Eve
It was strange sleeping completely alone with Draco more than just a hallway away from me. I didn't sleep well, that was for sure; I couldn't seem to get comfortable on the dormitory bed, and it felt like I was waking up every ten minutes to Millicent's snoring. When the sun finally rose and it was acceptable to get out of bed, I was actually a bit relieved.
I dressed as quietly as I could under the light of the rising sun, stepping carefully past Pansy's sleeping form to get to my trunk. I packed my school bag sleepily, trying not to knock anything over—because I knew it wasn't a good idea to wake Millicent before she was ready. After shoving on my sneakers and pulling my hair back, I cautiously headed downstairs to the common room.
It was completely empty, but I should have been expecting that. Classes didn't start for another two hours. I left through the portrait hole and started upstairs, having nowhere else to go besides the Great Hall.
There were a few students in the dining hall when I entered through the grand double doors, but I breathed a quiet sigh of relief when I saw that Ginny was not among them. I was already praying that I wouldn't have any classes with her this year. I sat on the end of the mostly empty Slytherin table and reached for some toast and butter, knowing I had to at least eat something before classes started.
Draco walked into the Great Hall not long after me, rubbing his face tiredly and coming over to sit next to me. "Morning," he said quietly as he slid onto the bench, kissing my cheek. I noticed he didn't automatically reach for any food, and I eyed him carefully. His voice sounded scratchy from exhaustion as he asked me, "Did you sleep okay?"
"Probably better than you did, it looks like," I said, taking in the sight of his dark circles and puffy eyelids. "Did you sleep at all last night?"
"A bit," Draco said, giving a small grin at the look I gave him. "What? Goyle snores."
"So does Millicent." This made Draco laugh out loud, and he leaned his elbows against the edge of the table and turned his head to look at me through tired eyes. He didn't say anything right away, so I raised an eyebrow and asked, "What?"
"Nothing," he said quickly, trying to hide his grin. He reached for the pumpkin juice as he admitted, "It was weird not sleeping next to you."
"I know," I said as more people began to enter the Great Hall. "Too bad we can't have our own room, right?"
It had been a joke, but Draco grinned and said, "Well, that couch in the common room looks pretty comfortable. We'd have enough room."
He had such a cheeky expression that I knew exactly what he was thinking. I shoved his shoulder and tried to hide my pink cheeks, saying, "You're so gross. Eat your toast."
"I'm not hungry," Draco complained, but I'd already put it onto his plate. He pushed it around with his fork and grumbled something that I didn't catch, and I was opening my mouth to tell him that he needed to eat something when McGonagall appeared before us with the class schedules.
"Good morning," she smiled to us, handing Draco his schedule before turning to me. "Nice to see you, Evelyn."
"You too," I replied awkwardly, accepting the piece of parchment from her.
McGonagall was just starting to turn away when she suddenly seemed to remember something, turning back to me and asking, "How is your aunt doing, by the way? I meant to ask you before you left for the summer."
My stomach dipped at her words, feeling my throat start to close up at her mention of my aunt. When my mouth opened and closed uselessly for half a second, Draco reached under the table to place his hand on my knee. Swallowing hard, I forced a smile and told her as calmly as I could, "Good. She's doing good."
"Is she? That's good to hear," McGonagall said, and her tone was so genuine that I could tell she didn't have any idea what had happened over the summer. The professor smiled one last time at us and said, "Well, enjoy your classes."
"Thank you," Draco replied hastily as she turned away to hand out the rest of the schedules, because my voice seemed to have stopped working and I couldn't bring myself to respond. He turned his head to look at me carefully as he whispered, "Are you okay?"
My mouth felt very dry as I forced myself to nod, telling him in a quiet voice, "Yeah. I'm fine."
He gripped my hand tightly, saying softly, "Hey, I'm sure your aunt's alright. She's smart, she'll know how to stay hidden."
"I know," I said, giving him a tiny smile that I knew he could see right through. I pushed his plate towards him again in an effort to distract myself, insisting, "Quick, eat something. We've got class soon."
