You and Draco get stuck in detention together. You also missed dinner so you both have to find food together.
~~~
You hated Charms class only slightly less than you hated Potions. You hated Charms since you also had to share that class with Draco, but the silver lining of Charms class was that you didn't have to sit next to the boy. Just a row in front of him. You were able to ignore him for the most part, but today seemed to be a day when he didn't want to be ignored.
"Y/N," he whispered. You didn't respond, instead continuing to listen to Professor Flitwick's lecture on the problems the Asciendo charm would cause if you didn't properly flick your wand to lower yourself safely.
"Psst, y/n!" came Draco's whisper, louder this time. You still refused to acknowledge him. You were legitimately trying to listen to the lecture, you figured you could use this spell the next time a Beater knocked you off your broom.
You felt a piece of paper hit the back of your head, and it then flew around your shoulder to land on your open book in front of you.
You let out a huff as you opened the note, Draco's chicken scratch scrawled across the small piece of paper.
"Meet me after class, I have a question for you."
You scowled. He could've just stopped you after class.
Yeah, but you wouldn't have stopped, your subconscious reminded you.
Rolling your eyes, you went to crumple up the paper, but Flitwick stopped in front of you just as you picked it up.
"Passing notes in class, are we?" Flitwick asked. His tone was jovial, but his eyes were stern. You flushed bright red, shaking your head vigorously.
"The paper in your hand seems to say otherwise, Miss Everglade," he reprimanded, holding his hand out. "I'm afraid that's five points from Slytherin and detention for you after class."
You sighed, knowing there was no way out of this. Draco laughed out loud behind you, and you dropped your head onto your book in embarrassment.
"Oh, I didn't realize that was a joke to you, Mr. Malfoy," Flitwick said, crossing his arms. "Let's hope you find detention with Miss Everglade just as entertaining."
You didn't even lift your head from your book. First you'd gotten detention for something you hadn't even done, and now you had to spend that detention with Draco fucking Malfoy.
"I hate Charms class," you muttered, and luckily, Flitwick didn't overhear that.
Once class was finally over, you and Draco met Professor Flitwick in the empty Charms classroom, and he looked at the both of you very disapprovingly.
"Y/N didn't pass any notes," Draco blurted, shocking you. "I'm the one that threw the paper at her head."
Flitwick gave Draco a once-over, nodding. "Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Malfoy. I will reinstate the House Points I took from Miss Everglade for that. However, the both of you were still quite disruptive in class today, so I'm afraid I can't take away your detention."
You sighed, nodding in acceptance. "Thanks anyway, Professor Flitwick."
He smiled. "You're a good kid, Y/N. Both of you are, really. I have faith in the two of you."
He then leaned back in his chair, gesturing to the room around you. "Your task is to clean my classroom today. You can leave either when you're finished or at the end of two hours, whichever comes first. Stack any books in stacks of no more than 7 and arrange them in alphabetical order if you would. You are permitted to use magic only to clean any dust off of the rafters and clean the floors and chalkboards. Am I understood?"
"Yes, sir," you said quickly, but Malfoy was already surveying the room, likely to figure out how much he was going to have to do.
"Alright. Do a good job, you two. I might award House Points if it exceeds my expectations."
With a smile and a wink, Flitwick was gone.
"You definitely aren't supposed to get House Points for doing detention shit," Malfoy muttered.
"I'm not going to complain, we're kind of in third place right now as it is," you responded, walking over to the chalkboard to clean it off.
"Aguamenti!" you declared, watching as a small stream of water sprayed out of your wand onto the chalkboard. You cleaned them off fairly quickly, using a towel the professor had left behind to dry them off.
"Why are you actually doing work?" Draco asked from behind you, and you looked over at him to see all the books neatly stacked in stacks of seven, and, upon closer inspection, in alphabetical order as well.
"Because we were explicitly told to not use magic?" you said, making it sound more like a question than a statement. "I'd rather not get in more trouble if it's all the same to you."
He shrugged. "I just don't think it's worth it, really. If we get the House Points then it's whatever."
"But if we're caught using magic we'll lose even more Points," you pointed out angrily. "Besides, detention is supposed to be a punishment. I'm going to consider myself lucky as long as this shit doesn't hurt my record."
"Please, like one detention's going to ruin your perfect grades and squeaky clean history," Draco said mockingly. "You've never even been out past curfew, who are you kidding?"
You straightened your back as you turned to face Draco again. "Yes, I have."
Draco laughed. "When?"
"It was last year, during that fling I had with Emerson Albatross," you said quietly.
"Emerson Albatross?" Draco said incredulously. "As in, the fifth-year Slytherin Prefect Emerson Albatross? You had a fling with a 20-year-old?"
