"They can't make him a part of the tournament, right?" Blaire was sitting on Meli's bed, his leg jerking at a worryingly fast pace on the floor.
"I mean, they could." Jane was on her bed, doing her Transfiguration homework.
"It would be so funny if he actually had to compete." Meli was going through the walk-in, taking out a dress, laying it on her body in front of her and putting it back in the closet.
"It would not! He's not seventeen yet! It's dangerous." Blaise stood up and paced around the room.
"Well, go ask him if it'll help calm you down." Jane said, closing the big book on her pillow.
"Yeah, good idea. Can you, I don't know, keep Draco busy? Just so he doesn't walk in on me and Harry having a civilized conversation." asked Blaise.
"I'm gonna be with Cedric but I'm sure Mastermind here can come up with something." Jane pointed to Meli before going in the bathroom.
"Mastermind?" Meli laughed.
"Yeah, no, you're manipulative as fuck. I have no doubt you could keep Draco in the common room against his will all day and he wouldn't even notice." Blaise nodded.
"Why, thank you." she bowed down and turned back to the closet. "I will be using my manipulative powers in approximately five minutes. You should leave now."
"Thank you, Mastermind." Blaise said goodbye to the girls and left the room.
Jane shouted behind the bathroom's door. "Meli, don't wait for me. I just screwed up my eyeliner, I have to re-do the left eye."
Meli tried to put a shirt back in the closet but ended up making half of it fall down. She slammed the door and pressed herself against them, coughing to cover up the noise of clothes falling down.
"Um, sure. See ya!" She left before Jane got out and found out the mess that probably their closet at the moment. She skipped a few steps on her way down to the common room and almost tripped as she reached the bottom.
"Merlin, what are you running from?" Draco's voice came from a corner of the room. He was leaning back on his chair, a book opened in one hand. A cup of tea was fuming on the table in front of him.
"Jane. I made a mess and plan on denying it." she said, walking over to him and taking the another chair.
"Huh, you're lucky she's seeing Diggory tonight. She'll be in a good mood." he huffed, turning a page of his book.
"What are you reading?" Meli asked, crossing her legs beneath herself.
"I don't really know. Some philosophy novel."
"Oh god, philosophy?" Meli rolled her eyes and leaned on the table, trying to read the title. "That's just depressing."
"Oh, I'm sorry Miss Romance. I forgot all you read are cheesy romantic stories that raise your expectations way to high for the real world. No man acts like they do in those novels, Meli. Face the truth." Draco sipped his tea.
"Maybe you don't, but some guys do meet my expectations." she scoffed, only half faking her indignation.
"Yeah? Who?" he said with a smirk.
"Louis McCartney is pretty good at being a gentleman. He's also galant, extremely good-looking, charismatic. He doesn't treat me like I'm stupid and doesn't stare at my boobs when I talk to him." she said with a smile, loving the way Draco's face crisped at her words.
"You finish listing the guy's qualities?" he asked, jaw squared.
"For now. Why?" Meli answered. She looked at him with an innocence they both knew she was faking.
Meli didn't know how or when it happened but somehow they ended like this. Draco was jealous when she talked about another guy, her stomach did weird shit when they touched.
Perhaps it had really started when Meli learned about him threatening guys who showed interest in her. Or when they got stuck together last year and spent every second of everyday with the other. Or maybe for her it was seeing him with that other at the end of third year.
Now, they were playing cat and mouse around each other. Problem is, she wasn't sure who was the cat and who was the mouse.
"No particular reason." said Draco, going back to his book.
And maybe that was why they were going in circles. Because every time they got remotely close to the subject, one of them would stop and backtrack. This time it was him, another it was her.
Why did they do it? Meli herself had no idea. But it was entertaining.
"Hey, where did Blaise go? I saw him–" Draco started.
Meli cut him short. "Do you think they'll let Potter participate?" She knew the mention of Scarehead would distract him.
"They better not. Potter is a bloody insult to this already ridiculous school, we don't need him tarnished our image." he spat, laying his book on the table.
"Now, I hear you but listen. Imagine how funny it'll be to see him fail miserably all the task." she leaned over the table with a machiavellian smile.
"You seem sure he'll be a part of the Tournament." Draco raised an eyebrow.
"The Goblet did chose him, like it or not and he has Dumbledore at his side. And if anyone can get away with skirting around the Ministry's ordres, it's Potter." Meli said
"Fucking favoritisme." Draco muttered. Meli nodded, agreeing with him.
"Hey, is that Blaise? Zabini, come here!" Draco pointed behind Meli who snapped her head to the stairs of the boy's dormitories.
Blaise was frozen at the other end of the room, foot on the first step. It takes a fraction of second for Meli to make eye contact. He mouthed 'he's participating' and she nodded before mouthing back at him the word 'run' as discreetly as possible. And as quickly as he arrived, Blaise was gone up the stairs.
"What do you mean that was Blaise? That was Malcolm Pine!" Meli turned back to Draco.
She was taking a risk and betting all their chances on Draco's stupidity. According to her, the odds were pretty good.
"No, that wasn't Pine." Draco frowned. "That was definitely Blaise."
"Heh, trust me that was Pine." She said with another forced smile.
"But wh–" Draco looked more and more confused.
"Draco! I wanted to ask you, what do you think of my makeup today?" Meli interrupted him once again. "Wait, I'll move closer so you can get a better look."
She stood up and walked to him. She dragged his chair so he was facing her and her hands went to his shoulders. Their faces were close. Close enough that their breaths mingled but not that they had to choose which eye to look at. While he 'observed her makeup' she movies her hand slightly to his neck. She started playing with the hair at the base of it, enrolling a lock of blond hair around her finger.Draco swallowed, his adam apple going up and back down and slowly smirked.
"It looks good. It's really pretty." He said with something in his grey eyes. She couldn't decided if he was in a trans or amused.
"Thanks. I'm going to go." Meli smiled too and raised. She hurriedly made her way to the girl dormitories and smiled even bigger feeling Draco's eyes on her back.
Meli doubted he was going to ask questions about Blaise to anyone else in the common room so, mission accomplished.
When Meli reached her dorm, she started thinking. She didn't know about Draco but she was pretty sure this was another reason why they didn't talk about whatever was going on.
It's all fun and games until it's not. She wouldn't take the risk to make things more awkward than they have been just for what? She wasn't even sure if it was attraction or something else. And she wasn't about to find out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hillooo so i'm feel like i forced the 'we both know there's smt between us and we know the other knows but we don't talk about it' thing but i had no idea what to do so things moved a bit.
Anyway, vote, comment and please go read my other book Turning Table.
Hop you enjoyed,
Laeti