"

Draco tensed his jaw, "I'm fine now I'm not a bloody ferret." he lightly kicked the coffee table in frustration. A few moments of tense silence passed before they made eye contact, Adelaide suddenly had an overwhelming urge to laugh whether it was out of nerves or the thought of him as a ferret. She bit her lip as a smile creeped onto her face. Draco's angry expression softened too as he began to laugh. Adelaide let out giggle and soon, they were almost doubled over on the floor hysterically laughing, tears rolling down their faces and stomachs hurting.

Draco buried his face into his hands as he stifled his laugh and tried to hide his embarrassed blush. She missed moments like this when they were growing up. They could be normal friends without the pressure of anyone wanting them to "be together". It was effortless, and Adelaide truly wanted nothing more than to have her friend back. He would let his defensive shell down with her and lighten up, she loved seeing Draco smile because it wasn't something he did often. 

Draco however was thinking how relieved he was that she didn't make fun of him terribly for the ferret incident. In complete honesty, he was infuriated and embarrassed and had every intention of telling his father about it, but Adelaide had a way of lightening the situation and turning it into a good, heartfelt laugh. No one else could ever do that for Draco, no one lit up the room and took his breath away like she did. She was everything he didn't have growing up: warmth, humor, and caring. His parents would undoubtedly approve of her, which was a feat of its own. No other pureblooded girl had the same softness, the same warm energy, the scent of lavender and roses that wafted from her glowing skin that would cause Draco's heart to flutter. 

As their laughter died down a bit, Adelaide patted Draco's leg gently, stood up and said, "Well, I'm just glad you're alright. I have to head to the library to do some studying." Draco stood up instinctively and looped his finger into her hand, pausing her from leaving, "Is it for the Astronomy exam coming up? B-because I'm honestly confused about this whole rubbish subject." her eyes grew wide, and Draco flinched thinking she was going to flat out reject him, but to his surprise she yelled, "YOU TOO? So it's not just me? Thank Merlin! Yes, please please come with me. Hopefully we can figure out this wretched prediction constellation thingy." his heart swelled as she skipped out of the Common Room with him.

She made a habit of going to the library because it was located right between the Gryffindor Common Room and the Great Hall. Fred and George often walked past it in the hall, which gave Adelaide a moment to see George. Seeing him was like ripping open a wound, but it was better than the dull ache she felt when she didn't see him.

---

The next day everyone was in the Common Room frantically bundling up, throwing on colors to support the person they wanted to win today's competition. Adelaide gulped nervously, trying to hide the fact that she was a complete nervous wreck. Harry had to do well in this. There was no way for Adelaide or Perseus to influence which dragon Harry had to face, but she could listen in on the drawing and use the sedatives Sebestyen had told her about on the dragon. 

She sighed seeing Draco and the rest of her friends giddily painting "KRUM" on their faces with the "Potter Stinks" pin. 

"Merlin's sake! At least support Hogwarts." Adelaide whined, motioning towards her Hufflepuff sweatshirt and "Go Diggory!" sign. She was relieved to see that most of the Slytherins had at the very least remained loyal to Hogwarts and were supporting Cedric in the competition, it was just her friends and a few other Bulgaria Quidditch fans who were decked out in Krum gear.