"It was at the beginning of the year, he was 19," you said defensively. "Besides, I was already 17, it's not like it was that big a deal."
Draco's body tensed. "I can't fucking believe you fucked Emerson Albatross."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, he fucked three other girls while we were together," you said flippantly, though the reminder made your skin crawl.
"He—what? He cheated on you?"
You shrugged. "I don't know if I can call it cheating, I'm not sure we were ever exclusive."
Draco rolled his eyes, though his expression was still angry. "If I were fucking someone like you, I sure as hell wouldn't screw it up like that."
All the blood in your body rushed into your face at those words. "I—what?"
Draco froze, almost as if he realized he'd spoken out loud. "Emerson's a dick," he spat, "that's all I meant. Now help me organize these papers."
"Sure, as long as you do it without magic," I said indignantly.
"Fine," he grumbled. "Just help me out."
You had no idea how much time had passed when the two of you finished. All you knew was that you were totally getting those House Points.
You pulled open the door of the classroom to see the clock on the wall across the hall—reading 8:30.
"Fuck," Draco growled. "We were in there for four hours and we missed dinner."
Your stomach rumbled at the mention of dinner, and you groaned slightly. "Well, we've got two and a half hours until curfew," you said.
"Yeah, so?"
"So, I'm going to Hogsmeade," you retorted. "I'm hungry."
"Well, then I'm coming," Draco said matter-of-factly, following behind you.
"Oh, really? You sure you can put up with me for that long?"
"Fuck off," he spat, though his eyes were light.
There weren't very many people milling about the corridors still, but the ones who were definitely cast glances at the two of you, two people who were known to be enemies and nothing close to friends. Draco trailed behind you as you continued through the grounds to Hogsmeade, and you had half a mind to take the shortcut you'd found ages ago and leave him behind. However, you knew that if he found out about this shortcut he'd certainly rat you out, and you didn't want to risk losing your shortcut and your favorite hidey-hole.
You finally made it to Hogsmeade, stopping in at the small restaurant known best for its Butterbeers. Smiling at the small woman behind the counter, you quickly ordered two plates of cheeseburgers and fries.
"And two mugs of Butterbeer, if you don't mind," you added as she disappeared into the kitchen.
"Hope you like cheeseburgers," you said indifferently as you sat down at the table Draco had squeezed him down into.
"I'm hungry enough to eat anything," he mumbled as he fidgeted with the ends of his sleeves.
You nudged his shin with your foot to get a rise out of him, and it worked a little too quickly as he responded with a sharp kick to your ankle.
"Shit, dude, I didn't even kick you," you said as you pulled your leg up to your chest, holding your ankle as it throbbed in pain.
Draco laughed, the happiest sound you'd ever heard from the Slytherin Prince. "Don't mess with my bad leg, then," he responded with a smug grin.
"Your bad leg? Since when do you have a bad leg?"
"Since I landed on it weird while I was saving your life."
Your smile vanished, realizing he had, in fact, saved your life. "Right, I forgot about that. I never did thank you for doing that."
Draco's grin vanished, too, the air between you replaced with an awkward silence.
"I mean, you know. Thanks, for that. I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't made it to me in time."
"I—don't mention it," he said, shrugging. "Don't waste your time wondering about the what-ifs, anyway."
Your food arrived just a few moments later, and you were grateful for an excuse to not speak to Draco as you dug into your meal.
"Besides," Draco said after a few beats of silence, "I sort of owed you after the stunt I pulled in Potions. You didn't have to cover for me, but you did. I don't know how Snape didn't figure things out after pretty much the entire rest of the class was off to spread the news once class was over."
You shrugged. "I just know how much I want my record to be as spotless as possible, so to turn around and botch someone else's up would be pretty shitty."
"You wouldn't have fucked it up," Draco insisted. "I'm the one that shoved you."
You shrugged, swirling your fry around in the ketchup the waitress had brought you. "It just wouldn't have been worth it."
Draco sat back in his seat, his plate empty. "I wouldn't have blamed you for ratting me out, though. That's all."
You glanced at the clock on the wall before doing a double-take. It was 10:41, and curfew was only 19 minutes away.
"Shit, Draco, it's almost a quarter 'til curfew," you said, beginning to panic. You hailed down the waitress, left her with more than enough Galleons to satisfy the check, and hauled ass out of the diner.
"Y/N, we're never going to make it in time," Draco yelled after you as he followed you out of the diner.
You stopped in your tracks, knowing he was right. If the two of you didn't take the shortcut, you'd certainly both get in trouble for missing curfew. And more trouble was the last thing you needed right now.
You turned back to him, a shiver going through your body as the cold night wind whipped around you.
"You have to swear on your life, right now, that you won't tell anyone about what we're about to do," you said, poking a finger in his chest.
