« CONFRONTATION »
The next day, Anastasia woke up feeling a pang on her chest and a strange feeling over her body. She glanced around the room and quickly changed into her emerald robes to start the day. In silence, she took her bag and shoved the hawthorn wood wand inside her robes and made her way out of the common room with a glimpse of determination in her green eyes.
It was a bit early but she found her friends talking in the Great Hall with a copy of The Daily Prophet in the middle of the table, Anastasia dropped her bag in the bench and took a seat next to Hermione.
"Morning." She spoke with a raspy voice.
"Good morning, Annie." The three replied almost at the same time. Anastasia reached forward for an apple and then looked at the trio with quizzically eyes.
"What's wrong?" Her face changed drastically at the sight of their worried frowns.
"Malfoy came here a few minutes ago." Ron began, leaning closer. "He asked for you." That made Anastasia to furrow her eyebrows.
"For me?" She questioned, looking between her friends. "Why?"
"We don't know." Harry simply answered, shrugging. "What happened at the Malfoy's, Annie?" The air seemed to get stuck in her throat as her eyes traveled over her friends.
The kisses, the fireworks and everything that happened in the Malfoy manor appeared right in front of her eyes. Fire ignited in every inch of her body where Draco's fingers touched her skin.
"Nothing." She said after a small pause, her eyes meeting with Harry's. "He probably wanted to ask me the common room password." She lied, but it sounded convincing enough for the trio, so they dropped the topic.
It was a long conversation before they realized it was time to head to their classes, which in their case was Potions with Slughorn. The man greeted everyone with a wide smile and started to explain about a potion they would be working that same day. Draco's eyes never left Anastasia as she silently prepared her potion and looked between her cauldron to her book, she never glanced up to meet his haze, even though she felt it all over her.
For Anastasia, it left like the day lasted an eternity. When she walked out of her last class of the day, a loud and relieved sigh left her lips. In silence she walked to the library where she knew she would spend all the day until it was time for dinner in the Great Hall.
In silence, she walked to the back of the library and started to work on an essay that McGonagall asked them to do. She knew she had plenty of time to do it, but her mind needed a distraction with everything that was going on and the essay seemed like the perfect excuse of it.
"Hello." She glanced up at the sound of a timid yet sweet voice. A smile crept into Anastasia's features when she saw Luna standing before her with a half-smile.
"Hello, Luna." The emerald-eyed girl spoke quietly. "Take a seat." With her quill, she pointed at the chair across her in the long table. The blonde girl took a seat in it and placed her books in the table.
"You look different, Annie." The girl pointed, pursing her lips in a sweet smile. "You must be tired with having Draco following you everywhere."
"Excuse me?" Anastasia looked up from her parchment to the girl.
"I saw him looking at you from the shelves over there." Luna pointed at the shelves in the very back on the room. Where no one was there now, but the blonde girl caught the Slytherin admiring at the brunette. "He likes you." She added.
"He doesn't." The girl quickly muttered, looking back at the parchment in the table.
"You two would make a lovely couple." Luna said then, causing Anastasia to exhale deeply.
"I don't think so." She finally said before the two girls emerged into a comfortable silence where neither of them tried to interrupt.
The moon had peered through the big, windows of the library as the students continued to finish their assignments. Luna had finished hers before Anastasia and left the table not before saying goodbye to the girl. That moment, Anastasia felt like it was enough writing and studying for the day. Quickly, she gathered her things and walked towards the Slytherin dungeons to drop her books and then make her way to the Great Hall.
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Anastasia couldn't bring herself to eat anything in front of her. As her housemates asked her to hand them certain foods, she felt like the idea of eating would make her sick. Her eyes traveled over the packed room in an attempt to find something to distract her, she only found a pair of grey eyes looking at her with sadness.
"So, Rosier..." Pansy was back at being rude to Anastasia, and the girl noticed because of the way she radiated confidence as she spoke. "How was your holidays?"
"I don't see how that is relevant." Anastasia replied, not looking at the stunned Pansy across her in the table.
