Miss Slytherin

Book 6: Chapter 8

"It's not even the end of the first week back and you already decided to hoard books from the restricted section?"

"It keeps my mind off things," Finley answers as she drops large books beside Daphne and Astoria who were chatting with themselves. Book ranging from the first year herbology books to advanced botanist ones as well as having an array selection of very bizarre potion books, neither of the Greengrass sisters knew what the Potter girl was going to do but they had a feeling that it wasn't good.

"But what's all this for?" Daphne asks as she releases her finger from her hair, inspecting the books closely with curiosity. "These aren't even in the seventh year's syllabus," she points out.

"What are you up to?" Astoria narrows her eyes at Finley accusingly as she held onto a book that she bought from Diagon Alley.

"Nothing," Finley deadpans, swiping the book from Tori's hand and setting them on the pile making her look highly suspicious. Forgetting how Astoria was very capable of concluding what she was up to since they were roommates, the girl had every right to be worried for her too. "Say, have any of you seen Draco?" Finley asked steering away Astoria's suspicion for just a small bit.

"I wish I had, but I haven't seen him since the welcome feast," Daphne replied, "why? Are you arguing?" Daphne adds as she tightly wraps her cashmere blanket around her body. It seem to be abnormally chilly in the snake pit since they arrived, it might not have looked like it but the Slytherin Common room had been very warm. But lately, it seemed like it was raising to the reputation of cold dungeons and not the home of the respectable Slytherin quarters.

"No," Finley replied, "We aren't arguing—"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am." The last time she ever did see Draco properly was during their train back to Hogwarts, she was saying her final goodbyes to him for the whole break. Nothing seemed off, at least none that she could detect. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Surely not," Astoria assured her friend, "His father is um," she adds and yet trailed as she had failed to find a better word for 'locked up in Azkaban for treason.'

"You can say that he's in prison, Greengrass," a cold monotoned voice spoke from the entrance causing the three girls to turn their heads to see a familiar person.

"Draco," Finley worriedly called out, relief in her voice to finally see the boy whom she thought was avoiding her. He was avoiding her, she could have a few right guesses as to why but it didn't mean it was a nice feeling being avoided like a plague. Just when she thought he would finally give her a time of day, he didn't even spare her a single glance and walked towards the prefect dorms.

"Draco," Finley tried to call again.

"Is he okay?" Tori asked worriedly as she turned to her older sister who minded the books Finley brought from the library.

Not answering, Finley shot up from where she sat in hopes of catching up to Draco as quickly as she could. "Draco!" She calls once more finally catching up to him before he entered his dorm. Seeing him stopped in front of its entrance, back resting against the opposite wall looking down on the stone floors.

"Hey," she calls softly this time, stuffing her hands in her pockets collecting her thoughts as she hadn't thought of what she was going to ask him when she does finally catch up to him. "We haven't really–um, How are you?" She asked shoving her questions to the back of her mind.

"Doing well," Draco curtly replied.

"Oh."

'What have you been doing?'

'Have you been sleeping well?'

'Are you okay?'

She wanted to ask him these things except it felt like it wasn't the best time, by just looking at him it didn't feel right to nag him about things such as his whereabouts and whatnots.

"Is that all?" Draco asks her, causing her to snap back to where she was. "If you have nothing else to say, I want to go rest now."

"Do you want me to accompany you?" Finely suggests, it was a bold move sure but it's not as if she would lose everything by staying with Draco. A bit desperate to find a sense of familiarity even if it was just with him, it was already hard knowing that she had missed a lot from the time she disappeared without notice. She hasn't seen her boys together in the same room aside from meals, and even then it seemed cold. Everything felt foreign to her that it added another layer of coldness to her that she hoped that seeing Draco again might fix it.

"I'm not a child, Finley."

"I didn't say that," Finley sheepishly explains herself, "I just thought that maybe you wanted the company."

"I can do fine on my own," Draco quietly replied, giving his dorm a rhythmic knock on his dorm before watching it open.

"Can we talk at least?" Finley pursed her lips, expecting both a 'yes' and a rejection. Draco paused at his dorm's entrance as if she told him something so outlandish, she didn't like this response. She didn't like the silence.

"Fine," he sighed walking ahead without looking back at her, she followed expecting to see the usual mess of a room he always had since he first got the dorm. Except the room felt like it was trashed on purpose, everything except the bed was out of place or thrown around.

"Sorry for the mess," Draco apologized as he picked up books and papers from the floor.

"It's alright," she waved off. It was a miracle that his clothes weren't in sight, the only messes he did make were the books and papers— and a destroyed box of every flavored bean. Picking up the thrown books from the foot of the bed and stacking them on a trunk, brushing away dust from the messed bed before sitting down. She faces Draco who bothered with the papers on the floor as well as destroyed items that she was yet to identify.

"You said you wanted to talk?"

"Yeah," she nodded before she bit her lip, cursing herself that she did not think too far ahead.

"Then what is it?" Draco asks softly as he faced her, it was clear to her that had barely slept like she had these couple of months if not he wouldn't be so pale with dark half-moons under his eyes.

Why was her throat dry now? Why has she not spoken when they had just spoken not too long before they came in the room.

"You got in the room, you saw the mess I made," Draco points out. Yet it seemed like he was talking to a wall at the sight of Finley staring off into a wall that had no particular decor, lost in thought. "It would be polite if you could say something since it was you who wanted to talk."

"Finley—"

"I remembered the time we went into the room of requirements," she starts as she diverted her gaze from the wall to meet his. "Do you remember what we did in there?"

"We've been in that room one too many times."

"Yet I can barely remember any of them," Finley mumbled under her breath before standing up from the bed. "I must head back, I overstayed my welcome," she quickly says before scurrying off, not even explaining.

Hello!

I updated! Hooray? Um— so I'm deathly busy with school work, hope you all understand. I am working hard to write whenever I can yet I ended up writing other stories, I will publish them though just not when I'm unavailable schedule wise.

See you all on the next updates!

Rayah