When he rolled his eyes and reached for the toast reluctantly, I opened the schedule McGonagall had handed me and saw that I had Charms first. "What do you have first? I've got Charms."
Draco opened his own schedule and compared it against mine, groaning as he said, "No, I've got Potions first. This is bullshit, we've only got Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts together."
I was suddenly incredibly nervous—I hadn't even considered the fact that Draco might not be in most of the same classes as me. But I forced myself to grin as I pointed to his schedule, saying, "Look, you've got double Herbology last. I'm glad we're not in all the same classes, then."
"What? That hurts, Eve, that really does," Draco told me, but he was grinning too and trying not to laugh. He took my schedule from me and groaned, "You don't even have a double Herbology? Something must be wrong, I'll tell McGonagall for you—"
I was laughing and trying to grab my schedule back from him when Flint entered the Great Hall, sitting down opposite us and yawning tiredly with his robes a complete mess.
"Morning," he said, reaching for the cereal. I noticed Draco's small grin instantly fading as he nodded to Flint, turning much more serious than he had been a few minutes ago. Wondering why Draco couldn't just always act like he did when he was alone with me, I shot him a pointed look to make him finally give back my schedule.
"You slept in," Draco stated, pushing his empty plate away. "Were you planning on skipping first period?"
"Maybe," Flint grinned as he quickly poured the milk. "But I don't want to be writing lines on the first day back. Hey, do you think they'd cut me some slack because it's the very first class of the year?"
"Probably not," I told him honestly, trying not to laugh when he nearly knocked over the pumpkin juice in his hasty attempt to put the milk back.
The bell rang then and Flint began to eat his cereal as quickly as possible, to which Draco rolled his eyes. He started to get up from the bench, reaching for me and saying, "Come on, let's go. I can't watch this."
"Shut up," Flint snapped, but it was barely understandable. I waved to Flint before allowing Draco to lead me away from the Slytherin table, his hand tight around mine.
"This sucks that we won't have Potions together again," I teased, catching up with Draco's long strides and walking beside him out of the Great Hall. "You won't be able to get annoyed with me for—what was it? 'Stirring at the pace of a sloth'?"
"How do you even remember that?" Draco grinned slightly and shook his head, looking down at me as we entered the Entrance Hall. He walked with me to the staircase that led up to the floor with the Charms classroom, coming to a stop by the edge of it. Not many people were around as he kissed me quickly, telling me, "See you for Care of Magical Creatures?"
"Yeah," I smiled shyly up at him, my cheeks growing warm at the way he was looking at me. "Okay. Have fun in Potions."
He rolled his eyes and let go of my hand as I started for the stairs, calling after me, "I'll try."
I finally turned away and started up the staircase to Charms, a small grin still fixed on my face.
~*~
Draco
The good mood Eve had put me in quickly faded when I saw who I would be having Potions with this year.
"Hey, Malfoy," Zabini called from his place beside Christian Hunter and Goyle, pointing to the empty chair at their table. "Sit with us, mate."
I tried not to groan out loud as I reluctantly headed over to their table by the back of the classroom, hoping my distaste for Zabini wasn't too obvious. Suddenly very grateful Eve wasn't in this class with me, I sat at the table and nodded to Zabini. "Alright, mate?"
"Yeah, and you?" Zabini asked, to which I only nodded. He lifted his chin to Christian and said, "Hunter's heard that the new Potions teacher is a complete moron."
"Not surprised," I said, which made Christian laugh. "Good summer, Hunter?"
"It was alright," he grinned, leaning back in his chair. "I heard Flint wants you to be co-captain this year."
I shifted awkwardly in my seat, keeping my tone cool as I told him, "I'm not playing this year, actually."
"You're not—what?" Christian gaped at me, as though he couldn't believe it. "You can't be serious. We need a Seeker, and you're the only one we've got."
"Nice," I said dryly. "I don't have time for Quidditch this year."
"What do you mean you—"
"Hunter," Zabini snapped, giving him a pointed look from across the table. When Christian still didn't catch on, he continued in annoyance, "You know why he doesn't have time."
