𝐴𝑅𝑅𝐴𝑁𝐺𝐸𝐷 | 𝐷𝑀

~ T W O ~

It was getting closer to being winter break and Lilith was dreading returning to school already. Despite them living in a magical world, the destruction of the battle was too much. Instead of starting school on September 1st like always, this school year began on November 17th.

The first week back to class went by quickly. Lilith managed to avoid Draco except in McGonagall's class. He would make sly remarks at her and tease her but nothing too extreme. It was a little strange since Draco always did the most to try and annoy her. There was something going on with him but Lilith couldn't put her finger on it. Usually he would compliment other girls to try piss her off. He would call Pansy the 'Slytherin princess' and tell Lilith that she should try and look like Pansy if she ever wanted to have a boyfriend. Lilith didn't care, however. She knew he was trying to get under her skin.

But now he just stared at her and made subtly nice remarks to her appearance. The comments Draco made were so simple and hidden, that if you didn't examine his statement, it would almost seem as if he was talking nonsense. Still, he was complimenting her and made no effort to mess with her. However, maybe he was acting differently now because the war was over and he didn't need to wear a mask anymore. He didn't acting this way until after the war, so many that was it.

Maybe this was his true self. Maybe the real Draco Malfoy was kind and not as annoying?

As Lilith was grabbing her things from her desk, she noticed Draco had left one of his books. She didn't want to give it to him but she also wanted to speak to him to see if something was wrong. Obviously there was but she wanted to know what it was. As her curiosity got the best of her, Lilith saw his figure leaving the classroom and rushed to go after him.

"Malfoy, hold on," she said as she was panting.

"Jones, how lovely to see you," he turned around and his eyes flickered.

"Stop acting like that," she scoffed. "I just came to return the book you left in the classroom," she extended her hand that held his book.

"Or you just wanted to talk to me." He was smirking at her while taking the book from her hands.

"Why are you acting like that?"

"Acting like what?"

"Like that," she said as she pointed at his body from head to toe. "Why are you acting like we're friends?"

"Jones, I already told you," he cleared his throat before stepping closer to her. "Our fates are intertwined. Besides, this is the real me believe it or not. I am nice," Draco gestured to himself.

"I doubt it," she hissed, "Our fates are not 'intertwined', by the way. Now stop acting like we're friends. I don't want people to assume I'm associated, on a friend level, with someone like you."

"Soon you'll find out what I'm talking about and then you won't be able to deny there's something going on between us." He was starting to walk away like last time, leaving her to contemplate his response but she wasn't going to let that happen.

Lilith grabbed his wrist before he was too far from her and made him turn around to face her. He raised one eyebrow as he looked down at her hand on his flesh, "There's nothing going on between us," she let go of his wrist and signaled between their bodies with her pointer finger, "This will never happen." And then she walked away.

---

As her dreadful classes continued, Lilith thought to herself about how she had to wait another two weeks for winter break. She could just die of boredom right now.

And for some reason she couldn't stop thinking about Draco. His touch on her skin and his grey eyes that bored into hers, painting a portrait of his face and engraving it into her head.