Look at the end of the chapter for a surprise to make your day/night better.
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Juliette, startled by Draco's unexpected appearance, unconsciously stepped away from Neville. "No, of course not." She answered quickly with surprised wide eyes.
A short silence followed her reply.
"What are you doing here?" She asked with a confused frown. By the looks of it, he seemed perfectly healthy to be in the Hospital Wing.
"Do I need a reason to be here? This is a public space, you know." He answered with a voice that sounded a bit defensive.
"You're not even injured." Neville's timid voice hesitantly intervened. He was looking over his shoulder to see Draco since he was standing behind him. His chin and lips were barely visible, it seemed like he was using his shoulder as a shield.
Draco sent him a harsh glare, visibly rendering him more nervous than he already was. "Thanks for pointing out the obvious, you dumb–" Noticing the wide eyed warning coming from Juliette, he abruptly stopped talking and reluctantly swallowed the insult he was more than ready to spit.
He uncrossed his arms and lazily put his hands in the pockets of the school pants he was wearing before clearing his throat. "I wanted to speak to you." He announced with a serious expression.
Juliette unsurely glanced at Neville, and then Madam Pomfrey. She was lecturing Nigel, who was holding an empty cup in his usable hand, about being more careful while flying.
"Okay." Juliette said, turning her gaze from the nurse to meet Draco's. "But you have to wait until Madam Pomfrey comes." She could see the surprised look Neville was giving her from the corner of her eye. She was almost sure that it was because of her agreeing to talk to Draco.
"Fine." He complied and nonchalantly walked around Neville's bed to see what Juliette was taking care of. His eyes carefully examined the marks on Neville's arm before taking in the sight of Juliette holding a red cloth.
"What happened, Longbottom?" He asked with a worried frown that suspiciously looked fake and far from genuine. "Had a fight with your plant friends again?"
Neville grimaced while still having difficulty in maintaining eye contact with Draco. "No." He answered with a tone that immediately gave away his lie.
Draco opened his mouth to say something, probably mock the poor boy, but Madam Pomfrey's delayed arrival interrupted him. "Alright, Mr. Longbottom, what is it this time?" She asked with a tired expression.
Neville glanced at Juliette, silently asking for help. Little did he know that she would never lie to Madam Pomfrey especially when it concerned someone's health.
"He got bitten by a Venomous Tentacula." She answered for Neville, saving him from his misery. Well, at least she thought she was saving him. Neville, on the other hand, was blushing with embarrassment.
Draco's little snicker went ignored by everyone.
"Oh, Mr. Longbottom, will you never learn?" Madam Pomfrey complained before turning to Juliette with a tired smile. "You can go now, dear. Your help is much appreciated."
Juliette gave her a short nod. "Thank you, Madam Pomfrey." She said and sent a friendly smile to Neville, "Bye, Neville." and headed towards the other side of the room to get rid of the soiled cloth she was holding and to clean her hands. Neville tried to wave after her but he accidentally used his wrong arm, which resulted in him wincing in pain.
Pomfrey, still smiling, was about to turn her attention back to Neville before she finally noticed Draco's presence.
"Mr. Malfoy, what are you doing here?" She asked with a surprised tone.
Draco, itching to follow Juliette, shrugged. "Nothing. I was just visiting." He answered casually and hurriedly left their side without waiting to receive another question. He grabbed his bag from the bed he was previously leaning against and followed Juliette, who was done with cleaning, out of the hospital.
"You could at least wait for me." He grumbled when he caught up with her while hanging his leather bag on his shoulder.
"I was waiting for you. See, I'm walking slowly." She answered with a not-so-serious smile.
Draco settled with staying silent and giving her just an annoyed eye roll. His hands were in his pockets, which Juliette noticed he was doing frequently. His school robe was following him around as he walked and he kept puffing out to keep his hair out of his eyes. Juliette wondered why he'd stop wearing hair gel if it bothered him so much. Not that she was paying attention to how he styled his hair.
"What did you want to talk about?" She asked even though she had a very good guess. She was aware that she's left him rather confused after their catastrophic lunch at the Slytherin table, and she knew he wouldn't just leave it at that.
"Nothing much." He said with a shrug. "I was wondering if you'd like to eat lunch with me."
Juliette's relaxed expression quickly got taken over by a completely baffled frown. She thought he was only joking at first, but he didn't laugh as she'd expected. Surely he wasn't inviting her to sit at that cursed table again, was he? Not after what happened?
"Are you serious? Don't you remember what happened yesterday? You can't be really suggesting that I–"
"Will you calm down for a second?" Draco interrupted her heated words. "I wasn't trying to invite you to the Slytherin table. I meant to ask if you'd want to eat lunch with me. I mean, just me."
Juliette almost lost her balance and collapsed to the cold ground. Almost.
"Uh..." Trying to look indifferent while searching for words, she didn't forget to cough for a few times just to gain some more time. Not to mention that those coughs sounded suspiciously fake to Draco, though he said nothing. "Yeah, sure. Sure. Why not?" It took everything in her not to utter one more breathless 'sure'.