"It isn't." The girl tried to fire back.
"Don't ask, then." The table stayed silent as the pair exchanged words and hateful glares.
That moment Draco knew she had changed, and he hoped that it wasn't his fault. Since she left for The Burrow, he had hated himself for the mean words he told her before leaving. The boy knew that his broken heart wasn't an excuse for being a git to her, and honestly he deserved being ignored but the pain was eating him alive.
"Uh—Aren't you going to eat?" He asked, searching for her emerald eyes.
"I'm not hungry." The girl looked at him with no emotion, not like she used to do before everything crumbled down.
"Rosie—Anastasia," He corrected himself when his friends glared at him with amusement. "Can we talk?" This time, he spoke in a low voice.
"We are talking." She interlaced her own fingers together, taking an apple from the nest close to her.
"Privately." Draco said, distracted by her plump lips.
"I don't see why we need to talk privately. There's nothing to talk about." That made the blonde boy to look at her with anger.
Almost everyone noticed the brunette standing up and walk out of the Great Hall with furrowed eyebrows and looks that could kill. The blonde boy followed her with his eyes and contemplated going behind her, the anger and unanswered questions guided him as he instantly walked out of the room with anger all over his facial expressions.
He tugged her close to him as soon as he stopped the girl outside the Great Hall, she didn't seem surprised by his actions when their eyes met.
"I'm tired, Draco." Anastasia said, trying to leave the scene as soon as she could. But the blonde boy had her trapped between him and the thick, stone wall. His hands were resting in both sides of her head as she looked up with desperation. "Please, move." She spoke loudly.
"I won't move until we talk." He said, admiring her features in silence.
Anastasia didn't say anything, so he took that as a cue to start talking.
"I missed you." Confusion had taken over her face when she looked up to meet his gaze.
"You made such drama just to tell me what I already knew?" The blonde boy couldn't stop from sending her his usual smirk at the sound of her words. "Could you stop being childish?" By then, she was already angry.
"I need you to do something for me." He spoke, completely ignoring her previous outburst. "I recall you promising you would do it." Anastasia shot him a confused look.
"Do what, exactly?"
"I need you to put the poisoned bottle in Slughorn's office." Draco spoke up and Anastasia sent him an alarmed look.
"And why would I?" She frowned, crossing her arms over her emerald robes.
"Because you said you would do it." He raised his eyebrows.
"Well, that was before what happened." The blonde boy looked down at her with a smug smirk.
"You mean after sleeping with me and kissing me until our lips got chapped?" At this, the brunette punched his ribcage. "Oi, what was that for?"
"For being an arse." She smirked at him, pleased. "And you know I didn't mean that." She looked away to hide her blush, which Draco obviously noticed.
Draco sighed, bowing his head with closed eyes and then opened to admire her delicate features.
"How are you, by the way?" He questioned, sounding seriously worried about her mental health.
"I think you are the least qualified to ask me that." Anastasia looked at him with anger.
"I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean any of it." He tried to apologize. "I didn't want to be alone with them. I missed you every single day, there wasn't a moment you weren't in my mind." Anastasia diverted her eyes from the floor to his eyes.
"You don't mean any of it." She choked out, with anger in her eyes. "You are telling me this just because you don't have anyone to snog." Even Anastasia knew it was a lie, but she didn't say anything else. "Please, move." She said louder, trying to push the blonde boy out of the way.
Instead, Draco's hands flew to her neck and pulled her to him with eager movements. Soon enough his lips were plastered above hers in a rushed yet meaningful way. Anastasia didn't know what to do, but she found herself ignoring her mind and kept kissing the boy.
"Draco, stop—" Anastasia pushed him away, with narrowed eyebrows and chapped lips.
"But—" He began, his fingers instantly found hers. "I love you." The girl looked at him with wide eyes and a pounding heart in her chest.
Anastasia couldn't bring herself to look at the broken boy in front of her, so she simply made her way out of his embrace and walked to the opposite way to the Slytherin dungeons. Completely unaware of Harry watching everything from behind the stone columns in the darkness.