I stared down at the surface of the table as Christian finally remembered, my grip on my textbook tightening as I heard him say quietly, "Oh. Right. Sorry, Malfoy, I forgot."
If only I could forget it that easily. I was almost relieved when the new Potions professor finally entered the classroom and I could escape Hunter's pitied look, twisting in my seat to get a good look at Slughorn. I recognized him from the photos my father had shown me at the start of the year when the rest of the Death Eaters had been trying to get him back into helping the Dark Lord again. As he stumbled his way to the front of the room with a few apologies, I wondered why the Dark Lord had wanted him in the first place.
While Slughorn was making his way to the front, Zabini cleared his throat and attempted to fill the awkward silence at our table. "Anyway, Flint's gonna have a tough time finding more players this year."
"Yeah," Hunter agreed, then he turned and smirked at me. "Hey, maybe he can get Hawkings to play. She's brilliant at Quidditch."
Zabini snorted loudly, but quickly covered it up by coughing when I turned to glare at him coldly. Trying not to let the anger creep its way into my voice, I said smoothly, "She won't be playing either."
"What?" Hunter groaned, but he didn't demand an explanation this time—probably because he knew exactly why Eve would be too busy to play Quidditch this year. He shook his head and sighed as Slughorn finally made it to the front of the classroom, saying, "Well, maybe there'll be a few first years who are prodigies at Quidditch."
"God, I hope not," Zabini said, but Slughorn was starting to introduce himself so he couldn't say anything more. I managed to keep my sigh of relief silent as I finally turned away from the table, focusing my attention on the professor. Everything Zabini was doing just seemed to make me angrier than normal; I hoped I would make it through this year without jumping across the table and strangling him.
Slughorn's speech was long and painfully boring, but I managed not to fall asleep during it. He only had time to hand out course descriptions by the end of the period and we didn't end up brewing anything, probably because he had taken up so much time explaining how "utterly fascinated" he'd always been with potion-making. When the bell finally rang, I stood quickly from my chair and began to hastily pack away my things.
"Where are you headed?" Zabini asked, putting his things away much more slowly.
Why couldn't he see how badly I wanted to be nowhere near him? Without looking up at him, I stated shortly, "History of Magic."
"Damn," he sighed. "I'm off to Transfiguration."
I tried to recall what Eve's schedule had said for her second class, but I couldn't remember—I just hoped she didn't have Transfiguration next. "Right," I said absentmindedly, slinging my bag over my shoulder. I nodded mostly just to Hunter and Goyle as I started to turn away from the table. "See you."
Zabini may have tried to call after me, but I was already halfway toward the door and decided to ignore him. The last thing I wanted to do was walk with him out of Potions.
The rest of my classes passed by sluggishly, and Care of Magical Creatures wasn't until much later in the day. I'd been blessed with an absence of Zabini from the rest of my classes, and so far, I only had Divination to share with Gryffindors. But by the time I was able to finally head down to Hagrid's hut, I was feeling extremely exhausted and ready for classes to be over.
Eve was already there when I arrived, and I grinned a little when I saw that she was awkwardly standing beside Pansy. She looked very relieved when I came over to her, finally being able to turn away from whatever Pansy had been complaining about. "Hey, Draco," she said quickly, giving me a look that was hidden from Pansy as she turned to me. "How was Potions?"
"Boring," I admitted, reluctantly nodding to Pansy when she openly stared at me. "Zabini has it with me."
Eve's face fell, but she said, "That sucks. He's an ass."
Hagrid was beginning to speak at the front of the group, so I couldn't ask her why she suddenly looked a little upset. I waited impatiently through Hagrid's speech, but it wasn't nearly as long as Slughorn's had been—we only had to listen for about ten minutes before he was allowing us to pair off in order to inspect the lettuce he'd begun to grow over the summer to feed the Flobberworms.
"Hey, Eve, we can go over here," Pansy smiled at her when everyone began to split up into pairs, reaching for her arm.
"Um," Eve began awkwardly, but I glared heatedly at Pansy. Did she really think Eve would pair with anyone other than me?