"Great." A faint smile was visible on his lips. "You see, I may have felt bad for forcing you to do something you were uncomfortable with. So I stole some food from the kitchens." He confessed, not mentioning how he almost got into a fight with one of the house elves before threatening to turn him into a cat toy so Mrs. Norris could play with it. It wasn't his best moment.
Even though Juliette tried to look like she disapproved his actions, she couldn't help but let out a short laugh. After all, she was no saint since she sneaked into the kitchens with Cedric whenever they were bored.
"And?" She looked at him expectantly.
"And I was hoping you'd have a location in mind. You and I both know that I will not sit with those Hufflepuff friends of yours."
Juliette, not mentioning her lack of friends within her own house, paused to think. The outside spots such as the Courtyard didn't occupy her mind longer than two seconds since it was cold outside regardless of the shining sun. Her thoughts slyly rushed through the corridors and stopped at the seventh floor, right before the classroom door only she's been using for years.
"Yes, actually, I do have a place in mind." After all, she told him she'd be less secretive with him.
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The floor was quieter than usual, probably because of the approaching lunch hour. Juliette grabbed the door handle and only then did she realise that it's been ages since she last entered this room.
The door let out a loud creak, introducing it's old age to Draco for the first time.
He looked confused and mildly curious as he followed Juliette into the room. An average sized area with two small windows that hardly let any sunshine in silently welcomed him. The unused classroom had no furniture in it except for a desk that seemed to be made for a professor. It was standing at the back of the room, abandoned in the shadows.
The door closed behind them with a creak. Draco looked at Juliette with a raised eyebrow as if waiting for a logical explanation.
"It's an empty classroom." He stated with a questionable voice. He sucked in the slightly humid air and tried to understand why Juliette would know the existence of this room.
"Yes." She replied with a smile, expecting the same exact reaction from Draco. She took out her wand, pointed it at the windows that were too high for her to reach and cast a quiet spell to open them so the room could finally breathe.
"It's nothing much," She grabbed the wand with both hands, nervously playing with the carvings on it. "But I like it here."
Draco slowly walked towards the middle of the room and lazily put his bag on the floor along the way. Looking around with attentive eyes, examining all the corners that were covered with either dust or barely visible spider webs, he finally came to the conclusion that nothing about this room was interesting. Not at all.
"Do you come here often?" He asked before looking at her.
She gave him a small nod. By the looks of it, he didn't seem very impressed by her secret den and it visibly rendered her more insecure.
"It's been a while, though. I used to come here everyday." She didn't realise how busy she's been with homework, early studies for next year's O.W.L.'s, helping Madam Pomfrey and worrying about her unexplainable visions lately to come here for at least an hour.
"I don't understand. Why would you want to come here? It's... filthy." Draco said, making Juliette regret bringing him here in the first place. He looked at her and saw her discouraged expression, thinking he somehow offended her. "Isn't it?" He added unsurely.
"No, it's not." She answered with a defensive tone. "There are just some tiny flaws and they perfectly set the atmosphere. It helps me to let loose and feel comfortable."
Draco, confused by her words, frowned at her as she slumped her shoulders and walked towards where his bag was standing. She leaned against the wall and slowly slid down, finally having time to sit down and rest her legs after a never ending morning at the Hospital Wing.
Draco copied her, hesitantly at first because of the dust on the floor but in the end, he managed not to complain.
He leaned his head against the wall and sent her a side glance. She stayed silent. The only sound in the lonely room was the chirping of birds coming from the ajar windows along with their calm breathings.
"Maybe I'll understand if you tell me." He said with a gentle voice that conflicted with the rude and self-absorbed mask he constantly wore in front of people. She knew he wasn't just talking about the room.
But that sentence, that very sentence made Juliette's thoughts collide with each other. It was too easy for him to say. He thought he'd understand her problems if she could just tell him but he didn't know that even she couldn't understand herself. Not completely. He wasn't aware that he'd always judge before trying to comprehend. But then, that sentence that fell from Draco's lips, they held some truth in them. Telling him anything, not just problems, would probably lift a huge weight from her shoulders and if he could understand, it would lift even heavier weight from her chest.
"Maybe." She whispered, lost in her thoughts, wondering if she was overdramatising things and drowning herself in the process.
Draco let out a sigh before reaching for his bag. Juliette watched him as he took out two sandwiches which were poorly wrapped in a paper. He offered one to Juliette.
"Are you trying to bribe me?" She asked with a playful grin, causing the same to appear on his face.
"Of course not." He replied as she took the meal from his hand. "I would've brought a chocolate pudding if I wanted to persuade you."
Juliette sent him a confused frown, pausing her actions on unwrapping the paper. "How did you–?"
"You kept eyeing one at the lunch yesterday." He answered with a shrug. "I figured it'd be your favorite."