His face was confused, then contorted into a smirk. One of the things you hated most about his stupid face. "Y/N, kissing me isn't going to get you to Hogwarts any faster," he said mockingly.
You scoffed, rolling your eyes. "Believe you me, you're the last person I'd ever consider kissing," you said, watching as the smirk faded. "I'm telling you to swear on your life that you won't snitch about the shortcut I'm about to show you."
Eyes wide, Draco nodded. But that wasn't good enough for you.
"Say it," you demanded. Heaving a sigh, Draco nodded again. "I swear on my life I won't tell anyone about the shortcut you're about to show me," he said slowly.
You nodded then, before grabbing his wrist and pulling him to an alley behind the restaurant you had just been in.
"You're about to murder me, aren't you?" he asked jokingly.
"Shut up," you said by way of comeback. He chuckled lightly behind you, but you paid him no mind.
He followed closely behind you as you ducked under a large tree branch and finally made your way out onto a semi-straight, rocky forest path.
"There's no way we're allowed to be here," Draco breathed as he followed you down the path back to Hogwarts.
"You're exactly right," you said in agreeance. "That's why you aren't going to tell anyone that you know this is here."
"Unless, I guess, we're stuck in Hogsmeade right before curfew without enough time to get back by going the regular way," Draco teased.
You ignored that remark, your teeth chattering too hard for you to formulate a good response.
"I can hear your teeth chattering, y/n," Draco pointed out, as you quickened your pace even more.
"I'm so fucking sorry, D-Draco," you stuttered. "By the time I realized I'd left my robe in the Charms classroom, w-we were already in Hogsmeade."
Draco huffed. "Fucking stop moving for three seconds, then."
You obeyed his command before you realized what you were doing. "Wait, why?"
He didn't respond to you, instead, taking off his own robe and throwing it around your shoulders. The faint smell of peppermint wafted up into your nose, and you were grateful that the moonlight shining through the tree branches wasn't bright enough to show the ferocious blush that had splashed itself across your face.
"Come on now, get moving, we likely only have a few minutes left," Draco said, absentmindedly grabbing your hand and jogging down the forest path.
Just a few moments later you burst out into the courtyard of Hogwarts, looking all around for anyone who might be patrolling the castle yards. Seeing nobody, Draco pulled you up through the courtyard, into the back doors of the castle just as the clock right inside the wall hit eleven on the dot.
"Quick, now we have to get back to the Common Room before anyone sees us," Draco whispered, pulling on you again.
"Wait, I can't leave my robe in the Charms class!" you whispered back, pulling out your wand.
"I never realize just how big your wand is until you pull it out," Draco said, his voice quiet with awe.
"Thirteen inches, this bad boy is," you said, waving it around just a smidge. What could you say? You were proud of it.
"Accio Robes!" you whispered into the dark, and just a few moments later, your Slytherin robes flew into your outstretched hand. You grinned proudly at the spell you were worried you hadn't mastered, before pulling Draco's robes off of your body to hand back to the boy.
"You know, you look better in these anyway," Draco said as he pulled the robe back on.
"Don't you have better things to do than give fake compliments?" you joked as you hurried down the corridors towards the Slytherin Common Room.
"Who said they were fake?" Draco asked as the two of you barely made it into the Common Room.
You stopped and turned back to him, a questioning look on your face. "Don't play dumb, Malfoy. You hate me and I hate you. We've been enemies since you tried to shove me on our way in here for the first time ever."
"I never hated you," Draco said indignantly. "You were just easy to pick on."
"How was I easy?" you asked, your voice getting louder. "You never once gave me an insult that I didn't have a comeback for."
Draco shrugged, but you swore you could practically hear his walls sliding back up. You felt dumb for thinking he'd stay as friendly as he'd been all evening.
"Thanks for dinner," he said flippantly. "Let's never do this again."
"What, get detention together?" you said with a forced laugh. "Maybe don't throw shit at me in class and we wouldn't have this issue."
Draco shook his head angrily, running a hand through his white-blond hair. "You're fucking unbelievable."
"I'm unbelievable?" you asked. "You're the one who threw a note at the back of my head. You're the one who laughed when I got in trouble for it. You're the one who then tried to do the one thing we were told not to do during detention. None of this is my fault."
Draco huffed again, turning on his heel. "I'm not dealing with this shit," he said angrily, heading up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.
And despite the fact that he made you angrier than any other person on the planet, you couldn't say his departure didn't make you feel a little hollow on the inside.
You climbed up the stairs to your own room, collapsing on the bed without even taking your uniform off.
Tomorrow will be a better day, you told yourself.
And as you drifted off, still in your school uniform, you hoped with everything in you that was true.