Pansy let go at the look I gave her, shrinking away and saying, "Oh. Right, okay. See you later, Eve."
She turned away and I was about to turn away when I saw that she was making her way over to Zabini, feeling the distaste for him rise up hot as he gave me a small smirk. For a moment I wondered if he'd overheard Eve and me talking about him, but I decided it didn't matter to me anyway. As Pansy disappeared to work with him, I took Eve's arm and started for the gardens. Eve leaned close to me and said quietly, "I don't get why she's being so nice to me all of a sudden. Last year, she would have jumped off a bridge before she ever asked to work with me."
"Well...you know why, right?" I asked carefully. We stopped at the end of a row of lettuce heads that Hagrid had planted, bending forward slightly to pretend as though we were inspecting them.
"What?" Eve asked, looking over at me in confusion—and I realized she really didn't know.
I hesitated before telling her in a low voice, "She knows what happened this summer. With the Dark Lord."
Eve stared at me, her eyes wide. "...what? How does she know?"
"Her parents used to be involved too," I shrugged. "Word gets out. A lot of the Slytherins know."
"Do they know about my aunt?" she asked breathlessly, and it was then that I realized she was scared. "Do they know about my parents? Do you think they, you know...hate me?"
"What? No," I exclaimed seriously. I dropped my voice when a Hufflepuff looked over at us suspiciously from a few rows down, but he quickly looked away when I gave him a cold glare. I told Eve quietly, "I don't think they know about your aunt, it's okay. Eve, they don't hate you. Trust me. They respect you—that's why Pansy's acting extra weird."
Eve stared at the lettuce blankly for half a moment, then simply said, "Oh. I thought no one knew."
"I wish no one knew," I said dully, poking one of the lettuce heads with my foot. "Can't tell you how many people have given me the 'pity look' today."
"Yeah," Eve said quietly, staring at the ground. "Or like they're...scared of me."
I looked over at her then, seeing the frown tugging at her lips and making the guilt start to rise up again in my stomach. Touching her arm, I said quickly, "Hey, don't worry about them. Seriously, Eve. Think about something else. Um...how was Charms?"
"Okay," she told me, forcing a smile as she finally looked up again. "Pansy made me sit with her, though—it was terrible."
Eve hesitated half a moment before adding cautiously, "Transfiguration sucked. McGonagall thought she was doing me a favor by making me sit with Zabini."
"What?" I choked out, turning to her and feeling the anger rise up hot. "You mean you're sitting with Zabini? For the rest of the year?"
"Yeah," Eve replied, watching me to see my reaction. "It's okay, though, I'll be fine—"
"Tell McGonagall to let you switch seats," I interrupted firmly. The Hufflepuff had glanced over at us again, but at the moment, I didn't care. When Eve rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, I continued hotly, "I don't want you around him, Eve. I'm serious."
"You're overreacting," she insisted. "He's in this class too, why is it any different—?"
"Because I don't have Transfiguration with you. Damn it, Eve, I don't want you alone with him."
"We're not alone, we just have a class together," Eve snapped. She looked up at me seriously and said, "It's not a big deal. Besides, what makes you think I can't handle myself?"
Hagrid passed by us then and I was forced to look away from her, pretending to be very interested in the roots of the lettuce. After glancing over my shoulder to make sure he was gone, I sighed heavily and asked, "Did he bother you today? Tell me the truth."
"He didn't do anything," Eve told me, and I looked down at her for half a second longer to see if she was lying. Before I could decide if she was being honest or not, Eve rolled her eyes and said, "You worry too much about me."
"I do not," I insisted hotly, but even I knew it was a lie. Hagrid was suddenly announcing that the period was nearly over and we needed to finish up, but before heading over to him, I looked down at Eve and said seriously, "Look, you have to tell me if he tries anything. Even if he just pisses you off. Alright? I don't want you around him."
"Okay," Eve told me, but she was grinning slightly at my expression. She took my hand as we started over to the rest of the group, teasing, "Are you jealous?"
"No," I grumbled, refusing to look at her.
But it made her laugh and entwine her fingers through mine. "Yeah, okay. If you say so."