Juliette silently watched him as he unwrapped the paper and took a bite from his sandwich. Now that his mouth was full, he looked like a distant cousin to a squirrel with his round cheeks.
"I love chocolate pudding." She finally replied, focusing on her own food. The sound of the rustling paper filled the empty room. Juliette couldn't help but let the tranquility consume her body and mind.
The duo ate their lunch without uttering a word. Silence was dominant in the abandoned four walls but Juliette didn't complain. She found comfort in the absence of sound and in the quiet presence of Draco sitting right next to her.
"Don't you find this peaceful? Isn't it better than that crowded Great Hall?" She asked softly, not wanting to disturb the atmosphere.
Draco, on the other hand, didn't mind talking with a slight louder tone. "You find peace in the strangest places, don't you?" He asked while staring at the ajar windows. It was hard to see the outside world since the windows were placed a little too high and their surfaces were covered in dust.
"I don't expect you to understand." She said before rolling her eyes and taking another bite from her sandwich.
"That's because you don't explain anything." He replied but didn't use an annoyed tone, much to Juliette's relief.
She glanced at him, her mouth still full, and considered telling him the truth about why she liked spending time in this very room.
"Do you remember when I was carrying a bag around and you wondered what was inside before Snape gave us detention?" She dubiously asked after swallowing the bite.
He gave her a silent nod.
"Well, I was planning to come here." She said, knowing it actually didn't answer any of the important questions in Draco's head.
"What was in the bag?" He asked with a curious expression. Juliette smiled at his unceasing attempts at trying to get information out of her mouth.
"I feel like you'd be very judgemental if I told you."
"Judgemental? I'm not judgmental, Avery. I just tell my thoughts with honesty." Draco scoffed.
Juliette almost rolled her eyes at the sound of her last name.
"Yes, in a very judgmental way." She said, enjoying his flustered expression.
"Fine. Don't tell me." He huffed, accepting the defeat, before crumpling up the empty paper and removing the crumbs of bread from his lap.
"Actually, I wanted to ask you something." Juliette said, changing the subject with her hesitant voice. Her visions and the newspaper articles about how the Death Eaters reappeared at the Quidditch World Cup were surfacing in her mind. Even though Snape told her not to talk about this particular subject with anyone else, she believed it wouldn't bring any harm to ask simple, curious questions.
"What?"
"Did you go to the Quidditch World Cup?" She asked, trying to sound more interested and less suspicious.
Draco's face suddenly lit up as a grin took over his face. "Of course I did. Me and my father were in the minister's box. We were personally invited by Cornelius Fudge himself." He bragged, causing Juliette to shake her head with a faint smile. She could imagine him talking about how special it was to sit with the minister and how amazing the view was in front of his friends, purposely making them envy him.
"Weren't you there? I saw your father as well." He added, his smile was wiped off with the mention of her father. Juliette couldn't help but give him a suspicious look.
"No, I wasn't there. My father wouldn't take me with him." She said, putting her half eaten sandwich down. She remembered begging her father for permission to go with Cedric. "He certainly wouldn't tell me anything about the return of the Death Eaters nor the Dark Mark."
Draco visibly tensed up and averted his gaze, hiding his silver blue eyes from Juliette. Everything about his body language screamed that he had some information about the whole situation and was hiding something.
"Draco... You were there. You must know what's going on. Right?" She asked, wanting to mention his father, Lucius Malfoy, since he was an ex-Death Eater as well but the thought of offending him caused her to hesitate.
Draco was silent. Juliette could see his Adam's apple move as he gulped.
"I don't know what's going on, Juliette." He said quietly while playing with the ring on his finger. "I watched the whole thing from afar. I even saw Potter and his friends. They were running around like headless chickens." He tried to take the focus from the riot to Harry Potter but it was an unsuccessful attempt to distract Juliette.
"Was your father, you know, one of them?" She asked timidly. The last thing she'd want was to upset him with her questions. But she didn't want to stay in the dark anymore.
Draco looked her in the eye and gave her a small nod which she could barely catch. Juliette believed he didn't want anyone else to know even though they were the only souls in the whole room.
"Draco," Juliette whispered, trying to control her shaky voice, "You said you've seen my father. Was he with them?"
He didn't answer her for a moment, making her heartbeat quicken with fear. Every single part of her body was praying for him to say 'No' even though the logical part of her thoughts knew it wouldn't come.
"It's not my place to say." He replied, partially giving her the answer she dreaded.
She let out the breath she was holding and leaned her head against the cold wall. The only thing she could do from now on was to assume. She knew her father wouldn't tell her anything, especially not with a letter, and she perfectly knew that he didn't take her to the Quidditch World Cup because he was aware of what was going to happen. She didn't expect Snape to tell her anything either.
"What do you think is going to happen?" She asked with a low, tired voice. The thoughts, all the possible outcomes and dark visions consumed her brain; giving her an uncomfortable headache.
"I don't know." He replied with the same tone. "Why are you asking?"
"I don't know." She said. "But I have a really bad feeling."
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